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I addressed all that in my post. I never claimed that Americans were one homogenous group (and by the way, I've lived in California, too). I claimed that US, de
by jonascopenhagen 14y ago
I addressed all that in my post. I never claimed that Americans were one homogenous group (and by the way, I've lived in California, too). I claimed that US, despite being a melting pot, is an actual nation (which is not the case with the EU) and that there are a least some common denominators - one of them being the language which is spoken natively by more than 80% of the population.
- saosebastiao 14y agoSo how exactly is it imprudent or offensive for Americans to point out some of the common denominators of Europe?
- Xylakant 14y agoNot at all - as long as you're at least generally right. If you're grossly misrepresenting things that apply to one country as "common denominator of Europe" it's offensive. It's offensive to pretend all germans wear lederhosen or probably a couple of americans were annoyed if I'd say that all americans wear cowboy boots and hats, have a winchester on their back and a colt on their belt and speak the worst texan dialect ever.
- rmc 14y agoThe problem comes when people think that there is as much variation amoung US states as between EU countries. There are much more common denominators amoung parts of the USA than EU.
- gyardley 14y agoIf you want Americans to stop making ridiculous generalizations about Europe, the way to do it is by similarly pledging to avoid the sort of ridiculous generalizations about America made by some Europeans - not by arguing about relative levels of heterogeneity. Personally, I suspect certain differences between American regional subcultures - for instance, attitudes about the proper role of government in society - are broader than those you'll find between European countries.