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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

#111

Post by burlesona »

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.

That surprises me (as an American). Just about every map I’ve ever seen here, and all the ones used in school, have the Atlantic Ocean in the center and the US in the top left.

Actually I’d point out this annoys some Alaskans in my family, as that projection usually cuts part of Alaska off and leaves it dangling on the far right of the map. But we’re so euro-centric it just seems like the “correct” map even though it makes looking at part of our own country more difficult.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#112

Post by Thriptic »

clatan wrote: post #40
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…

Do be hard on yourselves, because the rest of the world isn't so proudly uneducated.

Being able to regurgitate the locations of countries doesn't mean you are educated; it means you sat down with a map for a few hours and did some memorization...

Saying the entire United States population is proudly uneducated is roughly equivalent to saying all of the UK hates Europe and wants to leave the EU, or that all of Germany is racist because of recent violence against migrants, or that Italy is full of lazy alcoholics who don't want to work. Just because a subset of the population holds certain views (and I don't think anyone is really proudly ignorant, just apathetic because they can be) doesn't mean the whole country or even most of the country thinks or acts that way.

You attack our population for being uneducated and culturally ignorant and yet here you are regurgitating tired stereotypes...

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#116

Post by kerng »

aristophenes wrote: post #67
kerng wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I was totally under the impression it would be the norm. Here is an example of a map: http://www.freeworldmaps.net/world/america-centric/physical-...

I think it was on west coast or Hawaii I saw those.

But what really made me think it's the norm was that the a Universal Pictures logo also has the Americas in middle and their intro ends with the Americas centered also: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KpNkgRv_8XE

Quite interesting.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#117

Post by burlesona »

blauditore wrote: post #16

Why was Germany not more prominent during WWII (but apparently during WWI)?

The US has a huge German immigrant population, and during WWI many people sympathized with the Germans and felt they were basically forced into a preemptive strike because Britain and France would have declared war on them soon anyway. A lot of Americans wanted to join the war on the side of the Germans.

Then the Germans sank the Lusitania and became the chief bad guy.

In WW2, as others have mentioned, the US was more concerned with the plight of the British (would they hold out?), and then especially focused on Japan. Japan attacked Hawaii and subsequently the Philippines, which was owned by the US at the time and home to a lot of Americans.

Certainly the US played a role in every theater in WW2, but there were almost two different wars going on —- in Europe, primarily Britain and Russia versus Germany; and in the Pacific, primarily the US against Japan.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#118

Post by burlesona »

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.

This. My international friends often express surprise at how things are in the US. I’ve told them they should try thinking of the US as the EU and the States as the EU member nations. Then our federal dysfunction suddenly makes a lot more sense to them.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#119

Post by cf498 »

lordnacho wrote: post #96
cf498 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is just a syllogism. Context -> names. !names -> !context. So we can tell that a guy who hasn't heard of eigenvectors (name) doesn't know much about linear algebra (context).

I think the analogy lacks. You can know quite a bit of for example the Kurdish conflict in Turkey without knowing the names of the Turkish sates in question. The province centric approach is one of the major problems that foreign powers faced in for example Afghanistan or Iraq, where the cultural spheres dont align with province borders. As a worst case, what good does it do if you know the name of the province but brought a translator speaking the wrong language.

A similar argument could maybe be made for voting preferences /political leanings of the different regions in the US to give a more practical example.

But yes that is rebutting my last comment. You dont necessarily learn the state names by learning the context.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#120

Post by dragonwriter »

burlesona wrote: post #117
blauditore wrote: post #16

Why was Germany not more prominent during WWII (but apparently during WWI)?

The US has a huge German immigrant population, and during WWI many people sympathized with the Germans and felt they were basically forced into a preemptive strike because Britain and France would have declared war on them soon anyway. A lot of Americans wanted to join the war on the side of the Germans. Then the Germans sank the Lusitania and became the chief bad guy. In WW2, as others have mentioned, the US was mor…

> Then the Germans sank the Lusitania and became the chief bad guy.

The Zimmerman Telegram helped, too.

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