[quote=mdk]
At this point I'm not arguing, I'm just remarking at our differences as they exist, because they're interesting to me.
[/quote]

Fair enough. That's fairly unusual in Off-Topic, so forgive me for assuming otherwise! I have to admit, I've long been fascinated by the US and the differences between my home country and there. For a long time, most of my friends were American, so I got a lot of exposure to certain aspects of American culture. I see it as a shame that I can't afford to go to uni there - I got into UCB, wanting to move to America to experience the differences for myself, but y'know, I don't have $50k a year to pull out my ass.
Anyway, back to the point at hand. I suppose I struggle to wrap my mind about the dynamics of American patriotism, despite the decentralisation, mainly because British culture does not exhibit nearly quite the same sense of national pride - or rather, it's sort of... colder. We might be very proud of our country, but I've very rarely seen a British person defend Britain with quite the same intensity and fervour that I've seen Americans do for the US. Maybe we're just cynical and such, as a trend, by comparison. I don't know that I agree that "we're all pretty much the same", as you put it - there's a very strong imprint on people from the culture they grew up in.