psketti wrote:
Sorry lad, I genuinely tried but it just ain't happenin

The failure of logic isn't on your part

but on the nature of American exceptionalism

and how it seperates Americans from the rest of the World.
Even for somebody as open minded as a member of SZ, it is still often a given for many within the USA that while imperfect, while corrupt, or incompetent occasinally, the CIA are, after all, on the side of the "good guys" and that most of the "civilised world" deep down knows that to be the case. At least that has been the case with the Americans that I have talked to both online and IRL.
That is why it never ceases to amaze many Americans, however open minded, that people genuinely see the CIA as a force of Imperialism, oppression and fundamentally evil.Just look at the consternation when muslims around the World protested against America after the release of the film-bait.
This is often confused (and conflated by the media) with anti-Americanism.
It might still be hard for many Americans to see their flag in quite the way many non-Americans do and I would say almost impossible for them to see it in quite the way Iraqis and Afghanis do.
This is not quite the same of our own patriots: our own manifestation of patriotism is rather different. As a Scot (like my mum) you might love your country for its landscape, music, heros, poetry, culture etc but you might say "Greatest country in the World" and mean it
for you.
But you wouldn't expect people from other countries to believe it. You would expect them to consider their own country to be the greatest for themselves,