This thread is really growing, and it's really interesting. I love that. Can you imagine what it would have looked like on just about any other message board on the internet?
Anyway, wish I had something more thoughtful to add, but I did want to take a sec to talk about the size of the US.
The size of the continental US is roughly the size of the entire "continent" of Europe. It's divided into 48 states, just as Europe is (according to a quick glance at Wiki) divided into 48 countries. Some bigger than others in both cases, of course.
I think that affects us. We've got all this geography to learn about our own country before we can really look beyond our borders to the rest of the world. Similarly, we have a lot to explore within our own borders before we look to traveling abroad. And when you talk about traveling abroad in Europe, you're talking about a trip that, to us, is the equivalent of going from state to state (in terms of distance traveled, effort to get there, etc).
It gives us a lot of variety. Different climates, different cultures, different communities. Especially when you factor in the diverse sources of our population.
But it also makes us more insular. We've only got two neighbors. And Canadian culture isn't so different from our own. There are quite a few of us who never actually manage to set foot in another country. Even the ones who do don't necessarily do it very much. You have to go pretty far. It's expensive and tiring. And, like I said, there's so much to see here. And the news stations cover local, state, and national events... doesn't leave so much room for global news.
Those people chanting that we're the best? A lot of them don't even have a solid concept of what a foreign country is. They know those other countries are there, but, in a way, they don't seem... real. They're more like vague concepts. And exotic vacation destinations. Average Joe on the street here couldn't even tell you where Iraq is, let alone Afghanistan.
It kind of changes what patriotism is, too. I think it can often be more about being proud of your own country than having an actual basis for comparison to any other.
