‘A uniquely humiliating moment’: London journalist explains why allies went from ‘admiring’ the US to ‘feeling pity’

Contrary to the claims of the United States’ right-wing media, most residents of Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada or New Zealand are not longing to move to the U.S. — they have heard all the horror stories about medical bankruptcies, mass incarceration and a lack of upward mobility. The rest of the developed world has continued to hope that the U.S. will overcome its problems, but in 2020 — with the U.S. being rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and huge protests in response to the killing of George Floyd on May 25 — long-time allies are worried. And London-based journalist Tom McTague discusses their worries in an article published by The Atlantic on June 24.

In the past, McTague explains, Europeans felt everything from admiration to envy to resentment where the U.S. was concerned. But in 2020, many of them are feeling “pity.”

“It is hard to escape the feeling that this is a uniquely humiliating moment for America,” McTague writes. “As citizens of the world the United States created, we are accustomed to listening to those who loathe America, admire America and fear America — sometimes all at the same time. But feeling pity for America? That one is new, even if the schadenfreude is painfully myopic. If it’s the aesthetic that matters, the U.S. today simply doesn’t look like the country that the rest of us should aspire to, envy or replicate.” Continue reading.