[next_xibalba]

> It was fascinating, that the MAGA American conservatives lump the US together with Europe into "the West"

This is not “MAGA Americans” characterization. It is the outcome of 2000+ years of history culminating in the U.S. being primarily populated by European peoples and the post WWII world order, with highlights including the Marshall Plan and NATO.

[snowpid]

Yet many Americans (not only) don't make a big attempt to understand other Western countries.

[lopsotronic]

No citizen in a nuclear-armed state need learn anything about anyone else, save perhaps about other nuclear-armed states.

The Westphalian system of armed states had its legs chopped out from under it after 1945, but it's taking a while for a new way to materialize.

This is one of the reasons why the Absolute Worst Thing is a nuclear-armed state with uncertain borders. Look around the world and you'll see that the "trouble spots" we spend a lot of time looking at in the news, are those places where nuke powers get to feeling itchy and twitchy about where exactly their countries end.