The Ignorant Anti-Americanism of British Tolerism
Elizabeth Renzetti wrote a fine column in Saturday’s Globe
& Mail about British attitudes to Americans. She reports on British comedian Russell Brand’s
comments about George Bush, as Brand was hosting the Video Music Awards. Brand said he would like to see Barack Obama
win the upcoming election, as an antidote to “that retarded cowboy fella” who,
in
Now, political humour is a great tradition, but, apparently Brand was dissuaded from another “joke” about Sarah Palin sending her daughter to the electric chair for being “ a little slut”. Obviously, British political humour is expressing some nastiness toward the Americans, and this is reflective of a wider anti-Americanism.
It was just three years ago that British playwright, Harold
Pinter, upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, ranted: “The crimes of the
Now Pinter is entitled to his opinion, but the idea that “very
few people” have mouthed such harsh criticisms of the
It seems that British Tolerists, as they watch their own country struggle with the maintenance of liberties in an era of Islamification of British society, turn increasingly to a sympathy and tolerance for those who would intimidate British historical freedoms, and join increasingly with the enemies of freedom to jointly criticize American “crimes”.
Of course, there are two problems. Firstly, as we see with Pinter, he has
convinced himself that no one other than him is talking critically about
As to first problem, here is an article by Brian Micklethwait on the website samizdata.net, discussing a 2004 cover story on the Review Section of the October 31, 2004 edition of The Mail on Sunday. As you will see, Pinter, far from a lone voice, is just part of a disturbing chorus:
“For me the most depressing British anti-American exhibit of the last few
days was a rant by Peter Osborne in yesterday's Mail on Sunday. Having
ignored the Mail, Sunday or of any other sort, for years, I had no idea it was
capable of sinking to these depths and I only spotted it because I shared some
coffee with Michael Jennings in my local Café Nero yesterday.
This picture, of the front cover of the Review section, sums it up well:
This is absolutely not mere anti-Bushism, for Oborne is vitriolically nasty
about both Democrats and Republicans. Maybe this piece is available to read on
the internet, but I cannot myself find it. I am actually rather pleased about
that.
But, just in case you suspect that "RIP
Democracy" has been slammed on top of a piece which is not nearly as
stupid as that, here are Oborne's first two paragraphs:
During this year's presidential election, both candidates
have claimed
But there is growing reason to doubt whether
Yes. Apart from, you know, regular elections which neither candidate has any
intention of postponing in the future, which millions of Americans vote in, for
different candidates who argue with each other fiercely, including the
challenger with the incumbent, whose various arguments get written about in
very contrasting ways by a free press. Apart from those meaningful senses.
Idiot.
How seriously ought anyone to take this stuff? I cannot ever remember a time
when British anti-Americanism was so strident and so nasty, and so deeply,
deeply ignorant, stupid and bigoted. So maybe: very seriously indeed. On the
other hand, American movies now, as always, dominate our TV screens and DVD
shops, and American actors and actresses continue to chatter away happily on
our TV sets as if stuff like this was never written. And I am not talking only
about anti-American Americans talking on anti-American chat shows. Michael
Moore is not the only American who gets a welcome here. I can detect no
concerted move by British electro-scribblers away from Microsoft software.
Maybe the ludicrously hostile intensity with which many Brits are now reacting
to these US elections reflects not any attempt on our part to get separate, but
just yet another spasm of resentment at how ever more permanently
joined-at-the-hip British popular and political culture now is to American
popular and political culture. Maybe it is just pure imperial envy, coinciding
with the dismantling of the last of our armed forces, and our bitter acceptance
of ourselves as Never Again a Great Power. Maybe it is all just got up by the
press and has no real basis out there in British normal-land. You tell me.
What I do know for sure is that Peter
Oborne of all people ought to bloody well know better than to denounce the
As to the second problem – that of the extent of actual
knowledge of the British of what is going on in the
British anti-Americanism 'based on misconceptions'
British attitudes towards the United States are governed by ignorance of
the facts on key issues such as crime, health care and foreign policy,
according to a new survey.
By Alex Spillius in
Last Updated: 1:54PM BST 18 Aug 2008
A poll of nearly 2,000 Britons by YouGov/PHI found that 70 per cent of
respondents incorrectly said it was true that the
The poll was commissioned by America
In The World , an independent pressure group that launches on Monday and
aims to improve understanding and appreciation of the
Tim Montgomerie, its director, said factual inaccuracies and mistaken
assumptions have contributed to Britons and Europeans taking a hostile stance
towards their most powerful ally, which often acted against national interests.
"We wanted to find out how British people understood
The survey showed that a majority agreed with the false statement that since
the Second World War the
Asked if it was true that "from 1973 to 1990 the
"Ideas get around. Perhaps it's that old picture of Donald Rumsfeld
with Saddam," suggested Mr Montgomerie, whose website includes a petition
against anti-Americanism.
"
Almost a third of Britons believe that "Americans who have not paid
their hospitals fees or insurance premiums are not entitled to emergency
medical care"; by law such treatment must be provided.
More than half the respondents believed that polygamy is legal in some
Most Britons were unaware of positive aspects of the
Apart from US-bashing being a favourite topic around European dinner tables,
it has serious affects on national policy.
The controversial missile defence shield
in eastern Europe might have happened sooner with a more favourable climate,
while public opinion helped
As a member of the Second Generation, that is, a child of a
Holocaust Survivor, I have my own test for how sophisticated and intelligent
and moral any given nation or society is:
my test is the prevalence of anti-Semitism. So, to me, British hyper-criticism of the
I suggest that British taunting of the American “retarded cowboy” should cease until they can examine their own downward-spiraling society and universities whose staff are more clever at criticizing Americans and Israelis than protecting Jewish students. Such is the confusion of Tolerism. It is an ideology that makes one clever at telling everyone else what to do, but leaves one incapable of taking responsibility for one’s own affairs. It is an ideology that makes a Nobel prizewinner think he alone is pointing out American deficiencies. It conduces to paranoid fantasies about American power. And the fact that Tolerists, worldwide, are hoping for an Obama victory should give us all pause to think.