Verbal Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Widesprad reaction in America to the outcome of the Amanda Knox/Raffeale Sollecito trial is that it was the result of 'anti-Americanism'. This is fairly typical: 'Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat in Knox’s home state of Washington, also leapt to her defence. “I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial,” she said.' Or this: Judy Bachrach, a Vanity Fair journalist who wrote about the case, told CNN: “This was a very carefully choreographed trial and everyone knew from the beginning that the prosecutor had it in for Amanda Knox and the charges were trumped up. This is the way Italian justice is done. If you’re accused, you’re guilty.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/philip-sherwell/6735329/Amanda-Knox-Foxy-Knoxy-was-an-innocent-abroad-say-US-supporters.html Fair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiltshire Saint Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 This was a very carefully choreographed trial and everyone knew from the beginning that the prosecutor had it in for Amanda Knox and the charges were trumped up. This is the way Italian justice is done. If you’re accused, you’re guilty Doesn't sound too dissimilar to the American approach with Guantanamo Bay. Change the highlighted words with these and you're away: Amanda Knox = Mad muslims Italina = American Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Americans are idiots. What proof do they have of their accusations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjii Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 She is such a fox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint lard Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 everyone is against the Americans,just ask the Americans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mao Cap Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 The media coverage was all very leering and prurient, but that's the media for you. I don't remember anything anti-American about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joesaint Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Americans are idiots. What proof do they have of their accusations? Agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridge too far Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 It's lucky for her the trial wasn't in the US. She would have been executed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aintforever Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 The conviction does look dodgy but I fail to see what anti-Americanism has got to do with it considering two of the people convicted are not American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Bognor Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Doesn't sound too dissimilar to the American approach with Guantanamo Bay. Indeed, all the time Guantanamo exists, the septics can never complain about miscarriages of justice. At least Amanda had a trial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SO16_Saint Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 I thought she was English for some reason? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGTL Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 It's lucky for her the trial wasn't in the US. She would have been executed. I highly doubt she would have been found guilty if the trial was in America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorpe-le-Saint Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 They really still live in a world where the "Reds under the bed" philosophy still has a hold don't they! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastleighSoulBoy Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Americans are idiots. What proof do they have of their accusations? Weapons Of Mass Destruction anybody? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arizona Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Seems a weird accusation to throw out there, especially as these two people weren't involved in the trial and wouldn't have been privy to all the evidence. Anti-Americanism... I guess only the judge and jury will know that. As far as we're concerned it's pure speculation. Can't think of any particular reason why the Italian's would be anti-American, especially since the is a significant Italian population in many East coast US cities. Generally I don't agree with the "American's are stupid" stereotypes. Most people get that impression from people like George Bush and Britney. It makes me shudder to think who foreigners get their idea of British people from. Gordon Brown? Simon Cowell? Sends a shiver down the spine. They do have their moments though in fairness. I remember shortly after 911 a "suspicious" package was discovered on a street in NYC. It was detonated securely, but later turned out to be a tortoise. Then their was the unidentified aircraft which was tracked on radar moving towards The White House. Caused quite a panic, fighters were sent up and it was identified as a large cloud (I have heard stories of missiles being fired at it, but that must be bullsheet). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastleighSoulBoy Posted 6 December, 2009 Share Posted 6 December, 2009 Seems a weird accusation to throw out there, especially as these two people weren't involved in the trial and wouldn't have been privy to all the evidence. Anti-Americanism... I guess only the judge and jury will know that. As far as we're concerned it's pure speculation. Can't think of any particular reason why the Italian's would be anti-American, especially since the is a significant Italian population in many East coast US cities. Generally I don't agree with the "American's are stupid" stereotypes. Most people get that impression from people like George Bush and Britney. It makes me shudder to think who foreigners get their idea of British people from. Gordon Brown? Simon Cowell? Sends a shiver down the spine. Spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Posted 6 December, 2009 Author Share Posted 6 December, 2009 These days, the charge of 'anti-Americanism' often comes from the least expected places. This, from the Huffington Post, is fairly representative of many comments on newspaper sites in the US: 'After this I would have to think long and hard before sending any child of mine abroad for study, scholarships or no scholarships. Regardless of guilt or innocence this entire