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"Let me first say that the Brits are great people!"

With all due respect, this statement is completely incongruous with every other statement made in your post.

I can't read everything else you wrote and still believe that they are "great people".

How many anti-Brit posts are there today?

For the record. the most vociferous critics of America in England are Americans.

One thing I've learned from FR though is that Americans are prone to over-statement. So I take this sort of criticism with a pinch of salt,. They love us really. ;-)

Actually, it jives with my experiences.
When I visited the UK, the people were very friendly. When I visited Duxford, they taught me the proper pronunciation of aluminium and a fellow restoring a Beaufighter let me, actually asked me, to climb up into the fighter he was restoring so that I could take pictures and look out from the cockpit and navigator's positions!
Really, these are good people.

However, when I discussed Tony Martin (the poor Brit farmer that was jailed for killing a burglar) with my host, he was appalled to find out that I was a "member of the gun culture." (I told him that I wasn't a gun nut, but I was aspiring to reach that status some day!) He was also dismissive of the UK's achievements during WWII. (He was also dodging the taxes and inspections on B&Bs...) He was a nice person, but I was very sad for him.

I think I understand a difference. When a Red State American goes abroad, we don't assume we know anything about the folks we're visiting. We go and have a good time and try to learn. But we don't hide who and what we are, 'cause we're proud of being American, too. In other words, part of the fun is differences between "us" and "them."

A Blue Stater would assume that everybody is just like him, 'cause obviously, they know best. For all their claims of tolerance, if you're different, you're wrong.
Europeans are natural-born blue-staters.