America 101: How would you answer these kinds of questions?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This article praises the Norwegian social system, and talks about the questions the locals have of the author about the attitudes of what they believe is the typical American. That got me wondering: how would you answer such questions if they were asked in genuine curiosity by a well-meaning non-American, or how have you answered such questions IRL?

Here are my thoughts on some from the article:

  • Why can’t you Americans stop interfering with women’s health care?
  • Why can’t you understand science?
  • How can you still be so blind to the reality of climate change?

These are closely interrelated. I’d talk about the American tradition of religion in public life (pointing out it was founded by deeply religious people escaping persecution for their beliefs), the conservatism and mistrust of science that comes with it, and the forces in government and business that (quite frankly) prey upon such beliefs.

  • How can you speak of the rule of law when your presidents break international laws to make war whenever they want?
  • How can you throw away the Geneva Conventions and your principles to advocate torture?

Here I’d probably talk about American mistrust of “foreign interference” (while acknowledging the hypocrisy), and base some discussion on the history of America’s role in international wars, and the traditions of past incursions that last to this day.

  • How can you hand over the power to blow up the planet to one lone, ordinary man?

This one would probably benefit from direct comparison of the American system of government and that of the person asking the question. Then I’d ask whether they’d truly want our Congress in charge of the nuclear button. :slight_smile:

  • Why do you Americans like guns so much? Why do you kill each other at such a rate?

I’d start off by finding out what they think the rate of gun deaths are. While ours are high compared to other countries, I’m guessing that their estimate is still higher than reality. Then I’d get into the founding of the country by armed revolution, our Constitution, the effect of westward expansion, and general mistrust of government.

How would you all approach this?

2

The United States is a fine nation made up of decent reasonable people.

For complex reasons borne of hybrid vigour, the US also contains discreet populations with strong protectionist (and insular) opinions.

Never mind why, what really intrigues the educated outside world is that some concepts are simply not open to discussion. Free healthcare. No handguns. Etc…

3

Free speech is used to permit the spreading of known misinformation, usually for political gain.

Hate speech laws help to curtail that in many other places. You get a pass the first time you say it, but once it’s proven to be factually incorrect, and you repeat it again, you open yourself to charges of using Hate speech. If you combine that with an eroded educational base, where critical thought is often not encouraged and a 24 news cycle with no regard for exploiting societal divisions to sell advertising, polarizing effects be damned, and you get this kind of mess.

I think these are contributing factors to things like climate change deniers, anti vaxers, and people who can be fear mongered into any non sensical position due to an unreasonable fear of government conspiracy, mostly imagined.

Time to protect truth, perhaps by discouraging inaccurate propaganda?

4

I get a bit annoyed at anyone who uses the phrase “you Americans”. The USA is a nation of around 300 million people. If I was talking to a person from a different country, I would never non-jokingly use the phrase “you French” or “you Swedes”. Sure, we can talk about general trends of extremism or crappy leadership, but don’t pretend the US is a homogeneous country where every decision made by the politicians is 100% backed by the citizens.

5

How I would answer most of those questions is “I don’t know. I understand science, climate change, don’t support torture, support women’s rights. I am not all of America.” Then I would add, “Why do you live in a monarchy? Isn’t that quaint? Like right out of the 10th century. Why don’t you have elections like the civilized world?”*

*Yes, I understand Norway’s government. But if they can ask stupid questions, so can I.

6

You hit the nail on the head on this one. The US and its predecessor colonies were founded, to a large extent, by religious refugees and their descendants. Whether or not the strong religious devotion was passed down socially from parent to child or whether or not it reflects an inner genetic tendency, you can’t argue with the fact that the US has been strongly religious from its founding. Puritans in Massachusetts contributed heavily to New England “blue law” morality legislation, and Quakers and Pennsylvania Dutch in the Mid-Atlantic states contributed to the strongly religious at home, somewhat secular in public mindset that pervades a lot of the country, and to the strong belief in separation of church and state (which, largely, is why they came in the first place).

Puritans liked to get in people’s faces and make them conform to their ideal vision of religion. Quakers were (and are) more likely to say what they believe and then let you make your own decision.

There’s a fascinating book out there called “Albion’s Seed” that states that US culture is actually four different cultures that have existed since colonial times. Go check it out!

7

“Why are you Americans so stupid” is not really the start of a productive discussion, IME.

Regards,
Shodan

8

Every time I’m back in Holland, I’m asked these questions. Most times I change the subject, as it is tedious, but every once in a while I engage.

First of, the U.S.A. Is a different system from that in most (all) European countries. I happen to think the availability of options is good - it afforded me, for example, the opportunity to get the hell out of Holland and live in a system I like better. Interestingly, if you look at migration streams, a whole lot more people move from Holland, Norway, etc.etc. to the U.S. than vice versa. That’s people voting with their feet.

