Teens Who Hate America
It's hard to get angry at privileged U.S. teenagers who say that they hate their country. Given the messages they are exposed to, what else are they supposed to think?
My oldest daughter, a sophomore in high school, recently complained to her father and I about some of her schoolmates’ declarations that they “hate America.”
When I asked if she could elaborate why they would say such a thing, she said she really couldn’t remember because she was so disgusted that she did everything she could to block out the conversation. She also confirmed that she didn’t say anything to them at the time.
Being a high school student, that iffy age where often the goal of most kids is to stay off of the radar for fear of being singled out and ridiculed, I don’t really blame my daughter for keeping her own counsel, even if she was upset that kids she knows — but is not necessarily friends with — would go so far as to announce that they hate America. I wish she had spoken up, but again, I can understand her decision to stay silent.
My daughter was astute enough to realize that there’s a good chance that these kids were simply building upon what they heard at home — just as she does. But we reminded her that while she is exposed to conservative and decidedly patriotic values at home, she is also being exposed to left-wing views at school and elsewhere — so at least she’s getting both sides of the story, which hopefully enable her to make up her own mind.
Kids like those she describes are probably getting a double helping of the left, both at home and in the world at large, and so their worldview is decidedly skewed. Add to that a healthy dose of the hormone-fueled superiority complex of many teens and voilà! You have created a recipe for snobbish disdain that would do a Frenchman proud.
How do I know the majority of the citizens in my town veer left? During the 2004 election, residents of my town donated twice the amount of money to John Kerry than they did to George W. Bush, and the local Democratic Party receives more than twice as much in donations as the Republican Party. During the 2004 election, one was far more likely to see Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers and yard signs than those emblazoned with the Bush/Cheney logo. I think it is likely that the only such sign in town was in my yard.
What truly irks me about the attitudes of these teens is that most of them probably don’t have many major worries. We live in a well-to-do town in blue-state New England, where the median income is over $90,000 and the median price for a home is well over $400,000. The cars in the student parking lot at the high school consist of mainly BMWs, Volvos, SUVs, and other pricey models, with just a few old clunkers scattered about.
As for war, the draft has been out of commission since well before the nation’s current crop of high school students were even born, so it’s not likely they’ll have to worry about making any personal sacrifices for their country anytime soon.
Given their living conditions, what the heck do they have to complain about besides the usual teen angst that we’ve all experienced and managed to survive?
My daughter may not want to know why these kids might hate their own country, but I can make a pretty good guess. Think about it: what would you believe if you were raised on a steady diet about the failings of the dullard in the White House (who was nevertheless crafty enough to “steal” the 2000 election); about our “reduced standing” in the world since he took office; how capitalism is causing the earth to go up in a jolly blaze of global warming; how we are a nation of evil “haves” and powerless “have nots”; how our foreign policy is to blame for 9/11 and the Middle East considering America to be the “Great Satan”; and how the majority of Americans are a bunch of bigots and racists? Add to that the constant barrage of anti-war and anti-America rhetoric from groups like Code Pink and World Can’t Wait, and the complicity in these sentiments by the mainstream media and the entertainment industry — what would you think? After all, if the likes of Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, Susan Sarandon, and the brain trust on The View say it’s so, why would a teenager argue?
Lest we forget, the trend in public schools is to highlight self-esteem and de-emphasize critical thinking skills, so it’s not surprising that teens would jump to the conclusion that America sucks.
(Disclaimer: While it’s sad that I feel compelled to point this out, let’s get it out of the way: for the record, I realize our country is not perfect and that we have had any number of problems over the course of 200-plus years in existence. But we also have a history of dealing with those problems, and we will continue to do so.)
An encouraging sign is that teens — like adults — are not immune to changing their minds about preconceived notions if they are given both sides of the story. A prime example: last year, the same daughter told us about having to watch Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in three different classes. I happened to have a copy of Britain’s Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, and I asked her to see if her science teacher would consider showing it to the class. To my great surprise he did. In fact, he showed it to all of his classes, and also loaned it out to other science teachers at the school. I never did get it back, but I don’t have the heart to complain about it since, according to my daughter, about half of the students in her science class changed their minds about the dangers of man-made global warming.
One may conclude that it’s quite likely that the America-hating students at my daughter’s high school simply aren’t getting both sides of the story. I had a few suggestions for snappy comebacks for my daughter the next time she hears classmates complaining about how awful America is:
- If we were living in a country like China, North Korea, or Cuba, would we get away with publicly stating that we hate our country and our government?
- Despite our current economic woes, are we in the same situation of starvation and general despair as citizens in nations like Zimbabwe and North Korea?
- Those of you who plan to take part in the Day of Silence later this month, just think about the attitudes toward gays in countries like Iran — where, according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they simply do not exist — yet there are reports of young men being hanged simply for the crime of being gay.
