"The rest of the world is laughing at the U.S.!"... but should we care?

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Our country has a million faults. The only way we'll ever change and try to strive to be better as a country is to at least admit we have them.

Which, unfortunately, is somewhat held back by those people who are very touchy about questioning American exceptionalism and suggesting that anything is in any way imperfect and has room for improvement.


Thing is though, maybe American exceptionalism was more of a thing at one time, when we were by far a unique snowflake and kind of our own brand, so to speak, but we were so eager to suggest that the rest of the world should adopt what we were doing -- including good things such as encouraging some parts of the world to adopt democracy -- that we pretty much eradicated our stance as being that unique and a step above most others because we wanted them to be more like us. Comparatively now, yes, there's notably plenty of issues for us to work on and room to grow. But that's a good thing (albeit not the having of issues, just the ability to recognize it), no nation should stagnate and cling to the cruddy stuff forever. If we can't work on that stuff and improve on it then it's going to be us who is falling behind.

[Leo656]

Only country in the entire world where you can be born a pauper and die a millionaire.

That potential exists nowhere else on Earth. And that's pretty damn "exceptional" from where I sit.

As for "room for improvement", well... duh. That's the process. America isn't the country it was 200, or even 100 years ago. As for the things people like to pick at and cry about as to how supposedly "bad" we are, like racism, homophobia, and even violence... all of that sh*t was WAY worse even in the very recent past than it is Right Now. The media loves to squeal and moan about how "things are worse than ever", but... the numbers and Actual Historical Fact simply don't support that narrative. Not at all.

Like, for example, as recently as 25 years ago you could potentially get away with killing a gay person by using the "Gay Panic" defense. Lots of people, in fact, did just that. Not so, anymore. The media will run a story about "So-and-so killed a gay person for being gay", and use that as "proof" that things are getting worse, when in truth, you're simply never getting rid of homophobia or people lashing out with violence about things they think are "gross" or "wrong" or whatever. You will never eradicate Those Incidents, because for all the education and empathy and whatever else that people are being brought up with nowadays, Some People Just Plain Think That Sh*t's Gross.

You can't change or eliminate the thinking. BUT. The people who use that thinking as justification to commit violence and hurt people who are "different" from them - be it racism or homophobia or whatever other prejudice behind it - ARE held more accountable nowadays and they ARE punished for it, FAR more than they were even in the fairly recent past.

That's Progress. Again, you'll never completely overcome these challenges, but it's enough that people can no longer act with impunity as they once did not so very long ago. And, as usual, it's This Country that pretty much leads the way in this sort of "progress", anyway. Out of all the world's "Superpower" nations, America is by far the least racist, homophobic, and "whatever-ist" by ten miles.

I mean, let's just Be Real. When it comes to "leading by example", as imperfect as we are we've still done the best at it compared to anyone else. And we're a lot farther along Today than we were 100 or even 50 years ago. People can try and dispute that, but they're not being honest with themselves.

The only really "bad" thing I see where it seems like we're regressing as a nation, is that we're only about one or two decades away from corporate monopolies once again becoming the standard, and what's worse is that it's coming at the behest of the public themselves, most of whom obviously flunked Social Studies. But you hear them say it out loud, "I just wish Disney owned everything, it would be easier"; "I wish I only had to shop at Wal-Mart or Amazon", etc. etc. THAT is going to be a Very Real Problem in the very near future, and it's way bigger and more important than "systemic racism" or who gets to use what bathroom or which crackhead died in police custody this week while blatantly resisting arrest. Those are, to be blunt, non-issues.

And if you pay Very Close Attention, you start to notice how the media uses those non-issues as a way to distract you from the Big Issue, that being the corporations swallowing up the smaller companies like whales. You're not supposed to notice or talk about that. You're not supposed to remember how the first half of the 20th Century was about the government being forced to step in and dismantle multiple corporations who had done Exactly That before, and how it's all repeating itself (except with public and government approval this time, rather than outrage). "Don't worry about it. Don't think about how Amazon bought out another competitor this morning, don't worry about how like three companies own every single magazine, newspaper and website in America. You don't care about that; Let's talk about George Floyd, instead (just not all the Really Awful Stuff He Did, we purposely don't want to talk about THAT Stuff)."

