Nice try, but I've seen worse threads than this one...

In fact, I may even have launched worse threads than this one, but if so it was probably deliberate, in a humorous sense, that is.

Brendy isn't so much mean as just a bit caustic at times. And that can have an appeal of its own.

I think the reason the USA gets slagged a lot is mainly because it is such a powerful country, so much more influential in the world than any other nation. That naturally irritates the other nations who are affected financially, militarily, culturally, and so on by the USA. If you were back in the Roman Empire times, you'd hear similar complaints everywhere about Rome and the Romans, I'm sure.

Living in Canada, for example, makes one always aware that one is like a small animal next door to the world's biggest elephant, and that's worrisome. Or as Benito Juarez said, "Poor Mexico...so far from God and so near the United States".

This doesn't imply that individual Americans are better or worse than other people, it's just a statement of realpolitik.