First off, I would very much appreciate responses from people who ACTUALLY know what they're talking about. I've heard over and over again from foreigners and U.S. citizens themselves about how, "bad" America is. I know that you might respond with, "Americans say bad things about other countries too!" Yes, I realize, but those people aren't worth any time, and they're not the subject. I'm talking about how people say things like, "American views on the world are biased because all they know is the BS that their government spoon-feeds them." Is it just me, or is that a little ironic? Do these people ACTUALLY believe that their OWN government never lies to them, and that their news sources are automatically more reliable than the U.S. news sources? I just find it weird how people make their opinions sound like fact, and that they pretend to know more about America than an actual citizen of America does. Don't they realize that they fell for anti-American propaganda just as Americans fall for anti-insert-country propaganda?

I honestly think they don't. While I'm not someone who ACTUALLY knows what I'm talking about, it seems like hypocrisy is something people don't notice when they do it. For instance, I constantly hear people say "people are stupid," but they seem to be saying that as though they are, for some reason, not included in that.

I think they believe they are smart enough that they would notice when their government lies to them (but history shows that is not true).

soxfan849 : That'll do it, I hear those types of things all the time. I'd hear those types of things all the time. Like the extremely un-educated racists who constantly say that, "X's are gay, or X's should die". You can obviously tell when people like that are really just complete idiots themselves.

My friends that were born and raised outside of the US tell me they don't have those prejudices about Americans. The main thing I think people are talking about is the media at the local level. I don't know much about the news at the local level in Europe, but in Canada the news doesn't dwell on the negative about society. They don't hype fear and violence like the local media does in the US. I also think that people from other countries see the popularity of Fox News as troubling since it is quite obvious how spun their "news" is. It's not that Fox shouldn't be able to lie as they so often do, it's that so many people use Fox ONLY for their news. When people use multiple sources for news they rely on their own intellect to determine the correct news, or at least have that chance. When one source is relied upon, that person is reliant upon another persons intellect, or lack thereof. Now I know CNN and MSNBC aren't perfect and spin the truth as well, and people that rely on those for their opinions will have rather shallow opinions. The polls just seem to indicate that more people rely on Fox and only Fox for their daily news than the other 2.

I am Canadian, and if I say anything negative about Americans it is almost ALWAYS as a joke. All of the Americans I have met are extremely different from one another and I find it difficult to lump them in together based on their country. I don't have any real prejudices about Americans because I have some very good American friends who totally break all of the stereotypes that may exist. If anyone seriously dislikes or thinks less of someone because they are American, they have some issues of their own.

Belegerbs : Well said.

Belegerbs : Of course, there also is Fox news, but anybody who knows anything will know they aren't 100% reliable. I'm ALMOST sure news stations 'round the globe fabricate stories as well.
Annette: Yeah, that's also a reason why I don't have any real prejudices. Anyone I see from another country looks different, and people who you think could be just regular old North Americans turn out to be German or Russian. You can't really tell who people are anymore because of the international integrations. I'm sure hate groups have a hard time identify people that they hate from their neighbors.

This also bothers me, both coming from foreigners and Americans themselves. In the case of Americans, I mean, I was born in the US, but ethnically I'm Mexican, as well as socially in a sense. My parents didn't come to the US to give us a better future, (They came because of political issues that'd take too much time to explain here) but in retrospect we are much safer and better off here than we would have been in Mexico anyways. That's why I'm generally upset when I see all these American people themselves claiming the country is populated by sheep and that we're becoming a totalitarian nation and all this crap, because to be honest we aren't that bad of a nation as a whole. Sure, we have our faults in the general population, but that's just because we have such a wide variety of people that we take the worst of every group and tape them together and define Americans by that standard. I mean, I'm usually the first to admit that we have issues with things like the messed up social systems that aren't serving their purpose properly, with education, corruption, but what nation doesn't have all that? We can't have it all, which is why I think it's stupid that people think we have to be at the top of everything and be this untainted, glorious nation like "in the good-old days."

When it comes to foreigners seeing Americans as XYZ, I think they're only looking at a small minority of abrasive people and forgetting that, oh yeah, there are well over 300 million of us, so we can't all be defined by one standard.

I could potentially go on much longer than this, but I have a history book to read.

Jay Girl : Interesting, perhaps I should re-describe this thread so that people tired of ANY type of bias can post it here and discuss. Yes, I've heard a plenty of people that judge the entirety of Mexico on three border hoppers or something, and label them all as no good criminals and such.

Sephitard9001 : Oh, I didn't mean that there was bias against Mexicans (Although there most certainly is, but I've been fortunate enough to not experience it as much) but I'm trying to say that having been raised in that culture and knowing about the social issues in Mexico (and other nations as well), that in comparison America isn't that bad of a place. I mean, a good amount of relatives of mine have died due to things like the drug trades bizzare things that have gone on in Mexico, so it gets me upset to think that there are all these people living here in the US who have no idea of what true suffering is, and saying that America is this "TERRIBLE PLACE full of OPRESSION and SUFFERING and IDIOTS BLARGH." In reality the US isn't that bad of a place, so I was just trying to point that our by saying that I've had experience in knowing what it's like in other countries.

I guess I wasn't being clear. ;

Jay Girl : Oh, ha! I apologize for that lol. Yeah I know what you mean, people don't know how easy they got it here when compared to other countries that are worse off.

Some people are just ignorant, and extremely closed minded. They believe anything the government tells them. No matter how crazy it maybe. Those people that believe that the government tell the truth all the time need to open their eyes.

Now America isn't the best place to live right now, because of all this war stuff, and Obama not doing anything he said he was going to do. I think that America is a nice place to live.

Not all Americans are bias against countries, just the closed minded ones who don't care about any one but their own country are.

pi0x : Those are pretty much the people we're focusing on here, anybody who thinks they know better than people who know what they're talking about. The close-minded ones are the people who act this way and they need to realize the irony of what they're saying, and remember that they don't actually have an original opinion. They just steal from others' and form a false assumption.

I hate racists like that. They think they know everything and make an unfair judgement on other people who know what they're talking about. People most likely are racist against America because most of us Americans and obese and that we talk "weird."

Yes, I hate it when people act like that. I hate every stereotype. People really need to start thinking about what they are saying before they say it. Although they'll prolly never go away, it's good to hope, at least.