Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a bait or any kind of bad-faith devaluing or stereotyping. This is only based on my experience, hearing similar stories from others and wanting to understand. I’m aware that there are good and bad people everywhere.
So I’m European and starting on a good note I always admired America for many things like the freedom, diversity and cool movies.
But after more experience with meeting real Americans I noticed this personality type that I and I think many other non-Americans would describe as arrogant.
Like I stated before I’m not saying every American is like that and I know there are many very nice Americans. But I often saw that some Americans seem to only be nice on the surface (if at all) but actually seem to have this attitude of “I don’t give a f about you”. And I know that America is a very individualistic culture that focuses on the self and the belief that everyone can achieve anything on their own.
But I still think having a sense of empathy and sensitivity towards others is a very important core human quality that everyone should have. And from personal experience and also from a very prevalent notion of others both in every day life and when looking it up online it’s clear that many non-Americans perceive many Americans to cross a line there.
For example there’s a prevalent observation of Americans visiting other countries and acting like they own the place by being very loud, demanding and not accepting if things aren’t the same way as they are in America.
We know that Americans have very big issues with divisiveness and social injustice and it seams like there’s also this sort of “ghetto” personality including trash-talking, lots of vulgar slang and slurs and bragging.
And a general perception of money playing a big role as if many Americans judge someone’s worth by money and this attitude of not feeling like needing to help someone. I think there’s this famous description of a person lying in the middle of the ground in a public city and people just walk around the person not feeling the need to help.
It almost feels like they’re very entitled and put their ego up way higher than it actually is and lacking the quality of making themselves smaller/putting themselves second to treat others with more dignity.
theres some
confirmationselection bias in that most americans will never have the ability to travel abroad. so the group youre interfacing with are the more entitled, wealthier class which is also a much smaller contingent of americans.Not to be contrarian, because I think you’re probably right, but for example if you send my poor southern family to another country and expect better results/impressions on the populace, your gonna be in for some disappointment.
@knowledge_seeker@lemmy.world this comment is mostly it. Live in America for a bit and you’ll see there are people that way and there aren’t. And guess what, every other country, too. Americans also have speech patterns that push more air, which sounds loud and projecting to many other nationalities. (Am American)
not to be that guy, but that’s selection bias
oops, thanks!
You’re welcome
Because the American culture has indocrinated Americans to put themselves first. Whoever has “me first” hard-coded in their personality tends to view everybody else as inferior, and tends to have an unwavering confidence in their own greatness.
US citizen here, sounds like you have already figured it out:
And I know that America is a very individualistic culture that focuses on the self and the belief that everyone can achieve anything on their own.
This goes deep into the heart of the matter. A good portion of the population has been propagandized for literally decades that every man is an island and reliance on others is “pussy shit.” There is no conception of society. No one wants to fix society, they all want to become rich so the rules of society just stop applying to them.
Temporarily embarrassed
millionairesbillionaires and all that.For those of us with empathy and understanding of how economics and international relations actually function, let me tell you, it is a nightmare on our mental health. It has been that way long before Trump, too, I remember how viciously we wasted the world’s outpouring of compassion after 9/11. In response to that compassion we went and swung around our big military dick in the middle east and wrecked millions upon millions of lives. It is a daily endless gaslighting by society that caring about people makes us weak. We often are literally denied opportunities to thrive because we aren’t following the right “script.” We will be passed over for jobs in favor of nepotism and social connections.
Like literally the entire fraternity/sorority culture in the US is and always was for forging early business connections so you can be a useless fucking loser but still rise to the top.
That culture has lead to the worst, dumbest, and least competent running the entire fucking country.
A lot of days it really feels like it would just be easier to let this system fucking kill me and let it win just to get it over with.
Somehow, though, people like me continue living out of spite for what America is and what it represents.
I have a soft center and part of me wants things to slow down and be more inclusive and understanding and to have time for more connection… and generally shift our culture away from survival of the fittest.
That didnt get me anywhere and i was poor as shit and was taken advantage of by employers and the system constantly.
Now i say fuck everyone else im getting mine and relish getting ahead. Its a learned behavior that i want to shed when i have financial independence. It is what it is.
It’s seems like USA’s culture rewards individual success above all else, hence successful people behaving like main protagonists, or even as if others were NPCs.
To be fair, other comments that speak about selection bias are also spot on: not all people there do commercial tourism, even domestically. The ones that do are successful enough to have that disposable income.
Why does it seem like so many non-Americans stereotype Americans?
Ah, there’s that arrogance.
^case in point
I’m an American citizen, buddy.
Okay buddy. Stockholm syndrome isn’t a bragging point
Self reflection doesn’t hurt that much. I’ve been doing a lot of it lately. I see it as a sort of … Not inoculation, kind of a penicillin shot for the current Ill of thought, word, deed. We’re human, sometimes better, often worse, never a train not to seek to be better, but even then, we’re human. Some days are better than others.
