The gun rights y'all have?
Now, most people would tell you that Gun Control Works and that you should just do that and get less dead kids per month which is a generally good thing.
....... But here's another thing to consider. As long as you're allowed to purchase weapons for cheap and easy.
You do realise you can in fact do something about the assholes in your government and your oligarchies with those guns, right? That they can be used for more than just killing children?
Luigi Mangione seemed to get it.
Where to begin...
But I'll touch on something no one else has here.
Shopping carts. It's mindblowing to me that the country that sent men to the moon still hasn't figured out that its easier for everyone if they turn on all 4 wheels rather than the 2 front ones.
That way you can slide your cart sideways to make room for other shoppers. And turning it takes no effort.
And even... even if it is some weird cost cutting thing. Why not make them turn on the rear wheels? That would still make it easier than in the front. Since you steer the cart from the rear.
Get your shit together. Put gun controll aside, put your dumb ass two party politics aside and focus on what matters. Your godawful shopping carts.
Ok another thing people haven't really touched on is government restrictions on dangerous shit generally. I'm not just talking about guns, but also cars. When I was in the states I saw so many car accidents and bits of car on the road. That doesn't need to happen. It turns out that if you have proper driving tests and mandatory classes, people don't crash as much. Same with guns though. Owning a gun is fine if you learn how to properly use and store it.
A while ago I watched a live stream of CSPAN (I think?) where the House failed to form a government for several consecutive days. The way the entire process started with a prayer, and the many references to religion throughout, is just as disturbing as the personality cult around Stalin. That whole gang is fucked in the head.
The level of uneducation in the US is a threat to the entire species. Most of Ylyour people are uneducated, fat and dangerous. After the last election, I have lost hope in the US as a collectivity, you deserve your unfair system because you chose it. You elected a convict rapist, fellon, racist, fat billionaire who doesn't pay taxes and tried to steal the election, your deserve to be treated the way you will be, you made a choice.
Gun control works.
And OK maybe it doesn't solve the problem 100%, but it solves it 99%, and that's a lot of schoolkids that aren't dead any more. Look at any first world country for working examples; I'm in the UK, and yes we still have some gun violence, but it's a whole load less than it would have otherwise been.
And it's incredibly short sighted to reject any solution that doesn't solve a problem 100%. Partial solutions are good.
You have a massive obesity problem that is killing you and it is not normal.
You need gun control. Your country isn’t that great. Youre loud and can come across as false.
US was founded on Capitalism and is a basket case of rampant Greedy Capitalism, Slavery, War Profiteering and Bullying. It has always been the case and has never stopped. Ever since the British tried stopping George Washington from usurping American Indians' land. The lofty ideals were mere veneer.
The only thing that has changed is that there are many more players in the field and US' shortcomings as a modern society is getting apparent.
Mom says I get to post the "shit on the US" thread tomorrow!
Gasoline prices are heavily subsidized in the US, the gas price you complain about is cheap compared to other countries.
The commodity price for gasoline right now looks to be about 2 USD per gallon. Retail gasoline in the USA is at least a dollar more due to taxes and markup.
Subsidies may play a role as well, but the taxes in some countries are extreme by American standards. My take on it is that a fuel tax is effectively neutral if it brings in enough revenue to pay for the road system.
Roads aren't the only societal cost of cars.
In NZ it's roughly $2.50NZD per litre minimum, or $5.31USD per gallon. This is roughly 50% tax (it's how we pay for roads, plus is subject to sales tax), so a bit over $2USD per gallon at the moment excluding tax.
Is it really $3 a gallon plus tax in the US right now?
I compare it to how I thought mobile phone calls in the US were super cheap, then found out people pay to receive calls, which was super weird to me. Where I live, my whole life it has never been the case that a normal residential connection would pay to receive a call, mobile or not.
Differences in how we do things make differences appear more than they are.
The fuel tax in other countries primarily exists to make people use less fuel in order to save the world from global warming.
Fuel tax in the U.S. doesn't even come close to paying for the road system. The federal fuel tax covers less than half of federal transportation spending. I don't know about all of the states, but Wisconsin's fuel tax covers only about 2/3 of the road spending. And, local streets get built with local property and income taxes.
Your population is essentially being farmed by corporations.
Universal health care is better than whatever you have, for 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time. And it always was. And always will be.
This is absolutely true, but I do think that a lot of Americans are in fact ready to hear this. There is just a lot of money and power involved. And those with money and power don't want to change it since it won't improve their lives. There's also religion involved. And many Republicans are religious and have been fooled into thinking that universal healthcare is all about allowing abortion.
But, then who makes money ? It just doesn't make sense !
We know. Even if some of us don’t want to admit it.
Yeah, anyone with a brain knows this... So, like, between 33-66% of the country.
As an American, I'm gonna barge in with my loud opinion, 'cuz that's what we do. Here's something which people living elsewhere might not know that Americans aren't ready to hear:
Automobiles are luxury toys and fashion accessories, and we shouldn't base our entire lives on them. No, the car industry didn't make our economy strong; it took off after we already had a lot of extra wealth to burn after becoming a world economic powerhouse. We can't afford to keep wasting all that wealth on them as the world starts to burn, and half of our citizens sink into poverty.
Not everything on Lemmy is US specific.
[email protected] shouldn't be limited to US politics. Same for [email protected]
Edit: from the sidebar
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Please make US specific communities like [email protected] more active instead of bringing your local issues to every community
We can't understand how millions can vote for a senile, convicted sexual predator as president....
