[james500]

“Growing up in Rotterdam, Aandewiel had an impression of this country shared by many in the Netherlands, an image formed by Hollywood movies and the media.”

Negative propaganda exists, is pervasive, and is effective, in other words?

[Othniel]

My in-laws are Dutch and live in a small rural village. As I'm a teacher, I was curious about the school there, so I asked their neighbor (also a teacher) if she could arrange a visit. She could. The kids found out I was coming, and wrote a couple of hundred questions about America. A lot of them were about weapons, violence, and the like, the same kinds of things they see on TV. I pointed out to them that the US is a lot bigger than the Netherlands, and that, as such, we have more people and more "hot spots" than they do. Also, our media is more invasive, and is more apt to rely on the sensational. Most of them understood this, and the myth of shootouts in the street and everyone driving fast cars was, I hope, dispelled. They applauded at the end.