Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America
thoughtcatalog.com
thoughtcatalog.com
I think there is one thing were many Americans really have a wrong opinion about themselves. It's that they enjoy the most freedom in the world. IMHO this should be number one in the list.
I haven't lived outside the United States, but I have spent a considerable amount of time in parts of Europe and I definitely saw "exceptions" to what he presents everywhere I went.
For example, in Poland, people absolutely loved Americans and telling people I was American and not British warranted free beers and lots of attention from women.
In Scandinavia, everyone was extremely insecure because their cultures look down on competition and individuality. In the article, he mentions that in America women don't know how to react when told they are beautiful. If that's the case then Scandinavian women all but have a stroke when you tell them they're beautiful. In contrast, in South America, Women have no issues at all carrying on a conversation after a bold approach like that.
My point is that there are some HUGE generalizations being made here -- the world is a very big place -- and you should take this all with a grain of salt. That said, I found this a fascinating, refreshing article. Thanks for sharing it blackjack48.
"We're Status-Obsessed and Seek Attention"
and he proves it at the end of the article:
"You should like Thought Catalog on Facebook here."
For one thing it is really wrong to talk about the "culture" of America. Even just in the same state, even in the same county, the culture of people can vary widely. Just go to Palo Alto, talk to the super friendly people there (because the billionaires wear hoodies and they don't know how much money you have) then try to find the black people (oh they are there .. there are lots of them .. can you find them?) and see if you can talk to them and get them to open up and see what their culture is like. In the south, go to a white church and a black church and then come tell me if they have the same culture. This sort of thing happens all over the world as well. Unless you have stayed in a country for YEARS I don't think you can even begin to understand the intricacy of cultures in that area.
Generalizing a people by their country is no more (or less) accurate than generalizing people by their gender or the color of their skin. It's not completely inaccurate but it is completely wrong a lot of times.
AFAIK, England's parliament, prior to the US, could not remotely be described as a democracy. Indeed, it was well over a hundred years later that this would be the case.
I have no idea what he means by "other parts of Europe". My best guess would be San Marino, which has had a democratic-ish thing going for a very long time. But San Marino was (and indeed is) pretty far from a modern democracy in any sense of the term.
The US might not have a lot of things going for it. But I think it's fair to say that it's the first modern democracy.
The English Civil War, a few decades earlier, was fought between pro-parliament (Oliver Cromwell) and pro-monarchist forces.
Without these events, it's unlikely the U.S. would have been founded explicitly as a Republic. As it was, Alexander Hamilton and other Federalists argued at the constitutional convention for an elective monarchy. (Which is why the presidency is more powerful than the anti-federalists and others would have liked)
The Magna Carta was also basically ignored, but was utterly critical for the English Bill of Rights, which really has been followed, till this day.
Isn't history fun! And nuanced! And grey!
That caused him great trouble. Till his death, he insisted that be the version preserved for posterity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_In...
How? When the USA got independence it basically copied the UK voting/parliament system, only allowing white men who owned property to voting, just like UK.
Of course, it depends on definition of "democracy". But I can't see how you can have a definition that would hold the following things all true: "(a) The UK is a democracy in 2013 (b) The USA was a democracy in 1776 (c) The UK was not a democracy in 1776 (d) The UK was not a democracy for ~100 years after 1776"
(I use the term UK, but don't think it was called that in 1776)
What about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commo... ?
Iceland perhaps?
1. There are more American flags in Saigon that I've seen almost anywhere in the US. Being American here has more cache here than being British, Australian, etc. Probably because American ex-pats are kind of rare here, not counting the Viet Kieu. Maybe this isn't true the more north you go, but it is in Saigon for sure.
3. I'm totally not sure where he gets the idea the Vietnamese think the "American War" (what they refer to it as) being about China when it was clearly about expelling foreign occupation and re-uniting the country. Maybe he has it confused with the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in the 1970's which had more to do with the Khmer Rouge aligning with China, while Vietnam was aligned with Russia.
5. If you think the quality of life isn't great for the average American, come on down to District 4 and grab a bowl of pho with me. Or we could go to PR Karaoke and have the hostess girl tell us about why she's working at karaoke.
