My son honestly doesn’t understand that America was genuinely considered to be the good guys until quite recently.
Edit to add : whether they actually were or not is way beyong my scope before someone starts up with “you havent been paying attention” and “dont you even know about reagan” etc.
Europe, at least the parts of it I know well. The ww2 ending had that effect, which was then supported even more by the contrast of relative freedom compared to the totalitarian Russian hell many European countries fell into afterwards.
There is quite a bit of the world who experiences America directly as the bad guy or indirectly funding the bad guys. Eurocentrism is its own issue.
Europe, as is laid bare by Trump, exists as a lap dog to America as long as america was willing to pay lip service and to some sort of equality and drop some scraps from the table. It took the meaningless posturing of Trump saying he’ll annex Greenland for anyone in leadship to acknowledge the shit position Europe put themselves in. Just because Western Europe was in a better position than the neighbors or frankly much of the rest of the world doesn’t mean that they were in a good position for the capricious changes of American whimsy. That is not power that is just being adjacent to power.
And now utterly unprepared to deal with a narcissist ungrounded in the historical alliance between America and western europe. And it’s not like this is the first time he’s been in power. And if you think America will put someone like that in power again then you failed to understand the conditions of Americans. For fuck’s sake, there are places where they still call it freedom fries because the French didn’t join a terrible war.
Europe continues to be utterly unprepared for making the changes of another American narcissist. They are incapable of conceptualizing themselves as some sort of federated political entity that might have a political will other than whatever general direction America decides to lumber towards.
Sure, but I didnt grow up in one of the places they invaded. To the Vietnamese they’re undoubtedly villains, but to a lot of the world they were “the leaders of the free world”. They were Elvis, big cars, burger joints and blues music, they were the flag planted on the moon. Before we had the internet, we experienced it through mainstream media.
I think you’ve deliberately misunderstood the concept to go on an unnecessary rant about america bad.
They must not have paid close attention. The fascists of the US directly supported and funded the Nazi. Ford and other industrialists bank rolled the Nazi empire and IBM lended their computing and logistical technology to help murder the Jews.
By big part of Europe, mostly eastern, from commies block.
The poorer places, filled with cheap murican movies about beautiful Miami beaches, NewYork skyscrappers and overall prosperity. Even in 1960’s, everyone had a tv and phone in murica, knew by stories, while in many regions of eastern Europe, up to early 90’s or even alter, getting a phone at home was a luxury.
Murica was so rich and powerful, they could easily conquer the world by military or economical (back the day, something chinese stood for poor quality; we had german cars, food from Italy, and hi-tech from murica or Japan).
The promises of freedom and awesome possibilities. Well, whole country is made of immigrants.
Sadly, even now, many still talk super good about murica, like even Venezuelan kidnaping was a good thing, well, maybe, but not in such vulgar way. Ahhh, and remember, that most saw murica as heroes for freedom like from Star Wars, literally. They did beat the reds in the end, don’t they?
I agree that the eastern block looked at America as a magical place with a unique culture. Did people see America as the good guys? What about when America invaded Iraq? What about the Vietnam war? Were these things that even mattered?
Gladly some grew up from that, and now , looking and news of Venezuela o other Hormuz feels bad - even if some bads happens at these places, such murican invasions are totally bad ways.
Sadly, some still see murica as heroes, and totally support more invasions for the glory of an eagle.
My son honestly doesn’t understand that America was genuinely considered to be the good guys until quite recently.
Edit to add : whether they actually were or not is way beyong my scope before someone starts up with “you havent been paying attention” and “dont you even know about reagan” etc.
By whom‽
Europe, at least the parts of it I know well. The ww2 ending had that effect, which was then supported even more by the contrast of relative freedom compared to the totalitarian Russian hell many European countries fell into afterwards.
There is quite a bit of the world who experiences America directly as the bad guy or indirectly funding the bad guys. Eurocentrism is its own issue.
Europe, as is laid bare by Trump, exists as a lap dog to America as long as america was willing to pay lip service and to some sort of equality and drop some scraps from the table. It took the meaningless posturing of Trump saying he’ll annex Greenland for anyone in leadship to acknowledge the shit position Europe put themselves in. Just because Western Europe was in a better position than the neighbors or frankly much of the rest of the world doesn’t mean that they were in a good position for the capricious changes of American whimsy. That is not power that is just being adjacent to power.
And now utterly unprepared to deal with a narcissist ungrounded in the historical alliance between America and western europe. And it’s not like this is the first time he’s been in power. And if you think America will put someone like that in power again then you failed to understand the conditions of Americans. For fuck’s sake, there are places where they still call it freedom fries because the French didn’t join a terrible war.
Europe continues to be utterly unprepared for making the changes of another American narcissist. They are incapable of conceptualizing themselves as some sort of federated political entity that might have a political will other than whatever general direction America decides to lumber towards.
Sure, but I didnt grow up in one of the places they invaded. To the Vietnamese they’re undoubtedly villains, but to a lot of the world they were “the leaders of the free world”. They were Elvis, big cars, burger joints and blues music, they were the flag planted on the moon. Before we had the internet, we experienced it through mainstream media.
I think you’ve deliberately misunderstood the concept to go on an unnecessary rant about america bad.
And I think you’ve turned Western Europe into “a lot of the world”. Frankly, my rant wasn’t America bad, but Europeans naive.
Well the important thing is now that we have the internet we’re immune to propaganda and misinformation.
They must not have paid close attention. The fascists of the US directly supported and funded the Nazi. Ford and other industrialists bank rolled the Nazi empire and IBM lended their computing and logistical technology to help murder the Jews.
By big part of Europe, mostly eastern, from commies block.
The poorer places, filled with cheap murican movies about beautiful Miami beaches, NewYork skyscrappers and overall prosperity. Even in 1960’s, everyone had a tv and phone in murica, knew by stories, while in many regions of eastern Europe, up to early 90’s or even alter, getting a phone at home was a luxury.
Murica was so rich and powerful, they could easily conquer the world by military or economical (back the day, something chinese stood for poor quality; we had german cars, food from Italy, and hi-tech from murica or Japan).
The promises of freedom and awesome possibilities. Well, whole country is made of immigrants.
Sadly, even now, many still talk super good about murica, like even Venezuelan kidnaping was a good thing, well, maybe, but not in such vulgar way. Ahhh, and remember, that most saw murica as heroes for freedom like from Star Wars, literally. They did beat the reds in the end, don’t they?
I agree that the eastern block looked at America as a magical place with a unique culture. Did people see America as the good guys? What about when America invaded Iraq? What about the Vietnam war? Were these things that even mattered?
Lovely protectors of freedom.
Gladly some grew up from that, and now , looking and news of Venezuela o other Hormuz feels bad - even if some bads happens at these places, such murican invasions are totally bad ways.
Sadly, some still see murica as heroes, and totally support more invasions for the glory of an eagle.