I am very critical of American society especially when I encounter chest pounding conservatives. The ones who go shouting USA, USA, USA. Think America invented everything and is the best country in the world and goes spreading freedom and democracy around the world on weekends.

Those kinds of people really need to be knocked down a few pegs.

Yet, I have to tell myself to be balanced at times as well. There are many good Americans and I think many a really tired of their country getting stereotyped by people like me. I also see this criticism being wrongly exploited by people who in my mind don't have good intentions.

I have had plenty of dicussions with apologists for the Chinese Communist Party as well as people in the middle East who advocate Islamic rule over democracy.

I don't want the failures of America to be used as a sledge hammer against all that the West stands for. As many flaws and errors we have made through our history I believe there are still many good things mixed in with the bad, which deserves recognition.

I think e.g. Chinese people deserve democracy and freedom of expression. It is unfortunate when the US is being exploited as a bogeyman to argue against those things. China does not need to copy the American model of democracy. There are numerous models to pick from in the democratic world. One could pick Switzerland, Sweden or maybe a country closer to home such as Japan or Taiwan.

Racism in the US is a strange thing. It leads to African-Americans shot by police, yet at the same time the US is one of the countries where visible minorities have perhaps the best chance of reaching the top. Look at the number of top CEOs in America who are East Asian or Indian.

I have a Tamil-Norwegian friend who was going to the US on this big trip he had looked forward to for ages. Booked hotel, rented car and everything. Yet he never got anywhere because a racist border guard just kept screaming at him that he was a terrorist and was comming to the US to blow up things.

I have no idea how they managed to pick the worst guys possible as boarder guard. I am a white guy but I still cannot stand how a lot of US immigration works. It is like you are a criminal until you prove otherwise. Even older Soviet republics have friendlier border control.

Anyway the experience of my friend was just absurd. He has never had as much as a traffic ticket in Norway. He is the friendliest most non-intimidating person you can imagine. Okay maybe he talks too much ;-) (but so do I)

I have had muslims friends who don't even seem to talk about their experience going through US customs.

Yet what I hear is so profoundly diverse. I know Chinese growing up in other Asian countries who suffered to much racism, and for whom coming to America was a dream. Sure racism exist there too but not anything like where they came from. They got opportunities they had never had before.

And of course while inside the US, you see a lot of people of every ethnicity hanging out and getting together.

Still when I studied in the US, I found some of the racist remarks on white friends rather shocking.

It is these things that keep my fascinated with America. It is sort of the worst and the best country at the same time. It is all so polarized. You got very tolerant and open minded people combined with a lot of narrow minded and intolerant people. Sure all places are like that, but it is like in the US they turned up the volume on everyone. It is all amplified.

No wonder they cannot get along with each other.

My aunt actually lives in the US now and has some rather crazy stories. She absolutely loves it. She never fit into Norway. If you are a very outgoing and social person Scandinavia is not really the place to be ;-)