6. Bangkok is kind of a shit hole. But it's a much nicer shit hole than most of it's SE Asian neighbor's big cities. And of course the world is predictable and all people everywhere have common sets of problems. But my experience is that the severity of those problems, on a whole, are much more severe in developing countries than what most people face in America.
7. Agree whole heartedly.
8. This is what makes America special though. Try training iPhone developers in Vietnam for a few months and you realize it's that "you are special" thing we are taught from childhood that makes the difference in our skillsets. I think a mild level of arrogance is healthy.
This post largely strikes me as attacking American export culture mostly. Guess I'm in an exceptional bubble then.
I don't know if these are very popular in the US, but the CBC has a whole series called 'Rick Mercer Talks To Americans' (comme ca http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhTZ_tgMUdo) where he gets people in DC, New York, and other major cities to go on national television and petition to 'Save The Parliamentary Igloo', 'Stop the Saskatchewan Whale Hunt', etc. These people really just don't seem to:
a) have any awareness of the rest of the continent they live on, above the 49th
b) care what they say in public. They'll just spout anything to be on the TeeVee
I'm aware it's all edited to be entertaining, but frankly it does seem fairly representative of American exceptionalist and isolationist culture.
Canadian prejudice against Americans has little to do with Americans and much to do with ourselves. It's a national neurosis (at least among the educated classes) which we're mostly unaware of. It quickly becomes obvious to Americans who notice it, though. I've had many conversations with American friends about this. Luckily for us, most Americans' feelings toward Canada are uncomplicated, friendly and warm, so they have no idea how far from reciprocated this is. It's also lucky for us that they think we're cute and don't take us seriously, because if they did they'd find a lot to be offended by.
The most curious aspect of Canadian prejudice against Americans is how openly and proudly we proclaim it, as if it could be nothing but endearing. This is a consequence of its being mostly unconscious.
Seriously thought, did you watch the video? I should find the one where he says our Prime Minister is "Pierre Poutine".
Another humorist who does this, in a meaner way, is Sasha Baron-Cohen. The lesson here is not how ridiculous the people being ridiculed are, but rather: Who controls the editing controls everything. Christopher Hitchens said brilliantly about the dinner party scene in Borat that it showed not how racist Americans are, but how polite they are.
Mercer's portrayals of Americans are not portrayals of Americans at all, but of Canadians' self-congratulatory caricatures of Americans. It makes me cringe with embarrassment.
Is a lack of exposure to Canadian television really a problem? Americans listen to quite a bit of Canadian music. And a sizable minority also watch a significant amount of British television (Downton Abbey, tons of Murder-Mystery stuff). Not to mention the huge amount of European literature we're exposed to in our education system or that we read for pleasure (Harry Potter). But that's just western culture. Looking East, you can also look at the huge impact Japanese Animation and Chinese Film has had on our culture as well.
Americans will voraciously consume any media that's 1) Made available to them (Most Canadian TV fails this test) 2) In English.
And from showing all of the rest of my non-british loving friends these shows they tend to become instant fans. So I think this meta problem is really not on the American side to be honest but the lack of availability if at all.
And yes, I don't think a show demonstrating foreigners lack of knowledge about US culture would be produced here. That sounds like a very boring show.
Ironically, the author essentially commits the sin he is accusing other Americans of, painting a large group of diverse people with caricatures and stereotypes invented and reinforced by mass media. The US has a common language (with some exceptions) but there is not a common culture except in a a very loose sense.
It's not that all 10 items are only true for the US and not true for any other countries -- there are certainly other status-obsessed countries, other unhealthy countries, etc. -- but I think the most important take-away from the article is that America is not nearly as special as Americans assume it is.
I remember being shocked as I discovered that on my own, long ago. America may have the biggest military or invent a lot of things, but it's still just another country. But because we're so big and so insular, it's hard for most Americans to realize.
(However, I still like the US an awful lot too -- living in NYC now is great because there's such a mix of people from everywhere.)
> Whereas, in almost every other culture approaching women this way is met with a confident smile and a “Thank you.”
That said: The author (and others) mention people getting surgery and the like for free. This doesn't seem accurate to me: doctors and nurses must be payed, medicines acquired, hospitals run, etc. The cost may be collected differently (taxation vs. insurance or at time of service) and various systems may be more or less efficient. But except in rare edge cases, no system is free.