- Despite calls by extremists for the need to put an end to the Bush “regime,” do you realize that no matter what, his presidency will end on January 20, 2009? And no matter who succeeds him, his/her presidency will last a maximum of eight years? Saddam Hussein headed a regime. Kim Jong-Il heads a regime. Raul Castro heads a regime. We have presidential terms, no matter which party is in power.
- If America is so horrible, why do so many people try to move here — both legally and illegally?
I have my doubts as to whether she’ll actually follow through. Understandably, it is hard to overcome that whole “not wanting to stand out like a sore thumb” teenage thing.
But you never know — stranger things have happened.
Pam Meister is the editor of FamilySecurityMatters.org (the opinions she expresses here are her own), and her work has also been featured on American Thinker.
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61 Comments
1. Florence:In your own words: a dullard in the White House (who was nevertheless “crafty” enough to steal the 2000 election)… a nation divided by“haves” and powerless “have nots;” … the majority of Americans are a bunch of bigots and racists.
A neighbourhood categorised by median income, house prices, BMWs, Volvos and SUVs.
And you wonder why your teenager is bored sick by America?
Apr 7, 2008 - 3:01 am 2. Chivalrous1_US:Typical. I’ve heard it before as well. From adults and “children” attending college. The same naive words spoken from a truly insulated petri dish environment. They all grow to serve someone or some thing. The only question is who shall it be?
Apr 7, 2008 - 3:17 am 3. Billiam:Having been places around this world, both in and out of my country’s uniform. I can say unequivocally that there is NO place on earth I’d rather live, and die than my country, and no greater nation to serve.
None.
Florence. Re-READ the column. What she wrote was what the kids are hearing either from their parents, or their schools. It wasn’t what she is telling her kids. In fact, hers sound pretty well grounded from her description.
Apr 7, 2008 - 3:45 am 4. gcblues:I AM A RETIRED ADULT
i am way right wing libertarian type, so no lib.
the usa has become a central planning nightmare. so many rules and regs and taxes it is no longer a land of individual liberty. yeah, cuba is worse, china is worse, etc. i left the usa, i have a home in rivas. nicaragua. a communist country. with lower taxes. less business regulation. less regulation on your person, especially on yer children. as the saying goes, just because one has the odor of a pig, does not mean the other wears perfume. the usa has built a nightmare in a country which was once free. today you have to compare it to communists and socialists to make it look good.
hayek was right, the usa is on the road to serfdom.
not just teens are no longer enthralled with the usa. intelligent freedom loving people are too.
Apr 7, 2008 - 4:33 am 5. vb:gcblues–I think it is a stretch to believe that teen attitudes are formed by things like the amount of business regulation. I suspect that it has more to do with the complexity of today’s world and their inability to get a handle on it. There is not a clear path for them to follow and no guarantee that the future will remain as rosy. What they really need is help in distinguishing their basic needs–food, shelter, relationships, community–from all the icing they have become used to.
Apr 7, 2008 - 5:40 am 6. Kirk:Kids parrot what they hear without analyzing it’s construction. That’s why they’re different. When I’ve heard kids spouting what they hear on TV or in their public school, I usually stomp on it hard verbally. They are not true believers like the leftists in the reducation camps, they just repeat it. They wilt under interrogation, and sometimes are interested in discussing the truth. Most as likely not though. If they are required to memorize it and repeat it back to their instructor, you can’t blame them for spouting off with it in public : they’re being told that it is an ‘education’.
Apr 7, 2008 - 6:00 am 7. Curly Smith:“…what else are they supposed to think?”
The problem is that they don’t think because hatred is an emotion and it only flourishes in the absence of thought. Teenagers are especially susceptible as they don’t have any historical perspective or real-world experience to temper their rather intemperate behavior.
Teenagers are also quite susceptible to the “fairness” issue, the issue of the “haves” and the “have nots”, because they’ve largely been given everything that they have. However, there is a fairly simple solution — you simply confiscate the “haves” cellphones, iPods, jewelry, etc from a small group and redistribute them to “have nots” in the same group (or box them up for shipment to Goodwill). It drives home the message that what government gives to one citizen it must first take from another. It’s also helpful to criticize the “haves” for not having more that you can take away, for not contributing “their fair share”. Lousy slackers…
Apr 7, 2008 - 6:04 am 8. Bonnie_:Pam, think about what you are telling your daughter to do. Not only is she being asked to support conservative values in front of her liberal-basted peers, but undoubtedly if a teacher hears her they will jump right in to attack her beliefs.
After a while, I realized that it was not fair for me to ask my son to attend a place where there is no democracy — a school is a fascist state run by teachers and administrators, which is the only way it can work — and go against the beliefs of the people in ultimate authority over him.
Recall, if you will, the student in Colorado who recorded his geography teacher ranting about George W. Bush. The geography teacher was rewarded with a visit to Good Morning America. The student had to leave the school because the other students and teachers were harassing him.
Your daughter had the right idea when she was quiet in the face of thoughtless leftism. In the outside world, argue as she wishes, but in the public schools? Not a good idea.
