Absolutely. It’s one hell of a reckoning, guns, health care, deep hypocrisy on display. We celebrate individual freedom while stomping out collective care.
For me one of the most shocking things about America is prison and the security industrial complex. We lock more people up than almost anywhere else in the world. What does that tell you about our society?
Another thing: we claim to be a nation that values accountability, yet our teachers are harassed by parents and blamed for their kids’ problems and underperformance. Surely if my mom or dad went home with a bad grade or a detention, my grandparents would initially side with the teacher or principal, the adult, the authority, until proven otherwise. Or take guns and kid suicide: Parents don’t pay enough attention to their clearly sick kids, they don’t parent (somehow they never saw it coming), or can’t be bothered to lock up their guns, or both. But let’s blame social media, etc
I don’t understand how any sane adult in the US would want to be a teacher. That’s not an attack against teachers, what I mean is the kids are violent, aggressive, bullies who know they won’t receive any real punishment for their actions. Meanwhile, neither the parents nor the administration will have their teacher’s backs. So the teacher becomes a constant punching bag with no allies. Meanwhile they have to use their own money to teach kids who can’t be bothered to be taught. They’re blamed for everything and thanked for nothing.
I couldn’t even say at this point, but whenever I meet a kid who was homeschooled because the parents didn’t like the “agenda” the school was pushing, the parents are unanimously christian fundamentalist, Bible-literalists who think dinosaurs lived with Jesus.
Americans have exported their prisons to foreign countries such as mine:
"The Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre is a privately managed prison located in South Africa. The correctional facility is managed by the American security company GEOgroup. The prison has a Capacity of 3,024. In 2013, inmates went on the rampage. They burned down a section of the prison, claiming that prison guards left them locked up in cells to starve when they went on strike. Investigations about this and other actions of the workers on several other prisons resulted in the dismissal of about 330 members of the Police and Prisons Civil rights union."
This was cathartic to read. You articulated the disgust and disillusionment I’ve been carrying for years. Not just anger but that deeper recognition that something foundational has rotted. It’s rare to see rage sharpened into coherence like this. Thank you for not softening the blow.
In matters such as these, softening the blow would only serve to be dishonest. American thought, American essence, whatever one would like to call it, is a legitimate existential threat to humanity. The fact that every four years some anti-vaxxer dipshits in Wisconsin decide the fate of foreign policy affecting the entire world is maddening.
I would venture to say that most of America's issues stem from the degradation of education. Being an intelligent, well-read, knowledgeable person is a long gone virtue. People are so quick to elevate the opinions of those who are proud of their ignorance.
I can understand why you would feel that way. There is a lot of tension in our social and political divides which has led people down some paths that probably shouldn't be walked.
I think a lot of people not only in the US are struggling to deal with how much technology has changed our reality. The internet alone upended how we connect with each other in both good and bad ways. In the past one hundred years I would argue that humanity has experience more social, political and technological change than in the prior thousand. That amount of growth especially in that time frame was bound to cause quite a bit of pain.
I have hope because I have faith in people, most are more amazing than we give each other credit for.
Okay, so as an American, there's a lot of incredibly dumb stuff in this article.
1) If any other country in the world were put under the same amount of scrutiny as the US, I'd hardly expect them to do much better in terms of "cruelty" and the other vices you assign to the US. Slavery was abolished in the US long before Europeans left Africa - to say that Americans are "psychopaths" while ignoring, say, Belgian Congo, is insane.
2) It generally shows a lack of empathy, humility, and, frankly, intelligence to look at a place that is different from your own and say "these have different problems than I do. They must all be stupid and evil".
3) Blaming America's cultural issues on its Puritan origins makes very little sense. The Puritans settled in New England, which is very progressive, economically and socially. The most conservative part of the US - the South - was settled by economic migrants, not religious exiles. You are making blanket statements about a country whose history you know nothing about. (I say this, by the way, as someone who was raised Catholic and is now irreligious.)
4) Gun crime is everyone's favorite thing to dunk on Americans with, but it's a very dumb thing to emphasize. Mass shootings kill very few people per year - the US is a huge country! Mass shootings don't contribute to the life expectancy gap between the US and Europe. Gun control is a very intractable issue because the "low hanging fruit " of banning assault weapons would do very little to improve the situation.
