I'm not sure how many others - new members reluctant to dip their feet or old ones that mostly stay quiet - this will apply to but I've found myself put off quite a bit in the past by how North American oriented a lot of the discussions are in General. Looking in there today brings up a prime
example. I don't live in the US or follow their politics so I have no clue what the OP is about. In these sorts of threads that are US specific a line or two of preamble providing some brief general context wouldn't hurt - just for the sake of courtesy if nothing else, and so it seems less like a USA only club. If I was to start a discussion about some election or other where I am (if they even have them here) without an explainer I suspect there would (rightly) be WTFs all round. I think to automatically assume that a thread's readers are all in the USA - and already up to speed on whatever subject's being discussed - is insular, and I'd even go so far as to say that seems to go against the grain of what TFP is about.
(the election thread was just a convenient example and no offence was intended towards its author)