
Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America - blackjack48
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/10-things-most-americans-dont-know-about-america/
======
weinzierl
As a German, I'd say most of the points of this article are true for Germany,
and I guess for many other countries, as well. They are not specific American
but just typically human.

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.

------
adambratt
Great article! One thing I'd like to point out though is how his note about
making generalizations in the first section makes it seem like everything he
says is mostly fact.

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.

------
miles
The author's point number 8:

 _" 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."_

~~~
postsantum
It's not the original blog, it is just a repost from here
[http://markmanson.net/](http://markmanson.net/)

~~~
greenyoda
The original site prominently displays logos of well-known media outlets ("as
seen on NBC News"), promotes a book entitled "The Style Guide for Men" and
also has all the usual social media buttons. So I see a bit of status
obsession and attention seeking there too.

------
dusklight
I think this writer of this post is more than a little ignorant of the class
that he is in and the class that the people he has been meeting are in. As a
personal account from someone honestly expressing his own opinion I still
think it was a good read but it makes way too many assumptions that are wrong.

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.

------
SeanLuke
> We didn’t even invent modern democracy. There were parliamentary systems in
> England and other parts of Europe over a hundred years before we created
> government.

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.

~~~
jivatmanx
Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, English Bill of Rights 1689, the
Monarchy never since had absolute power, there was always a powerful
parliament.

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)

~~~
rmc
Or the Magna Carta of 11something

~~~
jivatmanx
1215\. There is actually a lesser known document called the "Charter of
Liberties" from 1100. It was entirely ignored but was critical influence for
the Magna Carta.

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.

~~~
rmc
And you can make out that (parts of( the US Declaration of Independence was
also ignored: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.".
Just ask any slave living under that constitution!

Isn't history fun! And nuanced! And grey!

~~~
jivatmanx
Fully 30% of Jefferson's Original Declaration was truncated. It explicitly
denounced slavery and blamed it on Britain.

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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence#Slavery_and_the_Declaration)

------
jawngee
As an American who is living in Vietnam and has travelled around Asia a lot
(including North Korea), I take issue with a lot of the points in this
article.

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.

------
mitchty
As an American, I honestly don't see these as being a problem at all where I
live. Maybe its more relegated to the coasts but by and large everyone I know
here (obviously there are exceptions every now and again) already knows/has
this internalized.

This post largely strikes me as attacking American export culture mostly.
Guess I'm in an exceptional bubble then.

~~~
alanctgardner2
'Problem' and 'attacking' sound a bit defensive. The post is definitely a
generalization, but I would say (as a Canadian who visits the US a few weeks
out of the year) that these are fairly accurate.

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](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.

~~~
mistermann
You could easily send an American reporter onto the streets of Canada, or any
nation for that matter, and produce the same results.

~~~
alanctgardner2
It's all fine and well to say that, but there's actually the meta-problem that
Americans don't really want to watch non-Americans. Despite the dismal quality
of network television, and drought of content for 24 hour news stations, no US
television producer has thought, "We'll go to Canada and laugh at how they
don't know how to make a Philly Cheesesteak!".

Seriously thought, did you watch the video? I should find the one where he
says our Prime Minister is "Pierre Poutine".

~~~
spamizbad
> It's all fine and well to say that, but there's actually the meta-problem
> that Americans don't really want to watch non-Americans

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.

~~~
mitchty
I find this amusing that every one of my friends watches the following
religiously: Top Gear, Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Peep Show, QI, amongst
others.

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.

------
crazygringo
As someone who lived outside the US for about 10 years as an adult, in several
countries, this pretty much rings true.

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.)

------
Apocryphon
I'm wondering how many fo these apply to other countries in the Anglosphere.
Certainly Americans in general must be better at expressing emotions than the
British in general, culturally speaking.

~~~
onli
That part was quite funny to read, as a german. If americans are cold, what
are we? Frozen to death.

~~~
weinzierl
As a fellow German this was my thinking as well.

------
Tarrosion
The author's discussion of healthcare seems a bit off, or at least misleading,
to me. I'll freely admit I'm not an expert and my understanding is that the
healthcare system in the United States has all kinds of perverse incentives
and lack thereof, etc.

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?

~~~
coldtea
> _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._

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.

------
bhauer
I have never flagged anything at HN before, but this has absolutely nothing to
do with the characteristics I associate with HN. Plus the "things that most
Americans don't know" are pablum I've seen so many times before as to be
boring.

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.

~~~
D9u
Amen brother. While this article is a break from the PRISM fodder that's seen
quite a bit of play here, it has absolutely nothing to do with software
development, technology, or the internet.

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.

