Why the diversity of, or freedom of, thought makes the US great and the rest of the world lame.

Usually when non-Americans list things they don't like, or things that they believe represent the worst of its people, they list the usual suspects. 

• Republicans
• (social) conservatives
• religious people
• Christians

Given that most of Western Europe is non-religious this comes to no surprise but even then these people don't have much traction in their hate (no pun intended). Historically Republicans were always thought of as selfish, bigoted people by Western Europeans. The religious Americans just freak them out. I bet the religious would be okay at a Pride Parade despite not supporting the debauchery presented than Western Europeans sitting in a Baptist church as a cultural experience in May somewhere in the South. 

They go on and list things they just can't believe Americans believe. 

• anti-vaccine
• Creationism
• flat earth believers

Again, these tend to be secular non-Americans who list these things. 

But who cares, really. Western Europeans "believe in science" since whatever stance they believe in was reached by a consensus, supposedly. I think I'm reasonable and fall into this camp to some degree, but I don't clutch my pearls if someone is skeptical of vaccines. I don't care much to debate Creationism or flat earth believers because people will hold different beliefs and theories than the "educated" or the "enlightened." Who cares. If anything, it adds to the uniqueness of ideas; it's not all "what does science say and I'll believe it" - that gets real old. A materialist worldview just doesn't much appeal to.

The great thing in the US is that such people can voice their thoughts and there's usually a decent engagement of ideas. It's still happening but it's become rarer because we have "I believe in science" extremists/snowflakes that cannot function online, let alone in a society, where people think differently than they do. 

I was watching a video about a British medical student who was reviewing her medical match in the US as an IMG (international medical graduate). She was very happy to be matched for internal medicine in NYC, but was nervous prior to knowing her match because she was very hesitant to be matched in upstate New York. She then showed a map of the state of New York -

This is probably the recent map of NY counties with its voting pattern. The red is Republican votes while the blue is Democrat votes. The British medical student apparently did not want to be too far up in New York because that would be mean she'd be in a Republican/conservative county. Oh the horror. A medical student who doesn't want to serve her community as foreign physician because she may encounter more Republicans/conservatives than she's willing to encounter. Isn't that bizarre? She's more than willing to put up with difficult patients in NYC during a night shift than deal with a conservative patient. 

Religious and/or conservative Americans may be more parochial where they live sometimes succumbing to tribalism towards outsiders, but that is the norm everywhere in the world even in secular populations. In the UK, people tend not to absorb new friends as much as their American counterparts throughout their lives as they get older; they like to keep their circle of friends as it is. Europeans want to distance themselves from the Yanks because they think Yanks are dumb, uncouth and in general bigoted people. They're too religious for them. After all, why should the sophisticated, progressive European be seen sitting next to a suburban American dad with white New Balance shoes on a train heading towards Lisbon or Stockholm or Antwerp? 

The issue with the "enlightened", ironically, is that they see no need to talk such people because they have a strong belief that they have nothing to learn from them. Their brains aren't as elastic or flexible or open-minded as they think it is. It's rather stuck in its ways. And with this, they view the religious American as a representation of what makes America embarrassing to the world. 

You know what, all of a sudden I wouldn't mind talking to that suburban American dad with his New Balance shoes that has tinge of green rising from its soles. I'd like to hear about his church, if the preacher had a good sermon last Sunday and if they have any social gatherings planned. And I don't mind if his he has some theories on evolution and Creationism. I'd like to hear that perspective too.