Britons .... Polite but Boring !!!

Surely you consider the existence of serving yourself a better alternative to spending a life of servitude of some god or other?

So, your experience is enough evidence to account for the entire United States? Tool.

Sorry, no, I didn't phrase myself very well - you didn't actually say that, it was just the implication that I got, from what I'd read so far.

The point still stands that there are plenty of Americans who do seem to think like that though, or why not at least have a passport? What do you think about that?

I explained this in my reply to you before, but maybe my explanation bears repeating because it's a issue that seemingly gets raised everyday somewhere on this forum. Most Americans don't have passports because they can travel thousands of miles without needing one. If each of our 50 states were their own countries requiring passports for entry, then we would all have passports.

I'm not going to imply that you think your own country is the only one that has anything worth seeing, but you may not be aware of all the US has to offer.

If you are interested in going to beaches, you can go to Hanalei Bay in Hawaii, Ocracoke Island in North Carolina, Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts or Key Biscayne, Florida, among many other places.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have some wonderful places to go if you like to ski. Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, New York State, Maine and Vermont offer some of the best skiing in the world.

Vegas is the world's best place to go for gambling - hands down.

When you are up for a good time or want to relax, you can do just about everything without leaving the borders.
Fishing Vacations? Hot air balloon racing? Amusement parks? Golf Courses? Rafting Trips? Rock Climbing? Kayaking? Surfing? Sky diving? Scuba diving? Hiking? No passport? No problem!

I've also been to Ireland, France (also lived there for seven months), Germany, Belgium, Holland, the Czech Republic, Barbados, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Tenerife, Luxembourg, Austria, Canada...

And that is why I think Americans have a stereotypical reputation of being ignorant, in the sense of being insular really.

I've visited it, and it's impossible to live over here and not get a good sense of the country as a whole through television, films, etc.

How you could have these three phrases in one post and expect to be taken seriously is beyond me.

Arrogant wealth, strong generalizations, and blatant ignorance, all together. Nice work.

"So who's seen and experienced more of the world? Me, or someone who'd never left their own country"

I think this is the "theory" that many americans think is arrogant.

As in, to be knowledgable, americans MUST travel and visit other countries to learn about REAL culture....as americans don't "have any". Native american history is neither "real history" nor "real culture", and nothing in the US itself has any historiacal significance.

Never mind that a different country and culture is a short train ride away in Europe. Never mind that it is much cheaper to travel to Asia from Europe. Americans are de-facto ignorant if they remain in the US..... and if they should visit any other part of the world, that just proves how "insular" they were to start with.

Does anyone outside of the US not realize how much this theory encourages Americans to visit all thier states as a goal BEFORE they get a chance to check out "the rest of the world"?

"So who's seen and experienced more of the world? Me, or someone who'd never left their own country"

I think this is the "theory" that many americans think is arrogant.

As in, to be knowledgable, americans MUST travel and visit other countries to learn about REAL culture....as americans don't "have any". Native american history is neither "real history" nor "real culture", and nothing in the US itself has any historiacal significance.

Never mind that a different country and culture is a short train ride away in Europe. Never mind that it is much cheaper to travel to Asia from Europe. Americans are de-facto ignorant if they remain in the US..... and if they should visit any other part of the world, that just proves how "insular" they were to start with.

Does anyone outside of the US not realize how much this theory encourages Americans to visit all thier states as a goal BEFORE they get a chance to check out "the rest of the world"?

I didn't say it made me more knowledgeable. I said it meant I'd seen more of the world. Which is a fact - I have seen quite a few countries.

And again, can I remind you that I didn't say I necessarily agreed with this stereotype; I was hypothesizing as to how it has arisen. I didn't say anything about native american culture and history not being worth seeing - I don't think that for a second - I was merely pointing out that America is still a young country, and most other countries have a much longer history that I would've thought would be interesting to see as well as American history.

And please don't use quote marks to comment on something I didn't actually say! ("real history", "real culture", Americans don't "have any".)

If you actually read my posts carefully, I think you'll find they're a lot more balanced than your reaction would suggest, or at least that's how they're intended to be. I've said that I like America, I want to see more of it, I know that it's easier for me to get to Europe, etc. BUT that there are also things worth making a big effort to see outside the States. That's not really so unreasonable, surely?!

I'm not denying that there's a huge range of things to see and do in the States, I'm just saying that anyone who doesn't ever leave America is missing out on a lot of culture, and history.

I wasn't suggesting that there is no where else worth seeing. I've seen the Parthenon and it was spectacular, but 90% of the time (I think this is true for both of us) we just want to take a break and relax and "get away from it all", as the Beach Boys would put it. For the 10% of the time you want to learn about history, then you are better off getting on a plane and fly for 7 hours or so and see Europe.

And as someone who studies a language, and has an interest in history, I don't agree that there is no reason to ever look elsewhere for all this.

And that is why I think Americans have a stereotypical reputation of being ignorant, in the sense of being insular really. I'm not saying that I agree with such a strong definition, just that I can understand how it came to exist.

I just disagree with the claim that there is no need to go anywhere else, that you can get anything you might be looking for in a holiday within the States. I like history, and languages, and diversity, the only one of which that you'll find in particularly plentiful supply in the States is the diversity. But this is all MY OPINION.

The reason why you keep reading things in my posts I'm not saying is because you can't set aside or look past your own anti-american bias and stereotypes. I've done my best to explain that not having a passport has more to do with the size of the USA, convenience, the range of activities to do here, and the type of vacations people typically take. Djchak pointed out that we have only about 2 weeks max to spend, which is another good point. You think the reason is because Americans are insular and there is really nothing I can say to convince you otherwise.

What I was saying was representative of the attitude that an awful lot of Europeans have towards Americans.

I personally think the Americans being 'provincal' is inevitable and entirely understandable, given the diversty of climate and landscape they have--not many people would be bothered to suffer the inconvinience of learning other languages, and going elsewhere....

Very individualistic and New rightesque ("I don't care about homeless people", "Abortion's should be illegal, if a girl doens't want to get pregnant she shouldn't have sex" [hello, what about the males?], "It's poor people's own fault for being poor".

"American's are ignorant"

Killed your own argument.