2) From my humble European point of view (don't know where OP lives), it could be the agreement I perceive in American culture about living in the best possible country that possesses endless potential - people are inspired to project their highest dreams and expectations as the "base" of their culture, where other folks have a solid "base" - roots on which some expectations can grow and flower and some might not.
In my view, every European country has some kind of cultural discipline that permits venting a bit of your shadow, so you don't get stressed out by all your positive aspirations: etching humour in Britain, rhetorical fencing just for the pleasure of it in France, ritual tantrums in Spain, digestion jokes in Catalonia, a culture of complicated laziness and corruption in my native Austria, acceptance and transcendance of suffering in my mother's native Russia.
Another point might be that when you live in a small country, it's easy to blame all the bad stuff on someone else, or to resort to some kind of cultural masochism. Maybe Americans are overburdened by all that responsibility of being overly great.
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In my view, every European country has some kind of cultural discipline that permits venting a bit of your shadow, so you don't get stressed out by all your positive aspirations: etching humour in Britain, rhetorical fencing just for the pleasure of it in France, ritual tantrums in Spain, digestion jokes in Catalonia, a culture of complicated laziness and corruption in my native Austria, acceptance and transcendance of suffering in my mother's native Russia.
Another point might be that when you live in a small country, it's easy to blame all the bad stuff on someone else, or to resort to some kind of cultural masochism. Maybe Americans are overburdened by all that responsibility of being overly great.