If you don’t know less than 50% of Americans have a passport. The ones who don’t, I really see the limitation in their thinking. They never saw that most of the world is in fact freer than them, has a better system in place for their people, and doesn’t have some of the major problems that America has. I’m currently in a country where over 90% of items are made in that country. America (made in China) can’t comprehend this efficiency. P.S. I’m American
The thing that gets me though is how dangerous many Americans say other parts of the world is without having ever been there lol. I travel and I’ll tell you America is the MOST dangerous country outside of warzones. Yes even more dangerous that Arab countries for women. Lol I know that propaganda is in a lot of Americans minds.
OK so who’s actually been outside the country and can talk geopolitics and actually know from experience what they are talking about?
I used to have an online friend from the US and after some time, we both liked each other and he told me that he wanted me to move to his place (I live in SEA). After a few months of chatting, I noticed something weird about him. I don’t really like to talk about politics but he keep praising Trump and Maga and saying he hate how people misunderstand and insults the president.
He also said that he “feels sorry for me and can’t imagine how it’s like for a gay and femboy living in a country other than the US and Europe. Even in the US, people view twinks and femboys as a joke and they often made fun of so it must be a lot worse in your country”. I then told him that as a twink and femboy, I don’t feel like that all. All of my IRL straight friends respect me and never made fun of me. He then said my friends were just being polite to me …
He also insulted my culture and my country. I apologized and asked him to be more considerate and polite because I feel offended and then he told me that facts does not care about your feelings and he’s an American so its his culture to be more upfront and not being fake like asians.
I was so confused what is going on and felt like it was my fault and consulted my friends. They told me to ghosted him and I did.
I used to work in the hospitality industry and the Americans I met were so polite and super friendly. I’d say American tourists are the most friendliest compared to Europeans and other Asian tourists. That’s why I’m confused why my online “friend” behave like that. I can’t help but wondering if this a normal behaviour in the US? Were the thing he said about American cultures true?
It’s complicated. If you ask me, America feels like it’s trying to become some haven for gay people, which i personally don’t like. This is my feelings so I will say we are more transparent about our mindsets when we aren’t passive aggressive types which is a decent percent of us. In many Asian cultures they “save face”, this concept doesn’t exist in America and is the opposite of what an American on average would do.
As someone who’s been in SEA countries I would say that Asians can be more indirect, pushing lies over just saying what they actually feel or think. “it can’t be helped” mindset over “we’ll fix it ourselves without permission” mindset that Americans have.
Those things your former friend said can be normal ideas depending on the area and company you keep. The area of America i live in he would be met with hostility and be an outlier. It’s a large country and the different areas differ culturally. America has a lot of propaganda that cultivates this violent rejection of others as well as America being better or having manifest destiny. Various forms of media seems to cultivate violent misogynistic white supremacy in youths. This country also has huge wealth gap and a shit social welfare system so you have a lot of scared angry people who don’t want to become a have not and have no real community. It’s toxic here
I wouldn’t say it’s normal behavior in the US, but it certainly is more common than what you have probably seen in American tourists in SEA. As far as being “upfront”, there is that stereotype compared to some other cultures. In his case though he was just being a dick.
That guy was an ignorant jerk who fell victim to the propaganda machine combined with the deteriorating education system. Sadly, we have a lot of those kind in the US. You didn’t meet them during your time in the hospitality industry because they mostly don’t have passports.