Well obviously as an American* I can speak for all Americans. Obviously. Anywho, the reasoning is simple. If you know who my tribe members are without me ever

Well obviously as an American* I can speak for all Americans. Obviously. Anywho, the reasoning is simple. If you know who my tribe members are without me ever having to bother to tell you, you must be cool. Otherwise you are just not part of my tribe, an Other. But don't worry, we invented social media (just like we invented everything else, from radio to the Renaissance) so if you want to be part of my tribe, you can do your research, depending on how private and exclusive I feel like being today. *Don't believe those Canadians or anyone else who lives on either of the two continents in the new world, only US-ians get to claim American as a word!! PS: this is all a rather bombastic attempt at a joke (potentially satire?). The real reason (I'd guess) is we aren't all uniformly well trained in polite etiquette like not being so self absorbed that we assume everyone knows who our family are.