I went to an international business school for my MBA. No matter how many times we told them, foreign students had the idea that life in the US was going to be orgies and car chases and parties and gun battles. They just refused to believe us when we told them that was all Hollywood BS and the reality was the exact opposite.
I had one of them approach me about 6 months later and with shock in his voice declare that America is a really conservative country. My response was “yeah. I TRIED to tell you.........”
Until they see it, many foreigners just do not get that no matter how many times they’re told. The worst are the Yurps who just know it all....even if their total experience is having been to Disneyworld for a week. They’ll still just insist they know my own country better than I do. All you can do is just laugh.
Hollywood and the Media was the same reason Osama bin Laden attacked us on 9/11...he was convinced by them (and Bill Clinton's effeminence in the face of terror attacks in the 1990's) that America would never go after al-Queda.