Are Americans really so self-centred as the stereotype says they are?

[noname223]

Here are many Americans in this forum. I like many of them. When I was very young I was amazed by the USA. Everything seemed to be bigger, more exciting and more intensive on the other side of the Atlantic. Today I am less fascinated though many interesting things happen there. I like many artists, my favorite music stems from there, my favorite writter too and the political landscape is kind of thrilling.

Though I am glad I don't live there (compared to my country). I am probably dependent on welfare due to my conditions and being poor in the USA is kind of hellish. Moreover my medical bills would have made me bankrupt like 35 times already. Even in the UK health care is not as good as in my country. The leftwingers in my country criticize the health care system in my country it would be too unequal. However when I compare it with most other countries it is like a paradise. I wished I could say that about the amount of money you get if you are on welfare. But this is another topic.

Someone in this forum I think a US-citizen posted a very funny picture of the stereotpyical American. It was a very obese person in a wheelchair. I think with guns and the US-flag.

Do you think it is true that Americans are really that self-centred? I don't mean this concerning your own personal life I rather think about the relationship you have to other countries. The thing is the USA are a huge country. WIth a long history. It is not that important to learn a new language because English is probably the most important language in the world. When I learned new languages in school we always talked about the culture and history where the language was/is spoken. Someone wrote me when I told stories about my English courses that the person was surprised that we are talking so much about the US and UK.
I imagine it to be a little bit weird living in a country with multiple time zones. I can't really imagine that this sounds kind of surreal for me. It is kind of logical that if you follow US politics that there is not that much time left for politics in other countries. Due to the fact that the country is that huge.

What do you think about this stereotype?

 

[novem]

Short answer: yes.
A stereotype is by definition the most common character.

 

[Pluto]

The US culture you speak of has been heavily shaped by the ideological conflict with the Soviet Union in the 20th century.

The apparent victory of the US in the Cold War can be chalked up to the superior 'in practice' results of free markets and shameless selfishness versus the opposite equivalent of endless tolerance for substandard living conditions for the purported betterment of all, as happened in the Soviet Bloc.

This has led to various cultural perversions like the 'greed is good' mentality that is slowly sinking the Titanic of the US empire.

 

[MelancholyMagic]

I don't mean this concerning your own personal life I rather think about the relationship you have to other countries.

From my understanding, Americans generally think mostly about American issues. They would think about big global events (e.g., the Ukraine-Russia conflict), but only a relative few would care about, say, elections in Germany. One can only consume so much news, and there is plenty to keep oneself informed (or entertained) by reading about American affairs.

 

[NobodyKnowsMe]

From my understanding, Americans generally think mostly about American issues. They would think about big global events (e.g., the Ukraine-Russia conflict), but only a relative few would care about, say, elections in Germany. One can only consume so much news, and there is plenty to keep oneself informed (or entertained) by reading about American affairs.

I think this is mostly true. I think overall, us Americans know far less about the rest of the world than people of other countries do. In many ways we are selfish and self-centered.

As to the stereotype of obese, in a wheelchair, guns & flag - that is only partially correct. The country is fairly evenly divided on overall gun issues. The majority of us feel that there should be some tighter controls, but the majority do not believe that they should be completely outlawed. I say the majority of Americans are fairly patriotic, but the average person is really only the flag-waving types around holidays like Independence Day. As a country, we are definitely more weighty than we should be. I think the last statistics I read are roughly 1/3 of adults are obese and another third are overweight.

 

[Weebster]

I'm glad there's so many obese people. It shows their lack of discipline and forward thinking. It allows me to stand on the shoulders of literal giants. Is it so hard to look at the nutrition labels?

 

[NobodyKnowsMe]

I'm glad there's so many obese people. It shows their lack of discipline and forward thinking. Is it so hard to look at the nutrition labels?

It's not really the nutrition labels that are the problem. For me it started as a slow weight increase when my metabolism changed after I quit smoking. A few years later, my metabolism and hormones underwent changes due to menopause - boy does that screw a person up. All my life, prior to any of that, I never had a solid exercise routine. I was always naturally skinny regardless of what I ate, so I seldom paid attention to food and simply ate what I enjoyed. I was active, but not actual exercising. As the weight increased, it compounded my asthma, which slowed my overall activity level down. Now I am at a point where I am trying to increase my activity level and exercise a bit, but the depression is bad enough that I generally don't give a crap about most of life anymore. Thus why care about my body, even though it is the disgust with my body that makes the depression worse.

Basically, once it started going bad, it is a never ending spiral, with no way up out of the damn toilet bowl.

 

[Weebster]

It's not really the nutrition labels that are the problem. For me it started as a slow weight increase when my metabolism changed after I quit smoking. A few years later, my metabolism and hormones underwent changes due to menopause - boy does that screw a person up. All my life, prior to any of that, I never had a solid exercise routine. I was always naturally skinny regardless of what I ate, so I seldom paid attention to food and simply ate what I enjoyed. I was active, but not actual exercising. As the weight increased, it compounded my asthma, which slowed my overall activity level down. Now I am at a point where I am trying to increase my activity level and exercise a bit, but the depression is bad enough that I generally don't give a crap about most of life anymore. Thus why care about my body, even though it is the disgust with my body that makes the depression worse.

Basically, once it started going bad, it is a never ending spiral, with no way up out of the damn toilet bowl.

I know. I was actually fat once. I didn't know it at the time because nobody told me. I lost the weight by cutting out all drinks but water and limiting sugar.

 

[Fragile]

It's definitely a case of the most vocal ones making the others look bad, I'm sure that most people from the US are not as self centered, but this stereotype is proven right in social media all the time.

Maybe it's because they are from an extremely populous country, a country that has had worldwide cultural hegemony for almost a century. I can see why some of them believe that they are the center of the known universe, they kind of are in a way.