trial has been nothing but a media circus. I can't help but thinking that this verdict was heavily influenced not by the evidence but by simmering anti-American sentiment.' And the evidence for this is – what exactly? But it isn't by any means a one-way street. Quite a few comments on the Fox News site (of all places!) take a more balanced view. Here's a pretty good one: 'This young woman had a year long trial. She had two top notch attorneys. If anything, this trial had more scrutiny than hundreds of others ever do. She lied repeatedly, accused an innocent man, her blood was found mixed with Meredith Kercher's in the bathroom sink. She has never apologized for her lies. Although she says the Italian police were mean, she had no bruises or cuts and scrapes. She certainly wasn't even interrogated for very long before she started making up stories. Knox was convicted of a crime - she is now a convicted murderer. Saying she was innocent doesn't make it so. No one could fathom the cruelty of a woman drowning her children to keep a boyfriend but it happened. Unless you were on the jury or watched the trial every day for the last 12 months, I cannot fathom how so many people can say this was a travesty of justice. Clinton's comments were impartial in that she would look it over, and she didn't commit to anything more than that.' The really weird thing is that it's in the more traditionally liberal media that the 'anti-American' charges are made the most stridently - especially in papers like the New York Times. And the term is used as a sort of equivalent of 'anti-Semitism', almost always when talking about Europeans. The idea that 'anti-Americanism' is always and everywhere an irrational knee-jerk expression of pure hatred, rather than a reasoned objection, has taken hold so strongly in papers like the NYT that it was inevitable that the Knox trial would be characterised in this way. Calls for mass boycotts of Italy and Italian goods have already started, and it'll probably get worse. How has Europe come to be seen as a threat by liberal elites in the US - and as a source of seething hatred towards the Land of the Free? I really have no idea. Maybe Borat’s the blame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheaf Saint Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 Reminds me of the relative of a Lockerbie victim who went on the news after Al-Megrahi was released, claiming that 'The people of the UK should be ashamed of themselves' as if the world has some kind of obligation to keep the Americans happy. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the comments of these two people. They are obviously allowing their emotions to influence their opinions rather than the actual facts of the case. That behaviour isn't exclusive to Americans by any means. But perhaps they are well aware of the fact that their foreign policies have created a large amount of anti-american sentiment all over the world and are making the connection due to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 This coming from a country that found OJ Simpson not guilty is laughable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpbury Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 Agree Disagree - too simplistic. Many Americans are dumb, this also applies to Southampton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emerson massey Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 Americans are idiots. What proof do they have of their accusations? Not all Americans are idiots - some are, some aren't. Like some posters on here are idiots, and some aren't..... This type of sweeping ingnorant statement is one of the reasons why there is so much hatred in this world. Some of the Americans i have met have been lovely people, some of the British people i have met, and read posts of, are complete muppets. Dont get me wrong, most stereotypes exist for a reason, it's just helpful if you can look past them and form an individual opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 Not all Americans are idiots - some are, some aren't. Like some posters on here are idiots, and some aren't..... This type of sweeping ingnorant statement is one of the reasons why there is so much hatred in this world. Some of the Americans i have met have been lovely people, some of the British people i have met, and read posts of, are complete muppets. Dont get me wrong, most stereotypes exist for a reason, it's just helpful if you can look past them and form an individual opinion My personal experience of Americans are that many of them are morons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emerson massey Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 My personal experience of Americans are that many of them are morons. I agree - many are morons, as are many British and all other nationalities - all idiots though......hmmmm....? Unless you have met every American, how can you say all Americans are idiots. Its just very frustrating when people do this. I have met mainly nice Americans, but wouldn't say that all Americans are nice, so it works both ways. Not having a personal dig at you but its not right to say such an ignorant ill informed statement which just fosters further resentment, when its just not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedelldays Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 Not all Americans are idiots - some are, some aren't. Like some posters on here are idiots, and some aren't..... This type of sweeping ingnorant statement is one of the reasons why there is so much hatred in this world. Some of the Americans i have met have been lovely people, some of the British people i have met, and read posts of, are complete muppets. Dont get me wrong, most stereotypes exist for a reason, it's just helpful if you can look past them and form an individual opinion indeed. imagine saying all muslims are terrorists.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emerson massey Posted 7 December, 2009 Share Posted 7 December, 2009 indeed. imagine saying all muslims are terrorists.... Yes, it is similar to this - pigeon holing an entire religion, race, nationality etc because of belief/ideal that a few hold and forming your opinion on that alone (although i get the feeling you may be employing sarcasm - hard to tell sometimes) Every nation has good aswell as bad, idiotic aswell as clever, etc Except the French.... That was, of course, a joke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now