A large group of elderly people in Russia was swindled out of their savings, pensions and apartments by a group of con artists.
During a TV show taped to warn people about this scam, the newscaster asks one of the victims, “You don’t seem very worried. Are you still hoping that these criminals will give your money back?”
“That doesn’t matter,” the old gentleman responds with supreme indifference. “If they don’t return the money, I will go to the embassy of the United States, tell them what happened, and they will give me the money.”
“But what does the United States have to do with any of this?” people in the audience ask. “What makes you think they will give you money?”
“Because that’s what they do,” the old gentleman waves off the concerned people. “There is somebody in a neighboring town who got a condo from them. And they give money. They’ve got lots.”
All of the attempts to get the gentleman to talk about persecuting the scam artists who robbed him are met with a wall of stony indifference. He only wants to talk about the Americans who will give him back the money stolen by Russian criminals “because that’s what those Americans do.”
When the US Embassy fails to give him money, the sad old gentleman will join the army of people around the world who feel betrayed by Americans.
Clarissa's Blog 
So the old man was scammed by some Russian criminals in Russia, and talks about the whole thing in the Russian television, and he thinks that the American embassy will give back the money to him? It seems to be very strange. I never met anybody like that, however grown up and lived more than 30 years in Eastern Europe. He has maybe old age dementia, I can hardly believe this is a general thing in Russia.
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Of course, most people don’t go nearly as far as this old gentleman. But the mindset of being horribly wronged by Americans is very strong in Russia.
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Whole Eastern Europe, really. During the whole communist period, Romanians hoped the Americans would come over and save us. Between ’89 and the economic crisis, we hoped we’d immigrate and be perfectly happy and worry-free. Now, we hope that American influence will scour the corruption away. I worry that in a few years we’ll be hoping the Americans come over and save us again.
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Stille: Hungary was the same during and after the revolution of 1956 🙂 Of course the US (and the whole West) did nothing and gave a crap. They didn’t want to jeopardize the cold war balance. The whole wishful thinking about the American help happens in Eastern Europe (and in other poor regions) because of the American propaganda. When the US wants to start a war, they usually use the “we just want to protect the democracy, human rights and freedom” bullshit PR. They did this in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam etc. Of course there are people in poorer countries who truly believe this crap, and when nothing happens in their own country where democracy, freedom and human rights aren’t in the best health they become angry and disappointed. It’s totally understandable to me. Maybe Americans should find out something new to justify their wars.
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I thought people didn’t like Americans because they form the majority of trolls in the English speaking world, and because we have gain a shrewd knowledge of their vices on the basis of whatever they happen to project onto you as they go.
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Still not liking them.
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You WILL like us! Start at the count of three, one, two, three…. LIKE US!!! (before you make us do something awful)
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I have a feeling that if I encounter a few really monster consumer minds who are very irritated at me for not providing easily digestable consumer goods for their immediate swallowing and subsequent transformation into fatty substances, I will immediately start to like, like like.
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I’ve never really come across this kind of thing in Poland…. Lot’s of times an individual or some group of people or the whole country feels disappointed (often extremely so) by particular American policies (but then so do I) but that’s never morphed into any kind of mass anti-American feeling.
And people with magic thinking patterns like the old guy exist but they don’t seem to represent any larger feeling or group.
I’m wondering if the role of the Catholic Church during communism played a part… Uniquely in the Warsaw pact communist Poland had something like a functioning de facto opposition. The Polish public (for all the massive faults in Polish society) is less likely to put all its marbles in one basket. The CCCP (and later Romania) with the least amount of societal and political options seem more prone to look for big daddy benefactors. Hungary is somehwere in the middle (though prone to extremism of varous kinds).
There was a major shift of interest coinciding with the entry into the EU. Britain opened its labor market and for a few years interest in America generally cratered. It’s come back but it’s no longer the big deal it was.
In terms of presidents, Bush (le premiere) was almost worshipped (since communism stopped on his watch), Clinton was very popular (after initial suspicion and disappointment) but neither W nor Obama made/make much positive impression at all.
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This whole thing significantly pre-dates the Communists in Russia. Russian people have been waiting for a good tsar who will live their lives for them while they snooze in the corner for centuries. Who is appointed the next tsar is not that important.
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