And I Thought I was the Only One...

Here is a fabulous comment we just received. It reflects the thoughts and frustrations of many confronted daily with the overwhelming media driven bias and anti-American sentiment throughout Europe. Often, those who are brave enough to oppose the majority view get the impression that they are fighting a hopeless battle...that they are the only ones...until they discover this website.

From Tyranno:

Following up on "Eric in USA on the Role of France and Germany in Iraq." I agree and have found the same narrow perspective from very nearly all of the Germans that I speak with. I am continually reminded by my objective German friends of the "fact" of American "simplicity" and their "black and white" view of the world, contrasted with the more "complex" and "sophisticated" European perspective on the same world events. And yet my observations just don't bear it out. It is the rare German I meet who doesn't consider President Bush "stupid," that he "stole the election," that he is waging a "war for oil," he is a "cowboy," a "unilateralist," etc, etc, etc... The parroting of the TIME/NEWSWEEK/ DER SPEIGEL/STERN chosen topic of the week is not exactly a "nuanced" or "thoughtful" personal opinion. In opinion poles these numbers are born out by 70- 80% of the German (all european?)people. Focusing on just on those topics the numbers in the U.S.A. are much closer to a 55%~45%. So I think we can agree that someone is riding on the "groupthink" bandwagon, I am just not sure it is the Americans. On so many topics I am astonished at how uninformed most Germans are, or how willing they are to take their information from the most extreme points of view (always negative) to be found in America. Michael Moore is a prophet. fromthewilderness and moveon.org are gospel. Every criticism or American mistake is accepted at face value, every bit of postitive news is suspect! I have been told (with a serious straight face) that it is unfortunate that people in America are "doomed to the socio-economic class they are born into." (From the nation that starts testing it's citizens as toddlers to predetermine the direction and level of their schooling.) I have been told that the "entire news media" in America is controlled by "rightwing zealots" who have brainwashed the American masses into supporting "Bush's War!" (Something that would no doubt be amusing to the vast majority of Americans who consider their mainstream medias somewhat left leaning. But we must have been "brainwashed" because otherwise we too would be anti-war, like all correct-thinking Germans.) I have been told that the government is controlled by, Jews, Christian fundamentalists, Israel, Neocons, etc, etc . . . that the CIA crashed the planes into the WTC, that the PNAC website is the blueprint for the U.S.A. taking over the world, racism is still a terrible problem, nobody has healthcare, the rich are eating the poor, lions and tigers and bears blah blah blah blahblahblahblah . . . .

The German media is not very objective and doesn't appear to try to be. Though mentioning its bias gets you an eye rolling dismissal. I have a Polizei friend who says, Germans don't like to talk about their problems or talk about bad news! My observation is that goes for the government and newsmedias too. Whether you like or dislike having a FOX or Rush Limbaugh in America, there are no equivalents in the German media. The ubiquitousness of groupthink here is rather frightening to observe. After living in Germany for five years my rose colored glasses came off and my observation is that there is a strange sort of emotional transference going on. An emotional need to believe in certain things regardless of the facts and that the medias feed it. (not unlike who in the U.S.A.? ? ?)

I am not making a value judgement here, only an observation based on my own five years of living here and listening, talking and reading.
The point I am making is about this strange transference that is happening, where everything German (European) is good and everything American is bad.
The rewriting of history with Chirac at the Normandy Observance not mentioning the American contribution. A growing conversation I hear more and more often about how the "Soviets really won the war" because they lost more men. The "Bush's War for oil" canard that ignores Europes, not America's, dependence on middle eastern oil, that ignores Russia's $9B and France's $8B oil contracts with the criminal hussein regime.
The ignoring of how many Europeans go to the U.S.A. for their University degree vice how many Americans come to Europe.
The near total, willful ignoring of Europes historic complicity in every single problem the U.S.A. is dealing with or not dealing with in the world today.

So, "simple" you say? Um, Perhaps. "Black and White?" after leafing through the EU constitution, God I hope so!!!!
But stupid? . . . I would say believe that at your peril. (as I fear Chirac and France might start finding out.)