The biggest problem with America isn't that we're "arrogant" or "mean" or "self-important" or "______-ist", or any of that. No, the biggest problem with America is simply that, on a good day, WAY too many people are supremely naive and gullible, to the point where they get distracted by petty nonsense and can't see the Bigger Picture. But even that comes from a "good" place; it's just unfortunate because it allows them to be manipulated easily by those who absolutely do not have their best interests at heart.

[Sumac]

I don't think anyone laughed about US.
Lefties love to pretend that US has becoming a laughing stock due to Trump's antics, but in reality most people do not conflate the whole country with behavior of one single person and US was not in the bad position under him at all.

If anything, a lot of people were laughing / puzzled by rampages of BLM and crazy SJW culture US Left cultivate. In fact, both France and UK are fed with this crap enough to take explicit measures against SJW culture.

[Prowler]

By "caring", what do you mean exactly? Caring as in losing sleep at night based on what foreign countries think of you and consulting with them when it comes to your own domestic issues? Then no. Caring in the sense of how messed up your own foreign policy has been for a long time now, like the Iraq War, for example, and how it has affected the public opinion of your allies to the point of questioning whether USA is a good ally or not? Sure.

As someone born in 1990, my understanding is that Western/Northern Europe as a whole had no problems with USA in the Post-WW2 years up until the end of the Cold War. But ever since the Wall fell and the Yugoslavian War has been over, Europe has largely been at peace and the European Union has gotten even larger. So people began viewing USA as a less useful ally in the past 20 plus years and thus have been more openly critical of its foreign policy. Fighting against groups financed by the USSR was understandable, but things like the Iraq War were nonsensical, and it's no wonder countries like France told Bush to **** off.

No idea how most of the rest of the world views USA. I know a lot of Latin Americans dislike USA based on the several coups USA has been responsible in that part of the world. And naturally, a lot of people in the Middle East and some Muslim majority nations don't like USA either for being the biggest ally of Israel, which is like the mortal enemy for a lot of those countries.

That's pretty much it, I guess.

[Leo656]

The whole Iraq thing made sense in that we put Saddam in power, and he motherf*cked us by turning out to be a real sh*tbag, like way bigger than expected. Ergo, he was our mess to clean up, and it just took a really long time to do it but it did seriously need to be done. Dude was a monster.

Obviously, the whole "destabilizing the region" and "give lots of Arabs a new reason to hate America" thing didn't quite go as we planned, but... "Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" yadda yadda. It was easy for f*cking France to say "Who gives Le Sh*t?" about Saddam when THEY weren't by proxy responsible for all the sh*t he ended up doing. Like, mass graves, genocide, torture and f*cking little girls is all bad enough, but the fact that he only got to do any of that sh*t in the first place because we helped put him in power... yeah, that makes US look bad by association. So I mean... f*ck it, at least we cleaned up the milk we spilled.

We may have accidentally splashed a few drops ELSEWHERE in the act of cleaning up said "milk", but... GeoPolitics is F*cking Complicated.

In any case, "Starting a war" in that region is like popping a fart. We didn't do anything that wasn't going to happen eventually for one reason or another, anyway, and at least we got the f*cker. As usual, we do what needs to be done and come out looking like the Bad Guy while other people sit back going "War's Bad, mmmmkay" as if platitudes have anything to do with Reality.

I mean, "You guys destabilized the Middle East!" sounds all well and good and all, and everyone loves to lay blame... but it all falls apart when you realize that Those People kill each other in genocidal numbers every day over who owns what patch of f*cking Magic Sand. WE are in no way the Bad Guys in that whole ordeal. No WAY.

[Prowler]

Actually, it wasn't just USA who ****ed up things in the Middle East. The British sorta did that by suggesting the creation of the state of Israel in Palestine years before WW2 when that region was controlled by the UK.

And the Treaty of Versailles dismantled the Ottoman Empire, stripping control of that area at the time. That probably didn't help either. So the roots of the instability in that part of the world go back a long way.

