> US states have the population and economies of European nations. Americans are unfairly criticized for supposedly not being able to name or locate a lot of other countries.

Most US states are culturally and historically insignificant. The comparison between European countries with thousand years of history to most of the US states is lacking.

There are more US states than European countries, which have an older history and an overall larger population.

I am writing this without any intention to take away from the important US states. I am just looking at the bottom half here.