Why do people hate America?

Sarcasm aside, America is one of the free-est countries in the world. If we take a historical analysis, it is the free-est - well, maybe not if you're a Native American or are descended from Africans (before thousands of years ago, for all you pedants out there). Nevertheless, America is hardly the greatest perpetrator of oppression even when you include these groups. So many countries have been so much worse than America that I think we ignore the goodness of America and what it represents, at humanity's collective peril.

A strict wall between church and state??

Is that why in the pledge of allegiance you have "one nation under God"? Is that why in court people are required to swear on Bibles, and why the president usually is sworn in by swearing on a set of Bibles? And the reason why same-sex marriage has only recently come into effect, is precisely because in the US there is no dichotomy between church and state.

But the fact that they deemed that certain people had more rights than others on the basis of skin colour/sex/indigeneity and then enshrined these, quite frankly despicable, principles into a document framed as the supreme source of national law means that the document is fundamentally flawed.

I think that their hypocrisy does negate to a certain degree the principles of the Constitution - to take perhaps the most obvious example, had the Framers made a constitutional declaration that owning another human being as property is unlawful and that slaves actually are 100% human, then millions of African men, women and children wouldn't have been humiliated and abused in early US history and the Civil War and the near-disintegration of the USA would never have happened.

They kicked the can down the road for another generation to deal with, and that generation would pay for the Founding Father's mistakes with blood. The Framers weren't advanced or liberal - they were hypocritical cowards.

You totally missed my point, didn't you? You can argue until the cows come home about how hypocritical the founding fathers were; I won't disagree. Prove to me please, how hypocrisy reduces the values of principles.

You are essentially saying that if a murderer proclaims his belief that murder is wrong, therefore the principle "murder is wrong" is no longer respectable because the murderer was a hypocrite.

Because the hypocrisy of the authors as enshrined in the Constitution was directly responsible for the near-total disintegration of the United States in the 1860s - that was the whole point of the Civil War example. Constitutions are dangerous because they can frame principles which are time-dependent into codified and perpetual legal frameworks. The Framers' values are therefore diminished because by codifying a time-dependent bundle of values into law (the notion of human equality, the '3/5ths' compromise and the appeasement of the slave states), the value of equality was later sullied by the horrific brutality and bloodshed that followed in the Constitution's wake.

A better analogy would be to use those TV stars recently discovered to be child abusers. Jimmy Saville made popular and entertaining TV shows, but people no longer appreciate his TV work because of his child abuse. Bringing this back to the Constitution, its liberal values have been reduced because other provisions of the Constitution were in direct contradiction with its liberalism. That's not to say that liberalism itself is therefore devalued, but only that the US Constitution's liberalism is devalued.

Admittedly those things breach America's own principles which were laid out in the constitution, however counting for that, it is still nowhere near as bad as most other countries, is it?

There is a dichotomy between church and state in the US, and that is why they do not teach creationism in public schools there.

Your criticism of the US, while valid, ignores similar and much worse things elsewhere. Therefore, I believe that you hold America to a different standard than elsewhere.

I only hold it to the standard it purports to be at.

If I heard other countries purporting to be the "most free, most liberal and civilised country in the world" I would trash their dreams of grandeur just as I am doing to America. You can not criticise countries for committing war crimes, only to commit war crimes yourself. You can not believe yourself to be the most free country in the world, and then proceed to take away the freedoms of those you choose are not deemed worthy of it.

America is on a path to freeing itself of the hold church holds on its laws, but at this very moment church and state are very closely linked in the US. Wasn't president Bush Jnr the one who purported to hearing the voice of "God" and being told to invade Iraq? Didn't President Obama do a national prayer when the Oil spill occurred?

I think alot of 'hate' for the US is a result of their foreign policies.
Let's not get tangled up in stereotyping an entire nation.

I, with a burning passion, detest US foreign policy.

Because Americans politics are a ****ing shambles.

This post generally gave me a good laugh. So outrageously biased!

"If it weren't for them, Europe would be under either Nazi or Soviet tyranny today"

If it weren't for us, Americans (non-native) wouldn't exist. The credit Americans claim for 'saving' Europe is unreal...

