his page collects news blog items about the attitudes of the US people towards the rest of the world, or the rest of the world towards the US. It does not collect every last blog entry on the latest thing done by Dubya to make the rest of the world hate us. That topic was once interesting, but has grown to be such an everyday issue that it hardly bears comment anymore.

More recent updates are added on top.

When Massachusetts's highest court ruled for gay marriage, the issue loomed over American politics. Conservatives vowed to change the Constitution. President Bush said he would defend marriage. Even the major Democratic presidential candidates backed away from supporting gay marriage outright. Contrast that with Canada, where two provincial courts issued similar rulings this year. With little anguish, Canada became only the third country after the Netherlands and Belgium to allow same-sex marriage as a matter of civil rights.

...weekly church attendance among Canadians has plummeted since the 1950's while American church attendance has remained virtually constant.

I thought this comparison was an interesting one:

To many commentators the two countries seem to be exchanging their traditional roles, one founded in America's birth as a revolutionary country and Canada's as a counterrevolutionary alternative.

During the Depression, under the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States was the progressive force, while Canada stubbornly held on to conservative economic policies.

By the mid-1960's, though, Canada shifted to a far more activist government, moving to a national health insurance system. Not long afterward, the Vietnam War began siphoning popularity from the Great Society experiment of President Johnson. The trends have only widened since.

In the 70's we were taught Canada would be absorbed by the United States, and in the 80's it looked like it was happening," recalled Douglas Coupland, the Canadian author known for his cultural commentaries on both sides of the border. "Then came the latter part of the 90's and it was like some high school class 16-millimeter film where you see the chromosome duplicates, then realigns, and finally the cell splits.

"And that process only seems to be quickening in recent months."

May 6, 2003

Survey says: Americans are complete idiots. Well, perhaps "complete" is too strong a word, but the picture is pretty grim.

After an opening opinion question: describe the impact of the War on Terrorism on our civil rights in the U.S. (33.6% said it's strengthening them, 22.9% said no impact, and 19.2% said it's removing important rights and guarantees) the next 12 questions measured basic knowledge in several areas.

Disturbing for our democracy, only 40% could name the three branches of the U.S. government and 37% could not even name one branch. People fared better on whether 4 different statements contained elements of the Bill of Rights. Sixty six percent knew of the right to a speedy and public trial. Fifty seven percent were aware of the protections of the Fifth Amendment against coerced self-incrimination. Seventy four percent knew that indefinite punishment and detention was not a right. And seventy nine percent knew that we are (or used to be) protected from unreasonable searches and seizures in our homes and private lives.

Yes, the poll write up is from a very progressive PoV, and everyone knows that it's easy to skew poll results to favor the response you want to hear. For example, ask if people support "bombing Iraqi children" vs. asking if people will "accept some civilian casualties in the liberation of Iraq" and you'll get very different answers to what is essentially the same question.

Another one I found interesting relates to the news article I posted yesterday, where I pondered how the Joe Blow war supporter would feel at news that all of the official US rationale for war was based on lies and fabrications:

42% continue to believe there is evidence (only 36% say there is not) that Saddam Hussein worked with the 9-11 terrorists, a key message of the Bush team that has never been bolstered by fact. And when assessing who supports the war against Iraq we have now shown in two consecutive polls (total sample size 365) that it is mainly people who accepted the government's hoopla about an Iraqi threat on face value (they remain 2:1 for war). Indeed the association between being fooled by this government disinformation and supporting the war is statistically significant at the .005 level in the current poll and at the .001 level in the earlier poll. People who are not fooled by the government propaganda are still 60% against this and future unprovoked wars.

As I said, the write up isn't exactly neutral in tone, but it's hard to argue with their figures.

Here's an interesting article about Dubya and his constant "Jesus loves me" remarks, and how shocking they are to the more worldly/less religious people in pretty much the entire rest of the Western World.

Bush's firm faith, rooted in an evangelical Protestantism that reflects an important voter bloc in his Republican party, has also prompted questions in mainstream U.S. media about how much it colors his stand on Iraq and his war on terror.

