That’s the thing that gets me more than any other. They think they know my own country better than I do despite their entire experience having been that they spent a week in Disneyworld and visited one or two of NY, San Francisco, Miami, LA. They actually think Hollywood reflects reality. Its amazing.
I had some of them tell me that the 2000 election was stolen and their “proof” was that Bush’s brother was the governor of Florida. Seriously. That’s it.
Americans’ are more ignorant of a lot of other countries than most Europeans are. Their saving grace is that they openly admit it. The Europeans by contrast think they just know it all.....also it simply does not dawn on them that the rest of the world might not want to be just like them. They’re as bad as our own Neocons in that way.
Yep. Similarly though, if find a lot of American liberals believe Europe is ‘so much better than us’ because they once visited a couple of places, so they now think they’re sooOOOooo cultured....all those social programs.
I grew up in the UK, born and raised. I still have family & friends over there - but I’m a different person now and I *know* they don’t get America like they think they do. Every time I return I see more clearly what I never saw while living there - and neither do they because they’re saturated in it (besides the fact that it is almost unrecognizable in many parts now).
Understanding these dynamics is fascinating, especially when you know those you’re talking to really don’t understand it at all. Of course, every member of my family ‘knows’ what everyone thinks of Trump.