Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Americans are extremely polite Having grown up in the UK and living in Australia, I do not find Americans polite. To me, politeness is "please", "thank you", "may I have", etc, whereas "I would like a latte today" reads to me as a demand. In context it's fine (it stands out a bit but not in a problematic way), it's not particularly rude, but in general just stating your desires is not considered polite in my experi…
> folks addressing me as "sir" for example, but this sort of thing comes off as insincere or even sarcastic/rude. That's news to me! In my part of the world I call even the janitorial staff "Sir". I'm not aware of anyone ever thinking that was rude.
When an American says "sir" to me, I know I'm not in any of those positions, so it comes across as parody of those – highlighting the fact that I am not actually in the position of power, or that I am not a highly valued customer. In that way it's sarcastic, and it can imply that I'm actually imposing on the other person and taking that position of power, which as I'm not, therefore comes across as passive aggressive in a way.
If an American asked me to do something and I said "yes Mr President", arguably referring to the highest status in the culture, I expect it would be taken as sarcastic or rude, not polite, because the person is not in fact the president. That's sort of how I see it, but maybe this analogy doesn't work.