Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a bait or any kind of bad-faith devaluing or stereotyping. This is only based on my experience, hearing similar stories from others and wanting to understand. I’m aware that there are good and bad people everywhere.
So I’m European and starting on a good note I always admired America for many things like the freedom, diversity and cool movies.
But after more experience with meeting real Americans I noticed this personality type that I and I think many other non-Americans would describe as arrogant.
Like I stated before I’m not saying every American is like that and I know there are many very nice Americans. But I often saw that some Americans seem to only be nice on the surface (if at all) but actually seem to have this attitude of “I don’t give a f about you”. And I know that America is a very individualistic culture that focuses on the self and the belief that everyone can achieve anything on their own.
But I still think having a sense of empathy and sensitivity towards others is a very important core human quality that everyone should have. And from personal experience and also from a very prevalent notion of others both in every day life and when looking it up online it’s clear that many non-Americans perceive many Americans to cross a line there.
For example there’s a prevalent observation of Americans visiting other countries and acting like they own the place by being very loud, demanding and not accepting if things aren’t the same way as they are in America.
We know that Americans have very big issues with divisiveness and social injustice and it seams like there’s also this sort of “ghetto” personality including trash-talking, lots of vulgar slang and slurs and bragging.
And a general perception of money playing a big role as if many Americans judge someone’s worth by money and this attitude of not feeling like needing to help someone. I think there’s this famous description of a person lying in the middle of the ground in a public city and people just walk around the person not feeling the need to help.
It almost feels like they’re very entitled and put their ego up way higher than it actually is and lacking the quality of making themselves smaller/putting themselves second to treat others with more dignity.
Where in Europe are you from? Cause Im from Europe and i feel like this is just a human trait. To answer your question though, america is basically the center of the world for a lot of people, and they truly do think america is better than the rest of the world. That’s probably why.
Most Americans don’t have passports and only know about outside USA from TV and news. And if they’re watching fox, they hate themselves as much as they hate outside USA. So yeah, were uncultured swine in that regard.
I do not feel USA is the best, haven’t in a long time, in fact lately we’re sliding downhill so fast, literally racing to the bottom of everything, education, empathy, human rights, healthcare, basic reading skills, astronomical prices, burnout… You name it, we’ve fucked it up.
I mean it’s not a personal attack on anyone, I’m well aware definitely not all Americans think america is the best. Not even saying it’s super common, was just giving an idea as to why OP might have this perception
I have noticed it’s less common to travel outside of America. This makes sense though because america is huge and has a lot of places to visit.
Yeah but America thinks theit shit doesn’t stink and it’s getting really annoying.
Yeah, I understand how that can be annoying
I’m sure if you polled the average American they would not agree that “America is better than the rest of the world “. Maybe 20-30 years ago that might have been true.
Not sure what the average American is, but every American I’ve spoken to seemed to like it there.
Liking it and thinking it’s the best in the world are different. I like our national parks, but USA is far from the best.
Where are the best national parks then in your opinion?
Any of them really. Shenandoah is near me and it’s a beautiful place to go especially during the summer. I like going up to PA during the winter I found a leanto that you can block off the wind and snow pretty well and it’s fun to camp though winter. Don’t remember the name of the park though. Zion national Park is amazing but I haven’t been there since 2016.
Oh, I thought you meant US national parks are far from the best haha
Nah, we have a great park system. One the highest rated services globally, rated internally and by visitors.
Maybe because it’s nature and not humans you deal with.