The Perils of America-Bashing

The principle of “comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable” often turns America-bashing into a popular pastime. Liberal-minded Americans join in to virtue-signal their “tolerance.” However, this activity has consequences as it acts as a defense mechanism that conceals inconvenient or painful truths.

America’s foreign policies, especially in Latin America and the Middle East, deserve criticism. I acknowledge this without denying the validity of the critiques. My concern is that America-bashing perpetuates the status quo in developing countries.

Average Americans are generally ignorant of foreign policies, and the stereotype of being bad at geography holds true. Many Americans view their country as the world, diminishing the need to listen to foreign critics. Bashing them is not only a waste of energy but also encourages inaction. Psychologically, complaining makes us feel better without solving problems, similar to how older people often complain due to limited physical options.

Casting an outsider as an enemy is an effective unifying strategy but ultimately deceptive. Eventually, distortions and lack of self-criticism fracture unity, leading to short-lived achievements. America is the most predictable choice as the evil villain to which people can feel morally superior. Authoritarian leaders worldwide use this narrative to maintain power, providing struggling people with hope without self-criticism. The Nazis used Jews as the shared enemy of the state, which worked temporarily but blinded people to their own issues. This quick fix inevitably fails, and if we truly care, we shouldn’t encourage it.

America’s intentions aren’t always evil. Consider how Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan prospered after American interference. These successes are seldom discussed to avoid sounding politically incorrect. These countries turned American interference into a positive force, proving that American intentions can be beneficial. Similarly, Hong Kong thrived as a British colony.

Notably, these countries didn’t vilify America to unite their people. Despite suffering two atomic bombs, the Japanese admired and learned from Americans post-war. In contrast, leaders of Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela act as equals. It’s tempting to claim all countries are equal, in the same spirit of saying everyone is beautiful in their way. However, we should evaluate countries collectively if we believe in democratic values. One way to do this is through immigration.

Despite Nicolás Maduro’s claims, Venezuelans are voting with their feet by flooding the US-Mexican border to escape their home country. This signifies their belief in America as a superior nation. This evaluation is not by American or global standards, the very people born and raised in Venezuela are voting for America as a superior nation. What more evidence do we need to back up this claim?

The same applies to Russia, China, and Iran. Despite their leaders’ bravado, more of their people move to the US than the other way around, signaling America’s superiority. America-bashing conveniently masks this reality.

Authoritarianism offers short-term stability but stunts long-term growth. When people are fooled into buying the evil American narrative, they become unwilling to learn from their perceived enemy, and the latter, too, become unwilling to teach. The fastest way to learn and grow is to acknowledge, accept, and respect superior people, as students do teachers. However, when people unite around their chosen father figure to defeat the perceived enemy, any sign of weakness undermines this unity. The evil villain narrative becomes a self-imposed trap.

More Americans move to Canada, the UK, and Australia than vice versa, with Mexico recently achieving a net influx of Americans. American leaders could learn from these immigrants to enhance life quality in the US. Ideally, the ratio of incoming and outgoing immigrants would be balanced everywhere, with overall numbers increasing. We won’t achieve this by ignoring these silent votes. America-bashing ultimately hurts the bashers.