The Ugly American 2.0

The cover I remember (Amazon)

One of the most influential political books in the 50's and 60's was the Ugly American: [bold added]

The authors were disillusioned with the style and substance of U.S. diplomatic efforts in Southeast Asia. They sought to demonstrate through their writings their belief that American officials and civilians could make a substantial difference in Southeast Asian politics if they were willing to learn local languages, follow local customs and employ regional military tactics.

In the book the "Ugly American" was actually a praiseworthy character who "got his hands dirty" working with the natives---it's cited as one of the influences on JFK to start the Peace Corps.

Subsequently the term came to mean the reverse of a good guy:

"Ugly American" is a term used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens mainly abroad, but also at home.

One of the standing jokes through the 1970's was about how American tourists expected everyone to speak English, and, if the natives didn't understand, the solution was to speak louder. Later, American arrogance became chastened by Vietnam, Watergate, the Arab oil embargo, and political turmoil. The Ugly American stereotype receded, or so everyone thought.

Today Ugly Americans have not only come back, the arrogance on display--and it's all over the Internet--is even greater. Getting others to learn English is no longer the goal, they want non-English speakers to change their own language. We noted this phenomenon last year:

One source of amusement is the translation of gender-neutral English into Romance languages, where gender is all-pervasive.

(Gif from NBC News)

An example of this trend is the use of the term Latinx to replace "Latino" and "Latina".

If you follow politics closely, chances are that you have encountered the word “Latinx” in recent years. From freshman congresswoman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to the DNC to left-wing outlet We Are Mitu, it has become a popular term among progressives who say it’s a more inclusive way to refer to people (like me) [writer Giancarlo Sopo] of Latin-American ancestry.

Another Spanish-speaking person responds:

Spanish is not a gender neutral language. There are feminine and masculine words because that is how it has been spoken and read for centuries.

Hispanics will not accept completely changing their language just to avoid possibly offending some Social Justice Warriors. In fact, what is truly offensive is non-Spanish speaking SJWs demanding to change and completely upend the language of Cervantes.

Spanish speakers are perfectly capable of defending their language against these latter-day imperialists.

I just hope that they understand that we're not all Ugly Americans v 2.0.