It's quite an interesting defaultism though, it gives us some insight into what people think.
There's this strange asymmetry: ask a non-American to name a US Supreme Court justice, a famous American businessman, an entertainer, a politician, and maybe some other categories that I haven't listed. We all know one, even though it might actually be hard to name the same for neighboring countries like Ireland or France.
Ask someone if they know the subdivisions of the USA, and if they know the subdivisions of their own neighbors. Do I know the mayor of anywhere in Ireland or France? I know the mayor of San Francisco.
The culture of what country is in the cinema, or the radio? Everywhere you go, it's the US, plus a little bit of the local. Check the top-10 lists of any country in Europe to see what I mean.
Well put. Lines up with my comment ITT and my observations on the American side of things as well. There's a strange dynamic where a massive amount of people across the world have some cursory knowledge about the state I live in, whereas vice-versa I'd probably have to look up if their country even has states, provinces, districts, counties or what have you.
I'm a Brit and still describe pricing when discussing online as USD because that's seemingly the "currency of the internet" that everybody seems to understand the value of.
There's this strange asymmetry: ask a non-American to name a US Supreme Court justice, a famous American businessman, an entertainer, a politician, and maybe some other categories that I haven't listed. We all know one, even though it might actually be hard to name the same for neighboring countries like Ireland or France.
Ask someone if they know the subdivisions of the USA, and if they know the subdivisions of their own neighbors. Do I know the mayor of anywhere in Ireland or France? I know the mayor of San Francisco.
The culture of what country is in the cinema, or the radio? Everywhere you go, it's the US, plus a little bit of the local. Check the top-10 lists of any country in Europe to see what I mean.
It's so strangely dominating.