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Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

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Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#61

Post by Filligree »

datenwolf wrote: post #60
nothrabannosir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

> Norway You do realize, that Norway is not a member of the EU. So in the context of Europe and the EU, it's more like Canada vs. USA.

Norway is a part of the EEA. In practice, we are an EU member; just a non-voting one, with a few carveouts for fisheries and such.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#62

Post by pixl97 »

TimesOldRoman wrote: post #32
lordnacho wrote: post #24

What's interesting is if you did this for just about any other country, there would be a wall of star spangled banners. If you ever travel outside the US, you inevitably hear about what the US is doing, what they're discussing, who the important people are, etc. The reverse is not true: - Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthca…

Knowing about France is equivalent to knowing about California. US states behave a lot like EU members and knowing many US states is not indicative of anything.

Yep. How many US counties would a person from outside the US know about.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#63

Post by pessimizer »

mariojv wrote: post #52

I was surprised that the Korean War barely stood out compared to most other conflicts (at least, if you're only looking for a Korean flag). There are indications of changes like Chinese involvement in late 1950, but I think it'd be hard to pick out the start date if you weren't sure of the decade. Compare that to Kosovo for example, where there's at least roughly half a year of prominence. One other factor that stood…

It's because it was an early undeclared war authorized by proxy. The only time it dominates the news is when it is "over" which reads to me as a heavy government push to use a "victory" as a retroactive justification for a war that was never directly approved by US citizens or their representatives.

Now, this is how all wars are done, but then, it generally wasn't the case.

Probably the only lasting legacy of the Korean War in the US to people who weren't directly involved is the meme of "brainwashing" and its permanent association with Communist Asians due the Lifton book[1] which ironically popularized both the idea of the "thought-terminating cliche" and the throught-terminating cliche of "brainwashing."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psychol...

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#64

Post by elgenie »

Filligree wrote: post #61
datenwolf wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Norway You do realize, that Norway is not a member of the EU. So in the context of Europe and the EU, it's more like Canada vs. USA.

Norway is a part of the EEA. In practice, we are an EU member; just a non-voting one, with a few carveouts for fisheries and such.

Norway's also part of the Schengen Area. There's no practical difference to an American in terms of travel and trade between Norway and, say, France or Germany, other than the fact that the money is krone and not euros.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#65

Post by mruts »

saagarjha wrote: post #51
buboard wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ve noticed that most americans are not aware how important the US is for the rest of the world. I don't even think it is a matter of education, except for some elite northwestern european countries, where it matters. Most people learn a lot about the US through the movies and random news headlines. It's what always happens with global leaders.

> I ve noticed that most americans are not aware how important the US is for the rest of the world. My experience has generally been the opposite: many Americans overestimate their country’s importance in the world. Just because the U.S. does or says something doesn’t mean other countries will necessarily go along with it.

I honestly don't think you could over-estimate the USA's role in world's affairs for the last 100 or so years. The West is lead by the USA.

And I don't even live in the US and I think that.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#66

Post by gmuslera »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #35
lordnacho wrote: post #24

What's interesting is if you did this for just about any other country, there would be a wall of star spangled banners. If you ever travel outside the US, you inevitably hear about what the US is doing, what they're discussing, who the important people are, etc. The reverse is not true: - Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthca…

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

You know, there is another country that have United States in its name, the United States of Brazil. Do you know any of their individual states? You may know now some of the ex-URSS component countries because recent conflicts, but back then, would they had count as countries or states?

Talking about EU is like talking about OTAN. Each of their component countries have their own president, their own political countries, and in a good part and their own policies, besides the group common policies.

Countries are about political borders, not economical. Would you put California, Wall Street, Shenzhen and a few more at the same level as countries?

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#67

Post by aristophenes »

kerng wrote: post #44
A2017U1 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One little thing my American expat friends always find strange: maps are centered "wrong". As in the US is located at the top left and Asia is on the right. I'm quite sure this is the world standard map, but apparently many grew up only with one that has the states centered.

There isn't a standard map I'd say. Wherever you go, the "home continent" is typically centered. I was (naively) surprised the first time I went to USA long time ago and saw maps that had the Americas in the middle - but thinking about it, it made sense.

I'm confused, I grew up in the USA and for global maps the US was never centered. It was always on the left, like every map here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Maps_of_the_world , and Africa is in the middle. If the Americas were centered on a world map you'd have to cut Asia in half, with it being on both the far left and right. It makes a lot more sense to make the split in the middle of the Pacific ocean and that's how I've always seen it done, I can't even picture a world map with the Americas in the middle. Is this a misunderstanding?

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#68

Post by hopler »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #38
nothrabannosir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

What percentage of Americans could confidently name one state of India or one province of China? Our education system somewhat talks about Europe, but most of the world is basically ignored.

Punjab, Szechuan, Hunan, if they've opened a restaurant, we know it.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#69

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

gmuslera wrote: post #66
nothrabannosir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

You know, there is another country that have United States in its name, the United States of Brazil. Do you know any of their individual states? You may know now some of the ex-URSS component countries because recent conflicts, but back then, would they had count as countries or states? Talking about EU is like talking about OTAN. Each of their component countries have their own president, their own political countri…

AFAIK Brazil doesn't have "United States" in its name now (it did in the past). It's now called the Federal Republic of Brazil. Mexico does, it's called United Mexican Sates.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#70

Post by Armisael16 »

bmurray7jhu wrote: post #56
gpvos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would just split and dilute the mentions of the Soviets/Russia during the USSR's existence. While it existed, Russia and the USSR were pretty much synonymous.

I don't think Russian SSR and the USSR were synonymous terms for anything but for informal colloquial usage. The Russian SSR had only 51% of the population and 77% of the land of the Soviet Union.[1] Both the Belyrussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR were United Nations members states and constituent states of the Soviet Union.[2] After the breakup of the Soviet Union, some scholars have referred to Russian Federation as a r…

Do you think the nytimes was respecting that difference? Nothing else really matters for this.
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