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I don't know how true that is. A person in Moldova knows what and where the US, probably knows who Lady Gaga is and knows of cities like LA and NYC, and that's not reciprocated from he US to Moldova. But, I've found that most people only have a cursory knowledge of US culture that is generally fairly inaccurate, whether it's overly rosy or overly harsh - life here is grand and we are all friendly, agreeable, successful people, or it's a big, violent dump full of fat morons, neither one is entirely accurate. Can't really fault them if they've never been here, but that's just it... by the same token, I don't think it's fair to fault Americans for not having intimate knowledge of other nations.
It's funny, because there are actually lots and lots of Americans who think that way about the UK
Thanks
I don't think that this is accurate. In my travels, I've found that the average person is fairly ignorant of international issues, and the US is, actually, one of the more progressive when it comes to attitudes of race, sexual orientation, etc. There have been many times that I've been talking to someone from another country who is reasonably intelligent and international-minded, and then they mention that they don't like or trust black people, or gays, or Muslims, or Jews, or _________. A huge element of education in most of the US is centered around accepting diversity, and the result is that the average American is pretty comfortable with diversity.
Americans aren't really an ethnicity (yet), so "ethnocentric" isn't really the right word, and again, I don't find that this is something unique to Americans. It can be found anywhere in the world, in any nation, any culture, any race or group.
That is simply untrue, unless you are setting the barometer at the lowest common denominator of Americans, which is something you could do for any place in the world. You have people in the UK and AU who have the "we grew here, you flew here" mentality and don't give a second thought to anything going on in the rest of the world.
Especially among Gen-X and younger, tons of Americans are interested in European, Latin, African, and Asian cultures; we're a young country formed of immigrants, and tend to be interested in cultures that go back to ancient times. In public school, I learned about the Native Americans, Egyptians, Romans, Mayans and Aztecs, African migration, the Chinese and Japanese, etc etc etc. A fair number of Americans get negatively stereotyped as Anglophiles, Sinophiles, Japanophiles, Latinophiles, Afrophiles, etc if they show a great interest in any specific culture and then are accused of cultural appropriation or insensitivity.
Most Americans I know don't own a flag and never really affirm any pride they have for being American. This is a stereotype that I wish would die; the levels of patriotism you see in Americans that is deemed "demented" or "arrogant" is thought of as being a healthy and understandable national pride when applied to other countries around the world.
I will certainly agree with that. I can't stand the SJW movement that's bleeding over from the internet to real life, and the witch hunt to neuter grammar and thought that has been going on for the last couple decades is reprehensible. It's turned a large subsection of Americans into obsessively oversensitive types who read far too much into any and every statement and ultimately end up being more divisive and polarizing than the people they think they stand in opposition to. But, this is as much a problem in the UK, Canada, and Australia as it is here.
Still, i love the country, have many friends there, and think USA is fantastic, dont know what would do without USA, seriously, my life without the literature, movie industry, and tv shows of USA would be radically different! wich is much more than you can say about any other country in the world too
Apparently, the US census does recognize American as an ethnicity.
Americans aren't really an ethnicity (yet), so "ethnocentric" isn't really the right word, and again, I don't find that this is something unique to Americans. It can be found anywhere in the world, in any nation, any culture, any race or group.
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Well, according to the online dictionary, this is the defintion of ethnocentric: belief in the intrinsic superiority of the nation, culture, or group to which one belongs, often accompanied by feelings of dislike for other groups
the only downside is that the common population is probably much more ignorant than in any other country. Also, people in USA have NO IDEA about anything in other countries. They are the epithome of ethnocentricsm. They dont know (and they dont care to know) about anything other than USA. Wich is the definition of ignorant by the way. They also are uber patriotic to the point of demency. And politicalcorrectness is like a deasese there (see curb your enthusiasm for that).
This is bound to happen to people who live in a very big and amazing country that happens to be located in a pretty isolated location in the world.... we can't really help it, we have so much here plus all the other amazing parts of the world are sooooooooo far away.
I would love to tie a rope to Japan and China and pull them closer to us but i don't think that's possible.
This is bound to happen to people who live in a very big and amazing country that happens to be located in a pretty isolated location in the world.... we can't really help it, we have so much here plus all the other amazing parts of the world are sooooooooo far away.
I would love to tie a rope to Japan and China and pull them closer to us but i don't think that's possible.
Oh god, bad idea. Baaaaaaad idea.
I'd be over the moon if we were magically shipped to 10000 miles away from Taiwan Strait lol.
Japan'd be missed though.
It is.
At least that's the feeling I've got while living here.
It's the world of its own.
In many ways like Russia.
Okay, fair enough.
It just doesn't seem isolated to me at all.
A trip anywhere just requires a passport and some dosh. Visas are obtained at the point of entry for many countries. Not a great deal of planning required.
It's not isolated in economic and political sense of it; in fact it's pretty much in the center of it all.
But as far as the daily lives of average Americans goes - the outlook, the common views, the interests - yes, it's the world of its own. Quite disconnected from the rest, comparably, say, even to Europeans.
It's not isolated in economic and political sense of it.
But as far as the daily lives of average Americans goes - the outlook, the common views, the interests - yes, it's the world of its own. Quite disconnected from the rest, comparably, say, even to Europeans.
I don't think that outlook is isolationist or unique. It felt much like here, with the world view being an ethnocentric one.
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