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Of the countries that score above a 0.9 on the human development index, the US is definitely among the stupidest, if not the stupidest. But, that's kind of misleading. The US shouldn't be compared to places like Switzerland or Norway, nations that have populations of less than 10 million. The US is more comparable to the EU as a whole. We should be seen as a union of nations rather than a single nation, and like the EU we have some states that are much more developed than others.
So, we're not one "bunch" of people, anymore than Europe is one "bunch" of people.
The EU is nothing like the US. The EU is made of individual, sovereign nations with each their own language and culture and political system and laws and regulations. Most of these countries have very little in common except the fact that they happen to be on the same continent. The only thing that keeps them from being at war with each other is trade. And that's where the EU comes in.
So are US States. The language is generally going to be the same, but culture, politics, laws and regulations all vary dramatically between US States. Most laws that people deal with in their daily lives are State laws, not Federal.
You could say the same about a lot of US States. Texas and California are dramatically different and likely wouldn't be in the same grouping if things were being built today.
Have you seen the divide between the various US States? Texas 100% would go to war with California if given the chance.
You're so close to getting it.
No, he's right. There is far more in common between someone from Seattle and someone from Lafayette than there is between two people from almost any two EU countries. Even in two countries that touch each other like France and Germany, they have radically different people in terms of language, customs, political priorities, etc.
It's more complex than that. For one, there were many nations of people on the North American continent before European contact, each with distinct languages, cultures, traditions, etc. Then, people from many different nations immigrated to the United States, again, each bringing with them their own language, culture, traditions, etc. And then of course there were the African slaves, brought here against their will, once again, bringing with them their own cultures, etc, etc. Over time, each district culture, language, and tradition was eliminated and replaced by a singular, dominant cultural hegemony, that of English speaking protestants of almost exclusively northern European ancestry. That hegemonic order was maintained through force, repression, violence, and in some cases literal genocide.
That hegemony had been maintained for several generations, but it has been weakening over recent decades, as groups seek emancipation and autonomy. African Americans, indigenous Americans, Spanish speaking Americans who are recent immigrants or descendents of recent immigrants, all these groups (and more) are slowly eroding the dominant hegemony of English speaking people of European ancestry. As the hegemony erodes, distinct cultures will be able to emerge/reemerge, and/or many distinct groups of people will organically evolve along different paths, due to different geography and climate, economic conditions, history, etc.
It's true that the differences between us aren't nearly as significant as the differences between the various nations of Europe - YET - but that is because of the hegemony that has been in place, that had made the United States relatively culturally homogeneous. That will change. It already is changing. The hegemony is slowly (or maybe not so slowly) breaking down, and that will lead to ever increasing cultural and ethnic diversity. New, distinct nations of people will emerge, existing nations that had been violently repressed and forced to assimilate will reassert their autonomy, and this fiction about the United States being one nation of people will be exposed. It's already happening.
You're talking about the future, we're talking about right now.
Right now, the statement was accurate.
Ok, but even if the person living in Seattle and the person living in Lafayette are (at this moment in time) not as different as a person living in Zurich is to a person living in Lisbon, they might be different enough in their conception of what America is, or should be, that is ridiculous to act like they are each a part of a singular American consensus. The folly is not on all of us, because there is no "us."