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Comment by russellbeattie | Hacker News Reader

Ah! OK, I don't agree with you in general, but you inadvertently brought up a good point. There's the perception of Americans online and that in person, and I'm sure Russia has done it everything it can to make sure we're hated abroad as much as possible.

You have a bunch of friends online who think Americans are all fat, loud, obnoxious and ignorant. Join the club. Most Americans think that as well.

Definitely another thing we need to focus on.

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Just to add: this was long before Russian propaganda.

I'm not saying I agree with it. Just something I have noticed.

And my friends aren't online. They say this in person. For example, in a bar and hear someone being loud. American.

Seeing tourists making lots of unnecessary noise in the street -> american.

This is half joking but also what people seem to actually think a lot of the time.

In my experience this is more a European thing, I don’t have the same issues elsewhere, and then in the case of Europeans, they have said, you’re not like I expected an American to be, so they recognize their bias.

I met a girl last night in Mexico and she said, "you're not American are you? Americans are loud and they always want the rest of the world to hear them."

This is the sentiment I was trying to express. It's definitely not a cliche. I also find on a slightly related note that a lot of problems on social media are American problems and the rest of the world doesn't really care.

And I feel bad typing this but it's true, and if the USA wants to climb back from its decline it is going to need to get comfortable with reality.

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