I spent 6 years in the US (93-99) and met hundreds of people. Have also travelled a bit in other countries outside my own (Norway).
In no other place did I come across the level of self-depreciation I find in America. It seems to have become modish to put your fellow countrymen down as ignorant, mean dupes. This is the underlying assumption of M. Moore and much of the coastal liberal/democratic establishment.
But such analysis strikes me as less sophisticated than it intends to sound.
If liberals are, as I believe, right in assuming that all nationalities and ethnic groups on the average are very much alike, and the US has amongst the longest traditions of democracy and freedom of speech (albeit imperfect, there as elsewhere), this presumed stupidity or meanness can only be explained by conspiracies. I find it unconvincing.
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I spent 6 years in the US (93-99) and met hundreds of people. Have also travelled a bit in other countries outside my own (Norway). In no other place did I come across the level of self-depreciation I find in America. It seems to have become modish to put your fellow countrymen down as ignorant, mean dupes. This is the underlying assumption of M. Moore and much of the coastal liberal/democratic establishment. But such analysis strikes me as less sophisticated than it intends to sound. If liberals are, as I believe, right in assuming that all nationalities and ethnic groups on the average are very much alike, and the US has amongst the longest traditions of democracy and freedom of speech (albeit imperfect, there as elsewhere), this presumed stupidity or meanness can only be explained by conspiracies. I find it unconvincing.