I don't think thats an American tradition.
Those privileged to have gone to Philets schools , this is what is learned about criticism: First, it is an Art. Second, it is an Art never to be used by the ignorant and the pretender of knowledge to poison the public. <1>
A boilerplate of controversial issues arising from the Lower House immigration reform bill now pending in the Senate has triggered an explosion of contentious criticisms. The most disquieting of them all are those written to poison the public into hating immigrants and illegal aliens in the country. It exacerbates instead of solves our immigration problems. Illegal alien treatment is at the crossroad of these problems.
Attitudinal murder in the treatment of undocumented immigrants does not address the problem, nor will it ever solve the problem. It is irrational to act one’s anger on others or cure one’s corked hatred with savagery, especially resentment that had metastasized to some kind of neurosis. The fact that these are coming out not only from the ignorant but also from the learned, made it doubly alarming.
The American public is often times confronted with criticism from the ignorant, which is more amusing than disturbing. For instance, “e-mail critics” at large who posed the questions in the Web why illegal aliens are allowed to enter the country and why shouldn’t we shoot them dead if found to be illegally staying in this country to avoid the cost of litigation since as violators of our immigration laws they do not deserve a day in Court, really – to use the street slang of the unschooled and the vulgar-- sucks!!
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=7426