Dude half of us don't understand it either.
It's amazing what decades of defunding education will do when you mix it with a healthy dose of conservative talk show TV and social media algorithms.
I dunno, i understand it pretty well. Lack of education, lead paint/gasoline, nationalism, fascism, racism, sexism, economic disparity, lack of healthcare to deal with neural degeneracy common in trump supporters, and finally lower borth rates among the more educated. America is a shithole, and has been for the past 40 years at least. Until we finally grow a spine and start "adjusting", things are going to continue getting worse until were all dead and the olligarchs own everything. Then theyll move on to fucking the rest of the world (harder than they already are)
Hah! Let's make a list of the countries where leadership of that ilk has never existed. (We'll just ignore that most of them did not allow elections.) Won't take much paper.
Stop polluting up all our shit. Fuck you.
bit rude innit, not much I can do on my own :(
Most "third world" or "developing" countries aren't that bad, and there are places in the US far worse than the median developing country.
Also most people in most places do not want to go to the US, even to visit much less immigrate. It's generally either the worst of a particular society or those specifically harmed by the US previously and feel their chances are better off with the abuser instead of in the abused country. It's not a wanted destination.
This was a MASSIVE eye opening shock to me. You watch NCIS or any pro military show and they'll pan to Baghdad or anything middle east and you'll see crumbling buildings or warzone with a sepia filter. I was got smacked when I saw a real skyline photo of Baghdad, and istanbul, and most cities. Our media is dead set on continuing the thought of these empty deserts
There is a book called Factfulness where they talk about presenting the UN scientists their own data and surprising them at the standard of living in many third world countries. People's ideas of third world countries is based on what they were like in the 50s, but many are catching up to the developed world in leaps and bounds.
Everyone i've known who wanted to go to the US was interested in making easy money by scamming people. That's the type who admire the US.
The UN General Assembly Human Rights Council 2018 report on USA's poverty and human rights is a pretty quick and clear overview which makes it clear that parts of the USA are just undeveloped:
http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1
"5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty"
"69. In Alabama and West Virginia, a high proportion of the population is not served by public sewerage and water supply services"
I'm not sure where you're from, but at least in the Middle East that's not the case. It's a very desirable immigration destination here (less than Western Europe, though).
Your gun worship is killing you.
This one is far more complicated than non-americans think. I've spoken to people outside the country, and they tend to only listen to the really dumb democrats when it comes to this issue.
You can't close Pandora's box. There are 393 million guns in the hands of civilians here. If you have a crazy neighbor with a gun, you kind of have to go get one yourself. That, or devise another method of viable self defense. The cops won't help you, not in virtually any situation.
For what it's worth, the majority of the nation doesn't worship guns. But the very small minority that does, like... They worship them a lot.
The main reason US can and could ever delude itself into being great is for having a ridiculous people-to-land/resources ratio. There is nothing inherently great about how the US does things, it just seems that way because you can do whatever you want if you have essentially infinite resources compared to everyone else.
Also, they are geographically isolated which kept them out of most destructive wars.
Yeah the US only became....
... The US.
Because of the World Wars.
Europe, the then-seat of every worldwide empire, was killing itself and dragging all of Asia and Africa down with them.
The Americas in general were "safe". Isolated from this chaos. Every country in the New World got a boost from the wars.
.... But the US had a nation that was a. Fully Independent b. Relatively Stable and c. Rich in resources -- So they basically got a decade-and-change of time to develop themselves while everyone who had previosly been rich and powerful was getting fucked, and by the time the dust settled, they were the top dogs just because they were lucky.
Yeah, in addition to having a super-endowment of natural resources, remember that we also stole the labor of about 20 generations of Africans to help turn that into wealth.
Yeah, and the right side of our government is now trying to cover up and bury that entire segment of our history. It's absolutely insane what they are doing.
We've been converting that over to latinos, still shit pay but less chaining people to things.
The people who worship it are also the people who screwed it all up. It's like a failed experiment that needs to be reset. The freedom that everyone speaks of is mostly just one person's way of taking freedom from another.
Honestly, speaking as an American, there's kind of endless examples of us doing most things worse. Healthcare, democracy, workers rights, our "justice" system, incarceration... The list goes on and on.
Affordable healthcare
Public transit
Civilian oversight
Prisoner rehabilitation
Universal income
Free education
Separation of religion and state
Wealth taxes
Law enforcement accountability
Environmental regulations…
Separation of religion and state
I cringe every time their president or other politicians are talking about god. It's unbelievable how backward the US are in this regard.
“God bless America”? Imagine what that would look like.
Not America.
Please adopt me.
Varies state to state and city to city, but my city has the majority of that list… plus the freedom of speech is nice. When I read the news about people in Europe going to prison for comments online but getting slapped on the wrist for violent crimes I’m baffled.
Oh really? I would like to know which city is that so I can confirm, but I seriously doubt you have most of that list since that's regulated on state or federal level.
Also we have freedom of speech in Europe, but you obviously can't incite violence, the same is true in the US, going online and trying to get people to bomb a building filled with gays or immigrants is hate speech and will get you arrested in most civilized countries.
Have you just come here from 9gag?
The thing is that the US also does not have 100% free speech.
You can absolutely get arrested in the US for shouting "FIRE!" In a crowded area.
Regarding punishment for violent crimes seeming low in Europe, that is mainly due to us focusing on rehabilitation rather than revenge. However change is comming, we are moving to longer punishments.