5) Your comments on Luigi Mangione and the US healthcare system also betray enormous ignorance. The average American does not pay $400/m for health insurance - that's wildly incorrect. Most Americans get health insurance through work, Medicare, or Medicaid, and therefore pay next to no premiums. Additionally, health insurance companies in the US generally have narrow profit margins - if they denied fewer claims, they'd raise premiums. Most rent seeking in the US healthcare system happens at the provider level, not the insurer level - something you might have known if you were an empathetic and curious individual who wanted to actually learn something and not just dunk on the Americans.
5.1) Also, you condemn Americans for disapproving of Mangione killing a healthcare CEO while also condemning Americans for being to violent? This doesn't make sense. It seems like functioning societies need to condemn murder, even when the victim is unsympathetic, no?
***
The irony of this article is that you try to show that Americans are stupid and evil, but you do more to make this case for yourself than for Americans. You are extremely ignorant of the country you throw vitriol at, yet you revel in the murder of someone here, and you seem to delight in hurling petty insults at us, e.g. calling everyone fat. That seems pretty psychopathic to me.
I'm on the left in the US, I despise Trump and the Republican party and I consistently vote to make better a lot of the issues you raise here. The US has many serious problems and I'm far from the only American who thinks so. But articles like this are just stupid and obnoxious. They do nothing to improve people's lives here or elsewhere in the world.
You didn’t bring up a single valid point. Everything you said boils down to “wahhh don’t be mean to my country, it’s hard living under so much scruitiny.” You sound like a stupid American. Fucking go outside. Actually go see what the rest of the world is like, maybe next time you have an opinion it won’t be so fucking stupid.
> You didn’t bring up a single valid point. Everything you said boils down to “wahhh don’t be mean to my country, it’s hard living under so much scruitiny.”
Seriously? In many points in my comment I address line-item points that you made. For instance, you said that America's foundation as a Puritan colony is the cause of it being "stupid," and I clearly explained why this obviously fails as a historical explanation. As another example, you claim that America's gun crime is proof of American's violence and cruelty, and in response, I explained to you how gun crime is an intractable political issue due to the mass shooting events you point out not being a significant share of gun crime in America, which would call for demanding policy responses.
> You sound like a stupid American.
You sound like a very mature and emotionally stable person who can calmly and rationally respond to people critiquing your argument.
> Fucking go outside. Actually go see what the rest of the world is like, maybe next time you have an opinion it won’t be so fucking stupid.
This point is also complete nonsense. I'm very aware of the policy and cultural differences between the US and other countries. I'm well aware of uniquely American problems like widespread gun ownership, lack of universal healthcare, as well as things you didn't bring up like car culture & too much suburbanization. I've traveled in many different countries across several continents and lived abroad for extended periods. You're assuming, falsely, that I'm ignorant of the rest of the world because it's a stereotype!
Again, the irony of everything you've said in your original post and in this comment reveals in you the *ignorance and stupidity you brazenly accuse all Americans of*. You have said that Americans are "fat, stupid, psychotic, and evil." I make no assumptions about your body type, but you've made comments that reveal tremendous ignorance of the US and its internal affairs, you've displayed absolutely zero self-control or emotional regulation, and you have clear, personal malice and antipathy towards people you never even interact with. It seems to me that you meet the definitions of stupid, psychotic, and evil.
It’s because every one of his “points” are just rehashed domestic propaganda. Most of the people in this country simply can’t see the view from outside themselves. This condition will not improve, since from the cradle to college we are taught in school that our individual perspective, feelings, and impulses are more important than anything else. They are more important than science, history, the common good, and the family unit. Even “chosen family,” as we like to say, can pretty easily get thrown under the bus here in service of the self.
I spend a lot of time in contact with young people in this country and the starkest difference between people is not black and white, or male and female, or anything else. It’s “children of immigrants” vs “children of Americans.” And you can watch the newly immigrated kids turn into Americans - lazy, entitled, distracted, unmotivated to learn for themselves, overweight, self-absorbed - and it breaks your heart.
