From various forums including this one, in debates between Americans and Europeans about politics, I often find people from the UK and Germany etc segue into Americans “thinking their country is the best”.
What is so wrong about thinking your country is the best? It seems like the original sin when it comes to political debate…don’t people from different countries all over the earth consider their country the “best”? If I heard someone from Portugal remark about Portugal being the best, the first thought in my mind would be to complement him on his country’s beautiful women, not to call him arrogant.
(To answer my own question, I’ve played Reversi on Yahoo with people who said Singapore was the best out of nowhere…etc)
I’ve never heard anyone non-European whine about Americans thinking their country is the best, but that’s from my limited experience. Can someone explain 1) Why it’s seen as such a terrible thing, and 2) Maybe what some of the historical/cultural roots for the Europeans specifically looking down upon this thought?
I forgot to include in the OP, it’s almost never Americans themselves who bring up their own country being the best, but non-Americans bringing up that Americans think their country is the best, when it was not even involved in the discussion. Would this be considered Ad Hominem?
Let’s just tell it like it is: The United States of America, despite its faults, is the best. Can you name any other country in the world where they have to guard their borders to prevent people from entering?
Anybody disagree? Okay. Tell me where you would rather live. (and why the hell don’t you?)
That’s for a different thread completely. I agree with you that America is the best (in my opinion, for me to live…Chicago specifically!), but if we kill the whole European “Arrogant Americans thinking their country is the best” meme, we won’t even have to debate America’s many fine traits.
My point is that it’s alright for anyone to think their country is the best and be proud of it, and that shouldn’t be held against them in debates.
Look, I don’t know how to say this without sounding rude, but I’m guessing foreign news isn’t one of your interests. One of the greatest issues facing the European Union is how to keep internal borders open while still guarding the external borders to prevent people from entering. Norway and Switzerland, which are not part of the EU, also struggle with that problem. So does Canada. Basically, so does any relatively wealthy country not known for political oppression.
This would be a reasonable complaint had I not met dozens of your fellow countrypeople who have informed me perfectly seriously that “America is the best country in the world!”. Kinda perpetuates, to this European at least, the “meme” that some Americans do indeed hold this view, and aren’t afraid to wank on about it. There’s even one in this thread.
The USA is clearly superlative in many respects - richest, most powerful, etc., but “best” is utterly subjective. It’s tiresome to be told by implication that one’s homeland/continent/country of residence is inferior, by people who have clearly not thought about a) the issues, nor b) the effect this sort of rhetoric has on its audience.
Different countries do different things well, so which is best is a matter of what you think is important;
Both politics and civil liberties are extremely well handled in the Netherlands
Entrepreneurialism (sp?), risk taking and a phenomenal natural landscape (Rockies, Grand Canyon, Yosemite) are all things the USA has in abundance
General lifestyle, food and fashion are done very well by France, Italy, Spain and Portugal among others.
Healthcare and Education are very good in the Scandanavian countries (as well as parts of South East Asia)
UK is probably good at something, I just haven’t discovered it yet
There is no such thing as a “best country in the world.” A country is far too complex an entity to be measured by one single scale of “goodness.” The interpretation of everything that makes up a country is subjective. It’s fine to say that you have a favorite country, but anyone who insists that one coutry is “the best” is under the delusion that his/her own value system is the universal truth.
I think the problem with this concept among many Europeans is that where do you draw the line between " my country is the best " and extreme nationalism . This is the same with the American custom of having their national flags flying everywhere. We in Europe have long memories of this form of nationalism .The Nuremburg Rallies and May Day parades in Red Square will spring to mind when we here people boasting that their country is the best.
There are different ways of saying that, though. There’s saying “My country is the one I love the best and is the place I most want to be”, there’s “My country’s #1!” as one usually hears at sports events, and then there’s getting in other people’s faces and saying “My country is better than yours”, which is then often followed with “so shut up and do what I tell you.”
Now, when people complain that Americans seem to always be saying that their country is best, which of these three do you think they’re refrring to?
This is terribly amusing, so much so that it’s difficult to tell whether Peanuthead is toying with our poor, unrefined foreign sense of humour.
This week, my federal government moved to excise 4000 islands from our migration zone, with the intention of making it more difficult for asylum seekers to reach this country.
The biggest problem comes from lack of comparison. So if you haven’t been reading alot about, traveling to or living in foreign countries… then what means of comparison do you have ?
Its like eating only burgers and fries and saying burgers are the best food in the world. Very limited thinking.
I have seen all sorts of people saying their "country is the best" and very few have reasonable experience to justify that conclusion. Those who have travelled and lived abroad in my experience think every country has different "pros".
Why do people get more irked when Americans say it ? Maybe because they travel very little abroad especially when you take into consideration they are relatively very well off ? Maybe because they put very little effort into learning foreign languages ? Many of the things that make them proud of their country are either overdone or false ? (One pretty common are inventions being wrongly credited to americans and the defender of freedom title).
To be fair though... in another thread someone mentioned that in Europe in comparison its easy to go to a foreign country. So that americans could never have the same levels of european awareness of other nationalities and cultures ever. It's true in part... but I don't see as much of this in Latin American countries which seem a bit more tuned to the outside.
Of course its natural to "defend" your country as the best... and for good or bad most of us adapt to our native countries which makes living elsewhere a bit more complicated in comparison.
Actually, Peanuthead raises an excellent point. Most of the posters on this board live in countries that they could leave (economics allowing) at the drop of a hat. So, essentially, very nearly all of us here are voting for our own country with what counts most - our feet!.
I know that I feel best living right here in Israel. Best in the world? for me, YES!
of course, as others have already said, this is all very subjective, and YM obviously does V
Where you from? I’ve heard Chinese people say it too. It’s even worse coming from them considering that unlike the US you can’t even really make a halfway-believable case for it, improvements aside.