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Comment by spiderfarmer | Hacker News Reader

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spiderfarmer

He’s making fun of the fact that a majority of the US population assumes the US is leading in, quite simply, any area.

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I don't think that majority assumes that.

Quite contrary, majority believes US falls back behind on almost everything (as it should be statistically).

You're right, if you include people living outside the US. To those outside its easy to see the flaws.

But I belive the original snark, and explanation, wete referring to the majority of people living inside the US. From that perspective there's an implicit understanding that the US leads the way (in every field) and their approach to society is best (in all contexts.)

This is of course evidenced by the number of people who desire to live there, and hence the immigration issues. (Immigration issues being a uniquely US phenomenon.)

I'd wager the majority inside the US knows that it's behind in many fields but don't know exactly which ones. We learn to disregard people speaking blanket praise but don't learn enough about other countries from our media and schooling to argue against them. From the outside then this looks like most of our population thinks we're the best in every respect, but on the inside there's a very large and growing sentiment of dissatisfaction and pessimism.

No, I mean exactly US residents.

I live in US. I keep hearing stories how everything is better in Europe (they tend to cherry-pick good stories from different EU countries). The only areas where we get a consensus that US leads the way are probably gun rights and large pickup-trucks.

Do you really believe the US doesn’t lead in any area?

Their usage of “any” is clearly different than yours: “any [and all]” versus “any [at all]”.

Their usage is improper. If that was their intention, it should have read “every area”.

Their usage is fine, and I couldn’t have imagined interpreting it any other way until I saw your misunderstanding. But if you’re more interested in correcting arbitrary grammar rules than gaining a better understanding of the conversation you joined, that’s my cue to drop it and go do something better with my time.

It's not my misunderstanding, it's their inability to communicate clearly. I already explained why it's wrong so there's nothing to understand.

Is he making fun of the actual fact or just the majority of the US population? If it's the latter, wouldn't it be more worthwhile to make fun of whatever institutions cause them to believe this simple flattery?

Chuckle and move on. :)

Doesn't really fit in with the "hacker" vibe, though, does it?

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