Hypocrisy and credibility issues for the U.S.A.
by Jennifer Kesler
After the 2004 presidential election, I engaged in some surprisingly restrained discussion between Americans and Europeans. The Europeans felt betrayed by not only Bush, but the people who voted for him. They were actually afraid of what the United States might do under his leadership in Iraq and elsewhere. The Americans, for the most part, didn’t get it. The U.S. wasn’t perfect, but surely no one doubted the country could be trusted, did they?
They did. Americans were hurt to learn their country – even their culture – had lost so much credibility with Europe. We discussed the reasons, and found the difference in perception boiled down to Americans not seeing quite as many “lies” from the Bush administration as the Europeans saw, and dismissing European concerns as baseless.
That was just one forum. It wasn’t a forum about politics, which is why I’m not linking to it. It was just friends united to enjoy a fandom talking about something else and getting their feelings bruised and trying to understand. It went fairly well.
But I’ve been thinking lately about the depths of American hypocrisy, and two examples from the past couple of decades really stand out:
- We said we hated Iraq and Hussein, we sure did, and yet we just spent 10 years driving gas guzzlers and buying his oil. Even more ironic: the people trying to spend less on gas (whether to be green or just frugal) were more likely to be liberals than conservatives, and it was the conservatives who wanted to “kick Iraq’s ass” so badly. Doesn’t really mesh with making them loads and loads of money.
- We hate Communism and want to kick its ass and have been working on that for decades, but we have absolutely no problem with the fact that almost everything you can buy in the US is made in China.
Maybe it’s not that we’re hypocrites; maybe we’re just so uneducated we can’t think stuff like this through. I personally do have a problem with bolstering China’s economy – not because of their governmental philosophies, but because of stuff they actually do, like treating workers badly and drowning baby girls because they aren’t worth much. I’d like to hit them where it hurts – the pocketbook – but the anti-Communist hell-raisers of the U.S. haven’t provided me that option. They’re too busy wanting to buy stuff cheap at Wal-Mart and not tell the all-hallowed Big Business what to do. Likewise, I wouldn’t have a problem with not bolstering Hussein’s regime (it’s just I’m aware of the fact we installed him), so I work at keeping my gas consumption low. But the anti-Iraq ass-kickers just spend another $80 or whatever it costs to fill up their giant SUVs.
It’s not that American culture is full of contradictions. It’s that a lot of Americans, all by themselves, are so self-contradictory in their actions it’s impossible to take them seriously. Except, they’re really well-armed. Yeah, I can see why Europe was scared.
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Posted in Discussion on April 22, 2010
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We don’t trust you much, either. (Meaning Australians and Americans. *I* trust *you* implicitly
A few years ago, there was a free-trade agreement thing going on – I forget the result of it, but there were two things that really got Australians riled up. The main one was that the US govt wanted the Aust govt to drop the tarrifs on wheat imports so US growers would have fairer access to the Australian market, but wouldn’t drop the tarrifs on sugar imports to the US. I forget the actual wording, but the gist of the excuse was ‘American sugar planters aren’t productive enough to compete, ergo, we need to tax imports.’ Which is neither here nor there, but there was a fair bit of ill-will over the hypocricy of it. Dude, kinda defeats the purpose of free trade when you want the other side to drop all its protections but keep your own.
(Heh, just looked at the georography of sugar growing. No wonder American planters can’t compete; there’s not enough viable land to make it worthwhile.)
Great post.
We have a general election coming up here in the UK and you won’t believe the contradictory beliefs
people come out with.
For example, loads of people who are on benefits of some kind or benefit from public services or the NHS will be voting Conservative even though the Conservatives ALWAYS ALWAYS cut funding to public services benefits and the NHS. But people vote just cos they say ‘we’ll cut taxes’ without thinking where the’ll have to make up the money to cut taxes… by cutting public spending, yeah!
oh, also Jennifer,
I encountered an anti-abortion protest on Saturday. With all placards saying ‘abortion is murder’ or whatever. I made sure to shout at them nice and loud from the car ‘woman’s body, woman’s choice’ or something like that.
They were outside a catholic church but I suspect it was linked to the general election.
They’ll probably all be voting bloody conservative cos the conservatives say they’ll let Catholic schools deal with sex education in whatever way they like, meaning it probably won’t be very educational. And the conservatives will make the window for after how many months a women can have an abortion smaller.
