I’m a Canadian who has lived and worked in the US, so I’ve got some familiarity with it.

There is a pervading sense of exceptionalism buried deep in the American zeitgeist. It runs so deep that most people don’t even notice it - even on the outer edges.

Case in point: My closest friends down there were staunch leftists. In a land of gun owners and meat lovers, they were vegetarians and pacifists who marched in protests against the government. Most of the time they were quiet, charming, soft-spoken, but firm in their beliefs. Pretty much the polar opposite of the “loudmouth American tourist abroad” stereotype.

And yet if you asked them if the US was the greatest country on earth, they’d say “well yeah, which is why we have to fight for it.” An admirable sentiment, but the “well yeah” speaks volumes for how the country sees itself.

The protest singers who lived through McCarthy are the same. Woody Guthrie and his son Arlo would probably say that for all of its flaws and horror, the US is still the best nation we’ve got so far.

When you know deep in your soul that you’re the best, it’s hard not to let some subconscious arrogance show through.

The U.S. is like any other country; it has its share of assholes. But I generally avoid painting everyone of however many million people with the same broad brush.

There is a somewhat obnoxious level of patriotism to Americans in general that comes from simply being the biggest economy and a net cultural exporter to the rest of the world; think blue jeans and coca-cola, metaphorically. (I’m sorry, Americans, but it’s true. Put on your big boy pants and deal with the criticism like adults, please.)

But it only rises to the level of arrogance in those people who think that the rest of the world only exists because of them and should behave as some sort of client state to American hegemony.

That’s not all Americans. Heck, I’d say it’s not even most Americans. But they’re just really really loud and drown out everything else.

More ashamed of my country than ever and feel stuck here. From California and feel like we have some dead corpse strapped to us.

With all the constant anti-American sentiment on here day after day I’d like to count every single time I return here in the “American humility” column, thank you very much. Signed, one of the “good ones.”

It’s not all Americans, but there is a certain type that when you see them, you know it.

I’m talking the type in baggy cargo shorts who 20 seconds after meeting them brags about having great weed and how many women they’ve fucked.

I had one of those come work with us in Mexico some 6 years back. We had an integrated karate dojo where all employees could train and at the first (and last) training he joined he immediately grabbed two women by their breasts because USA! USA! USA!

Since I ran that dojo he was banned right there and then, but the company owner did not wanted to fire him because he saw absolutely no problem with that behavior. Owner was Russian so take from that what you will about certain types of Russians

I’ve heard similar stories during my random travels around the world over the years. It’s unfortunate that people in Europe and elsewhere are subjected to these negative encounters. As you said, I don’t believe it’s every American, but from these consistently shared anecdotes, I learned early on in my travels that the USA is not always sending its best people.

With that said, I would like to share some observations about this from the perspective of someone from the USA. Amongst my friends and other American travelers I have spoken with, there is a noticeable anti-American sentiment that we have felt from, for example, Europeans while we are traveling throughout Europe. It ranges anywhere from immediate, perceptible changes in demeanor upon hearing my accent, to unsolicited and overly judgmental comments on every aspect of American society, all the way to unprovoked anger.

Many of the complaints I’ve heard from Europeans about Americans, I’ve ironically experienced myself from Europeans: arrogance, intolerance, racism, overt drunkenness and loudness, a lack of understanding about geography (Europeans don’t seem to understand how large the USA is), uninformed opinions they absorbed from sensationalized media sources, etc.

As a result of these experiences, we are sometimes hesitant to talk or discuss anything related to our country when forced into a conversation about these topics. The key word is forced. This is not to say we are afraid of admitting the issues that are prevalent throughout our society. In fact, I would say most Americans who are traveling would agree with you. It’s just that when we travel, it can be difficult to have a conversation with a European without being bombarded by unsolicited opinions on everything they believe is inherently wrong with me. While I have encountered this elsewhere, this tends to be a mostly European experience for me.

Having to hear that over and over can get tiresome, whether deserved or not. Especially since this isn’t something new, and has been going on for many years before the Trump and Bush eras. I’ve resorted to self-deprecating humor when any of those topics come up, which seems to assuage most people. I’ve noticed a lot of Americans do this online or in person, even some taking it to the point of self flagellation.

All of this is to say that most of my travels and encounters with people around the world are positive. It’s a great way to experience other cultures and people different than our own self-contained society. It’s one of the reasons why I love to travel, and encourage most of my fellow Americans to do so. The more we learn about the world, the better we will be at being good neighbors. Until then, I’m sorry we keep sending shitty people to your countries.

I think a lot of their culture revolves around adolescence. Sports, music, movies, fashion etc. are based on juvenile traits, where talking, actions and getting attention are more important than more mature things like listening and compromising.

