I never knew there was a term for this, but Wikipedia has put me right.
Cultural Cringe
Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. It is closely related, although not identical, to the concept of colonial mentality, and is often linked with the display of anti-intellectual attitudes towards thinkers, scientists and artists who originate from a colonial or post-colonial nation.
This seems, at least by this name, to be a specifically Australian thing, but wikipedia also mentions Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The United States is not mentioned in the article at all, despite the fact that most left-wingers in the USA seem to be horribly embarrassed of the country and its culture.
The Talk page mentions the United States, specifically citing the phenomenon I point out above.
I’ve always thought that, among lefties in the United States, at least, this is related to their general though sporadic abhorrence of nationalism in the wake of WWII, and to their belief that one should not judge another man until one has ‘walked a mile in his shoes’.
The result of these is that any judgement that an American makes about Iran (for instance) is in some ways illegitimate, because the American can’t Truly Understand Their Struggle; while any hateful garbage the same American spouts about fellow Americans is not only legitimate (because the Manhattanite believes that he has in some sense walked in the shoes of the Texan) but serves to prove his anti-nationalism.
