I’m Canadian, but had to work as a Nurse in the USA for about 10yrs. I worked 2 different states. what i discovered from meeting teachers , and then patients of course, was the american s hool system is very focused on american content.

But in some states the academic ratings are very low. So I’d ask what other countries did you study in elementary school? I’d get bemused looks, what? So whereas in Canada each year in elementary school “ social studies” we focused on a continent and it’s countries, it’s people’s, it’s languages, food, and geography and weather, the Americans knew about the Civil War and the various battles,

So if you aren’t exposed early to the bigger world you don’t develop a bunch of curiosity, or interests in others. You spend the time navel gazing. In my 10 yrs there before I returned home, very few ever asked me about my life in Canada or how it differed. Or just any curiosity.

I was on a free walking tour in NY and this couple from NY joined the tour. I don’t know why they kept telling the guide before he had a chance to open his mouth and kept loudly talking over him. They were a bit like characters from a movie about loud obnoxious Americans.

When I told them I was from Australia they told me loudly and confidently that I paid far to much tax.silly me I tried to inform them that as a retired person I didn’t pay any tax.

Even if I worked a little I would need to earn over 28k before a would pay tax. They insisted that I was paying 45c in the dollar. As I had just retired I was well aware of our tax system as a very kind worker at social security explained it all to me.

Also I explained that the first 18k are not taxed. I found it amazing that a couple who had never been to Australia were standing in front of someone who lived there abd they knew better than me. They also told me that were I was staying Queens was slums. I truly thought I must be living in an alternate universe that I imagined that were i was in Queens was a very pleasant area and the non existent tax that I didn’t pay was in my imagination.

When I was telling another member if our group about the Heartland Brewry under the Empire State building they interrupted to inform us that it was a tourist trap. That’s when I told them to fuck off. Enough is enough of having one’s intelligence insulted. I loved it they were do shocked at my language and scuttled away never to speak to me again.

The others in the tour loved me thiough. That is why they are so ignorant because they believe their own nonsense and when corrected just keep believing Inaccurate information that suits their worldview. Particularly in taxes. I did explain that we didn’t have the same obsession about paying our taxes because we got so many benefits.

The fact that I was able to afford a 52 day retirnent holiday made me happy that I had worked and paid taxes to have a comfortable retirement as an average citizen.

I could write a book on this topic but here is the first story that comes to mind:

I was in a Red Sea town in Egypt. I ran into an IT manager (so an educated man) from California. He kept comparing EVERYTHING he saw to the US. He stopped to look at a building site and started ranting about it not being “up to code”

I calmly explained that the “code” in the US might well be different to that in Africa. At this he started laughing and told me we weren’t in Africa. I asked which continent we were in, he replied the Middle East. I suggested that one could argue that point on a cultural basis but geographically we were in fact in Africa. He started to get mad (and even louder) while again insisting we were in “the Middle East” I asked him what continent that was in. His reply?

“Saudi Arabia”