Yes, it is good to be alive in interesting times and there is something strange indeed brewing on the continent that I don't quite have my arms around, and really don't believe I ever will ~ but as a fifth generation American (1859)from Coburg Deutschland, I love Europe and continue working on it.

Tyranno

Thank you. If we keep pointing these things out together, eventually we will be heard!

Comments

[Sandy P]

No, Hope is in Arkansas.

[Erik S]

Having lived in Paris for over 10 years, I would say that, if anything, the 90-95% figure is too small. I mention this, because if you changed the word "German/Germany" to "French/France", Tyranno's words would ring just as true. Any discussion on world events will inevitably — and I do mean inevitably — lead to the statement of the "fact" that Americans are treacherous, and Europeans are ever so lucides. (That is what caused me to found this organization.)

As for why people like myself have opened blogs about this, it is because of something called injustice. I do not like injustice. I do not like the injustice of a man who claims he is against war only going out to protest when the U.S. military is involved. I do not like the injustice of a woman who claims she is against the death penalty but willfully ignores China's putting to death as many as 25 times the number of people put to death in America each year. I do not like the injustice of an intellectual/reporter claiming to be indpendent and interested in all cases of government perfidy, and deliberately and consistently ignoring, and white-washing, those of anybody but Uncle Sam, and primarily those of his own government. I do not like the injustice of someone weeping about the fate of prisoners in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib and ignoring that of the men and women who had hands and tongues cut off, were forced to eat the flesh of their spouses' arms, and whose bodies litter the fields of Iraq; ignoring, in effect, the opinion of the majority of people in Iraq.

If someone said that all blacks were simple-minded and incapable of thinking clearly, there would be an uproar, and rightly so. If someone said all Slavs were treacherous and war-mongers, there would be an uproar, and rightly so. Such opinions would not only be called unjust and ignorant, they would be called despicable. And rightly so.

But say the same about Americans, in public or among friends, and nobody thinks of protesting. Well, actually, yes, there are a few of us, and people like us are called "biased" by the likes of Jo who snicker and ask if we don't have more important things to worry about.

Now, here's the fun fact. When you mention this in Europe, some Europeans will guffaw and say, "Oh, but in the case of the Americans, it happens to be the truth!" (Of course, they forget that their own ancestors said the exact same thing about the blacks/Slavs/etc: it just happened to "be the truth", too.) Whatever the case may be, I have found what David and Tyranno have also uncovered: that a bit of investigation turns up the fact that Americans are perhaps not as simple-minded as the Europeans would like to think, and that the Europeans are perhaps not as avant-garde-thinking as they would like to believe. But because this "opinion" is inherently self-serving, unless some people say this (and it will be resisted as being ridiculously out-of-hand), no voices will be raised in Europe at all.

PS: I have translated part of Tyranno's post into French.

[Joe]

jo

I do not considered myself to be anti-European. To be anti-European would mean a dislike for more than 35 nations. That I do not have. I do, however; hold several European nations in total distain and utter contempt but that really is not important.

I am more a supporter of Europe. I believe the EU should have a single permanent seat on the UNSC. I believe that NATO should be disbanded. This would mean the EU would have to provide for its own defense. This is one of the policy goals of france, Germany, Luxemburg, and Belgium. It is also the stated position of the leader of the new EU Parliament. This is a goal I wished my nation would fully support. In fact, the more the US disengages from the EU the better.

Jo, what I find interesting that you are quick to label anyone who points out the inconsistence in the policies of the US’s “so called allies” as being anti-European. It seems someone needs to do this as surely the political; media and academic elites of these nations are not.

I find it interesting you believed and it seems your belief was correct that to obtain a job in the US is much easier than it is in Germany. I wonder why that is so. I mean Germany is the third largest economy in the world, the largest in Europe. You had to take a huge risk coming to the US given what the political leaders of your government as well as the media reported about the economic conditions here.

