I’m an American who’s been lucky enough to travel to many other countries and currently living in the EU. Blanket statements on the praise-worthiness is stupid; one should only praise things, people, and nations when and where they deserve it. There’s a lot to admire and there’s a lot to be disgusted at when considering just about every country and government.

What I find socially in the EU culture is that people are far more exclusionary, prone to isolationism, and prejudicial about my and my countrymen’s competence and intelligence than what I was told to expect. I expected some “haha, dumb American” memes, but I didn’t expect people here to honestly believe everyone thinks and acts like our worst. It was very eye-opening in a negative way.

EU citizens need to stop treating outsiders as 1-dimensional caricatures, but regrettably, that’s been one of humanity’s greatest faults, and I doubt it will be rectified anytime soon. I try not to get too butt-hurt about it, as we say, but it is irksome after encountering that attitude in conversation after conversation.