Fashionable Anti-American

Erik Johnson
English 250 FD
Mr. Perez
April 5, 2005
Is it true that everyone hates us? Why do they hate us so much? What did we ever do to them? In truth it is not as bad as we think it is. There is a general misconception about the feelings toward America. People have hated our country since the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 says Dominic Hilton. Dominic writes in his article “Fashionable Anti-Americanism” that most of the time, it is not Americas fault that the world hates us so much.
Hilton believes that most America bashing is “pathetically hypocritical, embarrassingly imbecilic, perilously ruinous and, worst of all, as derisorily fashionable as those ludicrous woolly boots everyone is presently sporting.” He states that despite the best efforts of himself, Washington, and the entirety of the Midwestern states it is hard to not notice that we are the subject of global mocking and hatred. It is not that America is perfect, because we know for a fact that we are not.
America is the scapegoat for many people to blame their shortcomings on. For example, people blaming America for all of the world’s inadequacies such as, poverty, war, environmental destruction, and their own personal problems. Hilton uses the example that their houses rot as they drone and complain about American “crimes against humanity.” He says that this is a no win situation for us. That either way we go about our business people will still complain. If we do the right thing, they complain that we should have done more. If we didn’t do anything then they complain that we should have stepped in.
America sells period. Across Europe, gigantic music stores stuffed themselves with American pop, rock, and urban music. Then in the book stores they sell why America is bad books. Hilton explains “It is the kids that lap up on American culture, obese and spotty form diet of MCDonald’s and Coca-Cola, baggily clad in Nike, Gap and Levi’s plugged into their iPods listening to Eminem and 50 Cent that represent the behemoth that is the USA.”
So can America get a break? Tell the other nations to take a spoonful of their own medicine and shut up. It is not always our fault that we do the things we do. We do not try to harm anyone. America is here to help people in need and would appreciate it if you didn’t laugh at us when we screw up trying.