Speak of medicine, yes, drugs are more expensive in the US than elsewhere. My understanding is that there are multiple reasons for this, including that some countries with nationalized healthcare can negotiate in bulk, Americans have more to spend, and the insane cost of R&D is primarily recouped in the American market. The rest of the world quite literally has subsidized pharmaceuticals. Edit: which is not to say that drugs are not in fact unusually expensive in the USA. But it is misleading to blithely imply that other countries are less messed up because they have cheaper pharmaceuticals.
Finally, the snarky comments about profit seem a bit off the mark. Do we believe that the food industries in other countries are not interested in profit?
Well, for one it's not overpaid 10 times, as is in the US.
So essentially, even in the numeric sense, it's almost free.
Second, for free means "without having to pay directly".
Yes, people pay through taxes.
But then again, you pay taxes in the US too, and that doesn't give you free surgery.
I would have preferred to keep my mouth shut, but when my own (software-development oriented) submissions have been flagged, I've groused that I wish flagging required a brief written justification. So I felt obligated to write this to explain myself.
If I could downvote the article I would, and I'm not the type to flag submissions, but to see this on the front page is, I guess, indicative of the audience and their views.
What? I don't know any Australian people who would be impressed by American people just because they are from the US. Perhaps you didn't pick up on our sense of humour? Or perhaps you meant Australian politicians?
>Norwegians make more money.
>despite being the richest country in the world, we come in a paltry 38th. (life expectancy)
>In a recent survey of young Americans, 63% could not find Iraq on a map (despite being at war with them)
Then there are the references to CNN and Fox News. (vomit) Do Americans really get their news from these sources? Or is it only the TV-zombie masses?
That said, I do agree that we are too full of ourselves, and we do exhibit a fair bit of myopic tendencies as pertains to just where we actually stand in the overall global scheme.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, why is this crap on the front page of HN?
Norwegians make $62,767 per year per capita on average.[1] Americans make $49,965 per year per capita on average.[1] So an average Norwegian makes $12,802 more every year.
You know that Norway is a pretty small country compared to the USA : 5 millions inhabitants vs 300 millions.
That is you should try simple maths :
5,000,000 * 62,757
300,000,000 * 49,965
I'm pretty sure the second result will be slightly bigger.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP...
So, is that respectively? Do conservatives generally feel one way while liberals feel another?
There are many countries on the continent of Africa and almost a billion people and nobody would argue referring to people from there as Africans. What if South Africa argued only its citizens could be called Africans?
There are many people and many countries in the EU and Europe (who aren't part of the EU) that you could refer to as Europeans. Spain doesn't have exclusive use to the word European anymore than someone from Italy or Germany does.
Asia is a bit different but an Asian person is generally from India, China, south Asian, etc. just not China or Japan.
The Americas both North and South what do we call people from those countries? No not just North American or South American I mean referring to all people, otherwise the USA should be called the United States of North America.
In other words - if a random person somewhere in the world mentions 'America' they are most likely refering to the USA. So people (outside of South America obviously) just choose to save time and skip the 'Northern' bit. I know it's a bit unfair to South Americans - but that's life. Same way Scots and Welsh are probably unhappy when rest of the world thinks they are from England.
Perhaps if in the future the roles change and South America dominates, the language will adopt.
Well, this part has changed a little since the article was written in May.
That's what European history buffs think too. Russia (USSR) bled Hitler to death, and then the US comes, does a little song and dance and "we defeated Germany!".
He was fully defeated by Russia and Americans+UK.
I'm not impressed by the author's use of "we." Speak for yourself. Calling out the points in the blog post kindly submitted here one by one,
1. FEW PEOPLE ARE IMPRESSED BY US
I beg to differ. I know just one non-American part of the world well, and I am well aware that opinions about the United States and Americans are varied and complicated everywhere, but I have met quite a few people who are impressed by Americans as Americans. In particular, I have met quite a large number of people from other countries who are impressed by Americans who learn a non-English language (hmmm, that would only be a minority of Americans) and who make an honest effort to understand and appreciate the history and culture of another country while living in that country. Perhaps the author mostly knows unimpressive Americans.