Apr 7, 2008 - 6:46 am 9. House of Eratosthenes:[...] Meister’s column receives a well-deserved spot on the Pajamas Media front page. What truly irks me about the attitudes of these teens is that most [...]
Apr 7, 2008 - 7:00 am 10. Aglifter:As a borderline libertarian/conservative… Most of the people in my HS hated DC, as Clinton was in the White House — sadly, while Bush hasn’t been nearly as bad as Clinton, he still betrayed every conservative that donated money or voted for him — and having people like Pelosi and Reid to deal w. doesn’t help. Much of it is propaganda — FDR was a nightmare for the country, but was beloved because of the massive propaganda machine built around him.
The Constitution has become little more than toilet paper to both parties, and SCOTUS — frankly, I don’t see that changing in the next election. Our population is fine, and our underpinings are fine, but we have failed miserably in the maintenance of our liberties.
Apr 7, 2008 - 7:26 am 11. Fidel, MD:The draft issue always puzzles (and amuses) me. I’m older than most of my residents PARENTS and I was too young to be subject to the draft (by a couple of years).
And for high school students that think life is fair, ask the ones that get good grades if they should get average grades so that the grades can average out for the ones that get poor grades. They’ll learn about competition and the value of hard work pretty darned quickly.
Apr 7, 2008 - 7:38 am 12. Bugs:I think the ‘hormone-fueled superiority’ has a lot to do with it. Let’s face it: school can be a ridiculous place filled with ridiculous people doing ridiculous things. It’s not a pleasant experience. One way to distance yourself from it is to affect the intellectual, critical-thinking radical persona. It also gives you something big, important, and out of your control to blame for your misery. You convince yourself you’re a critical thinker when what you really are is a contrarian. And you don’t really notice that all the members of your clique tend to have exactly the same ideas as you do and question them with exactly the same lack of precision and energy. Taking a stand is what’s important. Everybody should take a stand. As long as it’s not the same stand the stupid people take.
Apr 7, 2008 - 7:45 am 13. dvd:have ? about these kids, just listen to this and your conclusions are now ready for counter programming, let the haters hear this, because they have potential for understanding how they have been used….
Apr 7, 2008 - 7:51 am 14. Jon A:Bezmenov on identifying Useful Idiot Potential
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB6MbL-9Sz0
This has been going on since the 1960s. That was when a new attitude came into vogue on college campuses: namely, that to love America is ignorant, boorish, and borderline-fascistic, and to hate it is smart, sophisticated, and the height of virtue. In short, that loving America–especially, white, upper middle class suburban America–is square, and hating it is cool.
Given adolescents’ natural craving for peer approval, most of them will instinctively gravitate toward that which is associated with “coolness” and sophistication. Linking hatred of America (and of one’s own family, background, and heritage) with coolness and sophistication was arguably the greatest stroke of genius ever pulled off by the cultural marxists.
Apr 7, 2008 - 8:43 am 15. Bernardo:Given that the teachers’ unions vociferously preach “hate America,” and that they have loaded almost every school board in the nation with their minion, what else would be expected from government schools? Combined with their deliberate dumbing-down of the students (which has worked so successfully for the last few decades), our kids are sitting ducks for their propaganda.
Apr 7, 2008 - 8:50 am 16. sestamibi:“Being a high school student, that iffy age where often the goal of most kids is to stay off of the radar for fear of being singled out and ridiculed, I don’t really blame my daughter for keeping her own counsel,. . . ”
Are you a high school student too, Pam?
Apr 7, 2008 - 8:59 am 17. V the K:Based on conversations with my teenaged sons, part of the issue is that kids who want to get letters of recommendation to colleges suck up to left-wing teachers by echoing their left-wing politics, and getting involved in extra-curricular activities that involve left-wing politics.
Apr 7, 2008 - 9:21 am 18. AJ:Good story. I will say that I wisely left the coasts (had resided most of my life in DC and CA) and have enjoyed a rebirth here in the Heartland. Kids may be weird here too, but they also understand history, join the military and go to church. It’s a breath of fresh air. I am very conservative even though I’m not yet 30, but I also know there are sheltered elite conservatives along the coasts in addition to the millionaire liberals. I think conservatives who live in those fringe locales should take trips to the heartland and to small towns to see what America is all about. There are great people out there who work hard, fly the flag, eat at chain restaurants and see thru Hill and Obama. There are even teachers who teach about the glory of our nation. You just aren’t going to find them in LA or New England. That’s why I left. And my fiancee and I could not be happier we did.
Apr 7, 2008 - 9:22 am 19. AJ:“part of the issue is that kids who want to get letters of recommendation to colleges suck up to left-wing teachers by echoing their left-wing politics, and getting involved in extra-curricular activities that involve left-wing politics”
Correct—which makes them dumber since most teachers are not only leftists but clueless to how the world works. Same with college profs who teacha few hours a week then let kids go to concerts for Obama.
