Opinion | The Ugly American is a twin brother to the Ignorant American
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
There is an epidemic of ignorance cross-contaminating the disease of idiocy in America.
I can easily relate to Charles Pierce's book title: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free."
A good friend of mine recently shared a laughable anecdote with me. He said that a New Jersey white woman once asked him quite innocently: "Is there electricity in Hong Kong?" He was left dumbstruck by her sheer know-nothingness.
Geographically, America has only two neighbors, Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. This location is perfect breeding ground for splendid isolation. America's power allows its people to see themselves as special, exceptional and entitled to blissful ignorance.
Europe, by contrast, is a jumbo of over 30 countries jostling against each other in close proximity. They know their neighbors inside out. But to the US, Asia, an ocean away, might as well be on another planet.
Frighteningly inward-looking, America is indifferent to the world, unless its interests are at stake. Take NBC, one of its major broadcasters. Its nightly newscasts consist of an orgy of American news, with only a sideward glance at international events. If a storm is brewing, which is often, there are two or three teams covering its path, cheered on by the weatherman and the anchor. NBC should be renamed the "weather station". If you want coverage of international news, go elsewhere.
Trump, a nasty man-child who doesn't read books, proudly leads a cult of ignorance. Trump's Make America Great Again is xenophobic ignorance itself. It is anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant, anti-knowledge and anti-science. America may be into skin-deep self-love but it is bone-deep into foreign hate. Unfortunately this global leader has only a local focus.
Tribal America is unapologetic about its ignorance of global affairs. Both Trump and Biden often confuse the names of other countries or their leaders.
Distance breeds indifference, and indifference breeds ignorance and contempt. Worse, contemptuous ignorance breeds irrationality. An overwhelming majority of Americans know next to nothing about China or its spectacular achievements. Fed on the media's undiluted anti-China propaganda, most wear their hate-China label with patriotic pride. Allergic to facts, they use China as a punching bag. America's ignorance and extremism are now an existential threat to global stability. Uncle Sam is the world's infant terrible.
America was pivotal in ending the Second War World. But it may be instrumental in pushing the world over the brink into a history-ending global conflict. America likes the smell of blood, and is unashamed of its double standards. With the slaughter of over 30,000 innocent civilians, most of them women and children, the Gaza war is a bona fide genocide. America, founded on the massacre of the indigenous population, has been an enabler to another. Xinjiang "genocide" exists only in the evil American mind—fact-free, against China's genetic character, and a light year away from reality.
Of the three major powers, only China is conflict-free, and without an imperial agenda. But it is under constant American provocations. It takes minds of steel to keep calm and conflict at bay.
America's blood lust has lasted 75 years. Isn't it about time to give your soldiers a break?
Between America and Russia, peace is a dirty word. Truth is a casualty and might is right.
Don't let American ignorance and appetite for war push China into another US death trap over Taiwan. This time, if the world stands idly by, America's arms dealers will hit their largest jackpot and laugh all the way to the bank. And we will all pay.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | A bitter lesson in Canadian democracy
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