Anti-Americanism: the dislike that 'decent' people are happy to admit to

The evils in the world, far from being all things American date back to literally Biblical times.

The neglect of the poor and the widow is routinely mentioned in the Bible. Many countries continue to neglect the poor and the widow today. Incidentally, when it comes to donating to charity to help people, Americans actually tend to rank at the top of the world giving index.  This means they are more generous than many of their critics.

One of the other five aspects of anti-Americanism according to Joffe includes opposing anything American. There are plenty of things that are actually damaging to this world like selfishness, greed, indifference, anger, hate, materialism, blind ambition and none of these were made in America. They can be found outside of America as well. 

We can reflect on America's role in the world but perhaps we should reflect more often on our role in the world as well. How most countries underfund foreign aid, explore our human right records, our arms dealing, the relatively low number of refugees we take in, the inadequate support we give to the least of us, and the scourge of domestic violence in many places.

A reflection on the good and bad we all do in the world is needed.  We should all do more good. It is not about being Anti-American, diminishing the light of others but ensuring our own light shines. And not putting our light under a bushel as the Bible tells us.

Anti-Americanism also does not achieve anything.

It has not made the world better or safer. In fact, the violent attacks on America and American government responses have made America, the Middle-East and the whole world less safe.

It has not slayed the really great evils in the world like want.

It has not stopped America becoming a superpower.

The Anti-Americanism of the 1700's did not stop America eventually becoming economically successful. In fact, some of their cities have a GDP greater than entire countries like Australia.

Abbé Raynal wrote in 1770, "America has not yet produced a good poet, an able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science”.  America became home to some of the top universities in the world. 

Anti-Americanism overshadows the good done by Americans. The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is one such good. It was the biggest single contribution against a single disease HIV/AIDS by any government in history, saving millions of lives in Africa.