(Below I will use European as shorthand for people I 've met from Holland, Belgium, Germany, France and Norway, rather than meaning an actual “average European” - a term as useless as “average American”)

Regarding some of the specific questions coming up:
Guns: There are around 300 million guns in America. Even if you wanted to “just get rid of them” it would be impossible to get to that point without a very lengthy spell of only lawbreakers owning guns. Regardless of wether you approve or disapprove of private gun ownership, the status quo makes simle (simplistic) solutions unfeasible. I also like to quote Cecil: If you’re not a drug dealer, friends with drug dealers or hang out with drug dealers, your odds of getting shot are pretty low.

Healthcare: I personally find the lack of universal healthcare unfortunate. I believe there will be some workable version of it in the near future. But not providing it fits the American philosophy of self reliance. In other words, in the U.S. You have the opprtunity to get quite wealthy, but the downside is the risk of not making it, and at that point the safety net is significantly weaker than most of Europe’s. While I find the U.S. Healthcare model wasteful, it does provide the incentive for exceptional performance, and advancement of the art. I know a lot of my Canadian business contacts come to the U.S. when they need something done which requires exceptional skill. Or if they want it done timely.

Stupid Americans: Comments about the average American show the fundamental failure of most Europeans to comprehend the scope of the U.S. If an American can’t point out Slovenia on the map, it is really not a whole lot different from a Dutchman not being able to identify Wyoming. If an American doesn’t care about or know what happens in Spain like a Spaniard knows what happens in the U.S., then this is not ignorance, but an appropriate reflection of the importance of each in the respective person’s life. Most Europeans, by the way, have an exaggerated opinion of their knowledge of the U.S., because they have seen so many movies and TV shows set here, they believe the have a fair knowledge of daily life - they understand that it is fiction, but believe they can distill the underlying truth. I know I believed so, when I came here, and I know I was wrong. I suspect they are too.
For what it’s worth, I’ve found most Americans well-informed, interested in in other countries, and surprisingly well-travelled.

I don’t really understand American’s readiness to accept other countries’ inhabitants’ criticisms of the U.S., and willingness to agree with them. Over a million people each year come to live in the U.S., and by no means are they all from third world or developing countries. They come here because they believe life here will be better. That doesn’t mean America is perfect, or can’t stand a whole lot of improvement, but it means there’s not a whole lot of reason to beat yourself up in comparison to Norway.

I only skimmed the Salon article, but the line how all Norwegians “willingly pay up” their heavy taxation reeks of bullshit to me. If they’re anything like the Dutch, there’s a shadow economy, hidden from taxes, and the effort to keep money from being taxed is a preoccupation significantly more constant than in the U.S. It also fails to mention wether the significant oil revenues have any part in paying for the welfare state.
I usually can’t stand the knee-jerk reaction of " if you don’t love America, get out" - but this reporter may benefit from moving to Norway.

9

Those are complicated questions, but if I had to oversimplify and sum up in a single pithy sentence, it’s that the U.S. is an individualistic (as opposed to collectivist) society with a distrust of authority.

For example, an American might hear questions like these

as really asking “Why can’t you Americans just meekly submit to what The Authorities tell you is right?”

It’s also much larger and more heterogeneous than someplace like Norway or Holland, which probably makes it a lot harder to get the whole country to agree on anything.

10

Opposing abortion is not just “interfering with women’s health care” any more than opposing slavery is just “interfering with farming”?
The OP’s article is of no interest to me, and I won’t even attempt to refute all the stupid assumptions and assertions it contains. But I will say that it confirms something I’ve posted here before.

Millions of Americans know little or nothing about Europe, and are absurdly proud of their ignorance. Millions of Europeans know little or nothing about the USA, but THINK they know a lot, and are absurdly proud of what they think they know.

Millions of Europeans know that Americans are constantly dying from colds and toothaches because we don’t havce socialized medicine. It isn’t true, but everybody in Europe knows it.

Millions of Europeans know that Americans there are hundreds of murders every day in New York City. It isn’t true, but everybody in Europe knows it.

11

I could buy that argument, in an alternate universe where the anti-abortion folks were doing their best to ensure that women could afford and obtain the forms of contraception that worked best for them. But they’re against most forms of contraception as well, and work to reduce access to them.

12

Once again, where do you get the idea that birth control and abortion are THE key components of “women’s health care”? They’re not, any more than vasectomies are the key issue in “men’s health.”

Breast cancer screening is a key component of women’s health care. Cervical cancer is. Even conservative Catholic hospitals treat women with such problems.

