How America became a dirty word

last updated 8 January 2015

United Kingdom

“A particular brew of anti-Americanism is seeping into our national consciousness,” said Ferdinand Mount in the London Daily Telegraph. We saw it last week, when fans of the Arsenal soccer team taunted their archenemies, fans of Manchester United, by sneeringly shouting “USA! USA!” They were referring, of course, to the humiliating purchase of Man U by American businessman Malcolm Glazer. The pro-American cheer “was apparently the most offensive chant they could think of.” And these weren’t hooligans or thugs in the stands—it was the cup final, and the shouting fans were mostly lawyers, investment bankers, and advertising directors. The incident illustrates the new, middle-class British anti-Americanism. It’s kept under wraps, for the most part. “To be openly anti-American is still not the done thing.�� But the sentiment is there, and it stems from our growing bitterness over the American lies that lured us into war in Iraq. Even Brits who supported the invasion have felt insulted as they learned about “the devious and domineering style in which the plans for war were hatched.” That “USA” has become “the rudest word in the vast lexicon of football insults” in Britain may have been barely reported in the U.S. But make no mistake: The shouting was “fierce, prolonged, and fortissimo.”