In his speeches, he has asked for guidance from "the loving God behind all of life and all of history," hinted he believed there was a "divine plan" for the world and warned Americans that "we are in a conflict between good and evil."

These references may not seem so out of place in the United States, where all presidents say "God bless America" and "In God We Trust" is emblazoned on dollar bills.

But they stand out and sometimes even shock many Europeans who remember how German soldiers trooped off to World War One with "Gott mit uns" (God with us) stamped on their belt buckles.

In Sweden, invoking God in politics is so unusual that parliamentarian Hans Lindqvist told Reuters: "I've never seen anything like this before."

Now Dubya supporters, or religious types (which isn't necessarily the same group) would no doubt read this and say, "Good! Screw those atheist Eurotrash bastards!"

And by doing so, they would fall exactly into the stupid superstitious American stereotype that most of the rest of the Western World holds.  And they'd (the redneck) be quite happy to fall into that mold, I suspect.

I find the persistence of religion in the US, compared to the near extinction of it in most of Western Europe to be fascinating.   A full comparison and analysis of the phenomena is beyond the scope of a quick blog and more than I want to get into today, but it is something I think about on occasion.  Generally speaking in historical terms, having one powerful country on earth that begins to think they are God's chosen ones is a very bad thing.  I.E. Germany in WWII. That sort of megalomaniacal thinking tends to lead to invasions and wars and conflict.

When a people thinks they are specially chosen by their deity of choice, it can be very comforting if they are downtrodden; see the Jews through most of recorded history.  But if the people or nation that thinks that is powerful, it tends to lead them to behaving very arrogantly and recklessly, since after all, if god likes you best than anything you do must be okay.  Right?  Everyone wants to feel special, and pretty much all religious and superstitious and cultish behavior and beliefs stem from this.  Guardian Angels, reincarnation (where everyone seems to have been a king or emperor or princess in nearly every life), psychic powers, and the more mainstream stuff as well, all have a large element of belief making the believer feel special.  And what could be more special than telling yourself that God wants you to conquer the world?

Someday I might return to this topic and try to tie in the rampant capitalism/me-first-ism, the lack of compassion or community, the decline of science and humanities education, and more, all in the US, to the persistent and perhaps even increasing religious belief.  From my generally atheistic perspective, religion is an aberration and a weakness in the mind of society, and something that's destined to fade out of human society, at least in modern nations. And it seems to be doing just that in Europe, but the US is a significant exception to this.

You'll note that I view the US as the exception and backwards nation, rather than viewing Europe as abandoned by God, which shows my perspective on this matter, eh?

March 23, 2003

Pravda, the newspaper and news service in Russia that is sort of their CNN, has become rather loopy in recent years and often posts totally absurd "Weekly World News" type stuff.  Like speculating that the Iraq Attack is a grab for technology from a UFO that the US wants and Saddam has.  Uh huh. 

That tabloid tendency aside, they have a very interesting interview online now.  It's with "Russian TV Guru Vladamir Pozner" and in it he talks about how the American media is so self-censoring, how that leads Americans to have such an unrealistic view of themselves and the world, and many other topics. Yes, it's a long quote, but the guy gives long answers to the questions. The questions are in bold.

What sanctions can there be?
There can be sanctions applied by advertisers. A channel cannot exist without them. It is possible to show a certain pressure on advertisers as well. In addition to that, there is public opinion, which presumably supports Bush. It basically happens because Americans do not have any other information.

Let’s take the opinion polls, which are conducted in other countries, including such America-friendly countries as Ireland, Great Britain and Mexico. Those polls prove that the majority of those countries’ populations are against Bush. According to the results of a recent opinion poll in the UK, 32% of respondents are afraid of Saddam Hussein, while 68% are afraid of George W. Bush.

Americans do not have that information. Moreover, they do not understand how some people can stand against them. They perceive such a position as ingratitude on the part of the whole world. It’s like “we are so fine, kind and sincere, but those people, who we feed, stand against us now”.

