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Why do many Americans feel they are so ‘great’? They seem to think they are better than anyone else, but I feel many of the things accomplished there are by foreigners who come to U.S. universities. I love America, but sometimes the people seem cocky and unwilling to accept they are wrong or not as skilled as someone from another country. Why is this, or am I off base?
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Name : 18, Age : 18, City : N/A, State : NA, Country : N/A, 

[T. Grone]

This is an interesting question, because Americans in general seem to be of two minds about it. Fairly safe (I hope!) example: there’s sort of a mindset that Brits are more well-educated than us, simply because Amerians associate British accents with education. The French seem more cultivated, Asians seem, ah, more intelligent, and so on. Whether or not this is true on an individual basis is, of course, uncertain, but for the most part Americans do have certain gut reactions to various groups and their assumed superiority on some level. But I can’t deny that, despite the aforementioned gut-reaction, Americans do tend to think of themselves as the best. The only conclusion I can come up with sounds silly, but I think it’s right. It comes to this: America (we think) has the best visual entertainment industry in the world. (Okay, there’s Bollywood, but we Americans don’t appreciate it.) So we’ve got the greatest actors, the funniest sitcoms, etc., etc. And when we get stuff from other countries, it seems laughable in comparison. Really laughable; films are either poorly acted, poorly shot, or poorly marketed. Television series are doomed to PBS or, if they’re lucky, Comedy Central. One can argue that television and film productions are not an accurate representation of a paticular country. Well, obviously, but it doesn’t make a difference if that’s all Americans see, does it? America is a country so saturated in pop culture that we think we really live it, and we extend that assumption to other countries’ attempts at pop culture. Like I said, it’s a bit silly (and elementary), but I think I’m right. We go by television to tell us what’s happening and movies to tell us what should be happening. Since, for the most part, the rest of the world isn’t up to par with our entertainment industry, we think we are superior.

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Name : T. Grone, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 19, City : Falls Church, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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