I value some of our focus on individualism, but taking it to the wall has really made us a bunch of babies on the global stage. I’m glad, honestly, that there are still adults in the world, even if it isn’t us.
Americans really do have an inability to see beyond an American-centric view of the world. I know that may sound silly, obviously each person's views will be shaped by the environment where they grew up, but I'll use the example of Eastern Europeans and Central Asia (places I've either lived or spent an extended amount of time in). In this cultures, people are often bi-or-trilingual, they have a foundation in their own culture and perhaps the culture of whatever colonizing power was once or currently dominant, as well as a rounded understanding of American (English-centric) media.
Yes, I'm being hyperbolic when I saw all Americans are x or y or z, but it's to hit the dummies out there over the head with my not subtle points. The Americans I'm not referring to aren't the ones leaving stupid ass comments here. By and large, Americans lack not just curiosity, but understanding of the rest of the world. I can't tell you how many situations I've been in where I chose a song and an American said "Can you play something in English?". In other countries, people will happily listening to songs in languages they don't understand if it's a good melody or a popular hit worldwide, but an American? Their brain breaks down if they don't understand the words.
>It’s because every one of his “points” are just rehashed domestic propaganda.
This is a very strange thing to say, and obviously not true. For example, let's take my point about the intractability of the gun control debate in the United States. If you read my point carefully (though I strongly suspect you did not do this) I point out that gun control is difficult to achieve in the US because high-profile shootings with semi-automatic weapons account for a small number of excess gun deaths in the United States. My viewpoint clearly differs from "domestic propaganda" on several grounds:
1) I am implying that the US needs very radical gun control - if a small number of weapons *don't* account for most gun violence, then logically we need to confiscate *many if not all private non-recreational firearms*
2) I don't in any way allude to the common "propaganda" about gun control: I don't blame gun crime on video games or absent fathers or whatever, I show no reverence towards the supposed right for private individuals from a (mis)reading of the 2nd Amendment, or suggest that there's any social benefit to mass gun ownership.
>Most of the people in this country simply can’t see the view from outside themselves.
This is also a strange thing to say, and suggests that you didn't bother reading my comment. I'm very aware that US domestic policy is very different from that in other developed countries - usually, for the worse. The US has worse urban planning than most European and east Asian countries, it does not have universal healthcare, it has an overly armed population, and so forth. I am perfectly aware that other countries are different and how they view Americans because I travel the world frequently and maintain multiple friendships with non-Americans across multiple continents - and they bring stuff like this up!
What's interesting about your comment is that you are regurgitating a lot of common anti-American points even when they don't apply to my comment; that Americans are selfish, individualistic, ignorant of the rest of the world, and so forth. You ascribe this all to my above comment without actually engaging with the content. It's like you have such personal antipathy towards your fellow citizen that you are unable to think independently without reference to cliches. For instance, I explained in terms of political economy why the issues in our healthcare system are difficult to solve: because rent-seeking is distributed across many politically powerful actors. Instead of engaging with this point and trying to argue that I'm wrong, or perhaps how this doesn't excuse Americans for lacking the political will to improve the healthcare system, you ignore everything I say and just go "lmao, stupid American, I bet he never interacts with other people!"
The author is from America? It is “his own” place. He’s just seen the rest of the world and has the ability to contextualize. To me this article comes down to this: at this point America has the government and society it deserves.
The current administration is very reflective and revealing of the will of the people: lack of accountability, science denial, fascistic tendencies, xenophobia, lack of intellect or curiosity, promote hatred and division over unity, create a thousand different problems because so it’s impossible to focus on any one, put financial profit above anything moral, no matter the harm it does to the environment or to people.
I have also seen the rest of the world and have the same ability to contextualize. That changes nothing about the points the author made. If he's from America, that makes his ignorance of his own country's history and policies even less excusable as he lambasts his fellow citizens for traits that he is exhibiting himself.
Moreover, I find it unhelpful to say "American has the government and society it deserves." This attitude is very jaded, defeatist, apathetic. Dare I say... stupid, psychotic, and evil? I want Trump removed from power and his political movement and ideology crushed so these very problems are addressed. Throwing our hands in the air and insulting our fellow citizens does nothing to advance this cause.
Since leaving the country during Baby Bush's second term I've been watching from afar this shit show degrade into what I can only call a shittier show.