13

WAG: This is because Europeans watch a lot of American movies and TV, while Americans watch hardly any European movies and TV.

14

The answer to all of these questions with the exception of one is: Conservative Republicans purposefully refuse to change their anti-reality beliefs to match facts

The one exception is the one about blowing up the planet, which I’m assuming is the nuclear command codes that only the President is authorized to use. That’s just a perk of the job and if not him, then who?

15

Norway has a poulation of about 5.1 million people. Presumably, most of them are of Norwegian descent for at least 10 generations.

United States has a population of 316.1 million people, 5.2 million of whom are Native American and precious few of the rest can claim 10 generations of ancestry on North American soil.

May as well toss half of Europe and a fair chunk of seasoning from all over the planet, in a blender and ask why they don’t all think like Norwegians. Perhaps the most relevant question would be, “How do you all get along as well as you do?”

16

An attempt to give sincere answers to these questions.

Please note I’m not saying I personally agree with all these responses.

I’m assuming this is about abortion.

Some people have the belief that a foetus is a full human being and has the same rights as any other person. So they seek to protect the life of the foetus as they would seek to protect any other human life.

That one’s a little vague. I’d have to ask what specific aspect of science they feel is misunderstood.

Some people question that reality. They feel that scientists have formed a conclusion that they wanted to reach due to their pre-existing ideological beliefs without enough factual evidence to support it.

It’s the nature of history. Powerful countries have always acted this way. That’s certainly been true in Europe. The United States has acted with much more respect for international law than any nation of comparable power ever has in the past.

Terrorism is a danger to civilization and therefore defeating terrorism justifies the limited use of extreme means.

Blame physics for nuclear weapons. Nuclear fission and fusion created the potential for powerful weapons.

As for our system of controlling those weapons, it’s worked. No nuclear weapon has been used in battle since 1945.

Americans have a tradition of self-reliance. They want to own guns so they can defend themselves and their loved ones from crime.

As for the high crime rate (including murder) it’s an unfortunate byproduct of liberty. We emphasize giving individuals as much freedom to be what they choose as possible. We do not push people to conform to some social standard. In general, we see this individual freedom as a good thing but some people choose to commit crimes. We prefer to accept a higher rate of crimes than to institute the kind of social control over everyone that would be needed to prevent those crimes.

17

“Who’s this ‘you Americans’ you’re talking about? Why do you Norwegians still have a king? Why do you have an established state religion?”

18

I will attempt to answer with from the position of those who hold these positions. These are not my personal beliefs:

Because many women cannot be trusted to uphold the morality of the Christian bible.

Because science is inconvenient and interferes with our divine mandate to exploit natural resources and become prosperous in the short term.

We would rather be rich in the short run than safe in the long run.

National expediency combined with fear.

See above.

We don’t trust committees. Our elections are winner take all; with few exceptions losers have little input.

Because we fear government tyranny, and must maintain the ability to overthrow any government that threatens our freedom, as we see it.

It’s an unavoidable side effect of guarding against tyranny. We would rather kill each other than sacrifice any freedom to the government.

19

Not a good example, given that the amount of American media available makes it relatively easy to become familiar with their geography. One of my teachers in grad school in the US gave us a blank map of the US to fill up state names “for extra credit”. He’d drawn it by hand.

  • Rhode Island, Delaware, Alaska and Hawai were MIA.
  • The person who did worse was the only American student, with 29 states correct. A Korean got them all; the rest of us (Chinese, Dominican, Spanish, Korean and Mexican) got confused in “that part with all the straight lines”.
    The subject of the exam was quantum chemistry, apparently the four missing states were in a different quantum state than the other 46.

No, for many of us (specially those who have been there or who have close female relatives who have) it’s about women’s healthcare in general. Wellness checks, availability of pregnancy prevention methods, sex ed… Until Obamacare, the only “prevention” method available to many women was precisely abortion. The idea that abortion was available as a matter of privacy and not of healthcare (specially when so many other aspects of privacy are nonexistent) falls under “things I’m not going to try and explain to most Europeans”.

20

Only half of us are crazy.

I think if you look closely, you’ll find that all nations have a foreign policy that acts in their self interest. The difference is reach. The US has a global reach so that it touches conflicts all over the world. Most nations have only a regional reach. More later.

Only half of us are crazy.

What’s the alternative? Also, within the existing international structure, the US is the necessary hegemon. Not a great situation to be sure, but it would take a lot of hard work and higher military spending among our NATO partners to rectify it. And remember half of the US loves its elevated military spending on dubious weapon systems. Currently we’re phasing out the sturdy A-10 while pushing the maintenance prone F-35. But half of us can’t get beyond inane sloganeering about weak and strong militaries.

Only half of us are crazy.