The more I think about it, the more I feel bad for the rest of the world. We cry foul every time an act of terrorism occurs. But if you think about it, not many Americans die in terrorist attacks. The last big one was 9/11 when 3k Americans lost their lives. The subsequent invasions that resulted from that day have killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis. Why? Because terrorists don't have unlimited resources on their side the way the American armed forces do.
And there are little consequences for Americans going on killing sprees. I am convinced that the famous ones that managed to make it to day light and court martials are only the tip of the ice berg. Think of all the killings of innocent civilians by American soldiers that went unreported.
I don't think they hate us for our freedom. I think they hate us because we keep meddling in the affairs of others, and it's their families that pay the ultimate price.
Thousands and thousands of people die in unstable parts of Africa everyday. If America really is the world's policeman, why aren't we over there stabilizing that continent?
Who hates the USA?
At first glance, my answer would be mainly the talibans, extreme salafists, or groups of people from places where US interventions have been felt as forceful imperialism sometimes not even caring to disguise as something else... that's probably not an exhaustive list but that's what first comes to my mind right now. The rest of the world may criticize of mock/belittle the US but this is not hatred.
Religion: Salafists, not unlike some extreme Christian or other religious systems' sects believe religion and obedience to the religious rules is at the core of human life, not only at an individual (choice) level but as a whole system (Sharia). Their beliefs provide a set of rules that must be obeyed by everyone for it to work (otherwise human nature will prevent it from working, that's what happened to experiments at "Communism").
You're right that they don't hate the US for the US freedom'
per se, but they hate the US for promoting it's lifestyle, hence giving ideas to people they rule over (or try to) and endangering their privileges in a cultural environment where they are on top (i.e. over women, people who are not extreme in their religious beliefs etc), whether this is actually because of real beliefs or for the love of control and power.
Imperialism: beautifully exemplified in a post above (see post #6), as it benefited from historical and geopolitical factors that allowed for the US to reach the highest (as in economical and military power/influence) rank in the world where previous powers declined, the US started vampirizing other parts of the world off their natural resources for its own benefit and interest, depriving those places of their chance/rights to develop as they saw fit (preventing these people from exercising their natural right to chose their own destinies by manipulating/corrupting these countries' politics to ensure protection of US interests), mind you this is no different from what European colonial powers did before, and what most new powers would do if there were some to arise (China in Africa)... but as the one remaining world power in place, it catches all the light and (rightful) critics for these ongoing policies.
Obviously not everything the US government does is bad or ill meant, I believe it is obvious to any non-USAmerican discussing US politics and people... or domestic matters actually: in their own countries when discussing politics people will usually discuss what is bad or wrong or should be bettered, not what works... yet in the US I always feel that people are touchy to the extreme where the slightest critic will be met with a wall of defensiveness and patriotic rhetorics unrelated to the actual topics discussed... as if criticizing a given/specific aspect of US politics/culture/lifestyle/whatever hid a vicious and global hatred of the USA.
Not everyone is THAT manichean (a trait of character often attributed to USAmericans by the way)... let's give people (nationals or foreigners alike) credit in their ability to be vocal about the wrong while acknowledging the good (even if unspoken-ly so).
Also please give non-USAmericans a break: their thoughts/critics of USAmerica has
ZERO influence on the latter, while USAmerica's politics
DOES influence the rest of the world, this is something untravelled USAmericans seem not to realize (understandably so, since they experiment no influence from foreign cultures themselves...)
My two cents as a "foreigner".
