(August 10, 2015 at 11:01 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote:(August 10, 2015 at 10:10 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: Good God! If I totally fit the American stereotype, that is probably the biggest insult you could give!
Direct hit. 500 points. Skip two levels.
Seriously, extreme views are all standard when a nation chooses the "exceptionalism package". Take it or leave it.
When people select the "exceptionalism package," those doing the selecting are delusional narcissistic idiots.
I should imagine that, heavily depending on one's sources of information, one viewing the US from the outside could give one all sorts of strange ideas. The fact that Trump is doing well in the Republican primaries does not make the country look good, though none of the other Republican presidential candidates make the country look good either.
I am glad, though, that when I went to Europe, people did not treat me as if I were a vile thing that one might expect from a country that voted in Reagan (who was president when I went to Europe). The people I met were smart enough to realize that not everyone in the US voted for him or approved of him, and they did not assume that I must be a dumb ass. (Or maybe they just thought I was English, as someone did ask me if I were English; I do not recall anyone asking me if I were an American.) I was treated with courtesy and respect, and I likewise treated the people I met with courtesy and respect. In some ways, visiting Europe was like leaving a mental institution and conversing with sane people for a change. Of course, like in a real mental institution, not everyone present in America is completely crazy. That just makes the analogy work even better than one might have expected.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
