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I enjoyed much of the essay but disagree here. Outside the US, amongst non-Americans, Americans are indeed looked down upon and considered stupid.
Some clips from Jeremy Clarkson: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JsMVncOU1K4
It's not merely my personal 'America is a greatly flawed country in many respects but also with great strengths' opinion but the strawman version of 'Americans are stupid, fat, uncultured, violent and fascist too'. My well-off Australian friends constantly bemoan America, how they harass you and ask for passwords and social media and fingerprints if you want to enter the US - those are just stories they've heard since they don't want to visit the US with Trump and all.
Even before Trump America was looked down on, the Clarkson clips are old and somewhat representative of ambient anti-American stereotypes. The War on Terror is perceived as a dumb idea executed badly, that the US dragged us into. Same with the war in Iran for that matter. They don't like American lifestyle either, how the food has chemicals in it, the tipping culture, the drug commercials, feeling unsafe in major cities... When I went to the US with some friends we didn't really like it, saw some guy shooting up on the street which was a new experience. Much preferred Europe, though it's also hard to feel safe in Paris with all the troops wandering around.
Nobody respects 'American institutions from law and universities to science and the humanities'. Nobody really thinks about them at all, except insofar as Trump is perceived as wrecking them. What good are these institutions if Trump emerged and seemingly took over, people think. My legal-inclined friends don't like US jurisprudence, they think it's a mutated and degraded cousin of proper common law. All maluses and no pluses. It's an immature way to think about countries but that's just how the media seems to behave, that's the base expectation. I could point out to them that in terms of authoritarianism, our freedom-of-speech is much more limited than the US, the UK arrests many more people for political crimes but that's not something that people feel comfortable saying or thinking so much.
Maybe it's different in the developing world or China or Japan.
I feel a lot of it, from Europeans and also from the other anglosphere countries (Canada and Australia), is what we refer to as "coping". Mostly coping with feeling less agentful and capable than americans are. Japan and China seem to be more positive because Japan learned a long time ago (and China in the last half-century) that the more productive reaction to being humbled by someone else is not to find excuses but just to learn what gave that person an edge over you and then doing that even better than them. Europeans and (and other anglos) seem to be averse to doing that, they seem to want to double down on what kept them inferior, and wear that inferiority as some kind of weird badge of honor.
I honestly just don't even know how to reply to this. I guess we just have irreconcilable values if you think America is superior.
I'm grateful to all the sacrifices you guys make to hold up the rest of the anglosphere, eg militarily, but I would never want to live there. From my point of view you guys are sacrificing to Moloch as fast as you can, which I very much hope my country will avoid doing until absolutely necessary.
Fun fact: I am not, actually, American. I just recognize that there is still some vitality left in US, unlike Western Europe and the other Anglosphere countries, who have nothing to contribute and make every decision they can seemingly with the goal of smothering their economy, of replacing their culture and demography. Maybe it doesn't always do so in the wisest way, but the american beast still moves and thrash about. Western europe is inert, it hasn't moved in a long time. At this point we should really check for a pulse and just call it.
My apologies for assuming, then. (and I agree Europe is not coming out of this looking good either)
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Me normally: "US intervention in Iraq was a mistake, US hegemony has gone too far, we need to pull back, maybe focus on deterring China,"
Me after one (1) drink (of Spite): "...there's still time. We could put the 82nd in London. The people would greet us as liberators! Armored columns could reach Vancouver and Montreal in less than 12 hours. We'd need to arm the moderate Welsh, of course, and the Catalan separatists..."
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“Americans are looked down upon as stupid”
How many employees look down on their boss as stupid but don’t see the full picture and only their little bubble and interests. This also feels a bit like being the smart kid in a lower middle class school. The rest will make fun of you etc.
The rest of the American things basically boil down to YES we have black people.
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