If I reason about trivial things, it is because those things are not trivial to me Introduction I have the terrible habit of being unnervingly concise. As the son of old-school print journalists, t…
100% agree that the USA is a special case. The country’s geography (occupies a significant, contiguous portion of the continent) and legacy as the “last remaining superpower” basically requires a non-trivial amount of effort for most Americans to be exposed to non-American anything, let alone people. On top of that, the two-party duopoly is so entrenched in (and fabricated by) the ossified voting & election system that it becomes very hard to separate “fighting for what you believe in” from “fighting against the ‘other half’ of the country”.
I don’t know if many Americans are aware of how sophisticated is their approach to language. Listening to an educated American talk is like watching a cat rob the Louvre. To say anything publicly, Americans have to jump so many hoops, and avoid so many traps, and they must do it while sounding completely effortless and genuine. I can sense a constant unconscious effort to choose precisely the right words that won’t offend anyone. Like walking on a minefield. An educated American talking about anything even remotely sensitive is on another level, and comparing such performance to everyone else is like comparing Michael Jordan to, well… everyone else.
I’m not sure if that is good for mental health, but I am genuinely amazed by the way Americans talk, and I say that without a hint of irony.
100% agree that the USA is a special case. The country’s geography (occupies a significant, contiguous portion of the continent) and legacy as the “last remaining superpower” basically requires a non-trivial amount of effort for most Americans to be exposed to non-American anything, let alone people. On top of that, the two-party duopoly is so entrenched in (and fabricated by) the ossified voting & election system that it becomes very hard to separate “fighting for what you believe in” from “fighting against the ‘other half’ of the country”.
I don’t know if many Americans are aware of how sophisticated is their approach to language. Listening to an educated American talk is like watching a cat rob the Louvre. To say anything publicly, Americans have to jump so many hoops, and avoid so many traps, and they must do it while sounding completely effortless and genuine. I can sense a constant unconscious effort to choose precisely the right words that won’t offend anyone. Like walking on a minefield. An educated American talking about anything even remotely sensitive is on another level, and comparing such performance to everyone else is like comparing Michael Jordan to, well… everyone else.
I’m not sure if that is good for mental health, but I am genuinely amazed by the way Americans talk, and I say that without a hint of irony.