Maybe it's just me, but I find the argument that "Americans won't do X cool thing that Europeans/the rest of the world do because they [are dumb/are corrupt/love money/hate each other/believe in American exceptionalism]" to be a very cynical and lazy argument. Note that the person I was replying to was talking about policies and goals like UHC and High Speed Rail, not specifically about fluoridated water – that was the context in which I was replying.
The simply reality is, culture matters. And if your culture has a strong believe in exceptionalism pointing out how others are better at something often creates backlash and an increase in opposition rather then a decrease.
And this is known by people who do professional advocacy work, on topic I am familiarly with, such as city design and transportation. They take great care to make sure all the examples are from the US, even if those examples aren't nearly as good as others. Because they know, when speaking to American audiences, you lose the audience if you suggest in X town, they should do Y that is done in Europe. In the US selling something as domestic innovation is usually the best, "if people in Indiana can do it, you can do it even better".
To just ignore any explanation that points out that culture matters, and believing that only 'hard' factors matter, is incredibly foolish. Cultural believes, such as exceptionalism absolutely do a play a huge role in determining what happens in the real world. To point that out, is not cynical or lazy.
And this does not just apply to the US, it many countries have different forms of that.
Maybe it's just me, but I find the argument that "Americans won't do X cool thing that Europeans/the rest of the world do because they [are dumb/are corrupt/love money/hate each other/believe in American exceptionalism]" to be a very cynical and lazy argument. Note that the person I was replying to was talking about policies and goals like UHC and High Speed Rail, not specifically about fluoridated water – that was the context in which I was replying.
The simply reality is, culture matters. And if your culture has a strong believe in exceptionalism pointing out how others are better at something often creates backlash and an increase in opposition rather then a decrease.
And this is known by people who do professional advocacy work, on topic I am familiarly with, such as city design and transportation. They take great care to make sure all the examples are from the US, even if those examples aren't nearly as good as others. Because they know, when speaking to American audiences, you lose the audience if you suggest in X town, they should do Y that is done in Europe. In the US selling something as domestic innovation is usually the best, "if people in Indiana can do it, you can do it even better".
To just ignore any explanation that points out that culture matters, and believing that only 'hard' factors matter, is incredibly foolish. Cultural believes, such as exceptionalism absolutely do a play a huge role in determining what happens in the real world. To point that out, is not cynical or lazy.
And this does not just apply to the US, it many countries have different forms of that.