If I got to decide, we would have a system where we focus on rehab for the first X times a person commits a crime, when it has been shown that the person does not want to change, then they are put in containment prisons, they are less nice, and focus on containment firstly, rehab secondly.
All of your sitcoms are crap. The same recycled gags over and over. Unpleasant people who hate each other snarking, saying "oh my god" and then explaining their jokes.
I saw something like 15 or 20 years ago saying the average "adult" (not in a sexual way) show is designed for 14 year old viewers. Our media has made so much more sense to me since then.
This sounds pretty accurate! When I was enjoying sitcoms, i was in my teens. Where the +30yo crowd barely could relate.
I kinda liked them as a teenager. Semi as much nowadays.
Huh....
Why do you think Americans gave up on cable? It wasn't because of sports, we still love those and go through way too many dogshit streaming services to watch them. Our shows are so trash even we don't wanna watch them.
Then the laugh track tells you to know it was funny
Dead people laughing to a brain dead audience
Oh, we know. These aren't exactly made for deep intellectual discovery. It's trash TV for the lowest common denominator. It's like saying Mr Blobby shows how goofy UK television is.
Needing two jobs to survive isn't a good thing.
International rankings of the US are abysmal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_the_United_States
It's n.1 in total wealth though, that's great!
/s
We exist as much as you do. You're not the main character.
Say that to the aliens who are going to make first contact with us.
In either New York or Los Angeles, because those are the only places that exist, clearly
Any day now right.
Yeah depending on where you are or how close you are to the US, the media really has an ability to centrist all stories and news as if it’s pertaining to America some how.
[email protected] for USA questions
Just because people don't care about something doesn't mean it's not important.
American cars suck.
Preach. Some of the worst engineering in the industry over the last 40+ years.
Americans are 100% aware of this. I've never owned an American car in my life.
Not if we ban all the competition! Capitalists hate competition.
Brought to you by Daimler, Fiat, and Stellantis.
You wasted your chance as a hyper-power. The Soviet Union had fallen and the world was essentially yours but you did nothing with it. Now India and China are rising powers and you are going back to being a regular super-power.
I mean...what did you want us to do? Invade Europe?
As an American, I can think of a few things we shouldn't have done. The whole debacle in Iraq comes to mind. A few trillion dollars pissed away. Thousands of American lives lost. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead. All for Iraq just to end up a puppet state of Iran. We've also destabilized the international system, particularly the trade system, that we built up in the first place. We've repeatedly violated our own trade agreements so many times it's not even funny anymore. How could we have used this unique historical opportunity for the betterment of the world? Here's one idea.
In an ideal world, the US would have used its hyperpower status to truly advance democracy around the world. We would have taken this opportunity to once and for all finally drive the last nail in the coffin of global authoritarianism and dictatorship. In our timeline, we looked past the CCP's human rights abuses and let China into the global trade system. We did this because our corporations got greedy and wanted to make bank in the Chinese market. We gave in to their greed at the expense of global human rights and our own long term national security. Now we've turned the government of China (which has morphed into some horrible amalgamation of communism and fascism) into the most capable manufacturing power on the planet. It didn't have to be this way. We could have told China, and everyone else. "Democracy first, then trade. We're only interested in trading with and enriching fellow free nations."
After the Cold War ended, the US was ascendant. The economic power of us and our allies was unmatched. The US, Europe, and allies dominated the world economically and militarily. Imagine in a different timeline if we had used that power to peacefully advance democracy worldwide. Imagine if after the Cold War, the US international policy became:
"We allied with dictatorships when necessary during the Cold War to contain the USSR. That is no longer needed. From now on, we're happy to open up markets and trade with anyone, as long as they are a liberal democracy. You want to join the global economy and get rich? Give your people freedom. Petty dictatorships can remain poor and undeveloped, thus limiting the amount of damage they can cause outside their borders. We'll give food and medical supplies to nations in crisis, even those ruled by dictators. But full economic integration will only be done with fellow democracies. We will not trade with tyrants."
That is the kind of visionary approach that a hyperpower like the US could have taken to really make the world better. You don't need to invade countries to have an influence on them. And this really does represent a lost opportunity. The time immediately after the fall of the USSR was the moment when the free and democratic countries were at the absolute peak of their economic power. But since we allowed China into the WTO and opened up trade with them, we have created an industrial juggernaut that is ruled by an absolute dictatorship.
At the end of the Cold War, the democracies could have banded together and used their utter dominance of the global economy to push for further democratization around the world. There just wasn't anyone else to trade with for many advanced consumer and industrial goods. But now? That kind of strategy wouldn't work. If all the democracies tomorrow insisted on trading only with other democracies, the various dictatorships around the world can now just keep trading with China.
TL:DR: After the fall of the USSR, democracy as a global force was at the absolute historic peak of its power, both economically and militarily. If the US and allies had really brought their full economic and cultural power to bear, they could have attempted a last final push to ensure democracy reigned everywhere. Even without invading anyone, we could have used that immense economic power to at least attempt to throw down the last of the dictators and to bring democracy to every man, woman, and child on the planet. Instead, we tried to line our own pockets and ended up creating a monster by turning communist China into the workshop of the world.
Good. Living in a super power seems to suck period, because super powers care about ideology and power, not people. Do we need "hyper?"
super powers care about ideology and power,
I think its just power. No one gives a crap what the peasants think. Why should they? Our elections are stage managed so we never have choice. We dont fund winning elections either-- corporations do. What do they have to fear from us?
