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.
I could say the same about Germans based on their tourists, but it’s because the people you notice most often are usually the most obnoxious individuals. Then meme-level thinking makes the false assumption that millions of others must be identical to them, because “it’s obvious” or some such stupidity.
theres some confirmation bias in that most americans will never have the ability to travel abroad. so the group youre interfacing with are the more entitled, wealthier class which is also a much smaller contingent of americans.
@knowledge_seeker@lemmy.world this comment is mostly it. Live in America for a bit and you’ll see there are people that way and there aren’t. And guess what, every other country, too. Americans also have speech patterns that push more air, which sounds loud and projecting to many other nationalities. (Am American)
not to be that guy, but that’s selection bias
oops, thanks!
You’re welcome
Not to be contrarian, because I think you’re probably right, but for example if you send my poor southern family to another country and expect better results/impressions on the populace, your gonna be in for some disappointment.
A plane ticket to a saner hemisphere is what, 1% of the median yearly income? 2%? You don’t even need visas.
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Tourists are usually only rich people who can afford traveling around the world.
That’s an excellent point. A lot of people are getting their impression of Americans from those of us who are likely conservatives, and therefore the least likely to show any humility or empathy.
Rugged individualism and American exceptionalism are the likely culprits
I think a lot of it comes from being the military and economic superpower of the world. We Americans must be an exceptional people, since we are so powerful in so many ways! (Please, feel free to add as much sarcasm as you feel is necessary to the previous statement, but remember that a lot of people say that with almost religious seriousness.)
Not enough people take geography into account, either. It has had a major effect on American society and our attitude towards other countries. We Americans have rarely needed to share. Our country is almost as big as, and quite isolated from, all of Europe. Our neighbor to the north largely speaks English. Our neighbor to the south has a culture worthy of admiration, but they are not seriously respected by most Americans. That’s it. Two. On the east and west, we have huge borders on two of the world’s largest oceans.
The most serious military threats to America were caused by countries on the other side of the world, and even then they were ultimately unsuccessful. Don’t forget our civil war… but even through all that, the government survived (and I’m glad it did, because we were basically fighting against people who wanted to uphold the right to keep slaves. Sure, you can argue that I’m oversimplifying things, but I’m not wrong). Add to that the concept of Manifest Destiny. People sincerely believed that it was GODS WILL that we conquer the land all the way to the Pacific.
Americans have believed in American Exceptionalism for about as long as America has existed. I can’t blame people for having a view that was drilled into their subconscious, but I can (and do) blame us when we’re insensitive dicks about it.
That whole geography thing only works if we remain united. That’s no longer a given in my book.
The US suffers deeply from cultural narcissism where a significant number of people believe that their needs are more important than the needs of others.
It makes sense if you accept that fascism was exported by the US. That and the national imperialist attitude is what you’re noticing.
Sweet username, fellow Three Amigos fan.
Others have already pointed out that we’re indoctrinated into the myths of American exceptionalism and rugged individualism from a young age. I very much agree, but those myths are only part of it.
That indoctrination, combined with our lack of safety nets, shows up as a hypercompetitive attitude. (“It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.”) We feel pressured to be the very best so we might earn the privilege of feeling secure and stable. Trash-talking and bragging are hamfisted attempts to portray high status.
If you look at our social injustice issues through that lens, the injustice makes a certain kind of disgusting, antisocial sense. One who’s internalized the hypercompetitiveness will look at someone lying in the middle of the ground in a public city and think: they just aren’t trying hard enough, they just couldn’t compete. We look to others’ misfortunes for reassurance that we’re good enough, that we’re at the front of the pack. To make oneself smaller, to put oneself second, becomes unthinkable. (“Second place is first loser.”)
I have observed a huuuge difference in this regard between the Usamericans that I have met in real life (when they have moved to Europe) and the ones that I have met online because they still live there.
So, one part of the arrogance comes when they have never seen the world, but talk about it as if they knew it.
There are good replies here already, but I just want to emphasize the role of bragging. It seems boasting about yourself is quite accepted and sometimes perhaps even expected in the US. In Europe it is not at all, and we tend to react strongly to it.
