I've lived in the USA for several years and loved it. Would agree almost everything Trippin Billie wrote. Met some great people and made friends there. Many parts of America would put the Canadian stereotype of "niceness" to shame. Large swathes of America are awesome, especially the cultural diversity of places like the SW vs NE vs Texas vs South vs PNW, etc.
The "bad" side of America is just so much worse than Canada's bad side though. The two things that rattled me quite a bit down there is the institutional and ingrained racism, and the selfishness of individuals (sorry to say, mostly conservatives). For example, I've had lengthy conversations with people about the problem of foreigners etc, and when I finally admit I'm Canadian, they say "well that's different". But what they mean is I am a white foreigner, so it's OK.
The example of selfishness is the guns and healthcare debate. A lot of people do not give a single #### about people who will die because they can't afford healthcare, nor consider gun reform because of their rights. It can be a bizarre place at times.
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