For years, Americans have been told that the rest of the world views us as some kind of dystopian nightmare.
Turn on cable news and you’d think foreign visitors expect to land at the airport, dodge political unrest, survive a mass shooting, and then spend the rest of the trip arguing with angry Americans about politics.
Then the World Cup showed up. And something funny happened. The visitors actually met Americans.
Thousands of soccer fans from Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East have been flooding social media with videos documenting their travels across the United States. What they’ve found looks a lot different than the country many expected based on headlines and social media narratives.
Instead of fear and hostility, they’re finding friendly strangers. Instead of political division, they’re finding hospitality.
One Scottish supporter posted an emotional video thanking the people of Boston after her visit.
She said: “The America we are experiencing is the one we were promised growing up. We were apprehensive about coming, we were expecting to be met by ICE, you know the political climate we all see on the news, and that could not be further from the truth of what we’ve actually experienced.”
Before arriving, she expected something completely different based on what she’d been hearing about the United States. Then she got here. And reality didn’t cooperate with the narrative. That theme keeps popping up.
According to reports from around the tournament, visitors have been marveling at everything from Walmart and Bass Pro Shops to Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, Costco food courts, Texas barbecue, and the uniquely American concept of free refills. Social media has filled up with tourists wandering through giant stores like they just discovered a new planet.
One English fan reportedly joked that he couldn’t believe he could buy car parts, a television, and a rifle in the same store.
Honestly, that’s probably the most American sentence ever written.
But the real star of this World Cup may not be soccer. It might be ranch dressing. No, seriously. The humble bottle sitting in your refrigerator right now has become an international sensation.
The craze has become so widespread that the TSA actually issued warnings reminding travelers that ranch dressing is considered a liquid and should be packed in checked luggage if they’re bringing large bottles home.
One Swedish visitor became so obsessed with ranch that she described it as “crack” and said she’d have to find a way to get more once she returned home.
Another European visitor posted: “Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP.”
Somewhere, a Hidden Valley executive is probably preparing a marketing campaign for the entire continent.
Visitors have been posting videos about their first experiences with Waffle House, Chick-fil-A, Cheesecake Factory, Southern barbecue, free chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, giant pickup trucks, and the simple fact that Americans will often strike up conversations with complete strangers.
To Americans, much of this feels ordinary. To visitors, it feels like they’ve stepped into one of the movies they’ve watched their entire lives.
A Swiss fan praised how friendly people were. A German visitor embraced Texas culture and proudly showed off a cowboy hat. Scottish supporters turned Boston into a giant party and reportedly drank some local bars dry.
Perhaps the most telling part of this story isn’t the food or the shopping. It’s the people. In Kansas, hundreds of residents reportedly showed up to welcome Algeria’s national team. High school musicians learned and played the Algerian national anthem. Across the country, local communities have adopted visiting teams and their supporters. Those moments rarely make the evening news. They don’t fit neatly into the narrative that America is permanently angry and hopelessly divided. But they happen every day.
One reason these videos have exploded online is because they’re reminding Americans of something we’ve almost forgotten.
The country isn’t social media. It isn’t cable news. It isn’t whatever argument is trending on X this afternoon.
The real America is the family that invites strangers to a backyard barbecue. It’s the waitress calling everybody “hon.” It’s the guy at the gas station who spends ten minutes giving directions. It’s the neighbor who helps you fix a flat tire even though he’s never met you before.
For years we’ve watched politicians, pundits, and activists tell the world that America is falling apart.
Then millions of visitors arrived. And what did they find? Friendly people. Big smiles. Great food. Ridiculous portions. An unhealthy national obsession with ranch dressing. And enough hospitality to make them wonder whether they’ve been getting an incomplete picture all along.
That’s not to say America is perfect. No country is. But watching these visitors rediscover the country through fresh eyes has been a useful reminder for Americans too. Sometimes it takes an outsider to remind you what you have. And judging by the reactions pouring in from around the globe, a lot of World Cup fans are heading home with a very different view of the United States than the one they arrived with.
They came for soccer. They may leave talking about Waffle House.
