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10 Things Most Americans Don't Know About America - Enlightening Blog Post
http://postmasculine.com/america
Someone posted this on E and since some of us have wanted some action over here, I thought I'd post it. Apparently the blog site stopped working at some point yesterday, so if this happens to you, you can also find it here.
This is what I posted in the other thread:
He has some really good points. The first two remind me from when I went to Europe and a lot of people before I left were talking about how I should look out because foreign people hate us. It irritated me to no end. They didn't have a problem with me but that's probably because I didn't flaunt that I was American. My cousin and I tried our best to blend in and fully experience it all.
That taxi is freaking sweet.
37th in healthcare and 38th in life expectancy, while not all that surprising, are depressing to actually see.
GO!
Re: 10 Things Most Americans Don't Know About America - Enlightening Blog Post
4 people have stalked and have no thoughts? Come on!
Make that 7.
My personal experiences in the rest of the world pretty much align with what he's said (though nearly everyone in every country is impressed/astonished that I live in NYC).
I would be curious to see if it's true that a majority of Americans don't realize SOME of these things. I mean the average person must realize that our health care system sucks and that a lot of other countries have more affordable and higher quality health care, right?
I have had the paranoia argument with people a lot. I always hear people say that kids just aren't as safe in their neighborhoods anymore because there are more kidnappings, that more people are being assaulted/murdered, etc. However I think that the rise of 24hr news has just made it SEEM that way. We are more aware of the number of girls being kidnapped, or we hear more about people being murdered. In most localities the crime rate has plummeted.
A million times the bolded. A million times!
One of my cousins wants to start doing this "Couch Surfing" thing. Apparently it's a website where you can sign up to sleep on people's couches in a town you'll be visiting. There are reviews on the houses and the people who couch surf. At first I was super freaked out and didn't want him to do it (FTR he's the same age as me but we're really close so I just feel protective of him I guess). Then I thought, why not? His main defense related to the 24 hr news that only reports depressing crap and the idea that "Jesus was a couch surfer".
Well, I'm gonna have to go ahead and say that I agree with the vast majority of that article. H and I talk all the time about how America is on the same road the Romans travelled. It's sad. Oh, the talks he and I have on the state of the country sometimes!
And I'm with you, Jess... I want to know more about that taxi! :-)
Yeah, I think many people think America is the best and thinks everyone should think that.
On my honeymoon, I also came across people complaining about things and saying how terrible they were, when in reality, they were just different than in America. Different doesn't always equal bad. I got so annoyed listening to them complain about things. They were Americans in a foreign country. Act like the visitor you are and get over yourself.
So true. Again when my cousin and I were in Europe, we had to keep telling some of the high schoolers we were with "You're in Europe". They would complain about the hotels not being the greatest and our response was always the same, "You're in Europe". Stop ruining your trip with senseless complaining!
I personally don't feel the same way as the article either but I do feel like a majority of Americans do feel that way and it's sad. America is not the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It's true. It's part of the reason I love visiting other countries.
I have a story regarding the paranoia. When we told most of my family we were going to Guatemala for our HM most were like but you'll be kidnapped, robbed, and trapped there. Did we get any of those? No. Guatemalans are such nice people. Everyone we spoke with was very nice and treated you like they knew you for years.
The entire article also described part of my idea that I'd love to live abroad and just travel to different countries and see the world. I think it would be amazing to raise my future children really experiencing the different cultures of the world and learning the languages and histories.
I definitely agree with the vast majority of that article, if not all of it. The main things I was thinking have already been said but I'm with Daria wondering just how many people don't realize some of these things because to me most of them are blatantly obvious. We are definitely a paranoid country and agree that 24/7 news has increased that 10 fold; we don't have great health care at all; the country as a whole has a super huge ego that thinks the sun rises and sets on it which is so far from the truth.
Jealous.
I can't imagine spending that amount of time in a foreign country and not know the basics. Heck, I was speaking French with one of the employees in Epcot France and he counted back H's change in French. Here, in America.