2. FEW PEOPLE HATE US
In general, people I've encountered from all over the world wherever I've been overseas have seemed friendly to Americans. (I should note that I have been inside the borders of the United States since a couple months before 11 September 2001, so I acknowledge this may have changed.) Even when my government misbehaves on the world scene, which means my country is misbehaving and I am im part blameworthy as one American voter among millions, I still feel most people from other countries give me a break and assume that I have as little control over my government as they may have over theirs. (Because I feel I have more control over my government than people in many other countries, I feel more responsible for its misdeeds than some foreign friends blame me for being.)
3. WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD
I call baloney on this. There is a level of ignorance that Americans have about the rest of the world particularly because of the systematic lack of foreign language learning in K-12 schooling in the U.S., but there is also an exposure to people from all over the world here because of openness to immigration and mass media from everywhere that largely counterbalances that. I know a LOT of Americans who have traveled to multiple countries for fun or business or both. The most knowledgeable Americans are the Americans who learn languages other than English, but some other Americans know about other countries too. Because many Americans are first-generation immigrants, a lot of Americans are personally acquainted with friends and relatives who know about other countries.
4. WE ARE POOR AT EXPRESSING GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION
Here, the author far too much emphasizes his particular ethnic subculture in the United States (and contrasts it with particular example countries that are not representative of the whole world) and doesn't accurately represent America. In contrast to the author, I have encountered a lot of people who think of Americans as very warm and passionate and straightforward people. "Compared to what?" is the question to ask here.
5. THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE AVERAGE AMERICAN IS NOT THAT GREAT
This is put to the lie by the continued strong net immigration rate the United States enjoys compared to almost all other countries in the world. Tens of millions of people all over the world want to live here.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/161435/100-million-worldwide-drea...
The United States has to adjust its immigration and border regulations to keep people from coming in in even greater numbers, not to hold people here and keep them from moving to other countries. (Many countries of the world have "exit visas" or onerous regulations for obtaining passports, while it is ridiculously easy to leave the United States.)
6. THE REST OF THE WORLD IS NOT A SLUM-RIDDEN SHITHOLE COMPARED TO US
The rest of the world is catching up, true. Taiwan is quite a pleasant place to live now, and may become one of the five wealthiest countries in the world in my lifetime.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/15/singapore...
But the United States is still improving year on year too. Much of what I enjoy about life in the United States in 2013 was unimaginable in 1969, when my elementary school class prepared a time capsule with predictions of the year 2001--which was opened that year so that I can check my predictions.
7. WE’RE PARANOID
Again I call baloney on this. My four children have all roamed our neighborhood freely and walked or biked to the public library (one mile away in one direction) or to shopping (one mile away in another direction) by themselves since early childhood. We don't worry about anything here.
8. WE’RE STATUS-OBSESSED AND SEEK ATTENTION
Speak for yourself, bub. I notice how you are weaving in an advertising message in your blog post, but I have ways of reality-checking anyone's reputation, and I'm not buying what you're selling until I hear more about you from my friends.
9. WE ARE VERY UNHEALTHY
廢話. This is just flatly contradicted by all available data.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=longevity-w...
Health is improving at all ages for Americans. Life expectancy at all ages is rising. Girls born since 2000 in the developed world are more likely than not to reach the age of 100, with boys likely to enjoy lifespans almost as long. The article "The Biodemography of Human Ageing" by James Vaupel,
http://www.demographic-challenge.com/files/downloads/2eb51e2...
originally published in the journal Nature in 2010, is a good current reference on the subject. Vaupel is one of the leading scholars on the demography of aging and how to adjust for time trends in life expectancy. His striking finding is "Humans are living longer than ever before. In fact, newborn children in high-income countries can expect to live to more than 100 years. Starting in the mid-1800s, human longevity has increased dramatically and life expectancy is increasing by an average of six hours a day."
http://www.prb.org/Journalists/Webcasts/2010/humanlongevity....
10. WE MISTAKE COMFORT FOR HAPPINESS
Again, speak for yourself. The lifestyle trade-offs I am allowed to choose with my family in my free country include lots of family togetherness (we are a homeschooling family) and "multiculturalism" in the best sense (we know and cherish as friends people from all over the world). For us, happiness is all about human relationships, not about owning the latest "penis car" or other status symbol.
