Why Do Some Americans Hate America?: The Legacy of Elitism
Since my earlier post on the origins of foreigners disliking the United States and adopting false preconceptions of what Americans are really like, I decided that another, perhaps more important issue needs to be addressed: HOW THE HELL CAN AMERICANS BELIEVE THIS STUPID CRAP AS WELL?!
In a lot of ways, it is basically fueled by the same willful ignorance to the facts in order to preserve one's worldview that the Europeans have. Their subconscious minds know it is not true, but unfortunately, that doesn't help if they want the security of knowing they're right. Despite this, there is, unfortunately, more to the story in terms of the Anti-American American.
There is, and this is also true to the well-traveled and well-educated foreign person, a desire to be smarter than everyone else. Being in the academic environment sometimes traps people into this desire. Being in "higher education" makes certain types of people want to have that desire fulfilled. Often, this is due to the professors and their prattling about how people aren't as "free-thinking" as they are. This desire to be smarter and more free-thinking leads students to want to think differently than anyone else, and thus, they adapt ways of thinking that are unpopular to the average American and thus, they believe that in doing so, that makes them smarter than them. Paradoxically, they also desire social acceptance for their seeming superiority, and they find it in the Academic world. Sex and Gender roles can also play a role in this too, as some female students can use their supposed superiority to show how they and all women are somehow inherently smarter than those knuckle-dragging men. This is, of course, re-inforced by feminism on campus, with programs that even go so far as to say that women should identify themselves by a certain unique part of the *ahem* female anatomy and that men are the source of all the world's troubles because they are inherently stupid and violent. Also, males can then court females using this, by talking in what I like to call the "Academic Drone" whenever they want to "correct" people who say something against their worldview, which seems to impress girls looking for an intelligent guy, but can't tell the difference between someone who is intelligent and one who acts like it. I've found, through others, that the "Academic Drone" is more often used by those who simply try to act like it. But, anyways, certain "frustarations" mixed with political disagreements with certain individuals are now threatening to go off-topic, so I will stop on the subject of the gender aspects.
Also, there is the desired goal among Professors that college should "change" the students and their outlook on the world. They decry how, God forbid, up until then the parents provided the students with their worldview. I remember almost 2 years ago, one of my professors lamented that somehow, our college wasn't causing the students to "change" enough, and how he feels a horrible, sinking feeling when parents say proudly about their newly-graduated former children that "he hasn't changed a bit!". Now, there is a fallacy to this thinking, that somehow, for the hell of it, the student MUST change their views by the end of college. College is not meant to change a person's views, but to help give them the facts and expose them to other points of view, not have the students adopt them. If the student believes that the facts they have been exposed to in college are more consistent with the point of view that they had generally since before their college years and the other points of view and ideologies are in their opinions, inconsistent, then college has done it's job. Sadly, many Professors have trouble seeing it this way. Instead, too many wish that the college is a place to teach their "enlightened" worldview with the young students that they view as indoctrinated by narrow-minded, ill-educated parents. This is of course, hidden, but sometimes they have trouble hiding in this way of thinking and end up exposing it, although perhaps with more sugary rhetoric.
And what messages do these individuals espouse? Hatred and relentless criticism of the United States. In an effort to look different, all these individuals I have mentioned tend to want to find a contrarian view. To do this, they find a punching bag in the United States. They criticise the US even when there are well-known facts in the US's defense and shrug it off as media lies without much evidence to support their claims. Another unfortunate side-effect is the attraction to conspiracy theories. While it is okay to question the commonly thought wisdom on history, they blanketly disagree with any element which does not in effect tear the US's reputation and re-inforce their viewpoint. Such examples are the works of Howard Zinn, and the conspiracy theories of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the more recent conspiracy theories on the 9/11 attacks. Not agreeing with what is commonly believed gives these people a feeling of superiority over people they see as blindly believing what is thought to be the truth. The problem is that they are no different in that regard than the straw men they imagine are their opponents in these debates. They have blanketly chosen what is outside of the mainstream not on the merits of the arguments for their position, but because it's not the common interpretation.
