One Man Posts Youtube Video Of How His Perceptions of the US Changed After 12 years Living Abroad

It seems strange to me how Americans react about the thought of how the rest of the world views them. Many of them took pride in Trump's campaign promise to command respect, and pretended that he actually fulfilled that promise, even though he made a fool of himself on numerous occasions in front of the entire world, most memorably when he was literally laughed at before the entire United Nations - and thus, the entire world - while making a speech. Evidently, he mistook the assembled world leaders for a Trump rally crowd.

Too often, it feels like Americans get too quickly defensive when the topic of what other people in the world tend to think of them. When pressed, many Americans will either claim that the world seems to owe a debt to the United States, based on World War I, World War II, and perceived notions of heroism during the Cold War. Or, failing that, they will pretend not to care, and suggest that what they think does not matter at all.

But that sounds like a load of bull. Of course we should care what the rest of the world thinks of us. Moreover, we should be aware of their opinions for another, more obvious reason: what grounds do they feel entitled to criticize us on? When much of the world looks on in horror at all of the mass shootings that occur here, and seemingly nowhere else with anything like the degree of frequency that they occur here, maybe we should listen. 

After watching this video from this guy who has been living outside of the United States for many years now, and shares his thoughts on how his own thinking about some of the things that Americans tend to do or practice in the United States changed once he was actually outside of the United States. Suddenly, he saw that some of the things that he had seen as perfectly normal, and simply taken for granted without much thought, now seemed strange to him. 

He breaks it down into groups. And I have to say that, for the most part, I agree with what he says. Indeed, I have long felt that far too many Americans - certainly not all, but too large a presence of this mindset to be ignored - seem almost to get angry when the topic of how strange some of the customs here can look to those on the outside. But I think that this country could - and frankly, should - benefit from learning that, in fact, other countries are not necessarily backwards or worse off than Americans. That in fact, some countries seem to be just as well off and, in some cases, even better off. This is particularly true for some countries in Europe, in Far Eastern Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. And if Americans were not too often filled with pre-conceived notions of their own superiority, they might actually find that they could benefit from learning that somethings seem to be better in some other countries, and then taking an honest look at how things are done in other countries versus how they are done in the United States. Finally, it would require not only the courage to honestly assess themselves versus other countries, but to make some changes which, I feel, would be to the benefit of almost all Americans, and which would make the United States feel a bit fairer and less stand offish towards the rest of the world.