I’ve written about how our kids’ grades are rising, yet they are dumber than ever:
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_1398561.php
Apr 7, 2008 - 9:28 am 20. newton:“A prime example: last year, the same daughter told us about having to watch Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in three different classes.”
Oh, brother! Three different classes? Bet ya two of them had something to do with English and “Social Studies”!
“part of the issue is that kids who want to get letters of recommendation to colleges suck up to left-wing teachers by echoing their left-wing politics, and getting involved in extra-curricular activities that involve left-wing politics”
Yet another reason to homeschool your child…
Apr 7, 2008 - 10:22 am 21. david levavi:Airhead leftism is in fashion. Standards are in the subbasement. Teachers are mostly mediocre. What’s a parent to do? I recommend family camping. Lots of it. Camping demands concentration on ordinary chores and responsibilities kids aren’t used to. Books replace television. Nature is noticed. Appreciation of parents, especially after sunset, is enhanced. There’s lots of time for thoughtful chat.
Mainly for lack of funds for summer camp for three or a summer vacation for five, we did a great deal of camping when our kids were growing up. Three seasons in tents, winter weekends and holidays in heated cabins. Worked well , too, until our oldest went off to Harvard and got soft in the head. Happily she hasn’t influenced her sisters and will soon be gone from there.
The only voice heard in the public square offering clearheaded and fresh ideas about American education is Newt Ginrich.
Apr 7, 2008 - 10:40 am 22. Bernardo:AJ — excellent article you wrote in the OC Register. Others here should read it.
newton — While I certainly agree with your comment on homeschooling, that is an option that may not exist much longer. As a result of a recent court decision, homeschooling in California now requires a credentialed teacher — and I’m sure that means a brainwashed union member.
Apr 7, 2008 - 10:50 am 23. Assistant Village Idiot:Some churches, and most religious highschools offer mission trips to poorer nations. There are also secular groups which provide the experience of short-term work in deprived areas. We made it a family graduation requirement for our sons to go on such a trip. That experience will not only illustrate much of what you want to teach, but it provides a ready platform for a student to express contrary views, e.g. “My friends in Ukraine would disagree with you about that.”
Apr 7, 2008 - 11:48 am 24. MethodtoMadness:Is it just the poor, misguided lefty kids that should look at both sides of the issues, or should your daughter maybe also look more closely into what is taught in her home? I’ve always though it was just as dumb for someone to say “I hate America” as to say “America is the best place on Earth” before ever leaving the country and getting some basis for comparison. It cracks me up that people think that schools are some left wing bastion of thought. If you live in an area with lots of liberals, the teachers will be thus represented; I grew up in an extremely right-wing area, and the teachers pretty much followed that bent (except they though education should be, er, funded, which is not exactly a typical conservative principle).
Apr 7, 2008 - 12:30 pm 25. njcommuter:There are also hard facts that can be reported (and the numbers are available so that you can back your claims): that the US is the largest contributor to the WHO, that the United States Armed Forces provide disaster relief around the world where nobody else can, that American citizens contribute more foreign aid voluntarily than most nations contribute in total (and more per capita than anyone else, anywhere), and that municipal and state uniformed services ROUTINELY send disaster relief, not in cash but in personnel with near-unique capabilities such as K-9 teams to rescue survivors. And that we don’t just do this for political convenience: we offered aid when the ancient Iranian city of Bom collapsed in an earthquake a few years ago.
Apr 7, 2008 - 12:35 pm 26. Boris:Let me get this straight, you are proud that you got someone to show The Great Global Warming Swindle in a classroom setting? Unbelievable considering the faked graphs from that movie. Oh, I know, Al Gore is fat. Sure.
Forget movies, I wonder what the National Academies of Science has to say on global warming? How about the American Geophysical Union and the Royal Society? Do you need a hint?
Yes, Bill Maher is an idiot who believes that vaccinations don’t work and other stupid stuff. But most right wingers think that global warming is a hoax, which is just as idiotic. The death of critical thinking, indeed.
Apr 7, 2008 - 12:58 pm 27. Andrew:First I would like to say that this author offers no proof besides her daughter’s statements to prove her theory that teens hate America. I am a younger American who travels abroad often and fully believes that America is the best country in the world. However having traveled to so many foreign countries I have witnessed many ideas and policies that the US could implement to make it better still. The problem with conservatives is that they claim to love this country the most yet want to limit its ability to get better. Conservatives teach us to hate our government and to allow the free market to better our lives. Yet the things we need to make America better start first with better government policies. Better schools and roads, more vacation and maternity time. Access to health care and living wages, protection against unfair labor practices. Faith in our government to bring us together. Yet conservatives expect the market to bring us these changes. Good luck waiting for that extra week of paid vacation. My family in Germany gets eight weeks every year.
Apr 7, 2008 - 1:12 pm 28. Josh Strawn:Ascribing this very real problem to “the left” is incorrect. Historical amnesia, the ascendancy of the culture of narcissism (MYspace, YOUtube, FACEbook), AND the triumph of the market over the truth go much further toward explaining this phenomenon.
