Not sure what purpose the snark serves – the way you phrased your comment seems to imply someone involved claimed they are "leading the world", but that isn't the case.
You're right, if you include people living outside the US. To those outside its easy to see the flaws.
But I belive the original snark, and explanation, wete referring to the majority of people living inside the US. From that perspective there's an implicit understanding that the US leads the way (in every field) and their approach to society is best (in all contexts.)
This is of course evidenced by the number of people who desire to live there, and hence the immigration issues. (Immigration issues being a uniquely US phenomenon.)
I'd wager the majority inside the US knows that it's behind in many fields but don't know exactly which ones. We learn to disregard people speaking blanket praise but don't learn enough about other countries from our media and schooling to argue against them. From the outside then this looks like most of our population thinks we're the best in every respect, but on the inside there's a very large and growing sentiment of dissatisfaction and pessimism.
I live in US. I keep hearing stories how everything is better in Europe (they tend to cherry-pick good stories from different EU countries). The only areas where we get a consensus that US leads the way are probably gun rights and large pickup-trucks.
Their usage is fine, and I couldn’t have imagined interpreting it any other way until I saw your misunderstanding. But if you’re more interested in correcting arbitrary grammar rules than gaining a better understanding of the conversation you joined, that’s my cue to drop it and go do something better with my time.
Is he making fun of the actual fact or just the majority of the US population? If it's the latter, wouldn't it be more worthwhile to make fun of whatever institutions cause them to believe this simple flattery?
Yet regardless of your nudging, the conversation moved into a productive and importantly curious discussion, which is one of the most important things when it comes to HN comment sections.
