11-18-2019, 06:11 AM
There's also a potential factor in that there is a strong ethos/cultural tradition that people come here to get away from where they came from including - for much of our history - Europe. This is generally portrayed as coming here for opportunities not available where they came from, or for 'freedom', including the freedom to do things differently from the way things are/were done where they came from.
Under this way of thinking, the very fact that Europe/some other country does something a certain way is seen as an argument in itself for not doing it that way here, at least in some circles. Not sure if Canadians and Australians go in for that kind of thing as much or at all (any Canadians or Australians on the forum want to weigh in on this question?).
Of course, at the same time you have a lot of Americans being very interested in their ancestry and 'where they came from' in Europe or wherever, with that ancestry being treated as something like a point of pride or historical depth or something. Although you also have a subset of the population that is concerned about this in a fashion that seeks to de-legitimize immigrants or people of color as not really belonging here or not 'really' being from here.
So it's messy and complicated.
Todd
Under this way of thinking, the very fact that Europe/some other country does something a certain way is seen as an argument in itself for not doing it that way here, at least in some circles. Not sure if Canadians and Australians go in for that kind of thing as much or at all (any Canadians or Australians on the forum want to weigh in on this question?).
Of course, at the same time you have a lot of Americans being very interested in their ancestry and 'where they came from' in Europe or wherever, with that ancestry being treated as something like a point of pride or historical depth or something. Although you also have a subset of the population that is concerned about this in a fashion that seeks to de-legitimize immigrants or people of color as not really belonging here or not 'really' being from here.
So it's messy and complicated.
Todd