Why do people get mad at American ignorance (not arrogance)?
Speaking as a non American, I like you people. We know your politics and media almost as well as you do. A lot of children in this country would, if asked, say that to call the police you call 911 (999 if you ever need it). I have travelled through most of the world (funnily enough not America) and learned to appreciate that what would be considered true in the UK may be very strange in another country. Most people make allowance for American peculiarities, but sometimes what you do impacts on our lives. Ignorance is fine except in a President, George Bush. He led your country (and ours) into a war against Iraq in search for WMD’s and cost you and us thousands of lives. He got hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi’s killed. When this happens, the resentment against America ramps up. Obama (and I know at least 50% of you despise him) has mitigated quite a lot of this resentment. You may have beautiful beaches, hollywood etc. but it’s a wide and diverse world out there. maybe you shoul
You only have to look at the post by Ray to have your question answered in full. He (time and again) comes up with the same old chestnuts. As far as concentration camps go: As one historian wrote about Marinade (Philippine/US War), the first island with concentration camps: “The triple press of concentration (camps), devastation, and harassment led Abad (the Marinduque commander) …to request a truce to negotiate surrender terms… The (US) Army pacified Marinduque not by winning the allegiance of the people, but by imposing coercive measures to control their behavior and separate them from the insurgents in the field. Ultimately, military and security measures proved to be the (essential element) of Philippine pacification.” The deaths of people in these camps are not recorded!! As for the “smallpox infected blankets” story, this is very true (can`t think of how many times i`ve posted this reply) the letter from Lord Jeffrey Amherst to Colonel Henry Bouquet regarding this is still in
All the reasons you give for the existence of American ignorance are reasons to be annoyed at it. Your ignorance is self-imposed because you are deliberately insular. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be annoyed at your arrogance, too, though. In some ways, your ignorance stems from your arrogance – your belief that the US is the only good, interesting, worthwhile place in the world leads you to ignore everything outside the US. And because you only know about the US, you don’t know what the rest of the world is like, and so you continue to believe that the US is the best place in the world. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle and one of the worst things about American people (not all of them, I know, but many – or at least many of the Americans who post here). It’s sad, really.
