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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

#81

Post by laughingman2 »

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…

Could this be a manifestation of power law at work through historical accidents/events? i.e., the amount of information in the vogue about countries is distributed as a power law with ~20% of countries like the US, China taking 80% of the share of international headlines.

But I do remember Scientific American(mention unintentional, but could be the same power law) debunking power law's presence in many networks.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#82

Post by School-Cotton »

saagarjha wrote: post #48
hliyan wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not entirely accurate, except in those same countries that appear in the US's collective conscious (e.g. Russia, China). The news in my country, for example, does not have the luxury of focusing a lot on other countries -- we have enough things to deal with domestically. Although India and China do come up a lot because it is believed that we're at the center of a tug of war between those two nations.

I don’t think I could name any provinces in China, but I’m sure many Chinese know about New York and California.

You’ve really never heard of Sichuan, Hunan, or Canton (aka Gaungdong) ?

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#83

Post by [deleted] »

A2017U1 wrote: post #25
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…

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.

[deleted]

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#84

Post by AnthonyMouse »

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…

> 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.

US states have their own governor, their own political counties, and in a good part and their own policies, besides the common group policies.

> Would you put California, Wall Street, Shenzhen and a few more at the same level as countries?

Tennessee has approximately the same population, GDP, land area, etc. as Ireland. Texas was an independent country before it was a state.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#85

Post by kodablah »

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…

> I was surprised that the Korean War barely stood out compared to most other conflicts

Especially with regards to more controversial conflicts, this says more about what NYT chooses to drive. I'd argue in many cases they attempt to deliver narratives instead of reacting on them.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#86

Post by lordnacho »

jaabe wrote: post #31
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…

I agree that there is certainly a US focus in the world, but you could frankly replace “US” with any G8 member or China, and everything you’ve listed would be true for me. It would also be true for all our Scandinavian neighbours. I’m part of what you could fairly call the cultural elite of my country, and as such I’m not representative for every Dane, but knowing what goes on in important countries, is frankly part…

> Anyway, that also means the US doesn’t dominate as much as you might think.

Look at Berlingske today. There's a story about the US/China trade war that's brewing, there's a story about the US stock market going down, there's a story about the US government shutting down, and a story about a hypothetical US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

By contrast, there's an opinion piece about Ireland and Brexit. And there's story about Germany and China.

And it tends to be like this. All the other countries are there from time to time, but the USA is always there x3.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#87

Post by lordnacho »

cf498 wrote: post #73
nothrabannosir wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is not as important on the world stage and as relevant to as many other nations as the U.S.A. or China are. And China's provinces are not as independent and as relevant as America's states. China is much more centralized. The states aren't just provinces. It's not happenstance that they are constantly talked about. Hell, it's in the bloody name of the country.

What good does it actually do to know just the names from memory. Without any context they are rather useless. I dont think many people from the EU have to much to say about most US states except their names, if even that. I think most people from the EU could also name provinces or states where conflict with the central government exists on a larger scale or where people are at odds with the central government. I as…

> What good does it actually do to know just the names from memory. Without any context they are rather useless.

Point is if you don't know any names, you don't know any context either.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#88

Post by nfg »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #84
gmuslera wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. US states have their own governor, their own political counties, and in a good part and their own policies, besides the common group policies. > Would you put California, Wall Street, Shenzhen and a few more at the same level as countries? Tennessee…

> US states have their own governor, their own political counties, and in a good part and their own policies, besides the common group policies.

That’s also true of the sub-divisions of many European states.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#90

Post by cf498 »

lordnacho wrote: post #87
cf498 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good does it actually do to know just the names from memory. Without any context they are rather useless. I dont think many people from the EU have to much to say about most US states except their names, if even that. I think most people from the EU could also name provinces or states where conflict with the central government exists on a larger scale or where people are at odds with the central government. I as…

> What good does it actually do to know just the names from memory. Without any context they are rather useless. Point is if you don't know any names, you don't know any context either.

I would argue, that you inadvertently learn the names once you learn of the context. I would see it more as a filing system. If there is nothing it points to, whats the benefit of knowing it in the first place.
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