My user profile discloses my experience all over the United States, and my lengthy stays overseas (mostly in just one part of the world, but including a stay at an international dorm where I met people from all over the world).

I'm not impressed by the author's use of "we." Speak for yourself. Calling out the points in the blog post kindly submitted here one by one,

1. FEW PEOPLE ARE IMPRESSED BY US

I beg to differ. I know just one non-American part of the world well, and I am well aware that opinions about the United States and Americans are varied and complicated everywhere, but I have met quite a few people who are impressed by Americans as Americans. In particular, I have met quite a large number of people from other countries who are impressed by Americans who learn a non-English language (hmmm, that would only be a minority of Americans) and who make an honest effort to understand and appreciate the history and culture of another country while living in that country. Perhaps the author mostly knows unimpressive Americans.

2. FEW PEOPLE HATE US

In general, people I've encountered from all over the world wherever I've been overseas have seemed friendly to Americans. (I should note that I have been inside the borders of the United States since a couple months before 11 September 2001, so I acknowledge this may have changed.) Even when my government misbehaves on the world scene, which means my country is misbehaving and I am im part blameworthy as one American voter among millions, I still feel most people from other countries give me a break and assume that I have as little control over my government as they may have over theirs. (Because I feel I have more control over my government than people in many other countries, I feel more responsible for its misdeeds than some foreign friends blame me for being.)

3. WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD

I call baloney on this. There is a level of ignorance that Americans have about the rest of the world particularly because of the systematic lack of foreign language learning in K-12 schooling in the U.S., but there is also an exposure to people from all over the world here because of openness to immigration and mass media from everywhere that largely counterbalances that. I know a LOT of Americans who have traveled to multiple countries for fun or business or both. The most knowledgeable Americans are the Americans who learn languages other than English, but some other Americans know about other countries too. Because many Americans are first-generation immigrants, a lot of Americans are personally acquainted with friends and relatives who know about other countries.

4. WE ARE POOR AT EXPRESSING GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION

Here, the author far too much emphasizes his particular ethnic subculture in the United States (and contrasts it with particular example countries that are not representative of the whole world) and doesn't accurately represent America. In contrast to the author, I have encountered a lot of people who think of Americans as very warm and passionate and straightforward people. "Compared to what?" is the question to ask here.

5. THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE AVERAGE AMERICAN IS NOT THAT GREAT

This is put to the lie by the continued strong net immigration rate the United States enjoys compared to almost all other countries in the world. Tens of millions of people all over the world want to live here.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/161435/100-million-worldwide-drea...

The United States has to adjust its immigration and border regulations to keep people from coming in in even greater numbers, not to hold people here and keep them from moving to other countries. (Many countries of the world have "exit visas" or onerous regulations for obtaining passports, while it is ridiculously easy to leave the United States.)

6. THE REST OF THE WORLD IS NOT A SLUM-RIDDEN SHITHOLE COMPARED TO US

The rest of the world is catching up, true. Taiwan is quite a pleasant place to live now, and may become one of the five wealthiest countries in the world in my lifetime.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/15/singapore...

But the United States is still improving year on year too. Much of what I enjoy about life in the United States in 2013 was unimaginable in 1969, when my elementary school class prepared a time capsule with predictions of the year 2001--which was opened that year so that I can check my predictions.

7. WE’RE PARANOID

Again I call baloney on this. My four children have all roamed our neighborhood freely and walked or biked to the public library (one mile away in one direction) or to shopping (one mile away in another direction) by themselves since early childhood. We don't worry about anything here.

8. WE’RE STATUS-OBSESSED AND SEEK ATTENTION

Speak for yourself, bub. I notice how you are weaving in an advertising message in your blog post, but I have ways of reality-checking anyone's reputation, and I'm not buying what you're selling until I hear more about you from my friends.

9. WE ARE VERY UNHEALTHY

廢話. This is just flatly contradicted by all available data.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=longevity-w...

Health is improving at all ages for Americans. Life expectancy at all ages is rising. Girls born since 2000 in the developed world are more likely than not to reach the age of 100, with boys likely to enjoy lifespans almost as long. The article "The Biodemography of Human Ageing" by James Vaupel,

http://www.demographic-challenge.com/files/downloads/2eb51e2...

originally published in the journal Nature in 2010, is a good current reference on the subject. Vaupel is one of the leading scholars on the demography of aging and how to adjust for time trends in life expectancy. His striking finding is "Humans are living longer than ever before. In fact, newborn children in high-income countries can expect to live to more than 100 years. Starting in the mid-1800s, human longevity has increased dramatically and life expectancy is increasing by an average of six hours a day."

http://www.prb.org/Journalists/Webcasts/2010/humanlongevity....

10. WE MISTAKE COMFORT FOR HAPPINESS

Again, speak for yourself. The lifestyle trade-offs I am allowed to choose with my family in my free country include lots of family togetherness (we are a homeschooling family) and "multiculturalism" in the best sense (we know and cherish as friends people from all over the world). For us, happiness is all about human relationships, not about owning the latest "penis car" or other status symbol.

One of the great things about America is that any doofus with an opinion can express it on a blog, and anyone who chances to read the blog by following a link posted to Hacker News can discuss it here. Isn't life in America great?