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[hekatatia]

I saw an interview with John Oliver in a community and appreciate his perspective as someone else who understands the international impressions of the United States as well as what things are like in America. For me, these are the best bits:

Prior to moving to America, what was your perception of the US?My political perception of the US was

Comments

[ardgruntler]

That this country has not once more erupted into civil war shows admirable restraint.

Well, the people aren't as heavily armed as the government is any more. It isn't as if we really had the choice. No matter how much you hear about the west texas libertarian weapon stockpiles, they really don't compare to what the US government has. In the 1860's civil war was a viable option - also because a huge chunk of the country wanted to secede.

Nowadays, we have these blue pockets in big cities, surrounded by land masses of, well, red states. (Lack of a less derogatory terminology there.) I'm hopeful when I see some republican senators starting to say no to the escalation of this war. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[seithkarl]

People on the outside do tend to see the US as very monolithic. They tend to forget (or don't care) that we have huge differences just from one state to another, but that complexity even escapes people who were born and raised here.

When I lived in Germany, the cultural differences were hard to explain to Germans who'd never visited the States. Remind me sometime when I see you to draw the map one co-worker drew for me about how she perceived the US...drop dead funny. Evidently NYC takes up all of New England, and you can fly from Dallas to LA in about 20 minutes. Who knew? :)

"You have something here called ‘decent food’ which could really catch on back in the UK if people just gave it a chance."

Two words - 'pure genius'! In response to the question, "Why is beer so popular in England?", one Englishman I worked with said, "English food". :)