Don't understand some of your reasoning. I think it is pretty accurate to say that if the Yanks hadn't entered WWII, Britain and Europe would have been screwed.

As for the word 'tyranny', life under the Nazis would certainly have been that, that is if you weren't filtered out of the system for extermination for not satisfying their arian standards. Not sure what would've happened if left to the Soviets.

Four week old post.

Nice assumptions based on nothing.

Moving on, you missed the point of the post entirely. What right do Americans have to claim they saved the British? That implies that Germany was for some reason Britain's problem. Both countries fought together to end the Nazis, and Britain gave a hell of a lot towards that victory. So where do Americans get off claiming they 'saved' Britain?

If your parents house caught fire and they both managed to put it out using buckets of water, it would be like your Mum turning to your Dad and saying "I saved you" just because the fire happened to start on his side of the bedroom, despite the fact the house belongs to both of them and they both contributed towards the victory.*

*Translation for dimwit Americans; in the above paragraph the mother of Marco1 symbolises America, his father symbolises Europe, the fire is Germany and the house is the world.

I think you'd find alot of it is to do with their demonic foreign policy, not so much the people and the natural attractions.

Posted from TSR Mobile

If everybody followed the example of the American constitution, the world would be a better place. Given most other countries' track records, I don't know why the US is held in such contempt. If it weren't for them, Europe would be under either Nazi or Soviet tyranny today, or some grotesque combination of the two. I believe that while they are by no means perfect, we should be thanking them and encouraging others in the world to follow their example (freedom and democracy).

While I agree that George Bush was cack-handed, arrogant and ignorant, people hated him so much that they forgot about the actual people in the world who are making it such an awful place for others, by butchering them for insane or petty crimes such as being gay, or locking them up for holding an opinion. Are these dictators infantile, not warranting as much personal responsibility?

tl;dr if you hate America, I can't imagine how much disgust you must feel for the majority of the countries in the world. Either that, or you have been indoctrinated with anti-American bigotry.

Edit; ffs, stop down-voting. The poll should only appear biased if you already view America as somehow "different" to the rest, because given its behaviour, and the behaviour of other countries, you would have to be a bigot to prefer the other countries in almost all cases. That is as close to an objective analysis as I can give.

I think you'd find alot of it is to do with their demonic foreign policy, not so much the people and the natural attractions.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Noone is saying Britain did not sacrifice and contribute an immense amount during the war. It just happened that when the US entered they were much needed and were vital in helping to finish the job. That is a well known fact.

Nothing was mentioned about the US 'SAVING' Europe. That's your addition. I see the logic of the point you are making but I think it a little misplaced.

This poll is so ****ing stupidly biased it might as well not exist.

pfft the US government has caused more deaths for their own political gain and their pockets. and i feel for the American people, many still live in poverty while their politicians stuff themselves with oil and dollar notes. And then the people are branded with this stigma, as if they are the same as their politicians .

other countries have not been 'butchering' people on as large a scale as the American government has, get it? or even close. or are you a government tool.

Wikileaks. all the evidence is there. the amount of wars the US government has started. the amount of people they have killed. the amount of activities you government tool like mind can't imagine that they are involved in.

the truth is, the people who are truly patriotic are people like Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, who are working for the good of the American people and for the good of the world, revealing the excesses, the war crimes, the human rights abuses by the American Government, the government that itself does not follow that amazing constitution you talk of; it finds loopholes and ignores things and carried on with its trigger happy rampaging of the worlds resources, whith no thought for the sanctity of human life, unless it is an American's life.

But people like you who are in love with the government condemn them, Snowden and Manning and other whistleblowers, as traitors, when the real traitors are sitting high up on their thrones in the White House.

no government is good or perfect, in fact, all are corrupt in some way, but no one country has caused as much death and destruction in the name of greed (under the guise of 'humanitarian intervention' and 'democracy'), in this age, than the American government has.

and that is not bigotry. that is a statistical fact. so reassess.

I was actually wondering where you got all your rep from, Communist Anarchists dont generally fare well on here

I dont dislike America and this is a terrible analogy but, if you watch Team America : World Police, its such a good take on what America does..