CMV: Most of the typical negative comparisons between the United States and Europe are complete bullshit; Americans are no more racist and no less cultured than Europeans.

There's a strong anti-American bias on many subs that devolves into a circlejerk of "everything American is bad". Some specific examples of criticisms that get levied at Americans are (off the top of my head) that:

1) we're racist

2) we're culturally ignorant

3) we're homophobic

4) we're crazily religious

Buuuuut it seems to me that it's pretty hypocritical of Europeans to cast stones. After all, "we" (Americans) get criticized and characterized as being racist against black people... but any time the Roma come up, Europeans become (at least) equally racist.

We're supposedly ignorant of other cultures, but at least where I grew up (Texas), a foreign language was required as part of the middle and high school curriculum. Most of us took Spanish because it's practical for a border state. The states that border Canada and Mexico are more culturally aware due to exposure, and most other states are locked inside a huge landmass where there are limited opportunities for cultural enrichment. Also, there's a huge divide between education in large cities (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc) and small towns.

Some Americans are homophobic, but when Europeans criticize America on gay rights they always seem to conveniently forget places like Russia or most of Eastern Europe. Yeah, our rights record looks a lot better if we cherrypick the states that have done the best. But when Europeans conveniently leave out Eastern Europe, that's like us taking the entire south out of comparisons.

Again, some Americans tend toward the crazy side of faith, but most Christian Americans are very... I dunno... normal people. We've also never established a state religion, unlike many European nations. We also have no equivalent to UKIP or the Golden Dawn, despite our general conservatism compared to much of Western Europe.

And don't get me started on criticisms of American militarism-- England conquered a large slice of the world, the Soviet Union was extended and maintained by force (the Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, etc.), the French had a colonial empire, the Germans had colonial holdings in Africa and committed genocide... pretty much every European nation with any kind of wealth or influence has benefited significantly from the blood on their hands. America is just bigger, but we aren't more bloodthirsty.

That's not to say that there aren't a few legitimate criticisms. Off the top of my head, I'd say that our failure to implement a British-style national healthcare system stands out. But truly legitimate criticisms of America seem to be few and far between.