[mike-cardwell]

I have never lived abroad, but everything you've said is obvious to me, because I interact with and learn about the World outside my country and have a natural tendency to question anything that politicians or people in power have to say.

People don't need to live abroad to come to these conclusions. I suspect that you're probably mistaken that living abroad did this to you, and that it would have happened anyway. It's what happens to (most) intelligent people as they age and mature.

EDIT: Re vending machines on the street, I visited Connecticut once and where I stayed, there were boxes on the street that you can put money in and take a paper out of. I'm from the UK and if you had that here, it would be fine in a lot of places, but in some places, people would set fire to them for fun. Re car crime, on the same visit I noticed that people were leaving their car windows open in a car park (it was very hot). Like hell would I risk that in this country, but I'm sure there are plenty of places where it would be fine. Every country has their share of good and bad areas. Anecdotes are fairly useless here.

[mbesto]

> *People don't need to live abroad to come to these conclusions.

Yes, yes they do. Actually you're right, it's not a panacea, and to most intelligent people they gain this wisdom with age and maturity. However, we have a serious media problem in the US that doesn't always tell the truth. So, it's extremely difficult to learn about the world outside the American bubble.

Also, I did notice you are from the UK. It's much more culturally accepted to learn about the World outside of the UK. America, not so much.

...and how did I come to this conclusion? Because I'm American and live in your country! This isn't some sweeping generalization I heard on the news, I concluded it after having lived here. You'd be shocked how little Americans know and understand about the World.

[jballanc]

One thing that occurred to me only after leaving the US: only in America can you consider yourself "educated" or "well cultured" and yet have never been to a place where the people did not speak your language!

Isolationism has always been the biggest threat to America's success. I wonder if it's only coincidence that the height of America's power came after it sent a large chunk of its young population overseas?

[sigkill]

>However, we have a serious media problem in the US

As an outside, who has briefly stayed in a lot of countries including America I would have to agree with you. In most of the countries, the news channel covers international news quite regularly, but when I was in the US it was very VERY difficult for me to get any kind of international news from the television. Most of them just glossed over it, which made it appear that they were just ticking the checkbox of the day.