Why do Europeans have a double standard when evaluating the United States?

[Former President tack50]

Why do Europeans so often criticize the United States for things like surveillance yet rarely at all criticize Russia and China who do much worse? There are exceptions to this like the UK and Poland but why do some countries (especially Germany) have such a resentment against the United States? Please don’t say Trump this sort of thing has been happening for decades.

Because people expect more from the "land of the free, home of the brave". Though I agree there are some elements of anti-Americanism (often claiming anti-imperialism) in Europe where they are more friendly with Russia or China than with the US even though with all its failures the US are a lot more preferrable as an ally. (they should be the number 1 ally IMO actually)

I imagine some of it might come from the Irak war? (where many European nations opposed it)

[Former President tack50]

I actually live in a very touristy area in Spain. In fact it's the most touristy region not just in Spain but in all of the EU apparently, in terms of nights spent:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Tourism_statistics_at_regional_level

Almost all tourists here come from Europe, mostly from the UK, the Netherlands, other regions of Spain, Germany and Scandinavia. I barely see any non EU tourists whatsoever, the only country that even makes a dent in statistics is Switzerland.

But non-EU non-Swiss tourism accounts for only around 3.5% of all tourists here

http://www.grancanaria.com/turismo/nl/area-profesional/informes-y-estadisticas/estadisticas/

Then again tourism here is a "beach and sun" kind of tourism for the most part, I imagine most Americans looking for that simply stay in the US and go to Hawaii/California/Florida or wherever, or go to the Caribbean or Mexico.

Granted, this is all anectodal evidence from just one place. But in most tourist destinations in Europe Americans are barely a dent, even within "non European" tourists. However, the landscape of tourism is very different in Paris than in say, the Mediterranean.