[sojournerc]

I'm not sure it's all that new. During the Bush Jr. years America was not highly thought of.

I'm an American traveling through Scandinavia and Northern continental Europe for the last three weeks, now in the UK.

I haven't experienced a bit of grief. Their opinion of our politics is generally separate from how they treat me personally, and I do the same for people of other nationalities.

American cultural dominance is everywhere. I can barely find a pub or restaurant not playing American music, for instance.

[honzabe]

> I'm not sure it's all that new. During the Bush Jr. years America was not highly thought of.

From my Eastern European perspective, this is something fundamentally different. Sure, many people were critical of Bush Jr., but still, you could, with a bit of effort, construct some semi-reasonable narrative even around Iraq and Afghanistan. But Trump? That feels like an entirely different league.

I grew up in Czechoslovakia, still occupied by Russians at the time. Seeing Trump clap at Putin's landing, seeing US soldiers on their knees rolling red carpet for Putin... this broke something in me. I honestly almost threw up. And that meeting with Zelenskyj in the White House, that will stay with me until I die.

I spent some time in the US when I was at college, and I will always cherish those memories - these were the best seven months of my life. Coincidentally, I was in the US during the Bush Jr. presidency. And despite my dislike for him, I was always defending the US. Somewhat irrationally, I was always trying to justify even the questionable things. But now, that's gone and buried. As far as I am concerned, the US I loved no longer exists. Now it is another Russia-like hostile country that we need to protect ourselves from.

And the personal experience you mention - sure, most people can separate citizens from their state. I can have a civil discussion with a Russian. I was always friendly to my Russian colleagues, immigrants who now live here. But that does not mean I am not hoping with all my heart that their state goes to hell.

[torginus]

Considering how many places are actively going to sh*t in the world right now, I'm not surprised that people have grown weary of keeping track of which are the 'bad' countries we're supposed to dislike, at the same time, thanks to globalized work and social media, people have realized that people are people everywhere, and governments are varying degrees of shitty in every country, with people even in the supposedly more democratic ones feeling powerless in affecting how they are governed.

I know a ton of Russian emigrees, and basically nobody gives them grief (until some of them start talking politics).

[stavros]

> I'm not sure it's all that new. During the Bush Jr. years America was not highly thought of.

Yes, but the decline is precipitous now. It's gone from "eh, we don't like Americans much, but they're a useful ally" to "wow these guys are fucking insane and we need to divest ASAP".

[avaika]

> Their opinion of our politics is generally separate from how they treat me personally, and I do the same for people of other nationalities.

That is such a sane thing to do. I was always astonished and sad how often strangers in foreign countries instantly link my origin to the actions of the people in power. As if this is completely under my control and with no doubt I support and approve whatever they do.

[ponector]

[flagged]

[mrbombastic]

The default should be to treat people with respect and give benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise, treating people as guilty because of where they were born is always a crappy thing to do.

[Freedom2]

Which is a very interesting statement considering how the US is treating immigrants these days.

[jzebedee]

Immigrants, residents, citizens, protestors, journalists...

[avaika]

Given that the EU after over 3.5 years of full scale invasion still buys Russian oil, should we also treat EU citizens as sponsors of the war?

[ponector]

Typical russian whataboutism.

EU countries with government infiltrated by russian agents are buying russian oil.

[snapcaster]

Judging from this logic you would have supported the US locking up the japanese people in internment camps right? If not, why not?

[csomar]

> That is such a sane thing to do. I was always astonished and sad how often strangers in foreign countries instantly link my origin to the actions of the people in power. As if this is completely under my control and with no doubt I support and approve whatever they do.

I've never witnessed this happen. People (in person) are usually not aggressive and would not tell what's on their mind. Maybe if a Ukrainian and a Russian are to meet in a bar, things can get heated.

Mind to share the countries where you saw this happen?

[avaika]

Fortunately nobody was aggressive to me. It was vice versa to a point which made me deeply uncomfortable. Once people learned that I am originally from Russia (even though I am not Russian and I don't live there for many years), people in e.g. Algeria or Tunis or some SE Asia countries were shouting Russian politician names with approval. Some of them tried to lecture me on politics there, assuming I fully approve government actions. Eventually I simply stopped mentioning my origin whenever it was possible, cause I really have no desire to go into same discussion over and over again. And people won't listen anyway.

[tracker1]

Like assuming the U.S. has control over what Israel or Russia does.

[Tiktaalik]

There's no comparison to the W Bush years. He was a buffoon that was mocked, but few if any seriously did things like boycott travel to the USA. Now boycotting travel to the USA is commonplace and travel to the USA has plunged.

People are nice and will continue to be nice to nice American tourists but make no mistake, there has been a severe shift both in the actions of regular people and business.

[trollbridge]

If anything, it would be nice if a few places were left that didn't have American cultural artifacts everywhere. My experience in the Middle East was often wondering if I were actually in either an American colony or else some place that had dedicated itself to being a kind of museum of American culture, movies, models, advertising, and so forth.

[sojournerc]

100%. I'm excited to find somewhere not playing disco and skater boy, and instead supporting their local music.

Hell, here in the UK I'm happy to hear Sheeran even though he's not really my style typically.

I don't mention that because I like American cultural dominance, merely because it is so ubiquitous.

I was in the middle of South Africa in the oughts and there were bootleg Britney Spears albums... Kind of shocking and I honestly don't exactly understand the appeal of American pop, but it's widespread...

[saulpw]

Avril Lavigne (singer of "Sk8er boi") is Canadian.

[sojournerc]

Fair enough. It popped to mind because I just heard it.

After looking it up, I found it was produced and recorded in California, by an American label.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk8er_Boi

[cobbaut]

My experience here in Antwerp is that a lot of places also play French, Italian, German, Swedish (Abba), Greek, Mexican, Brazilian, and many others, and of course Flemish music mixed with British and American. Never only (or mainly) American for as long as I live (I'm 55).