Are Americans self-absorbed and uncaring about the rest of the world?

Fantastic people.
At least the ones I have met.

I meant to say no. I'm Canadian, so I wouldn't know personally. But I'm pretty sure as a whole Americans are nice, after all, most of the people on sodahead are american, and a strong majority of them are nice people. But I have met a few individuals who know me and other Canadians as seal bashing, syrup eating, hosers. But that's a VERY small group of people.

That is why we donate more money to disaster relief than anyone else. Americans are the most charitable people on the face of the earth. We don't bother to educate ourselves (as a whole) on the rest of the world, but we sure as hell aren't uncaring.

america care only about then selvessss

The only possible answer is not listed,
Some americans care and other americans don't
we call that freewill

You didn't leave an option for a responsible answer. Ask Bill and Melinda Gates, and ask Franklin Graham, about their concerns and you will get an entirely different answer than if
you ask the RWNJs who post selfish rants here on SH. And, you will get an entirely different answer from a guy named Ron Paul, who seems blind to all the pain and suffering in the world, except the state of Texas and maybe Alabama.

Most Americans are much concerned about the rest of the world, but the right wing nutjobs seem to control the minds of about half the population, so the other half must work twice as long and twice as hard. Did you know that more than a dozen babies and children freeze to death every night in Afghanistan's tent cities where the refugees from our warmongering are housed? Did you ever see a frozen baby? Can you imagine waking up and finding your baby cold and stiff as a frozen fish? Wouldn't that make you want to get up and cheer for a
thingy called "Democracy" the Americans are telling about?

A little too much. We need to focus our gaze on the domestic front which is falling to tatters.

Yea, my Ipad is outdated and my thirty aps need to be updated to the new iPad3. I can't wait and there are newer private jets out there that are 50 knots faster than my six year old plane. God, we are just failing to keep up with the Romneys and I am so frustrated.

People like conservatives and radical independents and libertarians tend to quite full of themselves. They populate every society, and, in fact, most all of them have at one time or another exaggerated their own talents and character to make themselves feel better about themselves. Latest research recently published in the journal Psychological Science by a team of 19 psychologists studying people from all around the world say people in more unequal societies — like Singapore and the United States — “tend to view themselves as superior to others,” But, on the other hand, people in societies with less income inequality — Japan and Germany, for instance — tend to see themselves as more similar to their peers
http://pss.sagepub.com/conten...

Conservatives tend to have lower Cognitive ability than do liberals, which explains why they have greater prejudice beliefs. Plus, their right-Wing ideology is linked to low intergroup contact. t cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice.
http://pss.sagepub.com/conten...

I think there are 2 Americas: The people's America and official America.

People around the world know that individual Americans reach out fast and massively to victims of natural disaster. But our institutions (government, corporations) are NOT perceived as caring about anything except American interests (oil).

Generally speaking, other people see Americans as children: Generous and fun, but with a limited outlook on things outside our borders. We are seen as selfish, immature, and wasteful. Being individually generous isn't at odds with being nationally selfish.

Oh yes indeed

Americans do care about other parts of the world - especially when disaster strikes. But, we have a lot of our own problems and disasters to deal with also. We have adults and children who go to bed at night without enough to eat - sometimes no food at all - with bad living conditions - some living in their cars or in a shelter - not warm enough in the winter and burning up in the summer, can't afford the medical care that they need or the medicines that they need. Is there something wrong with saying it's all right to think of what needs to be fixed here before we go looking elsewhere? I don't want to see anyone suffering, but realistically we (the U.S.A.) can't fix everything for everybody else - and keep ignoring what's right at our own doorstep.

Distortion of the actual facts, historical, economical and humanitarian.

That is the selfabsorption of the U.S. in their own percieved greatness.
Making them blind of the real U.S. with its good and bad, its humanitarian side and its selfisness, its generosity and wastefullness, its believe in peace and eagerness to go to war,
wanting gratitude but don't notice it when given, wanting help but not accepting it when given.

Undoubtedly. You write dates differently than the rest of the world; you still use US variations on the old imperial system of weights and measures, whereas the rest of the world has gone, or is in the process of going, metric; you use an abbreviated version of the English language while the rest of the English-speaking world uses a much bigger dictionary; you stupidly believe that the Christian god is always on your side, even when you are in the wrong - Vietnam, Grenada and Iraq, for example; you still live to a determination made after the Civil War that you will only fight wars in other peoples countries, never again in your own; you built an empire by bullying other countries into adopting your financial system, and nearly sent the whole world broke; even though you have built that empire, the American people still only consider domestic issues when electing presidents and governments, whereas you should also be considering what effect your choices will have on the rest of the world's people. Need I go on?

we don't even care about other Americans

America gives more then any other country. But right now we are at a time when America needs to think about America or we wont have anything left to give. Nothing wrong with taking some time to think only of yourself.

lets start by removing armies from foreign countries

oh yeah. that's why the rest of the world has a negative view on us. the majority of us are ignorant

iT's pure truth....who says the opposite lies for sure...sorry americans.. ;) I'm just sincere..it's good to care about yourself :)

Not everyone is lying, Timche -- many are just plain ignorant.

Yes, about the image of the U.S. in how they percieve it to be!

However comparing it with the actual facts the image they have is one of self-complacency.

http://www.dailykos.com/story...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/...

And not to sound hard-hearted, THAT has been our downfall. We as Americans DO care about the rest ofo the world and now its to our detriment.... we can NO LONGER be the worlds babysitter. We need to start getting out of some of these countries, withdraw our foreign aind and focus on fix our OWN problems. And especially in the middle east I think a bit of "Tough love" is called for. They need to GROW UP and stand on their own.

Call all our people home
Stop ALL foreign aid
Fix OUR problems

you forgot stop all foreign wars

LOLZ that too! Sorry!

Most of us are very caring

While I don't think all Americans think only of them selves , the majority I think would fall into the only take care of their own category

Ok, let me explain. The Americans who can actually DO something to help the world, really only care about themselves, while people like me (who have little to no power) actually seem to care at least as much as we can with how little we actually KNOW about the world.

If it wasn't for America, the rest of the world would have been under a dictatorship, a long time ago, but they're too stupid to understand this. Obama is trying to hasten their goal along though.

oh PUH-LEEZE....

At least all the ones I know do....

You can't just make mass generalizations that are impossible to quantify. Things don't work like that.

Yes! Agreed.

300 million people live in this country, of countless races, religious denominations and political inclinations. Its absurd to even attempt to summarize the inclinations of such a diverse land in a single statement.

I have met many people who would reside on both sides of aisle. In fact I was once a very heated pro-military war-mongering fool myself.

Nicely said.

Exactly.

BINGO!!!!