‘We needed this’: On social media, World Cup visitors celebrate — and remind us — what makes this country great

They’re marveling at our gas stations. They’re swooning at our big box stores. They’re tasting clam chowder and corn dogs and ranch dressing and nearly losing their minds.

As throngs of World Cup fans from abroadhave descended upon the US, many are documenting everyday American culture with a sense of wonder, posting earnest clips on TikTok and Instagram that have quickly gone viral. And Americans have been eating it all up with relish.

Perhaps never before has the US hosted an event of such scale — unlike a Super Bowl or Olympics in one location, the World Cup plays out in cities from sea to shining sea, and fans from 48 nations arecelebrating their national heritage with gusto.

Unlike the 1994 World Cup, this one’s all being documented and broadcast on social media — the University of Kansas marching band playing the Algerian national anthem to welcome the team, throngs of Iraqi fans beating darbuka drums on Boston Common, Belgian and Egyptian fans dancing arm-in-arm in the streets of Seattle. It’s a coast-to-coast international spectacle that has, at least to some, become an opportunity to reflect on who we are as Americans.

In a moment when identity politics has driven us apart, and the mere mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives can upend conversations, these made-for-Instagram moments feel like fresh reminders of what it feels like to celebrate together, despite our differences.

Several of these posts have garnered millions of views due to the genuine sentiments on display. Butoften, there’s also a not-so-subtle undertone that this is not the America they were expecting. After watching our divisive politics from abroad, they actually came here, and met open, everyday Americans.

That has resonated with Americans themselves, reminded by visitors from abroad what makes this country great.

Take, for example, the now-viral clip from a Tartan Army member, Laura Lawson, who has been visiting Boston for the Scotland games. One morning earlier this week, she posted an emotional three-minute video to TikTok extolling the many ways her visit had exceeded her expectations.

“The America we are experiencing right now is the America we were promised growing up,” she said. “And to be totally honest, that was not the America we were expecting when we came here. We were very apprehensive. I was genuinely anxious. We were expecting to be met by ICE agents, aggressive police and the political climate that we see on the news.”

What she found instead couldn’t be “further from the truth,” she continued. “The Bostonians are something special…. My faith is restored in the United States of America.”

Commenters swarmed her post. “This genuinely made me cry. Thank you for reminding us of who we are,” wrote one.

“As an American, thank you so much for giving us a chance to remember that we still are the America that can be warm and welcoming,” wrote another.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness and gratitude and love,” Lawson said in an interview Friday as she took in the Scotland vs. Morocco game on Boston Common. Her post had garnered thousands of comments, all of them positive, she said. “I’m just blown away by how much kindness the American people have shown us.”

The events of the last decade have soured many Americans on their own country, with nearly four out of five respondents ina recent NBC News poll saying the American Dream is out of reach. Faith in institutions has also plummeted, and the number of Americans who say they’re extremely proud of their country is half what it was in the early 2000s.

For many, it’s been difficult to tap into the patriotic spirit lately, said Allison Prasch, a professor of political rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That is in part because over the last decade, peoplehave come to view patriotism as a “false binary, either you love your country, and you’re a patriot, or you want nothing to do with it.”

“One of the reasons that a lot of Americans are having a hard time latching onto the patriotism being ‘sold’ by the White House is that it doesn’t make any attempt to reckon with the complicated nature of our history,” she said.

It’s worth noting, perhaps, that this is all happening with the 250th anniversary of America’s founding just a few days away.Yet, more than that momentous birthday, it’s seeing America the way foreign visitors are that has American hearts swelling.

“There is this element of seeing through other people’s eyes and seeing what they find joyous and what they appreciate,” Prasch said. “That helps us appreciate that ourselves.”

And while international soccer is of course tinged with an element of nationalism, the celebration of the games has, so far at least, stayed outside of politics or any particular brand of patriotism.

“These people are not here talking about Trump,” Prasch said. “They’re talking about large tubes of meat or what it’s like to walk through Boston and to feel like people are happy that you’re here.”

That was the sentiment Carmen Aguirre shared as she basked in the tumult of World Cup celebrations from a park bench outside Faneuil Hall this week.

“We needed this,” she said.

Aguirre emigrated to the US from Colombia in 1992, and while she’s always been grateful for the opportunities she’s found here, she said it’s been harder to feel patriotic lately as she’s watched things play out in Washington. Our country deserves better, she said, and these World Cup celebrations — online and off — have been that.

“It’s something very positive,” Aguirre said, a chance to “forget a little bit about everything, you know, the tension and bad vibes.”

For international guests, the vibes seemed brighter too.

“Whenever the US is in the news in the UK, I think it tends to be regarding political stuff: What did the White House say about this or that, or you know, what’s happening in conflicts in the Middle East. The news doesn’t tend to cover culture,” said Shaun Alexander, a 38-year-old content creator from Edinburgh whose videos of the Tartan Army’s invasion of Boston have been garnering millions of views. “But this World Cup has provided the opportunity for a lot more people to come” and experience American culture firsthand.

“I think that right now Americans are more welcoming” than they’ve felt in years, said Felipe Sanchez, a flight attendant with Emirates Airlines who was soaking up the festivities during his layover last week.

For months, Sanchez’s job was sidelined while the Iran war closed airspace over his home in Dubai. He’s been watching the social media clips online since the games started and said having so many foreigners in the US is helping shift Americans’ worldview.

“I believe the World Cup changed the mindset” for many people, he said. “I think they’re more open.”

Perhaps inevitably, as clips of foreign visitors gaping at American customs have spread online, some have been debunked as AI slop or slightly falsified fan experiences. But so far at least, the backlash hasn’t upended the good vibes.

And for visitors like Andy Reid of Ayrshire, Scotland, who is spending 10 days in Boston, to actually be here “feels euphoric.”

“To an outsider like me, America seems a very divided country, between blue and red,” he said. “When I was coming here, I remember thinking, I don’t like that America’s like that … I think there’s room for somewhere in the middle.”

But Reid was all grins this week, sporting an American flag hat, a new set of clothes he’d bought at Macy’s in Downtown Crossing, and a glimmering bright new smile: While in town, he’d even gotten his teeth whitened. He’s so besotted with Boston, he’s thinking of buying a condo here.

Reid said he hopes that the World Cup lets Americans “drop the lies, drop the hate.” And just maybe, he added, the games will help Americans recognize how ”lucky they are, and how appreciative we are of how you made us feel.”