AntiAmericanism

We're all Anti-Americanists now

Perhaps one reason for Anti-Americanism is because there is a definite political position called Americanism to be anti.

It wouldn't make sense for there to be an Anti-Denmarkism or Anti-Papua New Guineaism. Because we kind of assume that these states are empty(ish) vessels, which parties of different political ideologies compete to control.

But Anti-Americanism makes sense because America is a state conflated with a political ideology. In most countries there is narrow choice of government, but in the US, the parties seem more constrained by the constitution and by the fact that America is the political affiliation of the U.S.

If America is a political idea, then anti-Americanism is a political position akin to being anti-communist, anti-monarchist or anti-capitalist. It is not a form of racism, nor like being anti-Catholic or anti-Muslim, nor yet a weird kind of national prejudice like a dislike of Scotsmen.

(That's not to say that that there aren't some fanatics who are racist against whites, anti-Christian, or just infuriated by some stereotypical America in their heads.)

(Compare FantasyIdeology)

LeftWingAntiAmericanism

Can come in two varieties :

• the stronger form holds that the US state is the most advanced and evangelical pure capitalist culture. Unlike in European states which tend to believe in a capitalism tempered by state control, in the US, both market liberalism and libertarianism are more widely supported within the government. The US must therefore be opposed, as the largest state sponsor of capitalism.

• the weaker form holds that the US state has currently (and maybe only temporarily) fallen to hands of corrupt corporations. Both political parties are dependent on donations from large corporations; those donations come as part of deals where parties sell support to the interests of the corporations. Government and business exchange people constantly, and many come into government having spent years within industry, and with a mindset focused on the needs of the commercial world. Some retain interests in the success of companies, or can expect lucrative employment in companies after they leave government. This lack of a disinterested political class means that the government is easily and often bought by corporations. And for this reason must be suspected as an instrument of corporate power.
  • Lootocracy

After AmericanWarOnIraq

• Pro US opinion plummets : http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=175
• Good RobinCarmody article : http://www.livejournal.com/~robincarmody/9387.html
• GeorgeSoros on the bubble of American suppremacy : http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm
• JosephStiglitz on AmericanHypocrisy

• Compare : The Sources of American Legitimacy
• AmericaAsMalignDeity
• UsInterferenceInOtherPeopleElections

See also :

• TheCollapseOfTheAmericanEmpire
• SoftPower
• TheEfficiencyQuestion
• DemographicsAndTheDustbinOfHistory
• AntiIslamicism

CategoryPolitics