Well, yes, you put Saddam in power. And didn't CIA also train Bin Laden in the Afghanistan war in the 80s? I mean, it's a big naive to support shady guys and then being surprised the animal bites the hand that fed it.

Saddam and other dictators of that region are/were pieces of ****, ofc, but at the same time did things really get better with their deaths and removal from power. Is Iraq even what we can call a country anymore? And the Arab Spring didn't seem to do Northern Africa anything good either.

I think attempts at exporting democracy to a lot of those places doesn't work. They're just not ready for it like the Western world is. A lot of the locals from those places have views that are still considered backwards and that doesn't seem to combine well with democracy. So no wonder there's a lot of instability in the area.

[Jephael]

I think one of the biggest issues here is people just like to see the worst in others so they can feel better about themselves, and it's been going on for years. Heck, I've had this problem for years, wishing more people would flip their sh*t so I relatively wouldn't look like such a raving loon with a short fuse. Even the entertainment industry has been doing this for years. Just look at all the miserable fictional characters out there... Archie Bunker, Squidward, the entire cast of Everybody Loves Raymond. Even worse, they've start retconning pre-existing characters like Superman who was always meant to be a symbol of the good in people... up until now.

[Leo656]

Archie Bunker is a gem you godless heathen. Siddown an' shaddap, meathead!

Originally Posted by Prowler

I think attempts at exporting democracy to a lot of those places doesn't work. They're just not ready for it like the Western world is. A lot of the locals from those places have views that are still considered backwards and that doesn't seem to combine well with democracy. So no wonder there's a lot of instability in the area.

Not "nice", but pretty fair.

Frankly, my own ideas about how we "should" be dealing with groups of people who insist on living like it's the Dark Ages when we're a quarter of the way through the 21st Century are a bit... "extreme". To put it kindly, most of the time I think that if they're not willing to smarten themselves up, then we probably ought'a make 'em, by this point. Middle East, Latin America, Asia, just pick 'em... if your people are disproportionately poor and starving and riddled with disease, and you don't have flushing toilets while Over Here we're about to send the Space Force to colonize f*cking Mars, then yeah, Your "Culture" ain't working. And calling it "culture" and "Just a different way of life" as an excuse to handwave all the rape and abuse and slavery and human rights violations just gets harder and harder to justify, to me, now that we have the internet and these people aren't just pictures in a Geography textbook.

But the same people who just shrug and say "Well, It's Their Culture!" and that we should stay out of it, are the same exact people fighting a war about who gets to use which bathroom at school or who has to bake who a gay wedding cake. Like, "Priorities", y'know?

The whole Israel thing is stupid, and it's just plain anti-Semitism to suggest otherwise, I'm sorry. That's where THEIR "God" told them to be and that's where they wanna be. So the Palestinians think it's "Theirs". Boo-f*cking-Hoo. I'd tell them what I tell the American Indians, "If 'Your God' wanted you to have it so bad, he would'a done more to let you keep it, don't ya think?" I mean, come on already. It all comes off as even more stupid if you're an Agnostic or Atheist. People killing each other in the desert over some mythical "Holy Land" and who owns it. I bet none of them ever stop and think for one second that if God is real, he probably think it's all pretty stupid too. Just let 'em f*cking be, Jesus. That whole situation over there illustrates how much religion ultimately probably does more harm than good. Millions of people dead, for no reason other than their personal Invisible Boss In The Sky told them 'This is YOUR patch of sand!" Abso-f*cking-lutely ridiculous.

Like, it's a good thing for a lot of those people I'm not Lord Super King Big Nuts. Because my "foreign policy" would be "Smarten Up and Behave, Or Else I'll F*cking Spank You." But like I always say, I'm not one who believes in Platitudes or "Soft Solutions". I believe you either Fix the problem, or Shut Up about the problem, but you can't have it both ways. And I'd always rather Fix The Problem, even if the solutions are... "excessive".

But again, are we making the world better, or just jerking off? That's the thing. No "real solutions" ever come easy.

[Prowler]

Culture and society are a tricky thing. They both hand in hand. So sometimes it becomes a chicken and egg kind of thing.

