While there have been a lot of thoughtful, reasonable responses to this article, the negativity has been pretty strong too. So I ask this of non-native visitors to this thread who feel like answering:

Could you explain a startling observation like "startling xenophobia"?

My "assumption" was made based on years of knowing people from all over the world. Educated people.

Dear God, "startling xenophobia"? You must mix with some very icky people. Is it possible you just haven't expanded your efforts with Americans enough?

Wow, you know what? My parents paid my way through college. We paid our daughter's way. we feel lucky. We think other people ought to be able to have an education without crushing debt.

Have you traveled into small cities and towns in the US? Because we are quite reticent. New York is wonderful and important, but it is a small slice of the US, as are Chicago, Boston, etc.

I agree with you, absolutely. It's a kind of delusion.

That's a fundamental difference between educated Americans and what I assume are educated people from other countries. I wouldn't dream of assuming that the average, say, British TV star looks like the average actual British citizen. Yet people from other countries actually think pop culture represents American…

Well, your hostility and mean spiritedness will certainly help people learn. Good for you, mean person. It's also awesome that you can be condescending in "perfect English."

Tsaboca: Why would you think that magazines and TV actually represent people at large? I run across remarks like that from people from all around the globe. But If I saw, say, a magazine from Japan filled with Japanese models, I would NOT assume that's what the Japanese look like at large.

Maybe I'm stupid — OK, probably I'm stupid, but Gabby Douglas looks lovely to me. She's just flat-out pretty and her hair looks just as cute as the rest of her.

Well done, sir! Every little kindness you extend to women will be paid back to you over your lifetime.

Men are far more likely to be "ladies first" and protective where I live. In the middle of nowhere. In a place where, I suspect, the majority of Jezebel visitors would not live.

In the past, I came here for the absolute best in funny, insightful truly cruel commentary. It was like a magic window into a kind of soul-deep meanness that truly inspired me.

Personally, I don't hate them either. That would mean they signify to me. I do think they are passive-aggressive, not nearly as funny as they think they are and not as relevant globally as they wish.

First, thank you so much for this horrifying, yet informative and important post.

The racism thing is so true. Indeed Europeans, in general, tend to be so racist, they make the KKK look timid. Americans confront, fight and deplore racism. We've got a loooong way to go, but we admit that.

About the last part, that you don't think about us at all, would be great, if it were true. I don't buy it. Nothing about my interaction with people from the UK suggests that.

Drew:

The person who doesn't want more kids should be the decider in a marriage. My husband was. I just want to give you one viewpoint from a person who desperately wanted a second child and never had one: It made a part of me permanently sad. The love I had to give, the devotion, etc., found an outlet in professional work,…