Closeup rear view of a couple holding American flag against summer sunset. They are visible as silhouettes.
It's as true today as it was when I wrote this back in 2016 - American friends, they tell you that the rest of the world hates you because they envy your freedoms.
You can keep your freedoms that include your Patriot Act, your NSA, TSA and all your other alphabet soup agencies that are forever checking up on you and your everyday activities.
They tell you we hate you because we envy your way of life. I can assure you, we don’t need your system of food stamps, minimum wages, debt laden graduates, lack of health care for the uninsured, your need to own weapons for your protection and all the other “goodies” you seem to take in your stride but to us they sound so alien.
We don’t need them and we certainly do not want them. We would much rather have our free education, free health care for all, to feel secure in the thought that when our children are playing in the street after dark they will be safe; we don’t want the drive by shootings, the armed officers that give the impression of a police state, the government spying on our private communications....
After all your country has done to the world, the rest of us would be forgiven if we hated you, but that is far from the truth.
We do not hate you as a people; we hate what your successive governments, Republican or Democrat, represent.
We hate the terror and destruction they spread around the world.
They tell you they are spreading “democracy” which you believe and cheer, they tell you you are the “leaders of the free world” and you feel so proud, they tell you you are “exceptional” and you buy into it. If there is something we hate about Americans, it is that so many of you are so naïve.