"The founding fathers never could have predicted the weapons of today, and likely would have had a thing or two to say if they could see they’d mostly be used for shooting people at school, concerts, and movie theaters".
Do you seriously believe that "the weapons of today" (which I take to mean semiautomatic rifles) are "mostly used for shooting people at school, concerts, and theatres"? Not even close, they are mostly used by hobbyists who enjoy going to rifle ranges.
A guy from Kazakhstan calling Americans stupid is beyond parody considering your country barely beats Mexico in PISA score.
Yeah, American institutions are fucked up in some ways and we have our fair share of people with loony beliefs, but so do a million other countries. Over half of your country believes that a prophet that had sex with a 9 year old is morally perfect.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees you absolute mongoloid bellend. Go act retarded somewhere else, don’t contaminate my page with your smooth brain obscenities. It’s gross.
Your entire premise is retarded bud, but sure let’s play, I’m certain those “third worlders” as you call them are more literate and in multiple languages than you are.
A “third worlder” who barely speaks English has a more extensive vocabulary than you. You can throw out that word all you want, it doesn’t shock me or upset me, it makes you look like an absolute fucking retard. I’ve already won. My job involves sending “third worlders” to the US for free. Your tax payer dollars are paying for them to live in your country, eat your food, and fuck your women. How do you like them apples? I bet that pisses your smooth brain off doesn’t it? I have a dare for you, grow some brain cells and then you can come back and talk to me as an equal.
To the author’s point: you act like wearing a mask, a basic precautionary measure, is the biggest infringement on freedom. Yet where is your peer reviewed science article on the wanton trampling of due process and respect for the law under the Trump administration?
And yet 20 million risked their lives to be here during the last admin. You come from a place of such abundance that you have no idea what abundance is. If America didn't exist the world would invent it. It is the carrot at the end of the stick. As such America is what you make it. Including the nightmare you see it as.
People risking their lives to come to the US is not a testament to the US being some remarkable, perfect place. Rather, it goes to show that the current state of the world is so fucked, that people will flee their homes because “somewhere else can’t be any worse than here.” It takes a real level of privilege or naivete (or a combination of both) to truly think the US is this magical land of freedoms and riches that no other country enjoys. Most EU countries’, Australia’s, Canada’s, the Nordic countries’ citizens live far better lives, have better educated populations, higher standards of living, better health benefits, and longer life expediencies than the US.
So according to the guy who uses Steven Seagal as an avatar and doesn't even live in the US the rest of the world is so much better yet at the same time so much worse it's a testament for the untold millions risking their lives to get here? Yeah. Thanks for clarifying.
Are you a simpleton? The entire world is fucked, that’s the point, and so much of that is largely due to US foreign policy. At least other civilized countries are doing their best to minimize the damage by providing universal healthcare and free education and an actual livable standard of living. That doesn’t mean these countries are immune to the effects of US foreign policy. It’s felt everywhere. Refugees fleeing war-torn countries might make it to the US, but look what the US is doing, mass deportations of people to gulags in countries they aren’t even from, without due process. What kind of moral standard for a society is that? Do you have any reason to defend the US and all its ugly malpractice besides the simple fact that you’re from there?
Absolutely. It’s one hell of a reckoning, guns, health care, deep hypocrisy on display. We celebrate individual freedom while stomping out collective care.
The idea that someone else being given the dignity of health and education means restricting muh freedoms in the American mind.
Excellent piece. You have a strong and honest voice, which is needed in times like these.
Thank you for reading. I enjoy your writing as well.
For me one of the most shocking things about America is prison and the security industrial complex. We lock more people up than almost anywhere else in the world. What does that tell you about our society?
Another thing: we claim to be a nation that values accountability, yet our teachers are harassed by parents and blamed for their kids’ problems and underperformance. Surely if my mom or dad went home with a bad grade or a detention, my grandparents would initially side with the teacher or principal, the adult, the authority, until proven otherwise. Or take guns and kid suicide: Parents don’t pay enough attention to their clearly sick kids, they don’t parent (somehow they never saw it coming), or can’t be bothered to lock up their guns, or both. But let’s blame social media, etc
I don’t understand how any sane adult in the US would want to be a teacher. That’s not an attack against teachers, what I mean is the kids are violent, aggressive, bullies who know they won’t receive any real punishment for their actions. Meanwhile, neither the parents nor the administration will have their teacher’s backs. So the teacher becomes a constant punching bag with no allies. Meanwhile they have to use their own money to teach kids who can’t be bothered to be taught. They’re blamed for everything and thanked for nothing.