I haven't seen many people from other nations try to lecture me about my own country, but I see it almost daily with people from the US. Specifically the ones that consider themselves on "the right side of history™" and get their politics from influencers. They think that their opinions are somehow more important in countries that they don't know shit about. It's hilarious. And, no, I'm not referring to a specific side, they partake on it in different ways, some more annoying than others...

This isn't limited to politics, of course. But it's not nearly as prevalent with other groups in the current age of social media and recreational outrage. To be fair, it's very entertaining to play the role of preacher of your own ideology, even more so from the comfort of your own home, e-vangelists would be a good term for it. And I can only imagine just how easy it would be to do so after being raised believing in some version of American exceptionalism.

 

[SantaTeresa]

They are indeed self-centered, but that's not a big problem, after all we are all going to be Americans in few decades, but without any benefits.
Life there looks slightly worse than most 1st world countries, keyword here: 1st world, can't say I'm not envious of their place but they're wired weirdly.

 

[newave3]

 

[Seeking_Peace]

You're describing humans in general unless the rest of the world has figured out how to completely remove their ego.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

America is the best place for being able to freely complain about where you live. No matter who you are or what you believe in, there will always be something to complain about and half the country will also be complaining about that very same thing. It's beautiful.

 

[Dizzylady80]

Yeah, it also exists on a smaller scale too. American culture is very atomized, largely because it's easier to sell a large amount of things if no one is sharing but really for a whole bunch of reasons. Even the pushback to this is done in a very self-centered way. It's hard to break out of

 

[angrymob222]

I think it depends on the American. I don't think every American is 100 percent self centered. I think In general, humans may have some level of being self centered. And yeah that stereotype is true for some Americans. i know several Americans that are very patriotic and super right winged and are all about guns and not restricting them. but I also know plenty of Americans that are not like that. I would say the US isn't the absolute worst place you could live in, but I definitely wish that I could live in New Zealand. The politics in the US drive me insane and I hate it. plus there are tons of shootings in this country that happen all the time and people here don't even wanna ban machine guns despite all of the shootings. I don't think guns should be completely banned, but I think machine guns should be. Also, the time zones here do suck. I hate it. I don't get why we have to have so many different time zones in this country.

 

[NobodyKnowsMe]

I don't think guns should be completely banned, but I think machine guns should be.

Machine guns -- and any "fully automatic" gun -- is already illegal in the US. The weapons that have been used in the mass shootings were "semi automatics", not machine guns.

 

[angrymob222]

Machine guns -- and any "fully automatic" gun -- is already illegal in the US. The weapons that have been used in the mass shootings were "semi automatics", not machine guns.

Oh I see. Thanks for the correction

 

[synthcadia]

as an american, yes, a lot of americans are self-centered.

but the self-centered ones are the ones with privilege, usually people who have been here for a while, not oppressed, or are not immigrants. i think some of my family may be like that, but on my mom's iranian side, they are not like that bc they are POC and immigrants.

i mean we have a lot of karens so.

 

[JealousOfTheElderly]

By and large, yes. Very self centered and a belief in that the rest of the world is like them.

 

[TheDog_]

I think people in general are self-centered, but western culture is definitely very individualistic so you can be rest assured people will drop you if you disturb their ideal lifestyle. The United States is not the only country that idealizes individualism, but it may be the one that idealizes it the most.

 

[SexyIncél]

and the political landscape is kind of thrilling.

US politics is a regular pageant, where the winners rule you (literally make the rules you live under) for years. Like a cult, people are expected to constantly talk about and fight for their lords. It's all controlled by two political entities that produce crappy choices, dominated by info systems that mainly produce slick propaganda

There are upsides. For example, slick propaganda comes from needing to control people who have higher levels of free speech. The systems of control are actually fairly fragile

Someone in this forum I think a US-citizen posted a very funny picture of the stereotpyical American. It was a very obese person in a wheelchair. I think with guns and the US-flag.

US people are hyperworked. The median vacation is 11 days. Often you must allocate them to sick days. So you end up stress-eating and grabbing whatever's convenient

Do you think it is true that Americans are really that self-centred? I don't mean this concerning your own personal life I rather think about the relationship you have to other countries. The thing is the USA are a huge country. WIth a long history. It is not that important to learn a new language because English is probably the most important language in the world.

It's only been around 250 years. And lots of people learn all about imagined societies, like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. Or they know what some celeb had for breakfast last week

It's currently an insular country. I hear that at different times & places in the US, people tend to be more interested & informed about those in other lands. Even now, some definitely enjoy imagining radically different ways of being, happy to discover & create better ideas. Not just to be snobbish, looking down on others. So there's certainly exceptions

 

[Sweetsinking]

Well the motto of America was to always have freedom and self independence. We have a more 'myself first, community last' culture whereas places such as asian countries have 'community first, myself last'. So naturally everyone is more entitled about what they want and get here.

We still did learn about a lot of other countries and have world history classes where I'm from. The thing about politics though, is it's natural for you to really be paying attention to your own if you're in one shared country as big as America. I don't actively hear or research what's going on in Europe or any other country, so unless it's something like the Ukraine-Russia war, I'm just clueless. And many people don't care to hear unless it's affecting themselves.

With food, I grew up in a poor family. Whatever is cheap and convenient is what's for supper, which tends to be macaronis, etc. You simply just don't look at a nutritional label when you're just trying to eat. Many people also have food addictions, binge eating disorders, stress eat, etc. It's hard to wean yourself off that shit because everyone eats and you still have to eat, but now you have to eat without adding a brownie to the mix. Also there's regional parts to it. Heard southerners tend to have more weight because of the cookout culture and more fastfoods, and it's hotter out which makes exercise more miserable.