They’re not all like that, but there certainly are many who get through life in an American cultural bubble. When you reach your early twenties you probably think you’ve got everything figured out. That will last until you encounter other cultures that can challenge your views. A lot of Americans don’t encounter other cultures.

I know plenty of Europeans who are similar, but they don’t appear as one group. A German ignorant appears and speaks different than a Swedish ignorant, and both countries are known for having a similar superiority complex based on their own domestic successes. The Americans are in a disadvantage here, since everyone can hear and understand them, and there’s quite a lot of them, so their presence is just a lot more obvious.

theres some confirmation selection bias in that most americans will never have the ability to travel abroad. so the group youre interfacing with are the more entitled, wealthier class which is also a much smaller contingent of americans.

US citizen here, sounds like you have already figured it out:

And I know that America is a very individualistic culture that focuses on the self and the belief that everyone can achieve anything on their own.

This goes deep into the heart of the matter. A good portion of the population has been propagandized for literally decades that every man is an island and reliance on others is “pussy shit.” There is no conception of society. No one wants to fix society, they all want to become rich so the rules of society just stop applying to them.

Temporarily embarrassed millionaires billionaires and all that.

For those of us with empathy and understanding of how economics and international relations actually function, let me tell you, it is a nightmare on our mental health. It has been that way long before Trump, too, I remember how viciously we wasted the world’s outpouring of compassion after 9/11. In response to that compassion we went and swung around our big military dick in the middle east and wrecked millions upon millions of lives. It is a daily endless gaslighting by society that caring about people makes us weak. We often are literally denied opportunities to thrive because we aren’t following the right “script.” We will be passed over for jobs in favor of nepotism and social connections.

Like literally the entire fraternity/sorority culture in the US is and always was for forging early business connections so you can be a useless fucking loser but still rise to the top.

That culture has lead to the worst, dumbest, and least competent running the entire fucking country.

A lot of days it really feels like it would just be easier to let this system fucking kill me and let it win just to get it over with.

Somehow, though, people like me continue living out of spite for what America is and what it represents.

I have observed a huuuge difference in this regard between the Usamericans that I have met in real life (when they have moved to Europe) and the ones that I have met online because they still live there.

So, one part of the arrogance comes when they have never seen the world, but talk about it as if they knew it.

Because the American culture has indocrinated Americans to put themselves first. Whoever has “me first” hard-coded in their personality tends to view everybody else as inferior, and tends to have an unwavering confidence in their own greatness.

There are good replies here already, but I just want to emphasize the role of bragging. It seems boasting about yourself is quite accepted and sometimes perhaps even expected in the US. In Europe it is not at all, and we tend to react strongly to it.

Whenever I’ve found Americans to be insufferable they’ve always been bragging or taking themselves too seriously.

Not all Americans obviously. And I guess a lot of Americans can’t stand these people either. But it’s still a common American trait that very few Europeans will have patience for. Even our narcissists have learned to pretend to be humble.

I wouldn’t say arrogant, but I’ve worked with a lot of Americans, and there’s something most of them have in common. I can’t quite put my finger on what, but it’s in the vicinity or arrogance. I simply don’t have the necessary English vocabulary to explain it properly.

In short, I’ve found that most of them likes to swing their dick around and pull rank, even if someone else clearly has a better approach/solution/suggestion. This is far from unique to americans, but it seems more prevalent compared to the other nationalities I’ve worked with.

“I learned it from you, Dad! I learned it from you!” - America to England

I think a lot of it comes from being the military and economic superpower of the world. We Americans must be an exceptional people, since we are so powerful in so many ways! (Please, feel free to add as much sarcasm as you feel is necessary to the previous statement, but remember that a lot of people say that with almost religious seriousness.)

Not enough people take geography into account, either. It has had a major effect on American society and our attitude towards other countries. We Americans have rarely needed to share. Our country is almost as big as, and quite isolated from, all of Europe. Our neighbor to the north largely speaks English, and is culturally quite similar to us. Our neighbor to the south has a culture worthy of admiration, but they are not seriously respected by most Americans.

That’s it. Two neighbors sharing borders with mainland USA. On the east and west, we have huge coastlines on two of the world’s largest oceans.

The most serious military threats to America were caused by countries an ocean away, and they were ultimately unsuccessful. Don’t forget our civil war… but even through all that, the government survived (and I’m glad it did, because we were basically fighting against people who wanted to uphold the right to keep slaves. Sure, you can argue that I’m oversimplifying things, but I’m not wrong). Add to that the concept of Manifest Destiny. People sincerely believed that it was GODS WILL that we conquer the land all the way to the Pacific, natives be damned.

Americans have believed in American Exceptionalism for about as long as America has existed. I can’t blame people for having a view that was drilled into their subconscious, but I can (and do) blame us when we’re insensitive dicks about it.