I find it extremely annoying and off-putting when Europeans get very condescending about how great and progressive the EU is and how hickish and backward the United States is.

Look, I get it, the US doesn't have as much in the way of a welfare state as Europe, and has a lower rate of education. Yay for social democracy, blah blah blah.

You know what? There are shitty things about Europe too. There's plenty of racism that goes unacknowledged because they don't have to daily deal with the legacy of slavery and the permanent scars it leaves behind. They love to tout their proportional parliamentary systems as being inherently superior to the American system, but guess what? They're also a lot less stable and undergo upheaval a lot more often, for better AND for worse. That social welfare state? It's only possible because the US has spent the last 70 years basically doing their defense spending for them. Nor is it a coincidence that there hasn't been internecine war on the continent in that same time period which, when compared to the preceding 1,500+ years, is the exception rather than the rule.

Europe is great, I love traveling there. They do a lot of things right and many things better than the US. But get off your damn high horse, you know?

End rant.