There is a left in the world that believes that al-Qaeda is a theocratic fascist organization who should be defeated with all the force of our military; that finds more kinship with anti-Stalinist liberals like Lionel Trilling than with Noam Chomsky; and who thinks of the American Revolution as preferable to the Marxist one.
One can easily argue that the sanctimonious masochism the author discusses is an adaptive mechanism of capitalism. Capitalism is ingenious in this way, and it quite often makes liberals sound like morons. This “lefty” anti-Americanism a conscience cleaner and an identity accessory that makes the children of privilege–as well as rich Hollywood actors and rock stars–feel better about their affluence. It also adds an element of martyrdom to the culture of narcissism. This is nothing new (think of Jim Morrisson in his Jesus Christ pose howling his “poetry” about the wicked America). But now it’s institutionalized and has more market value. Matt Damon’s Will Hunting drops Howard Zinn’s name in a major movie, George Clooney makes blowback into blockbusters and can claim his Oscar–and more importantly his fortune–as a triumph for progressive social activism.
To say this is the “left” is to dishonor people like Rosa Luxembourg, George Orwell, and Victor Serge, and even MLK. It’s no left at all, it’s just populism: bobble heads for primetime. It makes people feel less bad about knowing that their comforts probably come at the expense of the comfort of others. This is in theory a good tendency because it entails an effort to expand the moral imagination beyond one’s own tribe and to turn criticism inward. Self criticism is a pillar of American values. I agree with the author that it’s unfortunate that these potentially good traits now exist mainly as absurd, harmful caricature, but a brief consultation of history would show the anti-American flock AND the pro-American one that memory, and humility in the presence of truth go much further than convenient forgetting, sanctimony and the squelching of truth underneath whatever new scheme of self-importance the market serves up.
Apr 7, 2008 - 1:57 pm 29. Kevin M:Teenagers regurgitate whatever they’re told (good, bad, indifferent). You can’t criticize them for being young and at the mercy of a merciless media and educational facility designed to foment leftist revolution in every breath.
The only thing about the US (and I’m an American) that I worry about is the expansion of corporate America. I’m not a leftist, but I can clearly see why they are in an uproar.
Example: Neil Cavuto, a spineless apologist for every moral transgression the corporate chieftans make, reported on the conviction of Kenneth Lay and the whole ENRON debacle. His first words: “Let’s not be too hasty. They [Lay and his cohorts] may not be crooks; they might just be bunglers.”
Bunglers? BUNGLERS?!!!
I wonder what Ken Lay’s resume looks like. Bet it doesn’t say bungler.
In 1940, the average CEO made 42 times the annual salary of the guy on the shop floor turning the wrenches and running the welding kit. Today, the average CEO makes over 640 times the salary of the guy who makes the product or performs the service.
Can you spell F-R-E-N-C-H R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N?
I have long detested liberal answers to real problems. But if there’s one thing that America needs to fix, it’s the untethered greed of these bastard CEOs who are sucking the life out of businesses, the employees and the stockholders. They are killing the middle class!
If you want to be a greedy shit and get paid millions for being worthless, get a job in Hollywood as an actor. Then the only people you screw are the nitwits who watch your crappy films.
Andrew made a very good point: Americans are being turned into the new class of indentured servants.
And Neil Cavuto should be stoned in the public square!
If I were a teenager today, having been long convinced that I am on the brink of a life at the mercy of corporate slavemasters, I’d hate the US, too!
Apr 7, 2008 - 2:44 pm 30. Fidel, MD:Method to madness: OK, I’ve been to all continents (except Antarctica), and at least 90 different countries (it’s hard to keep track with the name changes and all). I’ve lived (ie, existed on the local economy for more than 6 months at a time) in Europe (2 countries), south America (3 countries), Asia (1 very poor country) and N. America (besides the US). While I haven’t lived in Africa for more than 6 months at a stretch, I’ve spent almost 40 weeks working or visiting different parts of Africa, from the Sahel to Cape Town. Oh, and I visited the Mediterranean parts of Africa, and the Middle-east.
So, I guess I qualify to have an opinion? I hope so, because here it is:
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH.
Apr 7, 2008 - 2:47 pm 31. Democrats Show Their Dislike Of Our Country « Tai-Chi Policy:[...] by taoist in Anti-Americanism, Democrats, Politics. trackback Yet again. Over at Pajamas Media is an essay that points out reasons why – primarily the anti-american rhetoric that so much of the left steeps [...]
Apr 7, 2008 - 4:17 pm 32. Otto - American Interests:Interesting post, they do not realize how good they have it…
Apr 7, 2008 - 5:20 pm 33. venividivici:Perhaps you can suggest that your daughter point these, “America-hating students”, to my web site???
Fidel, MD,
To your eloquent statement let me add that while I have not travelled as extensively as some, I’ve travelled more extensively than others. But, what I’ve really focused my life on is learning history. I’ve probably forgotten more history than the average “hate America” dimwit ever knew. Damn near have a Ph.D. in it and after studying civilization from its origins in Africa to this morning’s headlines, I am also of the opinion that The United States of America is the best place on earth. People just have no idea how people have lived since man first created civilization and how much of an improvement the USA is over those other methods of organizing society. Other social structures have problems at their core, because they don’t focus on the individual and the individual’s rights. We in the US have problems in our social structure at the margin, because we got the core principle of individual rights correct in our Constitution.
Apr 7, 2008 - 5:58 pm 34. mishu:Thank you Kevin M for stating the Taliban’s opinion of America.
Apr 7, 2008 - 6:56 pm 35. Cary Delaney:I have come to believe in conscription. If our high school graduates were required to serve two years for our country or in serving humanity in some other country, they would return with a new appreciation for what they have and for what this country stands for. We also wouldn’t have the binge drinking on college campus’. One young man who came back from Iraq said when he came home and went to college he had a new purpose and wasn’t going to waste his time drinking and partying. After having seen first hand how lucky we are in this United State, he wanted to take advantage of making something of himself
Apr 7, 2008 - 7:33 pm 36. JFarr:Cary, I wholeheartedly support your idea. If more people spent more time serving others, rather than thinking only of themselves, the world would be a better place.
I have lived “abroad” for many years. Before that I guess I pretty much took the U.S. for granted. After 26 years, I realize our country may not be perfect but it is one of the best the world has to offer.
Apr 7, 2008 - 8:14 pm 37. ddc:The problem arises from biased, single-sided lectures in the classroom. Children are naturally spongelike. Public education in this country is not only failing to actually educate children but are also being fed, unchecked, the rhetoric from the same left-side. liberals permeate academia like ticks on a dog.
Apr 7, 2008 - 10:38 pm 38. Marc:Having been removed from high-school for more than a decade now, I remember a strong patriotic sense from my classmates. We were a part of the Chicago collar counties. If I remember correctly, only the degenerates made statements about how much the country “sucked”. I think their sentiments were more representative of their situation, rather than the country itself.
I wonder at what point do students stop stating the pledge of allegiance? We stopped in 5th grade doing it everyday, and then once a week until graduation. Different times though, prevailing in the cold war boosted morale. The global war on terror is not as ominous as communism. Without a common enemy, it is hard to unite a people. 9/11 showed us that.
The group psychology has a large impact on this issue as well. Sarcasm and general skepticism is rewarded with peer acceptance. The person who shows faith in our country might present as a schmuck, even though they are wise beyond their years. I believe this may be a passing theme in students lives. Let’s face it, once you start paying taxes, conservatism looks pretty damn good!
Apr 8, 2008 - 4:55 am 39. CasualObserver:What I find interesting from the hate America crowd is that they never recognize themselves in the descriptions of what is wrong. I am especially amused by those “geen” advocates who demand that we do something about global warming who fail to recognize that doing something means an end to their Volvos, BMWs, SUVs, 4000+ square foot houses with separate bedroows and baths for each. They just never seem to connect what they want with the cost associated with that choice.
Apr 8, 2008 - 6:04 am 40. Dark Helmet:It is the duty and predisposed DNA of every teenager to rebell. It’s okay, it’s where fresh ideas come from. Many of those same kids who say the most critical things may one day be asked to put life and liberty on the line to protect our great nation. So a little tolerance may be in order here. Ya know, like fer sure phases dude?
Keep in mind that if they still hate the nation by the time they have kids, their teenagers will upset them by proclaiming total support for the United States of America.
Sometimes a kid being a kid is just…. a kid being a kid.
Apr 8, 2008 - 7:51 am 41. Chris R.:This is nothing new, and it’s nothing to be concerned about. For one thing, those kids cannot vote until they get a bit older and hopefully wiser. They are just the usual confused teens and only the subjects of their ignorance changes over time.
I graduated from a South Florida high school in 1990. During history classes each year, at least one person would always complain about the US and our policies towards Cuba and other despotic regimes. I heard the hate America speech many times, and I was always the only person who would not tolerate such drivel. I simply told them to leave if they didn’t like it here, and if they continued to interrupt my education with their nonsense that I would be seeing them after school. Nobody ever took me up on my offer of after-school activities and they always remained quiet for the rest of the school year.
As the late General Eisenhower said, “The best defense is to attack.”. It’s quite simple – call BS whenever you see it and you won’t see it as often. The leftist fruitcakes prevail when the only voices heard are theirs.
Apr 8, 2008 - 10:06 am 42. FP:>I can say unequivocally that there is NO place on earth I’d rather live, and die than my country, and no greater nation to serve.
>None.
>
Bull.
Here are america’s _actual_ values:
Affirmative action, feminism, abortion,
immigration, atheism, legalistic double talk and hypocrisy galore, “aclu-ism” –all
of that stuff is america.
America is not what you pretend it is (barbacue, family. a flag and blue skys –things that can happen anywhere) while all that other stuff above is some a small thing; all that ‘other stuff’ IS america –it defines it.
Wake up already. It aint cute anymore.
Apr 8, 2008 - 10:11 am 43. dp:i urge all to visit marin county, ca. home to the self-actualized teen. born with everything within reach, then given even more. arrogant trend setters, who have been repeatedly reminded that self esteem is their’s… requiring no effort of their own. pandered to by overindulgent parents and teachers and taught that rights always trump responsibilities. self satisfied spiritualist yet living in the least churched county in the country. over moneyed and under loved. unhappy, why would they ever be angry with a country that affords the very best of everything?
Apr 8, 2008 - 11:44 am 44. Vinny Vidivici:Same goes for the fashionable bigotry of anti-Americanism abroad. Propaganda works.
Major media outlets throughout the world present a one-note narrative of ceaseless American wickedness, focusing exclusively and hysterically on this nation’s shortcomings, some real but many imagined. Then the ginned up animus of is offered — sometimes by political opportunists here at home — as ‘proof’ of American waywardness.
What a shakedown. Too many Americans can’t tell the difference between constructive criticism and contrived outrage aimed at provoking their reflex reactions of guilt and shame. The same folks who assume Americans have been bamboozled into a trance by Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, take a face value the sentiments of a screaming mob in some third world sh*thole whose only information about the world comes from state-controlled media.
Hey venividivici: Great pen names happen to the best of us, eh?
Apr 8, 2008 - 12:34 pm 45. Vinny Vidivici:P.S. These kids are being subjected to tactics used in ’struggle sessions’ and show trials, where fear of ostracism — from the ‘global community’ or their classmates — create powerful incentives to capitulate and conform. The objective is to shame and undermine confidence in independent thinking. The confessional stage, that is, accepting one’s ‘guilt’ as the price of re-acceptance, will be followed by calls for contrition.
Just as ‘landlord class’ families paid the price of collective guilt and punishment during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, American students are being ‘burdened’ with concocted shame for failing to conform to the wishes of others. They are being taught that it is more important to be well liked (even by those who are gaming them) than to do the right thing.
Gramsci spins in his grave.
Apr 8, 2008 - 12:46 pm 46. Marshall Kane:“…our foreign policy is to blame for 9/11 and the Middle East.”
Its actually worse. As a teacher at a small private school, I’ve encountered students who are regularly exposed to the schizophrenic bile about the government blowing up the WTC, Bush is going to implant microchips in your head, etc. etc. Fortunately, the small sample I’ve discussed this with are smart enough to see the this for the nonsense that it is, however; one student told me that a teacher had her watch the disgusting conspiracy porn film Loose Change (can you imagine showing this nonsense to a child in school??? I might as well teach my world history class that UFOs built the pyramids).
Sure, kids are going to be anti-establishment. Like many my age (30) I got my first exposure to politics watching skits on SNL. Today many kids watch The Daily Show, which is not so bad, despite its bias. But if kids start accepting the absurd, slanderous conspiracies of deranged minds we’re in deep trouble.
Apr 8, 2008 - 1:16 pm 47. Kevin:“recently complained to her father and I”
…to her father and *ME*.
Apr 8, 2008 - 1:51 pm 48. venividivici:Hey venividivici: Great pen names happen to the best of us, eh?
Indeed, Vinny. Indeed.
Good points about state-run media in other countries and its symbiotic relationship with our own homegrown loons, too.
Apr 8, 2008 - 2:09 pm 49. Brian H:It’s not just the US schools: S. Korean cadets say US #1 enemy.
Apr 8, 2008 - 11:10 pm 50. MarkD:Einstein: “The difference between stupidity
and genius is that genius has its limits.”
The number who actually believe this tripe is rather low. I’m going to be cynical and note that the non-academic college educated tend to vote R. Why? Self interest. The majority of D votes are the less educated who tend to be recipients of income redistribution schemes.
My kids didn’t rock the boat too much, got their degrees, and went on with their lives, vote mostly R. We’re just a typical middle class family in a very blue state (NY.)
All have travelled and lived abroad with more than a tourist’s view of Japan (family), and the the girls have lived in Australia (semester abroad) and Germany (military spouse living in the local community.) There are things we like about every place we’ve been, but no place we’d rather live than the US. Immigration trends seem to support that judgement.
It’s safe and easy to trash the US, and that provides a psychic reward to some. I’m not surprised some do it. Their motives are mostly envy as far as I can tell. In the meantime, we continue to give generously to charities, donate blood, provide assistance when disaster strikes, volunteer for the military – in time of war no less, and laugh at the UN. We are doing OK.
Apr 9, 2008 - 7:06 am 51. B.G.:I’m a substitute teacher in a local elementary school. The word that comes to mind as I read this article is “indoctrination”. I see it at all levels of education. Schools feed, clothe, immunize, provide day care for, and teach our nation’s children. It’s not surprising that the powers that be in education deem it necessary to take it one step further and spoon feed them in what they believe is the politically correct way to think and act. Our children will grow up with no skills in respectful and informative debate, most of them having been taught only one side of every issue – the teacher’s side.