As for you defense of Europe, and I would say it is more a defense of Germany and france; your posts do support a theme of their superiority. This comes out when you speak of housing, public transportation, medical care, energy usage, and other government provided services and benefits and the other aspects of the personal lives of their citizens these governments control. I find it hard to believe you would leave all of this behind. You also seem to like comparing trivia issues to more serious ones. Making a case these are the same.

What you will find is not a feeling of being anti- anything about Europe from those Americans who post here or from those who are informed about Europe. What you will see is disgust with the hypocrisy that comes from the elites of these nations, be they in government or academia or the media. Their viewpoints and attitudes are mostly anti-Americanism. These institutions do influence the citizens in these nations. This is the unfortunate part of what has transpired in the last 10 years or so. This is a damage that will not be undone with a change in the presidency of the US.

I would suggest you read some of articles being written by the various trans-Atlantic think tanks. They do not paint a very encouraging future about the relationship between the US and Europe going forward. I tend to agree with most of these. Where I disagree in many cases is their recommendations of what should be done.

The one I just read was an article by Mark Leonard, the director of the UK Foreign Policy Centre, who is on a fellowship at the German Marshall Fund. The title was “The US Heads Home. Will Europe Regret It?”

I tend to agree with what Leonard sees as the most likely outcome from the events, which are now taking place.

[jo]

Joe,

you're right, we shouldn't label each other so easily. In this blog, it's sometimes hard not to argue within some black-and-white-paradigm. A lot of times I feel beeing pushed into a corner that I don't want to be in and I guess I do that too to other people. In the heat of discussion, most of the Zwischentoene (nuances?) get lost. I wish it was possible to discuss matters like anti-Americanism and media bias without all the ideological and political issues that are intertwined with it. We probably would be agreeing with each other by now if it was just about these two topics.

Reading your comments I get the impression that there are a lot of misunderstandings between you and me as well as between America and Europe. For example, I repeatedly said that neither Europe nor America are superior to each other, they're just different and there are good things and bad things on both sides of the Atlantic. But apparently I didn't get that message through. It seems like, Europe and America, both think they know each other so well but they really don't and it's even harder for them to understand each other. Being informed and being understanding obviously is not the same thing.

To answer your question about jobs, as a computer scientist it's rather easy for me to find jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. But it's much harder for an US lawyer to find a job in Germany. And don't worry, I didn't have to take many risks. Maybe that is why I'm still optimistic that the trans-Atlantic relations aren't as bad as some people make it seem like. Hope is on the way!

[Erik S]

Hope is on the way?

Here is why one cannot say that European anti-Americanism is merely ranting and raving that is nothing to worry about.
(And Uncle Sam is supposed to be the unilateralist?!)

Already, during the Cold War, a KGB officer told a French weekly that "it was not too difficult to find Frenchmen who, without having the feeling of spying for the USSR, were willing to collaborate against a common enemy: the United States. After all, that was the official line of your government at the time."

[Joe]

I would invite you to read the article contained in the below link. It is titled "The Perfect Storm and After: Retrospect and Prospect for American-German Relations" and is by Jeffrey Herf.

I would be interested if any of you share the same preceptions as Mr. Herf.

It does seem to tie together some of the points which many have made with their posts. I of course, thought Gerhard Schröder was from Hannover and not Hamburg.

http://www.aicgs.org/c/herfc.shtml

[jo]

Jeffrey Herf makes some good points.

[Gene]

Guys,
We crossed the Atlantic twice (three times if you count the Cold War build up in the 1950's) last century to put an end to World Wars that nearly destroyed European Civilization.

If Europe screws up again, we will grudgingly cross the Atlantic again, rather than wait for the war to come to us.

War is upon us, whether Europeans or Americans care to acknowledge it or not. The choice is whether to wait for the next attack or go drain the swamp from which our enemies come.

[Erik S]

Here is what I have to say about the "the Soviets really won the war" "argument" and what it says about the European mindset and how it fits neatly into the Europeans' self-serving "Heads I win, tails you lose" card…