That’s not how Stockholm Syndrome (not real) is supposed to work (it would mean I held my fellow Americans in high esteem, not the opposite) but whatever… It doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the arrogance of my fellow Americans, including one who literally had the situation explained to him very clearly but is still too obtuse to understand as if that doesn’t prove his arrogance. But you do you, man. Have fun being the Ugly American.
^When you get wooshed but double down on it and start insulting people because you didn’t get the joke
I’d rather not get a weak joke than be insufferable.
Because everyone hates xenophobia until it makes them feel superior.
You assume that just because you and your country is so ignorant to the rest of the world that we too are ignorant to you.
We experience your country and its citizens everywhere, all the time, constantly. You come to our cities without even learning how to pronounce their name. You get confused when we don’t know your local terms for food, drinks, podunk towns, etc. Your discourse consumes the internet, colonialistically driving all analysis through a purely “American” lens. At this point you’re so used to this digital status quo that I am regularly assumed to be American by default, even on local discussion boards. My news feed is filled with articles about your despotic leader and increasingly radicalized population, as they speculate whether this spur of the moment decision will crash our economy or totally collapse the world order. And then I’m told by you (not literally you) that “this is not who we are”, despite the fact that a majority of your voting population asked for this. Asked for persecution of your most vulnerable populations and cheered on as it was enacted.
I understand that the negative associations do not apply to all Americans. For one, obviously near half of the voting population did not vote for your current largest liability and are also horrified by his actions. My point is that you’re failing to recognise how omnipresent your culture and politics have been on the global stage for decades, along with your literal presence in our conversations. A lot of these “stereotypes” are formed from personal experience.
You managed to describe a feeling I’ve had for a while but never managed to articulate correctly. Thanks.
My point is that you’re failing to recognise how omnipresent your culture and politics have been on the global stage for decades, along with your literal presence in our conversations.
Well said.
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This is itself arrogant.
Are you American? If no… Ever heard of stereotypes?
I think its because they tech how great a nation is America from a very young age. The country is great. It is the best. The ultimate true power. President is like more powerful than pop. God always their for America. White american people are true American etc etc. So it goes on and they become blind of truth. Hence it forms in their character. Its the main contributing factor I believe.
showing an offensive attitude of superiority : proceeding from or characterized by arrogance (an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions)
The US suffers deeply from cultural narcissism where a significant number of people believe that their needs are more important than the needs of others.
We’re arrogant. Hope that helps
Oh my god I laughed and laughed and laughed 🤣 I needed this tonight. You poor folks, I hope you figure it out soon, it ain’t pretty to watch!
Rugged individualism and American exceptionalism are the likely culprits
The U.S. is like any other country; it has its share of assholes. But I generally avoid painting everyone of however many million people with the same broad brush.
There is a somewhat obnoxious level of patriotism to Americans in general that comes from simply being the biggest economy and a net cultural exporter to the rest of the world; think blue jeans and coca-cola, metaphorically. (I’m sorry, Americans, but it’s true. Put on your big boy pants and deal with the criticism like adults, please.)
But it only rises to the level of arrogance in those people who think that the rest of the world only exists because of them and should behave as some sort of client state to American hegemony.
That’s not all Americans. Heck, I’d say it’s not even most Americans. But they’re just really really loud and drown out everything else.
More ashamed of my country than ever and feel stuck here. From California and feel like we have some dead corpse strapped to us.
As an American that worked for a German company for ~10yrs, and spent a significant amount of time in Germany, I’d say many Germans have an arrogant personality trait.
I genuinely can’t tell if they’re arrogant or if they’re knowledgeable and don’t bother to hide their expertise behind false modesty. But damn do German engineers write the best Jira tickets. So much detail, precise test steps, clarity about what changes they want made. Most engineers I get frustrated with because they don’t give us enough to work with, but German engineers almost give us too much.
Why would that indicate arrogance?
The Jira thing has nothing to do with arrogance. That’s just a side note about how much I like working with Germans. 😅
the american populace at large is deeply arrogant; not only that but also incredibly ignorant. it’s this noxious blend that is not only really popular to personify, but often lauded for doing so as loudly as possible.
Americans seem to only be nice on the surface (if at all) but actually seem to have this attitude of “I don’t give a f about you”
Nailed lol… an American wants people to like him while he screws you over.
Example archetypes: CEO, Billionaire, Manager,
For example there’s a prevalent observation of Americans visiting other countries and acting like they own the place by being very loud, demanding and not accepting if things aren’t the same way as they are in America.
That’s just poorly socialized people though. We hear of other countries tourist behaving poorly all the time… Russia and China for example.
“ghetto” personality including trash-talking, lots of vulgar slang and slurs and bragging.
I guessing you never met a British lad after a few pints haha
And a general perception of money playing a big role as if many Americans judge someone’s worth by money and this attitude of not feeling like needing to help someone
I am pretty every one is like this, it is human nature, some people are better at controlling it OR
masking it which ties into the first quote of this post.
Overall i think you called it right at first but examples you are providing is just shiti behavior people over all but it does support the original premises that Americans want to be liked while fucking you over.
I think it comes from the propaganda we consume that essentially say:
If you fuck people over to get paid, you are still a good person and other people must respect your “achievement”
