i'm not making fun of Americans for not speaking another language. i'm at most critiquing and poking fun at american culture. speaking other languages isn't just knowledge, it's a door for a deeper understanding of other cultures and peoples. americans being monolingual is also a reflection of american exceptionalism and the disdain of the Other.

this isn't a phenomenon that is exclusive to working class people, even wealthy americans or americans traveling abroad won't know a lick of another language. not sure why the comparison to europe. again, i'm not comparing America to other NATO or OECD countries, i'm comparing it globally.

i do agree this is petty and i'm not sure why a lot of people are treating this as some sort of personal slight when it is not. i'm not moralizing being monolingual, i just disagree with the view that american monolingualism is only due to economic factors and somehow neatly separated and insulated from american culture, which people on this site have no trouble critiquing and poking fun at, for instance.