Dislike of Americans grows around the world

This comes as no great surprise, but a new poll of attitudes about America elsewhere in the world shows we are increasingly disliked, both as a country and as a people.

But there is worse news. In the past, while Europeans, Asians and Arabs might have disliked American policies or specific U.S. leaders, they liked and admired Americans themselves.

Polls now show an ominous turn. Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries like Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest.

"We found a rising antipathy toward Americans," said Bruce Stokes of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over a four-year span.

…The problem, Stokes said, "is Americans, not just (President) Bush."

Stokes and his colleagues at the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan public opinion group in Washington, found that fewer and fewer people see the United States as a land of high ideals and opportunity. More than half of those asked in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Britain said the "spread of American ideas and customs" was a "bad thing."

…Kohut finds a significant decline among those holding "favorable" views of the United States. In Brazil, 52 percent held a favorable view of the United States in 2002; by the following year that had dropped to 34 percent. In Russia, the pro-America portion of the population dropped from 61 percent to 36 percent over a year.

Beyond a growing antipathy toward American policies, people reject the American lifestyle portrayed in films and television.

Asked where to find the "good life," no more than one in 10 people recommended the United States in a poll conducted in 13 countries, Kohut said. More popular: Canada, Australia, Britain and Germany. Only in India did the United States still represent the land of opportunity, he found.