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Comment by devkit1 | Hacker News Reader

I am an American and I make a very conscious effort to appreciate social and political nuances. And I go out of my way to point out nuances to others who, in my opinion, oversimplify their statements. It could be argued that the expression of stereotyping Americans as lacking nuance, itself lacks nuance. I believe really most people are similar in that we have our biases, differences in context and experiences. We can all try our best to be as nuanced as possible.

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What really do Americans know about Ukraine or Taiwan? E.g. can even 1% of US population show Ukraine on the world map (without using Google Maps)? Could they do it before 2022? Before 2014? Do they know anything about Ukraine or Taiwan history? How many Americans know a single foreign language?

If tomorrow there would be a war or protests in, say, Burundi. Will Americans stay with Burundi or against it? Or with the country the media will tell them is "good" because their interests align with US interests?

I think answers to all these questions are obvious.

To be fair, lack of knowledge of other countries is hardly uniquely American. As an Irish person travelling around the non western world, there's a lot of people who don't know that Ireland is a country separate to the UK, or even that it exists.

I would say it's statistics, rather than stereotyping. I'm glad you're capable of nuance though, maybe you can teach that to some of your compatriots?

I think that the stereotype of Americans lacking nuance around political issue is valid. Obviously, like all stereotypes, it’s not 100% true but Americans seem to feel obliged to pick one side of an issue, most of the time aligned with the worth of their choice, and then to view everything that’s happening through that lens.

Try to point out to a democrat that Trump is doing something right or to a Trump voter that Biden did something right. Most of them can’t accept that. The “other” side has to all bad. I don’t see this to such an extreme in other countries I know like Germany or Spain.

My personal take is this is a consequence of the two-party system. In the US you can "identify" as a democrat or republican. Once you do that, you don't _have_ to think, you can let tribalism guide you.

If in another country I vote for these guys or sometimes those other guys, and once this little party that got a seat, but not really those ones, and I really hate these ones, then your "political identity" already has a lot of nuance. In Australia with preferencial voting, a single vote has a lot of naunce.

What can you get in America? Green Party supportors who "strategically" vote for a democrat? Not much else...

The other problem is the US has two parties: one center right (and i'm being generous with center) and another rabid right.

It has been like that since forever. They don't know how a left leaning party looks.

> to such an extreme in other countries I know like Germany

could you remind me what country is the afd based out of thnx

Does the existence of an alt-right WannaBeNazi party in modern Germany preclude the existance of a spectrum of views within Germany and usher in an inability of a majority of Germans to express themselves with nuance though?

By all means make a considered and thoughtful point, please.

You do prove the extreme polarized politics. For you it is AfD vs others.

In reality it is not. It is a spectrum of parties. People vote often for smaller parties in the state and larger ones in the national.

Saying Americans lack nuance is like saying Germans are bureaucratic or British have shit food. It's not true 100% of the time but it's true enough broadly enough to be a valid statement.

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