American capitalists needs other countries to get rich too so we can sell them shit. If those countries stayed rural and backwards who would buy our wares.
Now India and China are rising powers and you are going back to being a regular super-power.
NOT that I don't think you're mistaken, but at the same time, India & China are about as @(*&#-ed as it possibly comes when it comes to being considered 'super-powers.'
The main thing Americans need to hear but aren't ready for: you aren't better than India or China as super powers, in fact, you're worse than China.
What do you mean? The people who benefited the most from the collapse of the Soviet Union are the people still in power. I'd argue they did an excellent job setting up the Western hegemony to worship billionaires and empower themselves.
What, did you think the U.S. was going to do something good with that power?
Thank the stars for that! We don’t deserve it.
They made some billionaires and created the "tech" world as we know it. There are achievements, but they are lackluster and half assed... apart from the billionaires thing. They knocked that one out of the Park.
Anybody on this platform already knows all the problems and how it can be better. Anyone preaching here hoping an American will read it and change are just wasting keystrokes.
We know it's bad. Unfortunately there's not much anyone of us here can do besides bitch and moan, or else we wouldn't be on Reddit Ultra.
That being said, German McDonald's have chicken wings and they're pretty amazing.
Accurate!
As an American, there isn't a single thing I read here that I disagreed with.
But are people expecting change? Like you hate American sitcoms... Bro so do I! You hate how much we take over world politics. Like dude I know, sorry man!
But continue sharing. It's nice to get some opinions and bring us down a peg.
USA McDonalds is one of the worst in the world AFAIK. Actually, that goes for many of their products, from the butyric acid in Hershey's to the HFCS in their world-famous drinks (which I assume is why 'mexican cola' is such a meme in the US due to their cane sugar). The Fanta in Italy actually tastes like good oranges, because they just wouldn't be able to compete with the garbage they sell in many other countries.
Is it true German McDonald's sells beer?
German McDonald's doesn't sell beer, but the McDonalds in Spain or Portugal do (can't remember which one it was).
But yeah, when I (as a German) went to a US McDonalds it was by far the worst one I've ever seen.
Never saw those in our local McD options.
But tbf I am not checking it anyway.
We aren't in your timezones, so we're not going to join your Discords.
Timezones have nothing to do with my not joining Discord.
That's okay, we'll just come say hi when we're awake during your timezone. Just don't answer the creepy guy asking how much oil reserves your country has.
Discord is surveillance capitalist garbage.
It's also a walled garden that excludes many peoples.
https://drewdevault.com/2021/12/28/Dont-use-Discord-for-FOSS.html
This article is about collaborative projects but many of the points apply universally.
are you talking about large discords with 5k+ people or small discords with like 15 people?
ITT: As per usual, Lemmy thinks living in conditions and condoning them are the same thing
I'm broke and other countries only want the rich with little to no conditions. Which is weird because the rich are the reason things are terrible here.
That American exceptionalism is only describing the fact that America continues to have slaves when almost every other nation has banned it completely.
Some countries have only banned it on paper. Don't ask how rich countries in the middle east get their buildings built, for example.
And then there's always the loopholes that allow unscrupulous employers to pay employees less than minimum wage. Not quite slavery, but it's pretty damn close.
For example: My country has a scheme whereby some unemployed people have been forced to take on work in order to qualify for, get this: their unemployment benefits. The employer won't then take them on because then they'd have to pay them, and pay them minimum wage to boot, rather than get free workers from the government.
Which is why I put the phrase "almost every other nation" in there.
Almost is not all.
Your traffic laws are weird.
-
Overtaking/passing on the right
-
4 way stops and whoever comes first can go
-
No strict right of way when coming from the right
-
Right on red
-
Grinding all traffic in all directions over multiple lanes to a stop when a school bus stops
At least the last one I can understand a little with the nearly non-existent pedestrian infrastructure.
Honestly right on red is so stupid. So many people don't even slow down and they just go. Sometimes I'll be waiting to turn right at red light and some dickhead in a behemoth truck behind me will start spamming their horn like they think I have the right away and can just mow down whichever pedestrians are in the crosswalk. I bike a lot and I have narrowly avoided being hit by a car turning right on red multiple times. One time I had a car graze my back tire which was really scary but fortunately I ended up okay.
To offer a counter argument. Right on red the concept isn't stupid, its stupid to just sit there when there's not a car in sight.
The drivers, shitty driver tests and 0 enforcement is all dumb.
It's supposed to be treated like a stop sign, you stop, look, and go when safe. Not roll through at max speed. People also don't seem to know that a red arrow equals a no-turn on red sign.
I've been seeing electronic no-turn on red signs that can turn on/off with the light cycle. So if the opposite lane has the left green, the sign tells you not to turn on red. One would hope they're integrated into the cross walks too, (not that everyone uses those either).
I think the us has the worse road tests, mine was just some suburbs with 0 merges, no highways, a couple stops signs and maybe a light. Pretty much anyone driving for a day could have passed that thing, and that's how we end up with the bullshit like "the fast cruise lane (pass lane)" "right roll on red" "the merger has right away" "merge on highway 20miles(32kmh) slower than traffic" "blinker optional" "blinker on only when half way through turn or merge" "break before blinker" "wave of death on two lane roads" the list could go on and on....
