What do you think about the USA as a country? (Society and G

[woodpecker]

That chap had quite a distinctive name, which he used as the basis of his twitter ID. Just goes to show how important online anonymity can be.

Edit: I've got to say, though, that his haircut is pretty criminal.

[vtsnowedin]

Where to begin??
You do realise that Americans see you Brits. as just as odd as you see them. Different is not necessarily wrong.
The USA is a huge place and if you haven't been further then New York city or Boston you have seen just NY or Boston and have a very narrow and incorrect view of American averages.
I am surprised that a visitor to Boston thought there was an over abundance of large churches there. They have the historic ones of course dating from the American revolution but the town isn't known for that today. If you want to see an over abundance of churches you need to travel through the "Bible Belt" from Virginia to Iowa. There you can stand on the steps of a "born again" Baptist church and literally see one or more competing Baptist churches. All well attended and kept up. Here in the northeast church attendance is down to the point they are having trouble maintaining the buildings and many are closing and being converted to other uses.
It is not surprising actually that many Americans are religious as much of the country was settled by people fleeing religious prosecution in the seventeenth century and when the revolution was over they had to agree to disagree on which sect should rule and compromised on having "no state religion", which encouraged many other religious people to immigrate to the young and growing new country. As prosperous as life has been here there has never been a generation without hardships that would cause people to turn to god for answers.These hardships keep religions from fading.
As to the guns issue that too has historical basis. After packing up kit and kin into a wooden sailing ship and sailing for weeks across the north Atlantic you landed in America and your government left you unprotected for a hundred and fifty years to hack out a new home from a wilderness still populated by natives that were fierce and cruel warriors. The men of a community had to band together in a militia and each man had to provide his own weapon. So you had the freedom to own a weapon and the responsibility to use it to defend the community.
At that same time citizens of Scotland and Ireland were forbidden to own any weapon more useful then a rock ,or to speak their own language. New immigrants found the American freedom much preferable to conditions back home and have taken steps to insure that right is never again stripped from them.
The bit about the average IQ in the UK being higher then the USA average.?? Anyone have any data to present on that? Might I suggest that a traveler from the UK has the means to afford the travel expense and might possibly be a bit above average and be a biased observer while talking to Joe six-pack in the US. Conversely a well heeled USA tourist exploring the pubs in the older sections of London might run into a character or two that make Andy Capp look like a genius.

[biffvernon]

I think the problem may be that we in the UK see Americans as rather like us, they came from here, speak a similar language and share much of our culture. They're kind of our kids. So we get really disappointed and cross when they do stupid things, like wrecking the planet, because they should know better. We tend to forgive the Chinese and the Russians and the Somalis because they are more foreign, less connected to us. They can't help being stupid.

[vtsnowedin]

I think the problem may be that we in the UK see Americans as rather like us, they came from here, speak a similar language and share much of our culture. They're kind of our kids. So we get really disappointed and cross when they do stupid things, like wrecking the planet, because they should know better. We tend to forgive the Chinese and the Russians and the Somalis because they are more foreign, less connected to us. They can't help being stupid.

When did the UK have a clean water act or a EPA? I'm not sure who has the lead on both industrial age planet distruction or the recognition of the problem and actions to clean it up.

[biffvernon]

Far be it from me to defend the environmental behaviour of Brits but, bearing in mind just how dirty our rivers got, what with having invented the industrial revolution, our rivers are actually jolly clean these days.

[vtsnowedin]

Far be it from me to defend the environmental behaviour of Brits but, bearing in mind just how dirty our rivers got, what with having invented the industrial revolution, our rivers are actually jolly clean these days.

Same here. It was decades ago when that river in Detroit caught fire. I remember back in the 70s when you could tell what color paper they were making in the mill by the color of the river water. Purple looked the worst even odder then blood red. All good trout water now.