> Which epithets demonstrate that the author is one of the braying
> assholes he complains about.
Carrol, Dennis quoted just one example of arrogance that is in a relatively greater supply here than in comparable countries. Other can be easily found by visiting various internet chat rooms or by observing US travelers overseas, which I had a chance to do from time.
Let's face it, one of the key reasons why US-sers are generally disliked abroad is because of their arrogance and sense of entitlement - the attitude that everyone should speak their language, kiss their ass and give what they want. The person Dennis mentioned in his blog was just an example of that attitude.
That arrogance is demonstrated not just overseas - where it is easily noticed and hence despised - but above all domestically. One obvious example is internet chat rooms, where the demeaning and derogatory comments in lieu of discussion are almost the exclusive domain of the US male. Other less obvious examples include the level of noise in the streets, from blasting cacophonies from car radios, to noisy exhaust, to people shouting at the top of their lungs with no regard of anyone else around them. This is hardly noticed anymore until one travels overseas and notices how quiet European cities are in comparison , except of course of regular big city background noise - but generally no loud cacophonies, no screaming people.
Of course - that does not mean that every US-sers is an arrogant asshole, but that arrogant assholes are more numerous and more visible than in comparable societies.
While we are at that subject, I would also like to add another angle to Denis's observations - how aesthetically ugly the US settlements are: sprawled, full of butt-ugly cinderblock big box wall-marts, k-marts best-buys etc., surrounded by ugly parking lots and littered with ads, pressboard residential structures covered with plastic siding and big garage doors as the most salient feature, the inordinate amount of junk surrounding these cheaply built and looking structures, from rusted cars, to assorted machinery, to beaten down furniture, and to plastic toys. Cities are equally ugly - not just because of numerous boarded-up homes but also because every other structure is a multi-level parking garage or a parking lot.
Of course, ugly structures are not the exclusive domain of the US - there is more of them in the developing countries and Eastern Europe. But one would expect something of better quality and more aesthetically pleasing of country that boast one of highest per capita GDP. What is more, if you compare the hideously ugly structures built after WW2 to those built in this country at the turn of the century with much greater attention of detail and aesthetic appearance (cf. Victorian homes still numerous in north-eastern states) - that contrast further enhances the perception of ugliness.
Last but not least, when I got off the boat in 1981 - I had high expectations of this country based on what the US was during the 1970s - laid back (or so it appeared from a distance), producing a lot of interesting films, music and art, fairly progressive (esp, vis a vis the "old" Europe). What I encountered was the ascent of Reaganism and a slow but sure descent into bigotry, mindless consumerism, and general ugliness. Those failed expectations make the objectively uninteresting picture even more ugly.
Wojtek