One of the great things about America is that any doofus with an opinion can express it on a blog, and anyone who chances to read the blog by following a link posted to Hacker News can discuss it here. Isn't life in America great?
2. Sure, America gets dumped on in media all over the world. And blamed for economic disparity across the world. But the general populace, as the OP states, really doesn't think about America. It's true. Unless they have a relative or a friend in America they think about, or there's some global news going around, they really couldn't care less, which = not hating. Which is why they give you a break -- they don't care (although whether they should care is a different question)
3. Foreign language is not the only thing. Almost all of us can speak English, believe it or not. Just talk to us in English to get to know about us. And I'm amazed you can call American immigration "open" in the midst of all the conversation going on about it right now. I'm strongly led to believe you don't know very many non-Americans entangled in immigration in the last 5 years. Myself, I'm getting the boot by the end of this year (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5708206). I'll leave it at that, always a separate discussion.
Agreed, there are countries worse than America for immigration. But really, for all the immigrants, how many do you think nationals really interact with closely? How many of those are just outliers to the typical citizen of their respective countries? Large parts of the country that aren't Atlanta, Seattle, Boston or California have very little cultural intermingling and really, Americans know little to nothing about the rest of the world there. Of course, there are world-aware Americans and those who interact with others. This is a terrible terrible minority. And I suspect you have a selection bias here, where you probably interact with (and are one of) those kinds of people more than your average bumpkin who only cares about a 50 mile radius of his existence.
4. I completely agree with you here, countries like South Korea and many parts of India are far more ridiculously poor at self-expression than America. The author's expression is compared to the most open cultures in the world.
5. Of us immigrants, I imagine a large number do it because of proximity (Mexicans/South Americans), and relatively better, yes. Immigrants from other developed countries are here not for the standard of living, but for the innovative economy and career opportunities, fun products to work on, etc. The American Dream, in practice, is a thing of the past, and to people still groping for it, it's a delusion. People in those countries just aren't advertised to by any other country (like Sweden or Finland) as much as by the US via popular media. For the record, my quality of life here is certainly below where it would be if I worked a job commensurate to my qualifications back in India or the Middle East, but I love my work here more than anything I could see myself doing back home, as the markets exist today.
6. Yes, the US is a developed country. So it would be unfair to really compare it to most of the world. A lot of places really are slum-ridden shitholes (inside the US too, but moreso outside), but a LOT of places aren't. I don't see why you really disagree with the author here.
7. I'm sure you aren't paranoid, and I'm glad you aren't raising your kids to be. Again, I call selection bias on you calling baloney on this. If you pick any article that talks about international anything on the internet, and read a couple comments, you'll hear how paranoid they are about foreigners, about crime, about the government, about bomb threats, terrorists, etc. A lot of it is grounded, a lot of it plain stupid. The media, law-enforcement and public reactions to events in general all depict this paranoia, and a lot of it is grounded in Americans believing the rest of the world is out to get them and ruin their pretty lives (goes back to point 2).
8. This is probably true over the entire world. Maybe you don't seek status, but my parents, my friends, my cousins, and I'm sure to a great extent, myself, all are pretty status-obsessed and seek attention. Americans have eaten up social media tools more aggressively than most of the world (not surprising given most of it started here) and so seem more explicitly attention-seeking, but really, the whole world does this. That's being human in a society.
9. Long lifespans and being "healthy" are correlated, but not equivalent. However, there are definitely worse health problems over most of the world. In fact, I think more Americans think the country is unhealthier than it actually is. However, healthcare is definitely cheaper in the rest of the world. If I had to do serious surgery, it would cost me far less to buy a two-way plane ticket to India and pay for the best hospital and doctors the country can provide there than try to go to a default hospital here in California to get it fixed. If only I didn't have such visa issues if I tried to do that...
10. Do you really feel you are representative of Americans choosing to not pick a penis-car and go for homeschooling and encourage multiculturism and human relationships? People I know who I never thought would mistake comfort for happiness when they were in college, have rapidly turned into those looking for "nicer" suburban houses, routine expensive getaways and big televisions, and, believe it or not, penis cars. However, this is true in a lot of the world wherever people have significantly more than the baseline required money, and I don't think is an exclusively American thing either.