Do Americans expect teachers to be Morgan Freeman?
I couldn’t even say at this point, but whenever I meet a kid who was homeschooled because the parents didn’t like the “agenda” the school was pushing, the parents are unanimously christian fundamentalist, Bible-literalists who think dinosaurs lived with Jesus.
Americans have exported their prisons to foreign countries such as mine:
"The Kutama Sinthumule Correctional Centre is a privately managed prison located in South Africa. The correctional facility is managed by the American security company GEOgroup. The prison has a Capacity of 3,024. In 2013, inmates went on the rampage. They burned down a section of the prison, claiming that prison guards left them locked up in cells to starve when they went on strike. Investigations about this and other actions of the workers on several other prisons resulted in the dismissal of about 330 members of the Police and Prisons Civil rights union."
This was cathartic to read. You articulated the disgust and disillusionment I’ve been carrying for years. Not just anger but that deeper recognition that something foundational has rotted. It’s rare to see rage sharpened into coherence like this. Thank you for not softening the blow.
In matters such as these, softening the blow would only serve to be dishonest. American thought, American essence, whatever one would like to call it, is a legitimate existential threat to humanity. The fact that every four years some anti-vaxxer dipshits in Wisconsin decide the fate of foreign policy affecting the entire world is maddening.
agreed
Pray for us. Would have been better off with a President Camacho 😮💨
At least President Camacho was based and cared about electrolytes.
Praying is a chemical and electricity imbalance.
I would venture to say that most of America's issues stem from the degradation of education. Being an intelligent, well-read, knowledgeable person is a long gone virtue. People are so quick to elevate the opinions of those who are proud of their ignorance.
How sad and, unfortunately, true.
They do say everything in America is bigger, why wouldn't that include our problems?
While far and I do mean FAR from perfect I don't think we are quite as cooked as you seem to think.
I would love to be proven wrong. It’s hard to feel hopeful about anything I see coming out of the US.
I can understand why you would feel that way. There is a lot of tension in our social and political divides which has led people down some paths that probably shouldn't be walked.
I think a lot of people not only in the US are struggling to deal with how much technology has changed our reality. The internet alone upended how we connect with each other in both good and bad ways. In the past one hundred years I would argue that humanity has experience more social, political and technological change than in the prior thousand. That amount of growth especially in that time frame was bound to cause quite a bit of pain.
I have hope because I have faith in people, most are more amazing than we give each other credit for.
Okay, so as an American, there's a lot of incredibly dumb stuff in this article.
1) If any other country in the world were put under the same amount of scrutiny as the US, I'd hardly expect them to do much better in terms of "cruelty" and the other vices you assign to the US. Slavery was abolished in the US long before Europeans left Africa - to say that Americans are "psychopaths" while ignoring, say, Belgian Congo, is insane.
2) It generally shows a lack of empathy, humility, and, frankly, intelligence to look at a place that is different from your own and say "these have different problems than I do. They must all be stupid and evil".
3) Blaming America's cultural issues on its Puritan origins makes very little sense. The Puritans settled in New England, which is very progressive, economically and socially. The most conservative part of the US - the South - was settled by economic migrants, not religious exiles. You are making blanket statements about a country whose history you know nothing about. (I say this, by the way, as someone who was raised Catholic and is now irreligious.)
4) Gun crime is everyone's favorite thing to dunk on Americans with, but it's a very dumb thing to emphasize. Mass shootings kill very few people per year - the US is a huge country! Mass shootings don't contribute to the life expectancy gap between the US and Europe. Gun control is a very intractable issue because the "low hanging fruit " of banning assault weapons would do very little to improve the situation.