Not nearly as bad as left on green BUT yielding to oncoming traffic.
I'm so confused here.
The right lanes are the slow lanes - we overtake/pass on the left, and you are advised to stay out of the left lane unless you are passing. This makes sense because you need to slow down to exit the freeway, or in case of emergency, you are closer to the side of the road to be able to do so.
How else are you supposed to deal with 4-way stops? In my state it's first arrival goes first, however if two cars arrive at the same time the car on the right proceeds first. It's not that complicated, and I'm not sure what's wrong with it?
And I'm not at all sure what you're referring to regarding coming from the right? Coming from the right in relation to where?
How else are you supposed to deal with 4-way stops? In my state it's first arrival goes first, however if two cars arrive at the same time the car on the right proceeds first.
By always respecting the second rule. There are no 4-way stops here. If an intersection does not have signs the vehicle on the right always has priority. No exceptions.
It's not that complicated, and I'm not sure what's wrong with it
The problem is that people have different views on who came first but there are no different views on where right is. If there are any disputes there can be no arguments on who came 20 milliseconds earlier, instead you can just look at who had the right of way.
You should see us a roundabout! 😉
Grinding all traffic in all directions over multiple lanes to a stop when a school bus stops
This varies by state, but I think I most of them are setup so that you don't have to stop if the road is divided, or if there are more than 4 lanes (so 2 lanes for each direction, plus a turn lane in the middle, you don't have to stop). As always, check your local laws, and when in doubt, signal and stop.
Edit: to clarify, the oncoming lanes don't stop, the lane behind and adjacent to the bus still have to stop.
Overtaking/passing on the right
Generally illegal, some people do it still.
4 way stops and whoever comes first can go
We get circles in high population areas, but not enough, I agree
No strict right of way when coming from the right
This is actually in our traffic laws, just most are dumb enough not to be able to figure it out :)
Right on red
Varies per state. (which is also stupid) It's like the circles, it's a density_safety/cost thing. If you don't have pedestrians, treating a turn with traffic as a stop sign can keep intersection costs down.
I'd also tac on abysmal public transportation, poorly maintained rail lines and horrible airport candor.
A note, not all states operate this way, but the concept of 'right of way' is going away. Judges do not like the idea of someone feeling privileged enough to make a situation worse. In general, they want to implement fail-safes and not fail-unsafe situations.
Edit: To add - we've actually had this for a while, it's called 'failure to yield'. The switch is actually being more driven by emergency services making things worse, which is kind of relieving given the general sentiment. Unfortunately it's just another phrase for the same thing, semantics....but if you do go to court, you're better off presenting who failed vs who's entitled.
I think I have seen this and been confused by it. Does it mean that nobody should assume they have right of way? For example, having right of way isn't necessarily an excuse for being in an accident because you didn't give way to someone driving badly.
If a person didn't yield at a sign saying they should, and caused an accident as a result, they are demonstrably at fault.
What does "strict right of way when coming from the right" mean? If it's up for debate there's usually either stops or yields, or road size rules (double yellow takes priority over local small roads)
When roads meet, whoever comes out of the street to your right has right of way. Signs can be put up to overrule this basic rule, for example when small side roads connect to a main road, but if for some reason no signs are posted, whoever comes out of that small road has right of way. Clear and simple.
-
Americans are some of the most unintelligent people on earth
I think humanity is a big dumb collective. Americans are just arrogant in our stupidity.
They're also some of the smartest people on the planet. America is suffering the same problem we all are - right wing shitbags and hostile nations weaponising our stupid people through social media.
America is suffering the same problem we all are - right wing shitbags and hostile nations weaponising our stupid people through social media.
I do feel we're on a slippery slope though :)
Speaking as an american. Hard agree.
And the most frustrating thing is it's not because we have to be. We literally choose to be. It's infuriating.
I agree we are number 1 in this regard, but other nations sure do their best to unseat us from our stupid throne.
For millions of United States Americans, the so called "American Dream" is achieved in Mexico. They're often illegal immigrants. They often have mental health problems. They gentrify our cities and are entitled as fuck.
Pot calling kettle and all, but I do wish they'd go back to their own shithole country. They have demonized my country for decades and have weaponized the cartels to feed their own addictions. Most of the problems here can be tied directly to their humongous drug problems.
Yankee go home. The United Mexican States is tired of your shit.
And half of them won't even bother learning Spanish. I'll never give someone who immigrates due to hardship a hard time about learning the language, but privileged fucks who go to exploit a lower cost of living or whatever often just end up in expat bubbles and don't know more than a few words of the local language even after years despite having that privilege of time/money/resources to learn it.
So are there any good ones? Learning Spanish and giving back to the community? Just curious. That’s what I plan to do when I move out of here, learn the language and do volunteer work, etc.
Spot on about the gentrification bit. Entire town populations have shifted from local people to the self called expats and snowbirds. Just look at Chelém, Mérida, San Miguel de Allende, Tulúm, Cancún and many many more including most upitty neighborhoods in México City (Condesa, Roma, San Angel).
I had no idea we had people illegally immigrating that much. Bet they're the type to use the word "illegals" pejoratively.
Drastically reduction of guns WILL save your kids lives at school. But not "muh outdated rights from centuries ago".
Btw I'm not against guns, military and officers should have "easy" access to them.
Arms but only in the hands of the state. Specifically the American state, the heart of the dystopian global empire. What could possibly go wrong.