And after college? Well, some people grow out of it, while others don't and continue on their regular lives. And sadly, most of our professors are the latter.
In a lot of ways, it is basically fueled by the same willful ignorance to the facts in order to preserve one's worldview that the Europeans have. Their subconscious minds know it is not true, but unfortunately, that doesn't help if they want the security of knowing they're right. Despite this, there is, unfortunately, more to the story in terms of the Anti-American American.
There is, and this is also true to the well-traveled and well-educated foreign person, a desire to be smarter than everyone else. Being in the academic environment sometimes traps people into this desire. Being in "higher education" makes certain types of people want to have that desire fulfilled. Often, this is due to the professors and their prattling about how people aren't as "free-thinking" as they are. This desire to be smarter and more free-thinking leads students to want to think differently than anyone else, and thus, they adapt ways of thinking that are unpopular to the average American and thus, they believe that in doing so, that makes them smarter than them. Paradoxically, they also desire social acceptance for their seeming superiority, and they find it in the Academic world. Sex and Gender roles can also play a role in this too, as some female students can use their supposed superiority to show how they and all women are somehow inherently smarter than those knuckle-dragging men. This is, of course, re-inforced by feminism on campus, with programs that even go so far as to say that women should identify themselves by a certain unique part of the *ahem* female anatomy and that men are the source of all the world's troubles because they are inherently stupid and violent. Also, males can then court females using this, by talking in what I like to call the "Academic Drone" whenever they want to "correct" people who say something against their worldview, which seems to impress girls looking for an intelligent guy, but can't tell the difference between someone who is intelligent and one who acts like it. I've found, through others, that the "Academic Drone" is more often used by those who simply try to act like it. But, anyways, certain "frustarations" mixed with political disagreements with certain individuals are now threatening to go off-topic, so I will stop on the subject of the gender aspects.
Also, there is the desired goal among Professors that college should "change" the students and their outlook on the world. They decry how, God forbid, up until then the parents provided the students with their worldview. I remember almost 2 years ago, one of my professors lamented that somehow, our college wasn't causing the students to "change" enough, and how he feels a horrible, sinking feeling when parents say proudly about their newly-graduated former children that "he hasn't changed a bit!". Now, there is a fallacy to this thinking, that somehow, for the hell of it, the student MUST change their views by the end of college. College is not meant to change a person's views, but to help give them the facts and expose them to other points of view, not have the students adopt them. If the student believes that the facts they have been exposed to in college are more consistent with the point of view that they had generally since before their college years and the other points of view and ideologies are in their opinions, inconsistent, then college has done it's job. Sadly, many Professors have trouble seeing it this way. Instead, too many wish that the college is a place to teach their "enlightened" worldview with the young students that they view as indoctrinated by narrow-minded, ill-educated parents. This is of course, hidden, but sometimes they have trouble hiding in this way of thinking and end up exposing it, although perhaps with more sugary rhetoric.
And what messages do these individuals espouse? Hatred and relentless criticism of the United States. In an effort to look different, all these individuals I have mentioned tend to want to find a contrarian view. To do this, they find a punching bag in the United States. They criticise the US even when there are well-known facts in the US's defense and shrug it off as media lies without much evidence to support their claims. Another unfortunate side-effect is the attraction to conspiracy theories. While it is okay to question the commonly thought wisdom on history, they blanketly disagree with any element which does not in effect tear the US's reputation and re-inforce their viewpoint. Such examples are the works of Howard Zinn, and the conspiracy theories of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the more recent conspiracy theories on the 9/11 attacks. Not agreeing with what is commonly believed gives these people a feeling of superiority over people they see as blindly believing what is thought to be the truth. The problem is that they are no different in that regard than the straw men they imagine are their opponents in these debates. They have blanketly chosen what is outside of the mainstream not on the merits of the arguments for their position, but because it's not the common interpretation.
And after college? Well, some people grow out of it, while others don't and continue on their regular lives. And sadly, most of our professors are the latter.
posted by Daniel, The Ignorant American at 9:59 AM
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