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Comment by yc1010 | Hacker News Reader

I live on the far west edge of Europe, unfortunately a lot of the population have a screwed stereotype vision of Americans and the US.

Some of it might be deserved (the Bush years done incredible damage to the reputation of the US) a lot of it is not, and this is coming from my multiple experiences over the years of visiting almost every one of the lower 48 states.

As for Texas its probably one of my more favourite locations in US (behind Arizona, Utah and Georgia), these Norwegians should stereotype less and travel a bit more they be in for a pleasant surprise and the place aint that crazy ;)

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It's not based on stereotypes of Texas and Texans, but rather of the Wild West - as in the location of cowboy movies. There exists equivalent phrases refering to the Wild West directly, and at one point it seems "Texas" became (or perhaps already was) synonymous with "the wild west".

Speculation: in addition to cowbody movies, it probably has something to do with the norwegian book series Morgan Kane[1] from the 60s, as the phrase is mostly heard from people from around that time and before. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Kane

I remember when I first when backpacking across Europe. (I'm American, by the way). This was around 2003 or 2004. I had this preconceived notion that Americans were generally idiotic, and Europeans were much more knowledgable in world affairs. What I came to realize was that they are just as retarded as we are, but have more access to distinct cultures/languages because of how small countries are over there. They don't realize that while we're all "Americans", there is a massive difference between in people from Miami, Houston, New York, and Boise. Just because we speak the same language and use the same currency doesn't make us all the same.

As for the reputation of the States, I found there was a dislike of American politics, but not Americans in general. And jokes made about us are just that: jokes. We do the same about other countries, races, etc.

Agreed. "Man on the street" works every bit as well in London or Paris or Munich as it does in LA.

*skewed

America is insane by any country's standards.

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