Honestly with the shitshow of this upcoming term, and more ceos for the picking, youll only be getting my guns from my cold dead hands.
The military is one of the hardest places to get access to guns and ammo at the same time though.
Here's one from the Middle East: Fuck your veterans. Y'all were right when you were calling Vietnam vets baby killers, and Afghanistan and Iraq weren't much better. And here's a corollary: Get the fuck out of the Middle East.
American here. Lots of us don’t want to be over there either. Seeing our tax dollars literally set on fire on the other side of the world pisses us off.
Another thing you may not be ready to hear is that the world holds you collectively responsible for the actions of your democratically-elected government even if you supported the other guy.
Lots of us don't want bases "over there" or in fact anywhere. The casual nature in which Americans think having bases in other countries all around the globe is normal and fine is highly alarming.
Seeing our tax dollars literally set on fire killing people on the other side of the world pisses us off.
(Padme meme)
Credit scores only exist in the US. Everywhere else just compares your income to your debt.
Edit: apparently there are several other countries with credit scoring systems. The more you know... The US system, at least, is still bullshit designed to stratify economic class not only individually but by gender and with generational impact.
Wrong, it exists in Europe as well (e.g. Germany)
I guess germans aren't ready to hear it either RIP
honestly, this is something I needed to hear. my family has been pretty anti-credit (dad was bad with money) and my own hatred for the system grew once I started working at a retail chain. to know this is just another part of the fucked up system kinda gives me hope I can either escape it or dismantle it
Hell yeah!!!
Literally all of south and central America use credit scores, the fuck You are talking about?
Canada too, but half the country wants to be the US so it doesn't really count.
Australia is trying to bring it in though.
MANY Americans aren't ready to hear these things. The rest of us are well-aware of them. We're glad that you're sharing your criticisms, and waiting for y'all to share with us how to implement your well-thought-out and practical, abiding solutions.
Most of these comments have built-in solutions.
"You should stop shooting each other." Solution: stop shooting each other.
"Universal healthcare is better" -- if you can't see a suggestion there I don't know what to tell you.
Right but our country just elected a fascist who wants to install himself as dictator for life, so how do we actually move towards implementation of any of those things considering neither are supported by the ruling party or the corporations that have fully entrapped our government?
Better find out the answer to that question quickly too, because it's coming for your country next.
PSA To everybody else: that last sentence is a trap. Said famously before they yell “COMMUNIST” in your face should you suggest any working solutions currently in play anywhere else. Don’t fall for it. Just move on with a sense of relief you avoided the poop on the sidewalk today.
Oh haha did you think any of them actually have any solutions? No they just want to complain and pretend they are better than others.
I think a lot of the complaints are coming from people in countries that don't know their own histories so well. Consider the damages European colonizers inflicted on Africa and the far East up until the 1960s. Hell Europeans didn't even stop the killings in Europe until then. But it seems they earned some hard-learned lessons since (like Helsinki's solution for homelessness) (and making the Raspberry Pi) and keeping the peace in Europe. There MUST be some well-thought-out solutions to be shared, right?
Not everything is awful in the US.
Lately I've heard a lot of Americans talk like their country is the worst place in the world. While you do have problems, being grateful for the positive things is also important.
Kinda hard to see it that way when for most people life is getting progressively worse.
Also, people born after 1990 have a lot of uncertainty going forward due things like student loans, housing costs and health care system that provides no coverage in event of catastrophic health event.
The only practical solution is to quit being poor and that's becoming increasingly hard as many people ate not able to achieve economic prosperity that they grew up in.
The very existence of this thread is proof.
"I feel bad for you."
"I don't think about you at all"
My situation makes me consider suicide on a daily basis. I am literally incapable of starting a family, or even starting my life. My friends are all in similar situations. I have no security in any form, and a broken bone or something breaking on my car means I just die. If things are worse elsewhere, they wouldnt be alive.
Yes, the quality of life elsewhere may be lower, but they also dont have as many issues as we do. They have a sense of community, less economic disparity, dont live 40+ miles from their job, presumably arent suffering from a lonliness epidemic that is massively spiking suicide rates among men despite being caused by men, etc.
Im not minimizing their issues, i recognise that I have access to clean water and other basic survival tools that they might not have. But we have societal issues that are just as damning. Our issues are different, but theyre just as bad.
Before I get downvoted to oblivion: is it better to have clean water yet freeze to death because your cant pay your electric bill, or not have access to clean water and yet have a community that is willing to help you through your tough times? Id say they both lead to death. Neither fulfills the heirarchy of needs.
I mean, depending on what part of the U.S. you are in, the water you're drinking might not actually be clean.
You shouldn't have to preface your statement with anything, living conditions in some American states are legitimately comparable to third world impoverished nations.
To some Americans, it is that the US isn't the pinnacle of democracy but far from it. To others, that the EU isn't better policy wise than the US, it just has far more competing interests which mean lobbyists have to hand out more than a lump sum of sucking up to people. To some Americans, that your health care system is really shit, to others, that their public health care is increasingly under attack in some EU countries by an industry pouching and locking down medicine through the profits their greed has allowed them to accumulate in countries like the US to such an extent that there are real tradeoffs now to the for-profit alternative.
South Central and Caribbean duh
You may have heard about North America but that's a hoax. Who would be gullible to believe there's people who behave like USA'ians?
Canada is another hoax, it's just the part of Greenland where people live.
Usa was once founded by a bunch of outlaws and runaways and has never fundamentally changed since.
