[Bas]

Reasons:

America and it's politics are featured in every newsbroadcast in Europe, while in America the news focuses mostly on America itself.

Since Europe is made up of alot of different countries it's harder to stay up to date of it's politics than it is for America.

Europeans watch CNN but Americans don't watch EuroNews

Any thoughts?

[waegari]

Being a European myself, I think that most Europeans may well have an equally superficial knowledge of th US, as Americans have of Europe.

Just some examples:

We may ridicule Americans at times for regarding Denmark as the capital of the Netherlands (no, it really isn't), but how many Europeans can list all capitals of US federal states? How many would even know that Chicago is not the capital of Illinois?
How many Europeans watch CNN when there is no all out war in Iraq going on?
How many Europeans are in the know about developments in US literature apart from the usual betsellers?
Many Europeans also have this cliche going about the US as an essentially superficial country, which just goes to prove that they do not know about the lofty status of US universities, the vast width of their curriculum, the incredible amount of books being published by American publishers on all imaginable topics, etcetera etcetera.
How many Europeans would even know about the Mayflower? Only recently I met a European academic who didn't have a clue!

Europeans may know quite a lot about American pop culture, Tony Soprano, American movies, may have some general knowledge about American politics, and in that sense may know more about the US than vice versa, but I think that still most us only scratch the surface.

Well, just my two euro cents!

[Bas]

good points, weagari. I've been annoyed with the popular superficial anti-americanism of alot of Europeans eventhough the bush administration *sucks*.

However, it remains a fact that American politics are easy to understand while in Europe most europeans even have a hard time trying to oversee it all.

Arguably, the American political system is even too simple. I mean, there is obviously a lack of checks and balances in any country that winds up to be a 2-party state...

[emersonbiggins]

Hell, many Americans don't know anything about America. MORE than a few think 'flyover country' is still populated with tepee-residing Indians, horses, wagons, and, oh yes, that wonderful red DUST...
(OK, well, they're right on the last one)

[Chicken_Little]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('waegari', 'B')eing a European myself, I think that most Europeans may well have an equally superficial knowledge of the US, as Americans have of Europe.

[NEOPO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Chicken_Little', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('waegari', 'B')eing a European myself, I think that most Europeans may well have an equally superficial knowledge of the US, as Americans have of Europe.

[waegari]

Neopo, judging from the pic you haven't been to the Netherlands much, have you now?

[waegari]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', '
')
Arguably, the American political system is even too simple. I mean, there is obviously a lack of checks and balances in any country that winds up to be a 2-party state...

[nemo]

A point I feel should be stressed regarding this issue is popular culture. I think the major reason the average European knows anything about America is television and movies. I for one think HBO makes the best television drama around, and it's impossible not to pick up tidbits of americana from such sources. The hoy poloy may be more inclined to watch Hollywood blockbusters and Friends rather than The Wire, but I think my argument still holds water. An observation I've made is that there's a correlation between between people's understanding of the English language and their country's tendency to dub the audio of foreign - usually American - films and TV shows. Television clearly doesn't live up to it's potential as a tool for education of the masses, but some knowledge and language skills still get swallowed along with all the entertainment fluff.
If the roles were reversed, and most of the content on American television and in movie theatres was produced in Europe, I'm sure there would be less people thinking Spain is the capital of Amterdam or what have you.

On a personal note, every time I've been to New York, one of the strongest impressions I get is "man, this is just like on TV!"

[Kingcoal]

Isn't Abba the capital of the Netherlands? I don't know much about Europe, but I'll tell you that there is something rotten in Denmark.

[Bas]

I think New York is better than on TV