If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, drive across it.
About 250 years ago, America cast a spell on Europe and the rest of the world. That magic compelled 15-18 million people to uproot themselves and escape war, poverty, crop failures, and political instability to start all over again in the new nation between 1800 and 1900.
More than 15 million immigrants arrived in the first 15 years of the 20th century, mostly from Eastern Europe and Russia.
Funny how America’s critics gloss over that astonishing fact. Whenever they bother to mention it, they point to the industrial revolution, which created an insatiable demand for labor, as capitalism “enslaved” these unsuspecting workers.
Still, people kept coming. As bad as the left believes America is, people of all races, all religions, and from every nation ignored the portrayal of the United States as a racist, sexist country of white supremacists and came anyway.
This is something America’s most vicious critics can’t get around. The people of the world voted with their feet, and while many of us may not like it, the promise America holds for a better life is irresistible.
For the next month, more than 1.7 million foreigners will come to America to watch a soccer tournament. It hardly matters why they’re coming. They come with their preconceived notions about the U.S being a horrible place. Their own governments tell them so. American leftists amplify that message.
But once these soccer fans get here, an amazing transformation happens to many of them.
They fall in love with the U.S.
Perhaps they have relatives who left the old country to come here and have heard about America all their lives. Whatever their preconceptions about the U.S., nothing prepared them for how completely different it is from what they’ve been told or what they imagined.
PJ Media editor Chris Queen wrote about this phenomenon last week, chronicling a German tourist’s travels through the South. Many other visitors in the U.S. for soccer find themselves delighted with what they’ve found.
…….“A place like this could ONLY exist in America and I LOVE it,” posted Sean from Scotland as he toured a Texas Buc-ees in abject astonishment.
“The vibes are insane!” exclaimed Freddy from Germany while road-tripping through Louisiana to New Orleans.
Elsa from Sweden is demanding of X, “Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack?”
It seems that Gen X and Y had no idea of the “real” America.
“One thing I love about the European World Cup tourists right now is that they’re not just being dropped off in the middle of Los Angeles or New York City or some overhyped metropolitan hub that most Americans like myself don’t even like,” X user @realmikolson observed.
“They’re being dropped right in the middle of the heart of middle America.”
……..Olson said international tourists driving nine hours across Texas and experiencing Auburn University fraternity houses are witnessing “overwhelming American kindness.”
“A lot of the locals in these areas have no idea who these people are or why they’re even there,” he said, adding that there’s been very little World Cup news or marketing, particularly in small towns.
Nevertheless, he’s heard of instances of restaurant owners driving World Cup fans to games because they can’t find an Uber. A deli owner gave British tourists free lunch “just because they came all this way,” he said.
Some Alabama firefighters reportedly gave foreign visitors a tour of their fire department and free merchandise.
People traveling to the United States for the World Cup soccer tournament are going viral with their posts about everyday American life, which most of us probably take for granted.
As many as 10 million people are expected to make their way to the U.S. during the course of the tournament, which goes from June 11 to July 19.
The 11 host cities include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Two of the top takeaways from World Cup visitors’ social media posts are that they are fascinated with Walmart and surprised by how friendly and welcoming Americans are.
“This is the biggest tourist attraction I can have as a European. It’s like a museum,” one man said, explaining he got lost in Walmart because it is so big.
“You can’t compare this to Europe.”
Buc-ee’s gas stations and Waffle Houses are other sources of fascination, particularly with the German World Cup visitor who goes by FreddyLA7 on X.
Some British tourists received some Texas-sized hospitality while in the Lone Star State.
The couple reported that a “lovely Texas man” wearing a cowboy hat purchased their beers. They ended up chatting, and he told them to wait, and he returned and gave them challenge coins from the Amarillo Police Department.
Others came up to talk to them, too. “Everyone is so friendly,” she said. “Everyone literally has a heart full of gold, it seems like.”
Another German visitor posted, “All the jokes aside Americans are actually some of the friendliest and most welcoming folks I have ever met. Been to Miami, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles & Chicago now and everywhere I met amazing people. 100x friendlier than the grumpy Germans at home.”
Some Scottish fans fit right into American culture, singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at a Boston bar.
One American shared on X the impact all these posts are having on him.
“There’s something happening inside of me that I haven’t felt in a while. Pride. There are so many things I’d like to see changed in our country but for a brief moment I’m just in awe of foreigners exploring and discovering some American gems during their visit for World Cup. These posts are a beacon of light for me,” he wrote.
“Distinctly it warms my heart to see people enjoying Texas Roadhouse or Biscuits & gravy. Or, the Japanese poet that is writing masterpieces about unlimited chips & salsa. Or, the Germans getting into Ella Langley. Even the compliments on our stadium here in LA,” the man added.
This French guy was absolutely enthralled by Buc-ees:
It’s a good thing to know that some Euros visit America and meet real people in the heartland. They came away with a real sense of what our country is.
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