Why Do Americans Think Europeans Dislike them?

Are they Asking for it?

Recently the algorithms have been flooding me with content critical of the USA.

Titles like “Why Europeans dislike Americans”or “why I will never go back” seem to get a lot of attention. These articles are from Americans sharing their point of view and they all seem pretty unanimous in their dislike of the US.

I wish this wasn’t the case but it turns out the the way Europeans (and actually everyone) view America has a lot to do with political leaning.

Where you place yourself on the political spectrum largely determines whether you see the US positively or negatively, at least that is the result of pew research over the last few decades.

I’ll tell you in a minute as we dig a little deeper but can you guess whether it’s a right or left political leaning which preempts negative attitudes towards the US?

Exposure to these subjective take on the US got me to thinking. What if anything has changed?

“A growing sense of unease presently pervades the American consciousness.― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

Americans who used to be so self assured and utterly convinced that they lived in the best country in the world have become more introspective and started questioning the basis of this assumed truth.

As so much of the world’s media entertainment and news revolves around and is influenced by the US it’s easy to misread this as the “the world hates the US.”

This trend has been long in the making and yet I remember when I travelled through Australia 20 years ago I could always pinpoint the Americans  - yes because they were very loud  - but also because they just had this air of confidence. There was no awkwardness or hesitation. And to be honest it was something that I was a little envious of with my own British social awkwardness.

Especially when meeting people for the first time Americans just had this ability to kind of disarm, and seemingly make friends in an instant with a bunch of strangers.

It is no coincidence that the largest social media platforms come from the US.

It’s funny that YouTube’s slogan used to be “broadcast yourself”. That idea is in my opinion very American. Can you imagine the slogan of broadcast yourself in the UK or Germany or France? It just wouldn’t have worked back in the early 2000’s when this was all developing. It would have seemed too self absorbed or narcissistic. Many European cultures are more insular and introverted than the US, there isn’t this burning need to go out and connect with others.

The current Zeitgeist among young Americans is that of coming to terms with their country’s past and what it stands for. This started in the 60’s and 70’s but it definitely seems to be gaining traction online and in other forms of media today.

Take shows like Emily in Paris or The White Lotus for example. These are American productions and especially with Emily in Paris it is really telling to see French attitudes towards the US from the american perspective.

The show received a lot of criticism for being overly stereotypical, which it is, but stereotypes exist for a reason. There is always some if not a lot of truth in there. That’s why stereotypes persist.

Through the characters of Emily and Madeline it portrays Americans as disinterested in other cultures and intent on forcing their world view onto others even at the detriment of their own self interest.

It seems that there exists a degree of internal self loathing or at least self dislike and this is being projected onto other cultures.

Contrary to the content that the algorithms have been flooding me with Pew research studies provide a more nuanced picture of how western Europe and the world at large sees the US.

A study done with Young people ages 18 to 29 in British, French and German focus groups found that although they had strong criticisms the overall attitudes are positive. The biggest concern they have is that the U.S  is seen as the “world’s policeman” with a self-interested history of interventionism that is disappointing to Western allies.

The study did find that America’s image in Europe has actually improved in recent years, following the election of President Joe Biden.

Most believe the U.S. does not take allies’ interests into account when making foreign policy decisions. And participants were especially critical of U.S. military interventions, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Many suggest the U.S. has been hypocritical in the past, arguing for human rights and democracy abroad without fixing its problems at home.

Regardless of these criticisms, young Europeans want to engage and cooperate with the U.S. In many ways, the criticisms they levy against the U.S. are similar to ones that people – especially those on the left – have of their own governments as well.

The main takeaway that I got from this research is that although surveys find that majorities in France, Germany and the UK have favorable views of the U.S., America’s role on the world stage is described in mostly negative terms by the focus group participants.

So this is unfortunately all about politics. American politics and the way the country conducts itself on the world stage is what Europeans and for that matter the rest of the world don’t like, it’s not necessarily American culture or Americans themselves.

An important point to note is that Pew research surveys have consistently found that people who place themselves on the right of the ideological spectrum tend to view the U.S. more favorably than those on the left.