You are projecting your own biases and worldview on to my comment, which says more about you than me. Nowhere did I fetishize foreign cultures or put down America in general.
And yes, decaying industrial town is an exact description, not self-flagellation.
> Nowhere did I [...] put down America in general.
> As an American, I’ve noticed that this attitude of disinterest toward the outside world is common, even encouraged. It’s not a good thing and frankly it’s the source of a lot of problems with the country today.
We've established that you did "put down America in general". We can disagree over whether that constitutes self-flagellation. Moving on, I didn't say you are "anti-American" nor did I say that there's anything wrong with "criticizing one's country". I will say that criticizing a culture is hard because cultures are not uniform, which was my point ("decayed industrial town in the Midwest" and "bastion of liberal globalism" are very different in terms of "disinterest in the outside world").
I don't question your experiences, I only pointed out that they are yours, and I doubt they can be universalized. The kind of meaning that you're talking about just isn't one-size-fits-all.
And yes, decaying industrial town is an exact description, not self-flagellation.