It's all about simple Maths. One factor The USA is up against is pure statistics. Any given country has it's share of uneducated ignorant gung-ho fools. Say Britian, with a population of 65 Million, has 20% of its people reading sensationalist tabloid papers and believing the crap that they say. That means Britain has 13 Million idiots. The USA has a population of 300 Million. Apply the same 20% to this figure and we have 60 Million idiots living in the US. That's nearly the whole population of Britian!! Add to this the fact that US Television and Media is in the hands of most of these people. And that practically anyone can get their view (however close-minded) across in the US and you have a disproportionate representation of how totally stupid and ethnocentric* Americans can be. However, there is also personal experience. Americans abroad have been, for the most part, seriously annoying. A total lack of knowledge and understanding of cultures different to their own antagonises people. i.e. I helped an American tourist with directions in Edinburgh once. She threw a pound coin into my hand afterwards - not knowing that this is a serious insult to any British person merely helping with directions in the street. I have had the unfortunate experience of sharing youth hostels with American backpackers. LOUD, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT WHAT I'M DOING, WHY ARE THE PEOPLE HERE DOING IT DIFFERENT TO US AMERICANS? WHY DON'T THEY USE DOLLARS? WHERE CAN I GET A GOOD BURGER? LOOK AT MY LAPTOP PICTURES OF ME "DOING" EUROPE. (i'm not making this up). These are isolated examples, i understand, but the human mind has a tendency to extrapolate in a generalised manner from the information it has to go on. Then, finally, there is the disastrous naivety of foreign policy from the US for the past half a century. They storm about like an angry teenage know-it-all, cracking eggs with hammers. I'd need to write a book to go into the countless examples. Let me just ask a yank; Where did civilisation as we know it begin.....? Answer.... IRAQ !! Bet that surprised some of them. Tanks roll over the ruins of Babylon as ancient artifacts are looted and forgotten about. If you watch this video, what it has to say about 'protecting the dollar' (near the end) will perhaps help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1oPEfa9Lws p.s. I like Americans... the good ones..... shame they're so thin on the ground. *(ethnocentric - believing that your culture is the best and only way)
Americans. When I saw a complete a-z of the Big Apple I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend to follow it.:lol: