Ameriphobia

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'''Ameriphobia''' is a term used by bloggers to describe either one of two things.

*1. An irrational fear or hatred of the [[United States of America]].
*2. Anybody remotely [[liberal]]/[[left-wing]] who dares to criticize American government policy, meaning that they must hate the U.S.A.

==The first kind==
An irrational fear and hatred of the United States is a core issue among some politicians and groups. [[Conspiracy theories]] are the most common form, such as exaggerating the power of the US or treating it as the source of all [[evil]]. Other times, the role of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] is greatly exaggerated when it comes to foreign policy. The leader of the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]] Gennady Zyuganov is big on this, claiming, for example, that the deaths of [[Hugo Chavez]] and other [[Latin America]]n leaders who were critical of American foreign policy were caused by the US giving them diseases. [[Venezuela]]n Vice President {{wpl|Nicolas Maduro}} similarly claimed that the death of Hugo Chavez was caused by Americans giving him [[cancer]].<ref>http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130306/179849093.html</ref>

[[Islamic]] [[fundamentalist]]s and terrorist organizations often portray America as a great [[Satan]] that wishes to destroy Islam itself and promote [[sin]]fulness in its place. Any foreign policy decision or intervention by the US are viewed by these groups as an attack on Islam.

Conspiracy theories such as the [[moon landing hoax]] and America being a tool of the [[New World Order]] or [[Illuminati]] are recurring themes as well. The [[webshite]] [[Globalresearch]] is a good example of a website that pushes Ameriphobic conspiracy theories.<ref>[https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/global-research/ "Global Research – Bias and Credibility"]. ''[[Media Bias/Fact Check]]''.</ref>

Internet [[tankies]] are infamous for basing their entire ideology on "critically" supporting countries that oppose American interests regardless if the country is communist or not. Anyone holding nuanced opinions on foreign policy will be labeled as a CIA Agent or white by them. [[National Bolshevism|Nazbols]] will also call their ideological opponents "[[Alt-right glossary#56%|Amerimutts]]" or [[International Jewish Conspiracy|Jews]] alongside the previously mentioned labels. Whilst not neccesarily tankies, many individuals on Twitter, as a result of the US being complicit in the genocide of [[Palestinians|Palestinians]] committed by [[Israel]], now interpret any military action by the US on the Middle East as inherently imperialist.{{efn|The Iraq war being a case of actual US imperialism.}} Such as the case of the recent Houthi attacks causing many to accuse the US of killing [[Yemen|Yemeni]] civilians even though that the only casualties are Houthi militants, not to mention the attack was started by Houthis on commercial cargo ships.{{efn|This however, does not justify the US nor UK bypassing any approval from Congress or Parliament respectively to do so.}}

==The second kind==
The word is also used by American right-wingers and [[conservative]]s, as a slur against those who disagree with them. These groups portray virtually anybody who doesn't believe America is the greatest country in the world, or criticizes American policies, as being "Ameriphobic".<ref>[http://www.politicalpolicy.net/2010/09/are-progressivesocialists-ameriphobic.html This hard-right blog is one example]</ref> Basically, [[Bullshit|"If you don't agree with us, you must hate America"]].

Of course, these people tend to also be [[Europhobia|Europhobic]] and many of the comments they make about [[Europe]] are extremely similar to what Islamic Fundamentalists say about America, mainly "they're Godless [[secularist]]s!"

In a sense many [[wingnuts]] apply a "with us or against us" dichotomy that boils down to "you either believe in [[American exceptionalism]] or you are an Ameriphobe". Of course the fact that the real world is never black and white is lost to them. For instance, such wingnut don't seem to realize that it's possible to oppose [[Richard Nixon|certain]] [[Ronald Reagan|US]] [[George W. Bush|administrations]] [[Vietnam War|and]]/[[Supply side economics|or]] [[War on Drugs|specific]] [[SDI|US]] [[Iraq War|policies]] without being anti-American, but then again, such wingnuts tend to hold [[False dilemma|similar views]] of their domestic opponents (though the sobriquet tends to be un-American, rather than anti-American).

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Anti-Western]]
[[Category:United States]]

Categories: Anti-Western, United States