Apr 9, 2008 - 3:27 pm 52. B.G.:I’m a substitute teacher in a local elementary school. The word that comes to mind as I read this article is “indoctrination”. I see it at all levels of education. Schools feed, clothe, immunize, provide day care for, and teach our nation’s children. It’s not surprising that the powers that be in education deem it necessary to take it one step further and spoon feed them in what they believe is the politically correct way to think and act. Our children will grow up with no skills in respectful and informative debate, most of them having been taught only one side of every issue – the teacher’s side.
Apr 9, 2008 - 3:33 pm 53. Webloggin - Blog Archive » Teens Who Hate America:[...] Meister’s column receives a well-deserved spot on the Pajamas Media front page. What truly irks me about the attitudes of these teens is that most [...]
Apr 9, 2008 - 3:36 pm 54. s.t.:I am a college student who has apparently been “indoctrinated”. The reality stands that I am an upper-middle class white girl who has for her entire life been preached conservative values and ideals. I have never once lashed out at “The American Way”, nevertheless I think that disappointment in the new nanny state is what has led most young adults to preach hate America ideals. Teacher have influence of sorts, but it is proven among voting patterns that most new voters align themselves with those party of their parents. This being said, with the nation in a state of economic despair (sorry not for the top 15-20%), new legislation that would make the founders of this nation shake in their graves and a war based on the “indoctrination” of the rest of the world, it is easy to see why these young adults are upset with “the greatest nation in the world.”
Apr 9, 2008 - 5:55 pm 55. Bonnie_:Oh, poor S.T., college girl who finds that the nation is in a state of “economic despair.” This is a country with a 5.1% unemployment rate. In her own lifetime, in the boom times of Clinton, the unemployment rate was at 5.4%. But she’s been spoon fed “economic despair” and she believes it.
When I was your age I drove to California with my family and we carried plastic gas cans on the roof of the car, like Will Smith in I Am Legend. This because the gas crisis had emptied gas stations from coast to coast. Inflation was at 11%, unemployment was over 10%, our hostages were being humiliated in Iran and we had the inevitability of communism shoved down our throats by the only media outlets there were — ABC, CBS, and NBC.
I’ll give you economic despair, honey. Today we are so much better off it’s like looking at a woman cooking on an open fire outside a teepee, to look back at the 70’s.
Oh, and we had the global cooling crisis, too. To quote the Professor in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: “What are they teaching in schools these days?” Obviously not history and logic.
Apr 9, 2008 - 7:17 pm 56. Fidel, MD:As far as the S.Korean cadets, fine. Lets pull the US troops out of the Korean peninsula, and see how long it takes the great greaseball to invade. He’ll have to, his army isn’t getting enough food now as it is.
BTW, what do you think those college freshmen (1st year cadets) will be doing in the new united Korea?
My guess is stinking up the benjo ditches.
Apr 9, 2008 - 8:08 pm 57. John M:I think we have a great group of young people in West Texas were I live.But overall
Apr 10, 2008 - 9:07 am 58. G.W.:we are conservative and
percentage wise Value our relationship to God.Many of our young
people are serving in the Military at this time. Accountability requires committment to something greater than the individual.God
has told us who is not going to Heaven Rom Chapter One, and who is
John 3,This will be so
despite either party. We are paying a price as a nation when we condone,Abortion,gay rights, fornication,adultery,perverts-chold molesters.The only way we can have peace is to
Honor God in all things
Schools included.Our leaders in general honor themselves are are thieves.God is really inc Charge
Can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone my age say that hate America. Just our current warmongering, economy destroying, civil liberties disregarding joke of an administration you Repubs voted into office. Good looks yal.
Apr 11, 2008 - 9:12 am 59. shef Rogers:Comparing America to North Korea is childish. We’re better than North Korea; is that supposed to be reassuring? How about comparing America in 2000 with America now? That comparison might give any reasonable citizen to be angry with their country.
Apr 11, 2008 - 12:38 pm 60. Bernardo:And I might add that one of the best things about American culture–the real American culture, not your namby-pamby version–is a low tolerance for tattletales. If your daughter had gone to my high school and gotten a rep for telling Mommy and Daddy everything her friends said at school, she’d have real problems.
No one here is disputing the notion that teachers are deliberately influencing their students on political matters. Since the Left has control of the teachers’ unions, this translates into indoctrination in environmentalism at the elementary levels and Marxism in the colleges.
The Right, on the other hand, has no qualms in forcing religion into the system wherever they can find an opening.
Either way, our kids are not being educated, but are being indoctrinated by whatever political element can gain control of the public education system. Why we continue to put up with it (and pay the taxes to support it), I don’t know.
Apr 12, 2008 - 9:05 am 61. Pat Dollard | Young Americans | Blog Archive » April 7, 2008:[...] of course, for that Monday morning cheer, Teens Who Hate America are [...]
Oct 10, 2009 - 3:21 am