Only in America
 |
"Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world. |
 |
A lot of weird news stories seem to take place in the United States of America, giving a misleading impression that the place has more weirdness than average.
While this isn't verifiable one way or the other, there are some possible reasons:
- The US has a population of over 300 million, the third largest in the world, and largest first world nation.
- It's the world's richest country.
- It has far more media covering it than anywhere else.
- Strong national belief in personal freedom, which has the unfortunate side-effect of encouraging idiots to do whatever they want.
- People in America are a willing audience for the weird and slightly unusual. As one of our comedians, George Carlin, put it, "If you're born on this planet you get a free ticket to the freak show; if you're born in America you get a front row seat."
- With so much access to different forms of media in the form of TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, satellite radio, blogs, webcasts, Twitter, podcasts, etc., those outlets trying to keep an audience must increasingly differentiate from one another.
- Every other country is boring, so no one cares about them.
- In other countries, you will see American TV shows along with locally produced TV shows. In America, you see American TV shows. Or sometimes British TV shows, if you watch PBS or BBC America. Or an occasional—i.e., rare -- Canadian TV show in the summer when nobody is watching. TV shows from other countries? Forget about it.
- Unlike European countries where you can receive radio and TV shows from other countries over the air, many Americans live out their entire lives without visiting another country, learning a foreign language or seeing foreign media.
- It's possible that some Americans wonder if there really is a world full of inconsequential non-Americans beyond the borders of the US, or if it's all just a myth that those crazy people in New York City, Los Angeles and Washington DC invented to perturb them.
- Yet many of these same people will complain that those same crazy people in New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC treat their wonderful corner of the world as "Flyover Country."
Often used negatively as a No True Scotsman fallacy, in which someone says something negative "can only be done in America", regardless if any other part of the world can or has been subjected to it.
Compare with Vocal Minority, Misblamed, Double Standard.[1] See Only in Florida and Only in Miami as a subset. See Eagle Land for the unfortunate image that results.
Changing with time as an increasingly large number of "and finally..." stories derive from China and India (most of which are invented by newspapers), the two nations with, coincidentally, the first and second largest populations in the world, respectively.
This trope name does not refer to works that are only available in the US. That would be No Export for You. Only an American could make that mistake.
Nor does it refer to Larry the Cable Guy's television series of the same name.