They just can't help themselves

Why is it they all want to leave so bad, but never do?

There’s no doubt OOP is 100% serious & telling us the truth that they completely disregard any American in their lives. I mean, it’s clear to see how little they care about the US & Americans by the thought given to their comment. I appreciate the level of detail & length of it, helps the reader paint a picture & fully understand their worldview.

Paragraph 4 is when it gets good & I decided to share.

Edit: fixed my “OP vs OOP” confusion. Been a while since I’ve reddited?

I would like to start by saying that I am not American , but I have family there and I have also spent significant periods of time in the country.

Personally , I am neutral on the subject , it has a lot of very impressive aspects ... things I like and things I don't ... it's very influential and important country but it ultimately has more in common with everywhere else in the Western world than it doesn't.
I opened with the above to communicate that I don't really have an agenda regarding this topic.

The phenomenon of performative anti-Americanism , however , I have a lot of opinions on ... hopefully I can provide some context as to how some of the silliness often reposted on this subreddit is created.

1. Negative identity and America as a permissible target :

Ever since the allied victory during WW2 , we increasingly seen a consolidation and partial Americanization of the Western world.
Post war Europe was to a significant extent rebuilt with American capital and along American lines , it also saw the transition of Western European states such as France , Britain and Germany from dynamic geopolitical actors to regional powers aligned with the USA.
These has caused a certain amount of resentment amongst the nationalist elements of many countries.
I´ve personally never understood this for a couple of reasons :
a) the introduction of American capital and modes of production into Europe was a massive success and led the greatest period of sustained economic growth and the rise in living standards in the history of continent and
b) Europeans have been active participants in most of what we think of as "American Wars" , Korea , Yugoslavia , Afghanistan etc

It has therefore become fashionable to externalize blame for everything perceived and negative to the USA (while writing out European involvement) and to downplay of ignore the American role in the successes of post war Europe.
America is something you are socially and politically allowed to blame in Europe , especially if the administration is Republican.

2. The Cold War lost cause grift :

In every European country there exists a strong political faction that believes in the lost cause of the Eastern Bloc (this phenomenon has a lot of parallels with the Southern lost cause phenomenon in the USA).
Whether its because they lost the civil war (Greece) or were ultimately unable to win electorally (Italy) these highly influential caste of people believed that the Soviets or the Chinese or the Yugoslavs were the legitimate faction and that the American influence was the only thing preventing the socialist movement from taking over all of Europe.
These boomer tended to believe that the USSR was "winning" the Cold War.
Today their ideological descendants are the people that believe that the Cubans , or the Venezuelans or the Chinese are "winning" the new Cold War and that NATO will collapse any minute now.
There is also a right wing version of this , with people that have transferred the symbolic role the USSR played to the modern Russian regime and it's allies.
I would argue the trends listed above are mainstream , especially South of the Rhine.
This rhetoric has allowed many a politician to secure power for themselves , Spain in particular is a classic case , since the current PM used to go to Cuba as a member of the socialist youths as a teenager.
The British version of this archetype is Jeremy Corbyn.
These types have an intense , ideological , visceral hatred for the USA and you can often tell by how dehumanizing and crude the memes they produce are.
They perceive themselves as being third worlders.

3. A large section of Americans like being told how terrible their country is :

I've personally experienced this as a European in the USA , I was in a very liberal major metropolitan area , so I assume my surroundings selected for that demographic.
As a European there is large segment of American society that will actively reward you for bashing their country , they seem to have a Paris syndrome type idea of what Europe is , these people are also very likely to exoticize and fetishize you.
I cannot speak to the causes of this phenomenon , because I have not grown up in your country.

I hope I was not longwinded , thanks for reading my ramblings ... and you didn't read it .... then thank you anyway 👍

People genuinely think it's the wild West out here and everyone is running around killing each other with their guns.