[cossray]

Being from a developing nation, we had been fed a certain narrative about the US. It was the epitome of all the virtues humanity could conceive. Circa 2010 the advent and prevalence of cheap smartphones and social media across the globe (including third world countries), turned a new leaf on access to information from the hitherto filtered mainstream media. This removed the veil on the actual social, political and economic life in the US (in the eyes of my contemporaries and I). The 2016 elections and the circus it has been since then, tossed away the veil altogether. In the last 4 years, with utmost respect, I do attest the US has lost something at the global stage: at least its charm and probably much more.

[yostrovs]

It's probably your age. Mass media, particularly in Europe, has been laughing at Americans'stupidity for generations, predicting all kinds of terrible things. They laughing off of people like Reagan, the Bushes, Sarah Palin, etc, had been going on for many decades before the 2016 election and your acquisition of the internet.