[lbo-talk] Why are the US-ers such assholes?

[Dwayne Monroe]

Wojtek:

Is it in the water or in the gene pool, or what?  Any
explanations?

=============




Yes, I've noticed the same thing.  But how widespread
is it really?  I'm not sure.


...



During the run-up to, and in the first weeks following
the invasion of Iraq, I spent a good amount of time
reading the now defunct iraqwar.ru (sponsored, we were
told, by Venik Aviation and featuring reports on the
order of battle from Russian GRU...or so the story
went).

The site attracted readers from around the world. 
Almost without fail, posters from the US offered pious
declarations, keyboard relayed shouts, insults and
threats of falling bombs in response to the usually
more calmly reasoned contributions of people from
other parts of the globe.

The venom coming from Americans was so over the top
and strange it quickly became a topic of debate unto
itself.  I remember one Russian commentator
predicting, based on the attitudes displayed in the
iraqwar.ru forums, that the Americans' war plan was
doomed to fail because, despite all the massively
destructive weapons and high technology at the US'
disposal, its tendency towards wild, easily aroused,
unreasoning hatred (as shown by the near constant
yelling from Americans at the site) suggested the
emotional "discipline" required for a smoothly
executed imperial project was beyond this current
generation's capacities.


Well, that's certainly true for some Americans but how
many?  I don't know.  

Perhaps only the loudest, craziest and least
emotionally mature feel a compelling need to patrol
the planet's blogs and chat forums in search of people
besmirching the good name of their beloved nation
state.  Perhaps many more people couldn't care less
and instead of visiting iraqwar.ru et. al. to, once
again, call that guy in Finland a "wingnut", spend
time with friends and family, watch tv, play computer
games, worry about their marriages and children and
how they're going to make the mortgage/rent...




.d.