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One thing I see a lot, especially in universities are people who incessantly whine about their own country. These people usually have other countries in mind that they feel they "belong in" or feel they are the best countries in the world. This just seems weird to me, I see this a lot and most of the people I see that hate their own country the most and call people closed minded are typically the ones who have traveled the least.
Is this something you guys notice or see in your countries also?
Constant pessimism about your own country is annoying, but the reverse is equally as annoying in my opinion.
When I was 18, I was similar to the people you are describing. I had this idea in my mind that I wasn't supposed to live here, and that I would be better suited elsewhere. I think I was more frustrated about my own personal situation and figured that things would be different if I was living somewhere else, or if I was born somewhere else.
And, of course, some people just dislike where they live for whatever reason.
If you want to see British self-loathing at its best, just read the comments section under most Guardian articles. These people are usually trendy urban types who hate the UK and adore everywhere else (especially Germany or Scandinavia).
One thing I see a lot, especially in universities are people who incessantly whine about their own country. These people usually have other countries in mind that they feel they "belong in" or feel they are the best countries in the world. This just seems weird to me, I see this a lot and most of the people I see that hate their own country the most and call people closed minded are typically the ones who have traveled the least.
Is this something you guys notice or see in your countries also?
Yeah, it's afairly common here. I think it's childish, personally.
Like you said, it seems most common with young people who haven't actually traveled much. once they get old enough to realize that no, we aren't "the best" at everything, our government is dysfunctional, we have problems with classicism, racism, sexism, etc, they feel like they've been lied to and duped, and as a reaction, they often latch on to dune other country that they've heard boosted as being "better." Since they don't actually have any perception about the place, they decide that it's superior in every way, and the affinity they have grows so great that they start feeling like they were "meant" to be from that country.
At my high school, Cuba was the big one for whatever reason. All these upper middle class white kids who took African American studies as an elective and suddenly felt wrought with guilt, started growing dreds and listening to political college hip hop, and decided that Cuba was the best country ever. One of the extracurricular clubs actually organized a trip to Cuba via Canada and maybe a dozen kids went; all but one kid came back saying it was a repressive dump and that everyone was trying to swindle them everywhere they went. The one who loved it fell in love with a young radical and she ended up wiring him thousands of dollars before she found out he was already married.
The more that you travel, the more you experience other cultures, the mute perspective you have and the harder it is to have such opinions; your BS meter becomes much more finely tuned as you see that people are people and that no one way of life is inherently and automatically better or worse than another (with a big caveat to basic human rights, of course).
If you want to see British self-loathing at its best, just read the comments section under most Guardian articles. These people are usually trendy urban types who hate the UK and adore everywhere else (especially Germany or Scandinavia).
Guardian readers are a real pain, they seem to want to impose their left wing liberal agenda on everyone and are only happy when moaning about the country they live in. I should imagine that most of the British Post War Intelligence Service traitors were secret Guardian readers.
^ Travel has made me more grateful to live in Australia. Sure it lacks things, but for overall quality of life it is one of the best, and I say that out of gratitude more than boasting. I didn't say it was the best country, but I think it offers the best, most comfortable quality of life. I think a lot of people who whine about their country, many who seem to be Americans, should really travel to some third world countries to see how lucky they've got it.
^ Travel has made me more grateful to live in Australia. Sure it lacks things, but for overall quality of life it is one of the best, and I say that out of gratitude more than boasting. I didn't say it was the best country, but I think it offers the best, most comfortable quality of life. I think a lot of people who whine about their country, many who seem to be Americans, should really travel to some third world countries to see how lucky they've got it.
I haven't been to Australia, but since my Chinese visa requires I enter and exit every 90 days, I may go ahead and hop a plane down there You have a spare bed, or at least some space on the floor? A balcony?
Seriously though, after having met many Australians working in hospitality, having had one as one of my best friends since high school, and also having dated one briefly, the impression that I got is that Australia takes a lot of the best elements of American society and some of the best elements of European society and combines them at the same time that it extricates some of the more negative elements of both - much like Canada! Before any butthurt homers jump on me, I'm not saying that I think that Australia or Canada copied America at all. More like we share a common heritage as a British imperial colony, and despite the divergent directions we went, there are many similarities in our cultures.
I do love the US and I don't see any point in denying or glossing over that, but the combination of my meager international travel up to this point (England, Scotland, France, Canada, Mexico) and my extensive exposure to people from all over the world as well as my insatiable curiosity for other cultures and governments has certainly led me to be judicious in judging my country. There are huge problems here; there are areas with levels of poverty that are worse than nearly anywhere else in the developed world, though we are still very far from the developing world. You hear arguments from both sides of the American sociopolitical fence that are ill-informed and miss the mark; one is that we are on a visible slide to third world levels (no), and the other being that the developing world is safer, freer, happier, cleaner, and just generally better than we are (no).
I suppose that a big problem with the way that many Americans view themselves is that whenever it comes up in conversation that we aren't "the best" at everything, after some hemming and hawing back and forth, we start comparing our situation to that of developing nations or ones with horrifying human rights records as a defense... something I've never seen someone from continental Europe, or Australia, or Canada do.
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You have a spare bed, or at least some space on the floor? A balcony? 
