Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a bait or any kind of bad-faith devaluing or stereotyping. This is only based on my experience, hearing similar stories from others and wanting to understand. I'm aware that there are good and bad people everywhere.
So I'm European and starting on a good note I always admired America for many things like the freedom, diversity and cool movies.
But after more experience with meeting real Americans I noticed this personality type that I and I think many other non-Americans would describe as arrogant.
Like I stated before I'm not saying every American is like that and I know there are many very nice Americans. But I often saw that some Americans seem to only be nice on the surface (if at all) but actually seem to have this attitude of "I don't give a f about you". And I know that America is a very individualistic culture that focuses on the self and the belief that everyone can achieve anything on their own.
But I still think having a sense of empathy and sensitivity towards others is a very important core human quality that everyone should have. And from personal experience and also from a very prevalent notion of others both in every day life and when looking it up online it's clear that many non-Americans perceive many Americans to cross a line there.
For example there's a prevalent observation of Americans visiting other countries and acting like they own the place by being very loud, demanding and not accepting if things aren't the same way as they are in America.
We know that Americans have very big issues with divisiveness and social injustice and it seams like there's also this sort of "ghetto" personality including trash-talking, lots of vulgar slang and slurs and bragging.
And a general perception of money playing a big role as if many Americans judge someone's worth by money and this attitude of not feeling like needing to help someone. I think there's this famous description of a person lying in the middle of the ground in a public city and people just walk around the person not feeling the need to help.
It almost feels like they're very entitled and put their ego up way higher than it actually is and lacking the quality of making themselves smaller/putting themselves second to treat others with more dignity.
I wouldn't say arrogant, but I've worked with a lot of Americans, and there's something most of them have in common. I can't quite put my finger on what, but it's in the vicinity or arrogance. I simply don't have the necessary English vocabulary to explain it properly.
In short, I've found that most of them likes to swing their dick around and pull rank, even if someone else clearly has a better approach/solution/suggestion. This is far from unique to americans, but it seems more prevalent compared to the other nationalities I've worked with.
They have a tendency to be cocky, headstrong, and ignorant of the greater world and people around them.
I have lost count of the amount of Americans I have met and spoken to that think them and their country are the centre of the universe. And I don't mean that in a mocking or mean way - many of them were amazingly nice people but they legitimately did not know any better.
I think a lot of ignorance of other countries and people are tied into how big the US is. it's basically as if all of Europe was one country, had a shared, baseline culture, and everyone spoke the same language.
Over in Europe, you can travel through multiple countries, each with their own shared history, language, and culture, each distinct from another - all in the same day.
More perspective on how big it is: You can drive 12 hours and not make it out of California. And our rail system is pitiful, meaning many people don’t travel anywhere they can’t easily drive or affordably fly.
Confidence?
"The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know."
Maybe, but not necessarily in a good way. Unfounded, to the point of cocky, I think.
More than once have I had to say something along the lines of "Yeah, we know, you're not the first to suggest this. There's a reason why we don't do that."
...and, again, not exclusive to Americans. But definitely more common.