This is almost way too nice.
America was founded by businessmen who fancied themselves as a new aristocracy, and religious zealots who were such assholes they could no longer co-exist with Europeans.
capitalism is actually the worst possible system
Unregulated capitalism*
Capitalism in and of itself is a turbo charger for the economy, but like a real turbo charger it need regulations to not destroy itself and the engine.
For a growing economy with an excess of people and resources it's pretty good.
Our current world, not so much.
The problem is that there isn't a currently viable alternative.
Capitalist realism is a bitch.
There are plenty of viable alternatives; in isolation. The real problem is that capital will always intervene before an alternative can get a foothold.
That most of the world would be better off with the collapse of US hegemony.
Socialist policies are based (Hey I tried Okay)
Based on what? ;)
Based on Redpill
Humanity is doomed because of America. Your anti-environmental capitalism and rapacious foreign policy have altered the world in an entirely negative way, and the only realistic scenario for the US to cut this shit out is by losing a war to a major competitor, such as China. China is hugely flawed itself, but is the less harmful option imo.
China pollutes way more than the US though and are far less transparent about it.
It also has about 4x the population, and doesn't pollute 4x more.
Plus it's still the largest manufacturing hub in the world. Europe would pollute a lot more if we hadn't exported a lot of (some might say too much) of our industry to the developing world and China over the last 50 years.
I'm not holding China up as some panacea, it's very far from perfect (e.g. authoritarian security state, denial of Taiwanese independence, etc.), but i do think it does less net harm than the US. I would also suggest that the things we criticise China for are things which we would overlook in a country which was perceived as less of a threat to western dominance.
In any case, i was trying to say not that i want the US to be like China, but rather that i think the only way to prevent the US from killing us all is through a radical change of attitude, most likely caused by the loss of a major conflict.
Ok, so I'm going to do one that's actually likely to be downvoted by the Americans here.
Sometimes censorship is necessary for a safer society.
This is an actually good one, speaking as an American. I disagree with you, and that makes this a good answer to the question posed in this thread. I disagree with you because to understand why America can't have nice things, you need to imagine what it would look like if the Republicans were in charge of implementing them (because they basically are, and have been more or less unchallenged since Reagan). So, no, I'm not in favor of censorship, because what we'd get is censorship a la Republican, where you're free to use the N-word, but criticizing the government, CEOs, Wall Street, or Jesus will get you sent straight to jail.
Censorship of what exactly? Certain things I’d understand, but there are alot of things that could be censored that wouldn’t be so great
It's weird how America is pretty divided on this. Like we believe in consequences?
So you can absolutely yell Fire in a movie theater and get a lawsuit. Or you can scream "Bomb" in an airport and get tackled.
Yet on the phone, some lady said "Delay, deny, depose" and suddenly, she's a terrorist.
We "believe" you should have the power to say anything.
Yet that's a lie and Americans still believe in it.
You should delete your comment if you truly believe in it.
Huh?
You're the "Old World" now.
It's basically been
350250 (edit: correction) years now since US independence, and a decent while now at being a global power (~100-150 years?). These are timelines akin to that from the European Renaissance to the US Revolution (~1400-1800) and the UK emerging from the 1500s to being the "super power" in the war of independence.Now, with the world's oldest constitution, and probably, depending on who you talk to, an increasingly critical mass of antiquated ideals and systems, the Presidency is more like the Monarchs of past revolutions than what remains of those monarchies, and the US's ideals and cultural influence something which most would rather move on and upgrade from.
Generally, I'd say it's one of the weirder and subtler historical events happening right now: the dissolving of the old lines between the "old" and "new" worlds. For me personally, this was once made clear when visiting Hannover, Germany, and its tourist attraction, the "New Town Hall", where someone who lives in British Columbia, Canada pointed out the similarities with their Parliament Building. The thing is though that the Canadian building is about 15 years older (both being just over 100 years old). Colonialism is long enough ago and Europe (and likely any other "old" culture, such as China) rebuilt enough and recently enough, that like X-genners and Millennials, the whole "young, hip, cool rebel" thing just doesn't mean anything anymore.
It's ironically like they have a small set of royal families that swap the throne every four years.
In recent times, boomers have had a notable hold on the presidency. Not just boomers, but those born in the summer of 1946. Clinton, Bush Jr and Trump were all born between June and August 1946, a window of 3 months, but spanning over 3 decades of the White House. And the same more or less holds for the losing candidates too, with Harris and Obama being the major exceptions IIRC. Indicates to me some real oligarchical forces beyond what’s normal in the rest of the west.
Just correcting small typos. US has been independent for almost 250 not 350 years. Global power for 150ish but the global power for 70ish years :)
Americans in general, or Americans on Lemmy?
Americans on Lemmy be like:
That place is called World
[email protected] for US discussions
The irony of euros unloading in a thread that the people who most need to see it will never see, just to feel better about having unloaded, is peak self-serving uselessness.
Get the fuck off of Lemmy and go unload in conservative and Republican cesspits like the fox news vomment section, xhitter, OANN, not here where the vast fucking majority already fucking agree with you.
But you know you can’t do that because that would actually mean going for a swim in political sewage, which means doing actual work for your personal beliefs, and which also means you’re most definitely going to get backlash that you know you won’t get here.
TL;DR: non-US bitching about the US on Lemmy, where nearly all lemmy Americans already agree with them, are as functionally idiotic as the conservative white Americans they’re bitching about.