------
mehrzad
As a teenager in America with immigrant parents, I'm surprised at how few
people understand metric units or even the universal dating system and 24 hour
time. Foreign language classes are the only things even bringing this stuff up
where I am.

------
stephen_g
"but unless you actually are Steve Jobs or Thomas Edison (which is unlikely)
then most people around the world are simply not going to care. There are
exceptions of course. And those exceptions are called English and Australian
people."

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_?

------
olympus
This is more or less correct, but I think the author exaggerated the "non-
noteworthiness" of the USA in order to make a point. While the rest of the
world may not care about an individual US citizen, they all pay close
attention to the country as a whole. They do this because the USA makes a HUGE
impact on the world stage and not paying attention to us isn't an option. Just
about every news broadcast in the rest of the world will have a short bit on
"what's going on in America." Granted, the things the rest of the world thinks
are important (who are we invading now, who did we make angry) are not the
same things that CNN thinks are important (the popular murder trial, Kim
Kardashian's baby's name). The USA casts a large shadow around the world. This
doesn't give Americans the right to act like fools when we travel, but we
aren't exactly impotent.

------
D9u
I found the article to be inconsistent.

    
    
        >Norwegians make more money.
        >despite being the richest country in the world, we come in a paltry 38th. (life expectancy)
    

So which is it? How can the USA be the _richest country in the world_ if
_Norwegians make more money?_

    
    
        >In a recent survey of young Americans, 63% could not find Iraq on a map (despite being at war with them)
    

Umm, we were never _at war_ with Iraq. The perpetual proxy wars are being
waged against an ideology called "Terror."

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?

~~~
vmarsy
> So which is it? How can the USA be the richest country in the world if
> Norwegians make more money?

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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita)

------
JackFr
Pretend-smart pablum.

------
Codhisattva
Nice perspective from outside the USA USA USA bubble.

------
greenyoda
Previously submitted a couple of times:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4231219](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4231219)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5633838](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5633838)

------
chinpokomon
" Americans tend to assume that the rest of the world either loves us or hates
us (this is actually a good litmus test to tell if someone is conservative or
liberal)."

So, is that respectively? Do conservatives generally feel one way while
liberals feel another?

------
dhughes
It's difficult to discuss this without arguing but what about the name
"America" not the "United States of America".

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.

~~~
omonra
The problem is that US dwarfs the rest of the continent in most things -
economy, scientific development, etc.

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.

~~~
dhughes
I prefer USians. ;)

~~~
omonra
Sounds like a nice shorthand for asian americans :)

------
znowi
_Few people hate us_

Well, this part has changed a little since the article was written in May.

------
coldtea
> _Hitler was primarily defeated by Russia (not us)_

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!".

~~~
vmarsy
Hitler was primarily defeated by the US in western Europe at least.

He was fully defeated by Russia and Americans+UK.

------
diminoten
I take issue with the sexist bits of this article, but I agree with the
overall "Americans are cold and don't say how they feel" message. As an
American, it gets confusing and lonely sometimes.

------
tokenadult
My user profile discloses my experience all over the United States, and my
lengthy stays overseas (mostly in just one part of the world, but including a
stay at an international dorm where I met people from all over the world).

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...](http://www.gallup.com/poll/161435/100-million-worldwide-dream-
life.aspx)

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...](http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/15/singapore-
worlds-richest-country-by-2050/)

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...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=longevity-
why-we-die-global-life-expectancy)

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...](http://www.demographic-
challenge.com/files/downloads/2eb51e2860ef54d218ce5ce19abe6a59/dc_biodemography_of_human_ageing_nature_2010_vaupel.pdf)

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....](http://www.prb.org/Journalists/Webcasts/2010/humanlongevity.aspx)

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?

~~~
keerthiko
I grew up in the Middle East, and in India, and came to America for the first
time 6 years ago for college, and have been here for a while since then. There
has been dispelling of a lot of myths from both sides, but I do strongly feel
all 10 of your rebuttals to the OP are narrow definitions of the points or
exceptions, as a result of selection bias from the kinds of Americans or
internationals you primarily interact with. Exemplified via hyperbole and
mostly personal experience: 1\. Really, people are impressed when an American
is like a "normal" person from the rest of the world: "Wow you can speak some
language other than your malformed version of english? Impressive! I can speak
four -- my mothertongue, my national language, English, and some scrappy
French from two years of high school. But it's amazing that you grew up in
America and can now speak two!" I wouldn't really call that being impressed.

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](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.

------
xenophanes
Off topic political rant. Flagged.

~~~
wldlyinaccurate
You could just, you know, ignore it and carry on with your life. You'll be
happier that way.