5) Your comments on Luigi Mangione and the US healthcare system also betray enormous ignorance. The average American does not pay $400/m for health insurance - that's wildly incorrect. Most Americans get health insurance through work, Medicare, or Medicaid, and therefore pay next to no premiums. Additionally, health insurance companies in the US generally have narrow profit margins - if they denied fewer claims, they'd raise premiums. Most rent seeking in the US healthcare system happens at the provider level, not the insurer level - something you might have known if you were an empathetic and curious individual who wanted to actually learn something and not just dunk on the Americans.
5.1) Also, you condemn Americans for disapproving of Mangione killing a healthcare CEO while also condemning Americans for being to violent? This doesn't make sense. It seems like functioning societies need to condemn murder, even when the victim is unsympathetic, no?
***
The irony of this article is that you try to show that Americans are stupid and evil, but you do more to make this case for yourself than for Americans. You are extremely ignorant of the country you throw vitriol at, yet you revel in the murder of someone here, and you seem to delight in hurling petty insults at us, e.g. calling everyone fat. That seems pretty psychopathic to me.
I'm on the left in the US, I despise Trump and the Republican party and I consistently vote to make better a lot of the issues you raise here. The US has many serious problems and I'm far from the only American who thinks so. But articles like this are just stupid and obnoxious. They do nothing to improve people's lives here or elsewhere in the world.
You didn’t bring up a single valid point. Everything you said boils down to “wahhh don’t be mean to my country, it’s hard living under so much scruitiny.” You sound like a stupid American. Fucking go outside. Actually go see what the rest of the world is like, maybe next time you have an opinion it won’t be so fucking stupid.
> You didn’t bring up a single valid point. Everything you said boils down to “wahhh don’t be mean to my country, it’s hard living under so much scruitiny.”
Seriously? In many points in my comment I address line-item points that you made. For instance, you said that America's foundation as a Puritan colony is the cause of it being "stupid," and I clearly explained why this obviously fails as a historical explanation. As another example, you claim that America's gun crime is proof of American's violence and cruelty, and in response, I explained to you how gun crime is an intractable political issue due to the mass shooting events you point out not being a significant share of gun crime in America, which would call for demanding policy responses.
> You sound like a stupid American.
You sound like a very mature and emotionally stable person who can calmly and rationally respond to people critiquing your argument.
> Fucking go outside. Actually go see what the rest of the world is like, maybe next time you have an opinion it won’t be so fucking stupid.
This point is also complete nonsense. I'm very aware of the policy and cultural differences between the US and other countries. I'm well aware of uniquely American problems like widespread gun ownership, lack of universal healthcare, as well as things you didn't bring up like car culture & too much suburbanization. I've traveled in many different countries across several continents and lived abroad for extended periods. You're assuming, falsely, that I'm ignorant of the rest of the world because it's a stereotype!
Again, the irony of everything you've said in your original post and in this comment reveals in you the *ignorance and stupidity you brazenly accuse all Americans of*. You have said that Americans are "fat, stupid, psychotic, and evil." I make no assumptions about your body type, but you've made comments that reveal tremendous ignorance of the US and its internal affairs, you've displayed absolutely zero self-control or emotional regulation, and you have clear, personal malice and antipathy towards people you never even interact with. It seems to me that you meet the definitions of stupid, psychotic, and evil.
I find everything you say vague and unconvincing.
It’s because every one of his “points” are just rehashed domestic propaganda. Most of the people in this country simply can’t see the view from outside themselves. This condition will not improve, since from the cradle to college we are taught in school that our individual perspective, feelings, and impulses are more important than anything else. They are more important than science, history, the common good, and the family unit. Even “chosen family,” as we like to say, can pretty easily get thrown under the bus here in service of the self.
I spend a lot of time in contact with young people in this country and the starkest difference between people is not black and white, or male and female, or anything else. It’s “children of immigrants” vs “children of Americans.” And you can watch the newly immigrated kids turn into Americans - lazy, entitled, distracted, unmotivated to learn for themselves, overweight, self-absorbed - and it breaks your heart.
I value some of our focus on individualism, but taking it to the wall has really made us a bunch of babies on the global stage. I’m glad, honestly, that there are still adults in the world, even if it isn’t us.