But, errrm, hang on, they also say that teenage pregnancy is a huge problem… but with a lack of sex education and abortions available, there’ll be more teenagers having babies! Not only that, there’ll be less support for new mothers cos they’ll be cutting all the public services funding!
They make NO SENSE!
Scarlett, that sounds about right. We have some very strange ideas about tariffs in this country, if you ask me.
Jen, this country also has a lot of disadvantaged people voting for the party that thinks if you’re poor, it’s because you deserve it so shut up. It’s almost like an internalized abuse cycle. And, oh, abortion protesters. Once upon a time, I had to cross a picket line to get in to see my OB-GYN. They were yelling angrily and hoisting signs that said, “Adoption not abortion!” I took one look at the woman in the lead and her two kids who looked just like her and yelled, “Yeah, how many have YOU adopted?” She just stared at me like no one had EVER introduced her to the concept of putting her money where her mouth was. I mean, really – if you’re not willing to adopt someone else’s unwanted child, then you have no business lecturing others on how adoption is the solution.
It made me feel uneasy to hear about citizens voting against building minarets in Switzerland (I believe), but easier to dismiss because the country is small enough to be dependent on good relations with their neighbours and doesn’t have a lot of cannon-fodder. USA is pretty autarchic. Besides – it is on another continent, which would make Europe an easier target. Knowing that Bush government wanted to pursue war with Iraq – well you see why it is more difficult to revert to ostrich-strategy. On the other hand I am at a point where I seriously don’t know what party to vote for. There is not one in Germany that I can say are worth it, if I want my vote to count, but not voting isn’t an answer. So it might be a combination of knowing how hypocritical my own government is and fearing what the imbalance would mean if it is encouraged by one of the most powerful countries out there.Jen, our conservatives won the election mostly with the promise of tax reduction. Still not seeing anything of it, only talking. I wasn’t even counting on it, but still amuses me in an unfunny way. Of course for the tax reduction being a viable option one needs to actually have some income besides benefits. D:
Yeah, the promise of tax relief works amazingly well over here, too. The actual tax relief either never happens, or if it does, they get it back from you somewhere else. But people just believe these promises like there isn’t ample evidence to the contrary two inches from their noses.
I was going to reply by detailing exactly why it is Europeans distrust the US, especially under Bush. But you seem to get it already. My major issue is with the “my country, right or wrong”-mentality that appears to render many of your fellow countrymen incapable of comprehending your leadship could gasp take a wrong decision . Like torturing people, and putting them in prison without trial.
I’m profoundly embarrassed by my continent’s obvious lack of cooperation in closing Guantanamo, however, many Americans do not seem embarrassed it was opened in the first place.
It’s in part a generational shift as well: my father is staunchly pro-American. I’m not, nor is my sister. We live in a much more complex world. As delighted as we were to hear you’ve managed to elect a guy with a lot of working brain cells, and an equally brilliant wife, we’re still worried about the American people, who elected GWB, and then managed to re-elect him.
Glauke, the idea that the US can make no mistakes and anyone who says we can is the enemy is mainly a right-wing conservative philosophy. It’s actually amusing to watch them employ the following alleged logic:
–When the president is Republican, anyone who doesn’t support him uncritically is anti-American.
–When the president is Democrat, anyone who supports him is anti-American and pro-Commie and out to destroy the country.
Er, yeah, okay.
@Glauke: To be fair, him being first elected was kind of a fluke. We’ve got no excuse for the second time though.
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I agree for the most part with this, but I did have a problem with this:
They’re too busy wanting to buy stuff cheap at Wal-Mart and not tell the all-hallowed Big Business what to do.
I believe that being able to choose where to shop based on principles rather than budget and convenience is very much a privilege. While I’m sure a lot of people would like to buy organic food, or locally made products, the price increases that accompany those things make it an impossibility. While there certainly is a large section of the population that shops at WalMart and the like out of ignorance and laziness, I think it is important not to overlook the people who shop there because it is what they can afford.
If you read the whole paragraph instead of isolating bits, it’s pretty clear I’m not talking about people who can’t afford stuff. I am talking about the people who are, ironically, Communist haters and shoppers who don’t think twice about fortifying the Chinese economy in order to save a few bucks to put toward out-doing the Joneses next door.