Talk poppy syndrome?

I've spent time living both in the US and outside of it. Yes, the US has unique problems it's dealing with, but jeeze so does every other country. I'm always shocked when people paint the US as some sort of hellhole. I just assume these are people without first hand experience.

Tall poppy syndrome?

>> I've spent time living both in the US and outside of it

Me too. I invite you to spend one day reading and watching global stories and deliberately replacing the words "USA" (implicit or explicit) with "Australia" or any other country of your choice. You'll come to realise the extent of USA's cultural importance when you are reading so much about "Australia". You'll begin to wonder why we seem to care so much. Love or loathe USA, we are fixated on this one country. I believe this is all to the advantage of most Americans now, but that advantage is declining.

People care about the USA so much because it has massive amounts of pressure that it exerts on everyone else. Point in case: the Iraq War.

Those other countries tend not to bomb anyone else to give them the gift of democracy.

If a country sets itself up as a bastion of freedom they're going to be scrutinised when they fail to meet the standards they set for themselves.

Absolutely, and I have no problem with legitimate criticism of the US. What bugged me was Bitwize (and Nihonde) apparently refusing to believe that any country but the US could abuse crime suspects. We can't use America's sins to cover for other nations'.