Americans really do have an inability to see beyond an American-centric view of the world. I know that may sound silly, obviously each person's views will be shaped by the environment where they grew up, but I'll use the example of Eastern Europeans and Central Asia (places I've either lived or spent an extended amount of time in). In this cultures, people are often bi-or-trilingual, they have a foundation in their own culture and perhaps the culture of whatever colonizing power was once or currently dominant, as well as a rounded understanding of American (English-centric) media.
Yes, I'm being hyperbolic when I saw all Americans are x or y or z, but it's to hit the dummies out there over the head with my not subtle points. The Americans I'm not referring to aren't the ones leaving stupid ass comments here. By and large, Americans lack not just curiosity, but understanding of the rest of the world. I can't tell you how many situations I've been in where I chose a song and an American said "Can you play something in English?". In other countries, people will happily listening to songs in languages they don't understand if it's a good melody or a popular hit worldwide, but an American? Their brain breaks down if they don't understand the words.
>It’s because every one of his “points” are just rehashed domestic propaganda.
This is a very strange thing to say, and obviously not true. For example, let's take my point about the intractability of the gun control debate in the United States. If you read my point carefully (though I strongly suspect you did not do this) I point out that gun control is difficult to achieve in the US because high-profile shootings with semi-automatic weapons account for a small number of excess gun deaths in the United States. My viewpoint clearly differs from "domestic propaganda" on several grounds:
1) I am implying that the US needs very radical gun control - if a small number of weapons *don't* account for most gun violence, then logically we need to confiscate *many if not all private non-recreational firearms*
2) I don't in any way allude to the common "propaganda" about gun control: I don't blame gun crime on video games or absent fathers or whatever, I show no reverence towards the supposed right for private individuals from a (mis)reading of the 2nd Amendment, or suggest that there's any social benefit to mass gun ownership.
>Most of the people in this country simply can’t see the view from outside themselves.
This is also a strange thing to say, and suggests that you didn't bother reading my comment. I'm very aware that US domestic policy is very different from that in other developed countries - usually, for the worse. The US has worse urban planning than most European and east Asian countries, it does not have universal healthcare, it has an overly armed population, and so forth. I am perfectly aware that other countries are different and how they view Americans because I travel the world frequently and maintain multiple friendships with non-Americans across multiple continents - and they bring stuff like this up!
What's interesting about your comment is that you are regurgitating a lot of common anti-American points even when they don't apply to my comment; that Americans are selfish, individualistic, ignorant of the rest of the world, and so forth. You ascribe this all to my above comment without actually engaging with the content. It's like you have such personal antipathy towards your fellow citizen that you are unable to think independently without reference to cliches. For instance, I explained in terms of political economy why the issues in our healthcare system are difficult to solve: because rent-seeking is distributed across many politically powerful actors. Instead of engaging with this point and trying to argue that I'm wrong, or perhaps how this doesn't excuse Americans for lacking the political will to improve the healthcare system, you ignore everything I say and just go "lmao, stupid American, I bet he never interacts with other people!"
lmao stupid American.
The author is from America? It is “his own” place. He’s just seen the rest of the world and has the ability to contextualize. To me this article comes down to this: at this point America has the government and society it deserves.
The current administration is very reflective and revealing of the will of the people: lack of accountability, science denial, fascistic tendencies, xenophobia, lack of intellect or curiosity, promote hatred and division over unity, create a thousand different problems because so it’s impossible to focus on any one, put financial profit above anything moral, no matter the harm it does to the environment or to people.
I have also seen the rest of the world and have the same ability to contextualize. That changes nothing about the points the author made. If he's from America, that makes his ignorance of his own country's history and policies even less excusable as he lambasts his fellow citizens for traits that he is exhibiting himself.
Moreover, I find it unhelpful to say "American has the government and society it deserves." This attitude is very jaded, defeatist, apathetic. Dare I say... stupid, psychotic, and evil? I want Trump removed from power and his political movement and ideology crushed so these very problems are addressed. Throwing our hands in the air and insulting our fellow citizens does nothing to advance this cause.
Trump isn’t the cause of the bad happening in the US, he’s a symptom of it. He’s the logical end-point of American mentality and exceptionalism.
Since leaving the country during Baby Bush's second term I've been watching from afar this shit show degrade into what I can only call a shittier show.
