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

[Cabin_Fever_1]

@Freddy_the_Pig

The US is a country of 330 million people, most of whom arrived either enslaved or dead broke, from every corner of the world, with almost nothing in common. Maybe we deserve some credit for building the society that we have, imperfect as it is.

…snip (bolding mine)…

[FriarTed]

@Measure_for_Measure

Hat tip to Qin: he’s one of the few center lefties who has a working sense of modern American conservatism. A real resource.

He’s a liberal, but not exactly a lefty. And he had been one of us for so long. We hope for his return. to Qin

[msmith537]

I guess I would answer with what has Norway given the world besides Vikings and death metal?

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@astorian

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.

Probably half the population of this country “knows” this as well, which only goes to show that a deeply entrenched meme greatly outlives its factual relevance, no matter where you’re from.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@Grim_Render

Norwegian universal healthcare counsumes about 9 % of GDP. US healthcare consumes 18 % and fails to be universal. You might as well say the US could afford the same sweet stuff for its citizens as Norway if it had an economically performing healthcare system.

The implicit question, in the spirit of the OP, then becomes why don’t we have an economically performing HC system. That lost 9% (at least) must be going somewhere, oh I don’t know, maybe to overpaid doctors in some cases, but then I recall that many of the younger doctors have enormous student loans to pay back. The lenders have employees to service those accounts and hire collectors for the loans that go bad, and the collectors have their own employees, etc., etc., etc., Meanwhile, the ideal of mostly laissez-faire capitalism is so entrenched that most Americans can’t conceive that such a system can be as grossly inefficient as any socialist system. Too many people have vested interests in the existing system.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@Nava

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.

Actually I think you all should get a pass on this one, because it’s not all that often in the media that the basic facts of our geography are explicitly stated. Some people here find it amusing that Europeans come to visit California and think Hollywood is close to San Francisco. But in fiction, the distance between San Francisco and L.A., and the time needed by a character to make the trip, is unlikely to be stated unless it’s crucial to the plot. Similarly, in documentary or journalistic contexts it’s generally assumed that the audience has at least a rough idea of the distance, which will similarly be omitted.

[Leaper]

Ah, I’m reminded of a vital factor I forgot for all these questions: making sure the questioner realizes how big the United States is, and how that allows for the evolution of a wide variety of cultures and opinions (including the urban/rural divide, which I’m sure Europeans understand).

[John_Mace]

@Leaper

Why can’t you Americans stop interfering with women’s health care?

Ugh. Why don’t Norwegians understand that the US has some of the most liberal abortion laws in The West. More liberal than many (most?) European countries.

The legality of and public opinion toward abortion in Norway has changed dramatically in the last 100 years. Current Norwegian legislation and public health policy provides for abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of gestation, by application up to the 18th week, and only under special circumstances thereafter.

[astorian]

@John_Mace

Ugh. Why don’t Norwegians understand that the US has some of the most liberal abortion laws in The West. More liberal than many (most?) European countries.

The legality of and public opinion toward abortion in Norway has changed dramatically in the last 100 years. Current Norwegian legislation and public health policy provides for abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of gestation, by application up to the 18th week, and only under special circumstances thereafter.

Beyond that, try calling up a Planned Parenthood office and saying:

1. “I need a mammogram- what time can you schedue an appointment for me?”

2. Hi, I’m pregnant. Can you set me up with a doctor who can help me through the next six months and then deliver the baby?"

3. “I have some fibroid tumors. Can I schedule surgery to have them removed?”
   You’ll be told, “Sorry, we don’t do those things.” So much for being “women’s health” providers.

[jsquire]

I remember a political candidate calling people out on a bit of this. He said “it’s like they take pride in their ignorance”, or words to that effect. I liked that guy, wonder what happened to him.

Anyway, he was right. Some people are proud of being ignorant. And some reflexively take a position diametrically opposed to others because they so intensely dislike them. It’s not like Europe doesn’t have groups that hate each other, but you have the benefit of a Parliamentary system and that introduces a range of positions to take on any issue. Our winner-take-all system of government virtually guarantees that third parties are not viable, and so our politics and public discourse tend to be like Monty Python’s argument sketch.