What you mention are your personal anecdotes while being mildly prolific in 2 out of many languages. Where I live, knowing fluently 4 or 5 is the norm and nobody considers themselves an expert on given country, even if its just another European country or even neighbor.
I've been to the US for couple of months working here and there, you folks are fine but I still don't get even after 2+ decades why you end up with such system. I don't mean the strengths, we all know them but the weaknesses which are all roughly solvable if enough focus is spent on them.
Utter disregard for the poor who are there to be exploited for life (or ignored like homeless), completely broken public education and medical system. From European perspective a proper police state - it was the first time I saw fear in faces of regular people from just a police car moving around the corner. Very high criminality of the 'heaviest' type. Also wars, those endless wars and their constant failures - what did Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan change for the better of people there or entire regions, apart from millions of civilians dead?
At the end, what Europeans care about is US politics, rest are details. We and rest of the world judge based on that. How that goes we all see these days.
You say all that as if I have a positive opinion of my country.
I live here. I know the problems. I'm very critical of them. In fact, the things that get discussed here don't even make it to Europe.
I live in a very violent city. I am a minority. I see minority crime. I know people who have been shot.
My point is that you all see us as unreliable, but fail to talk about the way this applies to western Europe as well.
I didn't say I was an expert.
You judge the US based on politics? Ok, I judge Europe based on politics. Your media lies to you regularly about the US and if the US is so bad, why did Europe obsess over it for so long?
I've been to the US for couple of months working here and there, you folks are fine but I still don't get even after 2+ decades why you end up with such system. I don't mean the strengths, we all know them but the weaknesses which are all roughly solvable if enough focus is spent on them.
Utter disregard for the poor who are there to be exploited for life (or ignored like homeless), completely broken public education and medical system. From European perspective a proper police state - it was the first time I saw fear in faces of regular people from just a police car moving around the corner. Very high criminality of the 'heaviest' type. Also wars, those endless wars and their constant failures - what did Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan change for the better of people there or entire regions, apart from millions of civilians dead?
At the end, what Europeans care about is US politics, rest are details. We and rest of the world judge based on that. How that goes we all see these days.