The only way out is in ...
Let that sink in.
People in the Middle Ages built cathedrals without computers, electricity, or combustion engines
Cairo, that's in Egypt.
"The founding fathers never could have predicted the weapons of today, and likely would have had a thing or two to say if they could see they’d mostly be used for shooting people at school, concerts, and movie theaters".
Do you seriously believe that "the weapons of today" (which I take to mean semiautomatic rifles) are "mostly used for shooting people at school, concerts, and theatres"? Not even close, they are mostly used by hobbyists who enjoy going to rifle ranges.
A guy from Kazakhstan calling Americans stupid is beyond parody considering your country barely beats Mexico in PISA score.
Yeah, American institutions are fucked up in some ways and we have our fair share of people with loony beliefs, but so do a million other countries. Over half of your country believes that a prophet that had sex with a 9 year old is morally perfect.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees you absolute mongoloid bellend. Go act retarded somewhere else, don’t contaminate my page with your smooth brain obscenities. It’s gross.
Dust off your prayer rug, faggot.
Oh no, did the reactionary smooth brain get triggered? Why are right-wingers such snowflakes. I thought y'all were free-speech absolutists.
The question you should be asking is if the third worlders taking over your country are “free-speech absolutists”.
Your entire premise is retarded bud, but sure let’s play, I’m certain those “third worlders” as you call them are more literate and in multiple languages than you are.
How’s that working out for you, faggot?
A “third worlder” who barely speaks English has a more extensive vocabulary than you. You can throw out that word all you want, it doesn’t shock me or upset me, it makes you look like an absolute fucking retard. I’ve already won. My job involves sending “third worlders” to the US for free. Your tax payer dollars are paying for them to live in your country, eat your food, and fuck your women. How do you like them apples? I bet that pisses your smooth brain off doesn’t it? I have a dare for you, grow some brain cells and then you can come back and talk to me as an equal.
Its going to be hilarious when a nigger kills you like ryan carson 😂😂😂
Unhinged and illogical. You must be an American
The masks were ineffective, that is actual peer reviewed science.
https://thefinancialguys.com/news/face-masks-ineffective-against-covid-virus-studies/
To the author’s point: you act like wearing a mask, a basic precautionary measure, is the biggest infringement on freedom. Yet where is your peer reviewed science article on the wanton trampling of due process and respect for the law under the Trump administration?
That’s the American spirit in a nutshell.
That's cute how that's the only takeaway you got from this entire thing.
And yet 20 million risked their lives to be here during the last admin. You come from a place of such abundance that you have no idea what abundance is. If America didn't exist the world would invent it. It is the carrot at the end of the stick. As such America is what you make it. Including the nightmare you see it as.
People risking their lives to come to the US is not a testament to the US being some remarkable, perfect place. Rather, it goes to show that the current state of the world is so fucked, that people will flee their homes because “somewhere else can’t be any worse than here.” It takes a real level of privilege or naivete (or a combination of both) to truly think the US is this magical land of freedoms and riches that no other country enjoys. Most EU countries’, Australia’s, Canada’s, the Nordic countries’ citizens live far better lives, have better educated populations, higher standards of living, better health benefits, and longer life expediencies than the US.
So according to the guy who uses Steven Seagal as an avatar and doesn't even live in the US the rest of the world is so much better yet at the same time so much worse it's a testament for the untold millions risking their lives to get here? Yeah. Thanks for clarifying.
Are you a simpleton? The entire world is fucked, that’s the point, and so much of that is largely due to US foreign policy. At least other civilized countries are doing their best to minimize the damage by providing universal healthcare and free education and an actual livable standard of living. That doesn’t mean these countries are immune to the effects of US foreign policy. It’s felt everywhere. Refugees fleeing war-torn countries might make it to the US, but look what the US is doing, mass deportations of people to gulags in countries they aren’t even from, without due process. What kind of moral standard for a society is that? Do you have any reason to defend the US and all its ugly malpractice besides the simple fact that you’re from there?
Hey I like action films from 80s too, Seagal, we've got something in common
Ahhhh, so there it is. You never had a point, so you result to commenting on the Seagal avatar. Nicely done.
Albertans still want to be American