Whenever I’ve found Americans to be insufferable they’ve always been bragging or taking themselves too seriously.
Not all Americans obviously. And I guess a lot of Americans can’t stand these people either. But it’s still a common American trait that very few Europeans will have patience for. Even our narcissists have learned to pretend to be humble.
Yeah, my mom and I (in the Philippines) saw an American talk about having lots of money quite loudly in a shopping mall. We were put off.
American here. If I was at a mall here in the US and heard this kind of bragging I’d roll my eyes, too.
I was once trying to buy some snacks at a market and a person’s card was declined so they started bragging about how much money they had in the bank and that the store was wrong. Everyone just sighed and groaned around her.
Why does it seem like so many non-Americans stereotype Americans?
Ah, there’s that arrogance.
^case in point
I’m an American citizen, buddy.
Okay buddy. Stockholm syndrome isn’t a bragging point
That’s not how Stockholm Syndrome (not real) is supposed to work (it would mean I held my fellow Americans in high esteem, not the opposite) but whatever… It doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the arrogance of my fellow Americans, including one who literally had the situation explained to him very clearly but is still too obtuse to understand as if that doesn’t prove his arrogance. But you do you, man. Have fun being the Ugly American.
^When you get wooshed but double down on it and start insulting people because you didn’t get the joke
I’d rather not get a weak joke than be insufferable.
Self reflection doesn’t hurt that much. I’ve been doing a lot of it lately. I see it as a sort of … Not inoculation, kind of a penicillin shot for the current Ill of thought, word, deed. We’re human, sometimes better, often worse, never a train not to seek to be better, but even then, we’re human. Some days are better than others.
Because everyone hates xenophobia until it makes them feel superior.
You assume that just because you and your country is so ignorant to the rest of the world that we too are ignorant to you.
We experience your country and its citizens everywhere, all the time, constantly. You come to our cities without even learning how to pronounce their name. You get confused when we don’t know your local terms for food, drinks, podunk towns, etc. Your discourse consumes the internet, colonialistically driving all analysis through a purely “American” lens. At this point you’re so used to this digital status quo that I am regularly assumed to be American by default, even on local discussion boards. My news feed is filled with articles about your despotic leader and increasingly radicalized population, as they speculate whether this spur of the moment decision will crash our economy or totally collapse the world order. And then I’m told by you (not literally you) that “this is not who we are”, despite the fact that a majority of your voting population asked for this. Asked for persecution of your most vulnerable populations and cheered on as it was enacted.
I understand that the negative associations do not apply to all Americans. For one, obviously near half of the voting population did not vote for your current largest liability and are also horrified by his actions. My point is that you’re failing to recognise how omnipresent your culture and politics have been on the global stage for decades, along with your literal presence in our conversations. A lot of these “stereotypes” are formed from personal experience.
You managed to describe a feeling I’ve had for a while but never managed to articulate correctly. Thanks.
My point is that you’re failing to recognise how omnipresent your culture and politics have been on the global stage for decades, along with your literal presence in our conversations.
Well said.
As an American that worked for a German company for ~10yrs, and spent a significant amount of time in Germany, I’d say many Germans have an arrogant personality trait.
I genuinely can’t tell if they’re arrogant or if they’re knowledgeable and don’t bother to hide their expertise behind false modesty. But damn do German engineers write the best Jira tickets. So much detail, precise test steps, clarity about what changes they want made. Most engineers I get frustrated with because they don’t give us enough to work with, but German engineers almost give us too much.
Why would that indicate arrogance?
We’re trained like dogs by corporations to fight each other instead of them.
Noam Chomsky talked a lot about how political conversations in the US transformed into battles, as Republicans/Conservatives have adopted a policy of never working with Democrats to fix problems.
We’re arrogant. Hope that helps
Oh my god I laughed and laughed and laughed 🤣 I needed this tonight. You poor folks, I hope you figure it out soon, it ain’t pretty to watch!
You and me both buddy
I think its because they tech how great a nation is America from a very young age. The country is great. It is the best. The ultimate true power. President is like more powerful than pop. God always their for America. White american people are true American etc etc. So it goes on and they become blind of truth. Hence it forms in their character. Its the main contributing factor I believe.
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