This is seemingly inescapable and it really destroys the enjoyment I used to get out of watching, well - any type of history.
For instance. I was reading about how when the US troops in WW2 came over to the UK and were stationed there. "The Americans were terribly rude and critical. Even the Germans could not believe how poorly the black soldiers were treated. The UK actually rioted to stop the oversea's segregation." To expand, it is also said that due to the amount of GI babies - that most American soldiers were thieves and rapists.
I'll be reading a comment on a youtube video that features Australia in the 1970's. One comment asks "What changed? We used to be so well spoken and eloquent", and the most upvoted comment that responded was "We started looking toward American and their culture".
I swear it has metastasized into seemingly every possible region of conversation. Cars? American vehicles are shit. The good ones? Oh, the engine was a BRITISH engineer and it's built in Insert country that is not the USA.
War talk. "Wow, the amount of soldiers that died on Normandy" - "Yes, but what about those poor Germans who were under trained and did not want to fight? What about the poor Czechoslovakian (I remember hearing some czech soldiers were prisoners and fought with the germans, my apologies if this is wrong) soldiers that were forced to fight on that fateful day?". The Falkland Islands war. The US gave the UK weapons, intel, offerend to loan them an entire carrier. But the response? "Ha, these are from Russian tabloids. None of that was true". It's as though other countries champion and applaud themselves in warfare, even if they are objectively wrong, but if the USA does it - we are the enemy. No matter what. We are ALWAYS on the morally inferior side. It's almost as though American lives have less value. Now hear me out. I think a human life is a human life, but the way it is put forward. The poor German was misunderstood, the Vietnamese soldier was forced to fight against his will, ect, ect. Meaning that the American should not be viewed as the victim, that would too mainstream and common. It was REALLY the ____ who was the victim. Despite both being a tragedy, they make it a competition as to who should really be mourned.
I mean FUCK! Look at movies. Any film that portrays the Americans winning, despite THEM ACTUALLY WINNING THE BATTLE IN REAL LIFE AND IT BEING HISTORICALLY ACCURATE - "Hahah, Hollywood! Germans would never act like this. The British were not this incompetent. Americans bombed everything they could and lost more men than shown here!".... Despite them defeating the enemy. The movie "The Patriot", yes an overly dramatized film yet I see the scene of Americans being slaughtered, most of the people saying "The only accurate part of the film". Uh, hello? We're an independent country. Of course with massive help from the French who help trained our troops - but point being. How accurate can the slaughter be if in the end, we're our own NATION?
The best films, according to those online - are always from the little guy (To be fair, The King's Choice was incredible) or from German, British, Vietnamese, French, ect perspectives. The only dogshit films that have no historical accuracy seem to be "The ones where Americans are the good guys".
It is quite literally to the point where there is not one single topic of conversation that, in all logical sense - should be positive to America, that ends up devolving into a mental gymnastic filled rant about how the USA was actually the bad guy. And - if they were the good guy, they came in late, but if they arrived early were aggressors. Anything popular in our culture was stolen, and anything foul in a foreign culture was learned from the bastard Americans.
It's as though this sentiment is everywhere now. Why is this? I know I seem fed up and over reactive, it's simply that this is everywhere. It's not even calculated anymore. Take a statement or opinion that makes America look moderately good and flip it to "Well they had it worse" or "This is not historically accurate". This, again - infuriates me to no end. Why? Because looking back at our history, what's the point? We're always the evil piece of shit that managed to fuck it all up. Criticized for not getting into a war on time and letting our allies suffer, but when we join and the war ends shortly after - we only joined for our own benefit.
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