A topic that came up at my dinner table last night: Anti-Americanism. To me, it seems like that kind of thinking is more pervaive than ever. I’m not talking about Anti-Bush rhetoric here. I’m talking about the ‘America had it coming’ and the ‘9/11 was no big deal’ kind of talk. The Ward Churchill ‘Little Eichmanns’ kind of thing.
To be honest, this website has given me a more clear understanding about just how common this kind of thinking is right now. I have been taken aback by the amount of posts I’ve seen that take a hard and firm stance against the United States, some coming right out and saying that 9/11 was ‘funny’ and justified. And for every person saying saying something like this out loud on the radio or on the internet there are ten more people there to call him/her a patriot or a ‘hero’ for saying it.
And people like me, people who use words like “Anti-American” are called zelots or ‘jingoistic’. We sit by and listen to people say that they are glad thousands died on 9/11 or that they are indifferent to the suffering caused that day. And when we question it or take exception to it, we are told that we have no right to question the patriotism of the people saying these things. We are told how much courage it takes to say these things. The fact it that this kind of talk is so ubiquitous and excepted right now, that it take no more courage to say this kind of stuff as it takes to get out of your bed in the morning.
I’m not old enough to remember Vietnam. Was it the same then? Worse? I don’t know. Someone tell me.
The reason I bring all this up is because it occured to me yesterday what the nation was like in the days after 9/11. Not like it is now. The nation was angry. Everyone was. No one who was not was even taken seriously. I was trying to remember when it started to change. When the anger was replaced by the desire to just pretend like nothing happened, like we did after the first WTC attack. A few months? A year? I know that many in our nation thought going into Afghanistan was a mistake. I think when the war started and people saw that it was real, they lost their taste for it.
Some people must be predisposed to dislike America. And I’m talking about Americans here. If America acts to protects itself, it citizens: America is evil. If America is the victim of an attack: We had it coming. If America runs into trouble while waging war" Good! If the world hates America: Yeah! I do too! I just DO NOT understand it and I can’t remember seeing it before. Can anyone else?
One thing that will stir the pot, but I did say it to my wife last night. Pissed her off, but I’ll stand by it. I said, "One thing that all of these people who are out there saying that ‘we had it coming’, ‘america is evil’, etc. have in common is that they are all liberals.’
My wife reacted with indignant shock (even though she is not a liberal). I reminded her that I did not mean to say that all liberals feel this way, probably a small percentage do. But all of the people - at least as far as I have observed - who say this kind of thing, all ‘happen’ to be liberal.
Anyone know of any conservatives who subscribe to this kind of thinking?