[llm_trw]

I always find it funny how well coastal Americans diagnose the maladies that plague America while at the same time thinking they only infect inland Americans.

Case in point: America is a racist country. But the racial quotas in Ivy League Universities are perfectly fair. There is nothing wrong with punishing Chinese immigrants for the sins of English colonists from the two centuries ago.

[JumpCrisscross]

> America is a racist country. But the racial quotas in Ivy League Universities are perfectly fair

One I realised I fell into was universally condemning everyone from places I hadn’t been as ignorant. I think what stalls the self awareness is that you think you’re just joking. But you’re not. You’re socially reäffirming a stereotype.

[bilbo0s]

I'd say you two are pretty much like most Americans. ie - You readily identify the problems endemic to all the other Americans.

I do it too. It's the way we're socialized here in the US via everything from the media and music to political speeches.

What would be really interesting to know is if either of you are non-American? I have a sense that this proclivity might not be simply an American thing. I've wondered more and more if it's just human?

[JumpCrisscross]

> readily identify the problems endemic to all the other Americans

I’d call out honest self reflection in small groups as uniquely and proudly American. We don’t have small group face-saving as a strong cultural streak. Almost in inverse, we champion it as a sign of trust and intimacy.

> interesting to know is if either of you are non-American

Immigrant American. We tend to be so convinced of our blue-blooded Americanness that we unblushingly use phrases like “blue-blooded American.”

More seriously, America is a superpower. Look at the contemporaries of any great superpower—Rome, the Han Dynasty, the Abbasid, the Ottoman, the British and the USSR—and the dominant narrative—paranoia, almost—is one of decline. Because that’s what’s left. There isn’t a competitor to aspire to. There isn’t pressure to improve. It’s partly why I think a bipolar world is for the best, even if it’s quite deadly—America and China competing is good. Russia diddlyfucking