Why aren’t they informed? Because their mass media are not informed either. It is possible to find “for” and “against” columns in newspapers. Yet, as far as the television is concerned, there is only one opinion there.

The most daring one of them is a careful and a neutral opinion. More often one can hear things like, “go ahead, you guys”. You will never hear anyone saying on television that America might have serious problems because of that. No-one will try to understand why the whole world opposes America’s incursion in Iraq.

I assert that Russian television is much more liberal today than American TV. To my mind, it is the USA that has the least freedom of speech amid other democratic countries at the moment, speaking of television.

Where do you think American supremacy comes from? What makes them “make the world more perfect” all the time? Probably, they are not interested in somebody else’s opinion?
Americans are interested only in themselves, that’s a fact. However, Americans are not the only nation which thinks that it is perfect. There is a joke: the French do not think that France is the best country in the world. They know it.

On the other hand, Americans have a very dangerous combination. This is the combination of the feeling of supremacy and ignorance. America is a wonderful country. It has achieved amazing progress. No-one denies that, and a lot of people envy America.

I would not like to make general statements, but the majority of Americans are certain that the USA is unique. They believe that it is so very supreme, which makes any kind of anti-American criticism absolutely out of the question. This is the way the American mindset is. This is what American movies, television and schools teach.

Hard to argue with any of his points.  The only real objection I can think of would be from someone who was exactly the person Pozner is describing here, who would say, "That's true. So what? We really are the best people and best country on earth."  And that's a POV that's equally difficult to argue with.

March 5, 2003

An interesting article about how Americans are seen in other countries around the world now, almost entirely thanks to Dubya's international efforts.

A mother lode of goodwill fostered in the decades after the defeat of Nazi Germany has been reduced to dust in recent years. A growing number of foreigners see some of the United States' political decisions (pulling out of the Kyoto Treaty on global emissions) and personal choices (Americans' penchant for gas-loving SUVs) as at best unilateral and at worst selfish. The confrontation over Iraq is just more fuel on a bonfire.

From Spanish plazas to Parisian metros, American tourists are being quizzed, grilled and even spat on by people who do not approve of the Bush administration's drive for a war against Saddam Hussein.

As a result, a declining number of Americans (54% today vs. 79% a year ago) believes that the USA enjoys a favorable image abroad, according to a recent Gallup poll. And a majority of Americans (64%) cite a fear of unfriendliness as the top concern of traveling abroad during wartime, according to a survey in the February issue of Condé Nast Traveler.

I'd like to know how in the hell 54% of Americans think we are favorably viewed around the world?  They spend all their time watching FOX news or what?  Lick a finger, hold it up to the wind, kids.

While living in Spain recently, Jane Kelly, 20, recalls a friend being spat on for being American.

''In any country you're going to get people who do this,'' says Kelly, who was studying at the Madrid campus of Boston's Suffolk University.

However, fellow student Kate Perlis, 20, says the atmosphere was charged. ''It seems that the only English a lot of people there know are the words, 'We hate Bush.' ''

I think this is somewhat deeper in meaning, on second thought.  Yes, most Americans are utterly oblivious to world politics, and in this case they are ignorant of world opinion as well.  And I think that fosters and feeds the actions that continue to drive that opinion down.  Americans don't really know what's going on in the world, don't have any idea how others react to the actions of the Bush Administration, so they don't have any objective way to gauge the actions of our government.

For a quick and potentially-flawed analogy, when you're a little kid and your mom or dad is driving the car, you have no idea where you are going or how they are driving.  You're just sitting there playing with your model car or plane or Barbie.  Mom could be driving 30 in the fast lane or weaving or running stop signs or lost or anything.  Makes no diff to you, you aren't mature or observant enough to be able to judge.

As you get older and wiser, you can compare her driving to how other people drive, and begin to realize if she's fast or slow, careful or reckless, etc.  Even if she's driving the biggest and most powerful and most important and fastest car on earth.

I think you see my point.

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