Even if someone you don't like asks you not to draw Muhammad, you still have the option of not drawing Muhammad.
I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you are talking about Americans in the sense of the Americans who live in the USA.
God-damnit guys, not everything is about you.
Now, I don't know if USA inhabitants are not ready to hear it, but certainly Lemmy USA residents are not.
Like it or not, you guys have a GREAT COUNTRY in the USA
Worldwide, people envy you. The poorest inhabitant of the USA has rights, possibilities and duties that only the richest in any other country can only dream of.
For God's sake, people are literally willing to kill themselves trying to reach your country, to have an atom of freedom that you guys squander with petty squabbles.
No USA proper citizen has ever been in the need so dire to escape the USA that they need to build a raft to risk their lives to go anywhere from their Homeland.
For that same reason, collectivists worldwide hate you and your country with undying hate. Because you (as in your society) don't need them. And they do need you. And they resent this so much, that they're willing to destroy you all just to stop that from being true.
You guys have lived so cozy and accommodated lives, thanks to the disrespected sacrifices made willingly by millions that you are bored out of your minds.
So much in fact, that with a little nudge from the collectivists worldwide seeking your destruction, you yourselves plunge willingly into the chaos of unmaking by allowing the collectivist mindset to pollute your youngest.
Make no mistake, the USA will keep growing and thriving, like it or not.
But not thanks to your internal or external enemies. That's for sure.
Edit: the upvote to downvote ratio tells me I followed the post premise to a T
The poorest inhabitant of the USA has rights, possibilities and duties that only the richest in any other country can only dream of.
Sorry but this is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever read.
I grew up in an area of the US with poverty issues and now live in Europe. The lives of poor Americans are so much worse than where I live now (central europe) that it's almost hard to fathom. Poverty in the US is systematically CRUSHING and can be near impossible to escape. It's a soul-destroying existence...
There are certainly places which are worse, but we just don't have that here in Europe to nearly the same extent! I'm far from rich, but life is much nicer here...
People in poorer countries are scrabbling to get to the USA, risking life and limb doing so, because the USA is good at advertising they are an amazing and free country.
In reality the US is a complete shithole, and in many ways just like a third world country.
Worldwide, people envy you. The poorest inhabitant of the USA has rights, possibilities and duties that only the richest in any other country can only dream of.
It's one thing to exaggerate or to fall for propaganda, but this is a ridiculous statement.
- The richest of many, many countries have more rights and possibilities than 90+% of the USA.
- A whole percent of the USA is incarcerated, and according to their constitution, legal slaves, many performing labor in for-profit prisons.
- According to the UN HRC 2018 report, “5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty”. In two of the visited states, "a high proportion of the population is not served by public sewerage and water supply services".
This is not a country which has had mainland wars in the last century. This is the country creating those asylum seekers on rafts through their imperial wars.
Waaahwaaah, collectivists bad, i must sacrifice more orphans to the orphan crushing machine, otherwise profits will go down :((((
I cannot believe this post is getting upvotes. There's certainly advantages to living in the US, and people do move here seeking a better life. Neither of those statements make this country "great". It's "great" for a very particular demographic of people, white men - especially wealthy white men. If you're any racial minority, or are queer, police violence is very common. If you have a uterus, your reproductive rights are being targeted. Our health care system in general is completely broken and doesn't take care of people. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck barely getting by, while our politicians squabble over trans people using restrooms to keep us distracted and hostile to one another. I'd like to know what "freedoms" we have that the rest of the world doesn't. There are certainly a lot of places worse than this - but that doesn't make the US an even remotely good place to live. It's work for the corporate overlords, or die, for most of us - whether we recognize it or not. If you can't work because of a disability? Well, you're pretty screwed.
Despite the cost of healthcare in America, the quality is generally seen as the very best there is. Canadian healthcare is so bad that anyone who can afford it will head south to actually get quality treatment, immediately. Up here a friend of my family is probably going to head to Mexico (can't afford American care, sadly) for knee surgery because the waitlist in Canada is far too long and he can't afford to be off work until it's his turn.
America certainly does have it's share of significant problems, but a huge amount of what they seem to eat up is blatant propaganda designed to erode the public's faith in their nation. There's a reason that so many Canadians move to the southern states if they can afford it.
I hear this all the time but honestly US healthcare sucks so much. Doctors are pushed by their companies to care about quantity of patients over actual care
I returned to Canada because of the healthcare issue in America.
You may be surprised to learn that people looking for an elective surgery and want to spend to skip the line will go to Tijuana. It's apparently really great for all kinds of complex but not-medically-critical procedures.
Essentially nobody is complaining about the quality of care available here. The problem is that only the rich can really afford it. Most people will avoid going to the doctor if at all possible, just because they can't absorb the cost even if they're just told to take an Aspirin and sleep it off. Long-term care for anything serious is just impossible to recover from financially for most people - it literally bankrupts entire families. With how hard it is to move up a prosperity bracket, that's a devastating blow that is often felt for generations.
I think your view might be slightly skewed because you have free care available, and can go to the US or Mexico for better options if you can afford it. Here, if we can't afford it, we have nothing, or we assume tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
I guess my point is less about the quality of American care, and more about the quality of Canadian care. I hear so many Americans online hold up the Canadian system as a shining example of what healthcare should be, while I'd do pretty much anything to avoid having to deal with the system up here. It's really a "grass is always greener on the other side" thing both ways I think.
