Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900 • Hacker News Board

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#121

Post by c3534l » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

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…

That's not a fair comparison. America's population is nowhere near that of Europe and our states don't have soveirgnty. Do you know the subdivisions of Russia or China? There is a lot of parochialism in thinking America is in any way comparable to the entire continent of Europe.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#122

Post by hannasanarion » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

c3534l wrote: post #121

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…

That's not a fair comparison. America's population is nowhere near that of Europe and our states don't have soveirgnty. Do you know the subdivisions of Russia or China? There is a lot of parochialism in thinking America is in any way comparable to the entire continent of Europe.

US states do have sovereignty. The federal government can't force them to do anything or override their courts unless they violate federal constitutional rights. For a recent example, see FIDC v Sibelius, which concluded that the federal government doesn't have the authority to expand Medicaid.

Unless it has something to do with commerce, taxes, investment and finance, scientific research, intellectual property, the military, international law, and the Capital, the Feds can't do it. They can ask states nicely to do it (like the Medicaid expansion), and they can give monetary incentives (like tying the drinking age to highway dollars), but they can't do it themselves.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#123

Post by gammateam » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

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…

A city in at least one of those countries issues their own visas and has their own seperate visa granting privileges

Why is that?

Your preference is cute, with Europes new and old supernational governments but it isnt comparable to the US and gives you no insight into the inner workings of those countries or subdivisions.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#124

Post by gammateam » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 5:51 PM UTC

hannasanarion wrote: post #122

c3534l wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a fair comparison. America's population is nowhere near that of Europe and our states don't have soveirgnty. Do you know the subdivisions of Russia or China? There is a lot of parochialism in thinking America is in any way comparable to the entire continent of Europe.

US states do have sovereignty. The federal government can't force them to do anything or override their courts unless they violate federal constitutional rights. For a recent example, see FIDC v Sibelius, which concluded that the federal government doesn't have the authority to expand Medicaid. Unless it has something to do with commerce, taxes, investment and finance, scientific research, intellectual property, the…

The real question is whether this semantical distinction is productive: how many people know about subdivisions of non-US countries and how they work

The whole point of this is that people couldnt write the essay you just wrote about practically any other place on the planet, and the court cases that support it assuming it was ever challenged

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#125

Post by gammateam » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

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…

Mexico is the United States of Mexico as well

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#126

Post by xanipher » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #106

nfg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> That’s also true of the sub-divisions of many European states. And cities have mayors and school boards have chairmen etc. But a US State has its own Supreme Court with the final decision on matters of state law. The governor of California doesn't work for President Trump.

And the Landeshauptmann of Lower Austria doesn't work for chancellor Kurz. I get what you're saying, but the US is not that special.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#127

Post by Jommi » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #105

coldtea wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? As names (if that). Try having them pinpoint them on a map, or say anything intelligent about them.

This is so mean spirited, and honestly just wrong. Why do you think this?

I've seen it happen multiple times

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#128

Post by jaabe » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #86

jaabe wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The American government is in a budget crisis, even so, it’s not a major story in the printed version of Weekendavisen, Børsen or Information this weekend.

I’ll agree that the more populist papers, like Berlinske, are very US focused and so are a lot of the free internet news.

I was not trying to say that we aren’t US centric. The very first thing I wrote was literally that I agreed that we are, but the US hasn’t owned our news cycle every month of 2018, far from it. Obviously is an important part of our news cycle, but so is every G8 country, and in my social circles people follow those countries as closely as we follow the US.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#129

Post by grogenaut » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 6:23 PM UTC

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.

Anecdotally about 100% of foreigners I work with know roughly where NYC and LA are. 50% on top of that know where Chicago roughly is. My sampling is based on every foreigner I meet asking where I'm from. St. Louis. Which few know, so I use Chicago. Most think Chicago is dead center though and are happy when I teach them to use the bottom left of the lakes as a clue.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#130

Post by bkcreate » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 6:46 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #99

boomboomsubban wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What percentage of people outside the US will know the name or location of more than a few US states? I'd bet it's extraordinarily low. I'd bet less than 1% of the world's adult population can name more than six US states. My experience has been, educated people I know from Europe struggle to do a lot better than that. Point them out on a map? Forget about it beyond the obvious or famous ones like California, Florida…

To be fair, as an American I don't even need to go to Europe to prove how little non-US geography I know. I can't even name or point to any Mexican or Canadian regions except for British Colombia