Like the title says. I have spent 1 year in Europe and one thing I noticed was that most of them have a slight disdain for the States. I am not a citizen of the US myself to take this personally or anything, but I am just curious as to why this is so. Usually in other parts of the world, people aspire to work here, if only for the pay.
Western Europeans think of Americans as extravagant, wasteful, boastful, rude, a bit crazy, greedy, and perhaps most of all, unaware of the world outside the US. The last part at least is likely due to how little the US varies between the States, and how most Americans don’t travel much outside the US.
Jealousy. There, I said it.
This! America is the little brother that went on to do better than everyone else, inherit the family business, and now dictates to the rest of the family how things are going to be. By comparison, Western Europe looks like a failure despite being older and having much more life experience.
Nice analogy. One thing I would add is that the little brother is out there killing it AND he knows it. It’s kinda like the little brother in Step Brothers but more successful. Confidence (or some might say arrogance) is something pretty ingrained in the culture.
Because red necks and crazy Republicans make the US look bad
America is dominating world politics and an economy, and is always trying to take a lead on every human rights situation, despite of the fact that plenty of countries are way more advanced in human rights. That kind of stuff irritates people, usually. But hey, name one big country that is being loved by everyone.
It's called being snobby...
It’s the boastful, I don’t give a shit attitude, I only speak English, and generally being culturally unaware and only there for selfies.
Are you trying to brag about being ignorant? I don’t get it
It might be bit presumptuous that you think I’m talking about myself. I’m merely stating my observations to the posed question.
Now I get it.
This is BS. We do like US.
Also, there is a lot of historical context between Europe and America. America was the only country almost unharmed by WW2 and also benefited from it financially. And also a lot of talent move to the States during WW2. Sometimes I feel like there more impressionist paintings here than in Europe. Every small museum has Monet, Matisse or Cezanne.
Because standard of living there is much better. People seem happier and chilled out. Here we are still chasing higher TC in this rat race.
Doesn’t explain the hatred though. It’s illogical.
I would not call it hatred Uber, it’s usually them not understanding what the hype is as they feel US lacks culture (partly true if you have been to European cities) and as Okta mentioned, I do feel too that Europeans are more about work life balance and living relaxed as opposed to chasing TC and owning big cars and mansions. But I think inside they still have a certain respect for the States as the advancement which happens here is unparalleled. I just don’t get why some have ‘ha stupid americans’ attitude despite them consuming American products heavily