Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
Btw Oskar, and given that I'm sympathetic to your world view...

I grew up in a place almost homogenous in the sense everyone was either caucausian, native american or some combination. It was normal to see a kid with white skin and high cheekbones, or (like me) dark skin and caucausian features. That was a given. But, we never met a kid from the middle east, maybe a few chinese/japanese. But... when a kid showed up from India we all stared at him like he was from another planet. Not that we were'nt open and taught to be so, just that he was so different...

So, if you grew up somewhere in Austria and all of a sudden in the last 10 years you got lots of new neighbours who were all non-Austrian would you at all feel uncomfortable? Because if it were me I might see that.

I'm only asking because I don't know what it was like for others and want to understand.
I can confirm that that's certainly a sort of ever present background meme in the states. However, I think that many foreigners have a similar misunderstanding: Canada can be Canada without all the baggage because it's got a geopolitical luckbox. Western Europe, Australia, anyone who enjoys the benefits of relatively safe international shipping, etc.

I'm not someone who think's America showed up and did all the work to win the world wars. I know we can have delusions of grandeur. But I think there are a lot of people who enjoy the benefits of having America be the world police, but would never acknowledge this truth.