pinguin

Please, try to formulate in more precisely terms what exactly botters you, and I will try to explain.

pinguin

I don't know how it is perceived by its neighbours. However, Brazil in general is seen as a good fellow, and a country that tries to be in good relation with the rest of us.
Brazil is not seen as a menace but as a partner.

whalebreath

Nothing bothers me, I'm merely asking for enlightenment.

thin skinned-quick to take offense

pedantry -An excessive attention to detail or rules; being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner

pinguin

OK. I will give you my oppinion, but I would have helped if you have given me examples of those intellectuals.

(1) I assume that you are talking about issues where Americans have and idea and South Americans think the truth is another. I will speak about Latin Americans in general in the following and not only about South Americans.

The "thin skin" comes from the concept of justice. There is the deep "myth" or conception among the Latin Americans that the United States has been abusive with the Southern neighbours. This "myth" is based in the following facts:

(a) The invasion of Mexican territory and the impotence of that country to defend itself from a agresive neighbour very superior technologically.

(b) The gunboat policy of Teddy Roosvelt and others with the same ideology, that considered Latin America to be the backyard of the United States.

(c) The 100 invasions and interventions of the U.S. in Latin America, that cost us literary millions of dead.

(d) The permanent stereotyping and misunderstanding of the region.

(e) The way the millions of Hispanics in the U.S. are treated, like second class citizens, and many times just like criminals. And, by extension, the way that the U.S. treated its own native peoples.

All of these events have provocate a deep distrust of the region for the U.S.
It is a deep feeling that cross all the societies and countries and that is shared from the far left to the far right, and from the rich to the poors.

(2) Latin Americans have very good memory. We are tough and know almost all the injustices that has happened since Columbus put his feet in the Hispaniola. Yes, we haven't win many conflicts with the external world, but we remember what has happened to us.

Now, let's see the debates. Those usually start with an American saying something in very clear statements but that we know he/she is wrong.

Then something strange happens. Suddenly all that frustration, kept under pressure during so many years, is released.

And then you see a "thin-skinned" and pedantic Latin American intellectual in action.

That's all.

Now, if you find this explanation "pedantic"... well, you asked a very complex question.

whalebreath

I never asked about the tendency for some Latin Americans to blame the USA for much of their problems but I'm not surprised to see you take 'the road well travelled'.

As a Canadian who's travelled/lived/worked in Latina America for over 25 years now I've heard it all-the whining/the carping/the bitching/the moaning/the chronic small mindedness and tunnel vision.

I was hoping for something different but I see you have nothing to offer.

pinguin

Porfirio Diaz explained better when he said: Poor Mexico, so far from God but so close to the U.S.A.

Well, I also have my oppinion on Canadians..