A lot of cultures and civilizations go through down periods and golden ages. Back in the Middle Ages, Europe was actually one of the most backward places in the world. The Middle East was a much more enlightened place. They've clearly had been going through a rough period for a long time now, though.

Then the Age of Discovery, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment periods came and Europe became the center of the world.

Funny thing is, the Israel/Palestine region is the holy land for all the 3 Abrahamic religions.

As an Atheist, I have to wonder what made the Abrahamic God decide the land belongs to the 3 religions. Either that god was pretty naive or he just liked watching the world burn. I'm surprised more Christians, Jews and Muslims haven't pondered that. "Why didn't our god just assign different holy lands for each religion?".

Apparently, Madagascar was once suggested as a location for the Jewish nation which would turn out to be Israel. Not sure if that's factual or one of those myths from history, but boy, what a different world we'd be living in right now, right?

[Leo656]

I like to stay open-minded. But I have to feel like God sure would have had a bit to say Out Loud by now about all that sh*t. The fact that He hasn't said a word says an awful lot. Either He ain't real or He likes the Chaos. I'm uncomfortable with either, frankly, but I can't see any reasonable Option C.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

I honestly can't tell how serious you are... which makes this a pretty good example of why I don't care (on a broad scale) about how other countries view the US.

The international understanding of life in the US seems to be based on a handful of grand caricatures about life and politics here, largely narrated by cable news, Twitter, and Reddit. I have a lot of opinions and critiques of the same topics that get repeated in those places, many of those opinions are rooted in frustration at the people in charge of local, state, and federal politics. But reality isn't just what you see on the internet, and making changes for the purpose of "looking good" for anonymous people on the internet (especially people who are probably never going to like anything that we do) is never going to work in the favor of the people who live here.

I'm very serious, and meant to say that Americans should care not about how others perceive them but about the path their country is going down due to the way they (or at least some of them, mostly insane leftists) perceive others to perceive them. If that makes sense. So, I guess we're on the same page. Care not for others, but for yourselves. If you don't care for yourselves, those who do care for the perception of others will change who you fundamentally are in the name of that. Virtue signaling on a grand scale. And it's already started. One day you might wake up and not recognize your own country anymore.

That will be a very bad day for the rest of the world too. I'd prefer not to see it.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I like to stay open-minded. But I have to feel like God sure would have had a bit to say Out Loud by now about all that sh*t. The fact that He hasn't said a word says an awful lot. Either He ain't real or He likes the Chaos. I'm uncomfortable with either, frankly, but I can't see any reasonable Option C.

Eh, the world forgot how to be good anymore. I'm 110% convinced if Jesus Christ came back in modern day he'd be dead again in a day, and killed by his own people. I detect a very strong 'He has risen! The jig is up! SILENCE HIM NOW!!!!' from all the so-called Holier-Than-Thou Christians.

[IndigoErth]

Not sure he'd ever convince them he was the real deal anyhow. If he didn't come back reflecting the same kind of vitriol and whatnot used by some of their preferred media and talking heads and instead tried to preach unity, compassion, etc, he'd just be dismissed as some bleeding heart leftist commie.

And thus... they "cancel" Jesus and that goes over real well.

Spoiler:

Me, I'll just be grabbing the popcorn and telling him he should have called ahead.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Oh ho ho ho, I am the farthest from being an SJW.

Which country has an ever-growing obesity problem? And which country it trying to sweep it under the rug with fat-acceptance movements?

Sure, fair enough on that, but it doesn't mean that the country has some obesity problem as compared to the rest of the world that doesn't even take those metrics for themselves. And also, the fat-acceptance movement is a social problem of personal psychology. It's not actually evidence that "all Americans" or even anything close to most Americans are fat and slovenly.

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Our country has a million faults. The only way we'll ever change and try to strive to be better as a country is to at least admit we have them.

This is how successful people live. We aren't seeing the successful, well adjusted people out in the streets in the last years of news stories.

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

What's next? You gonna tell me this country doesn't have a racist problem? Or homophobia isn't a thing here?

This was asinine amidst the rest of the conversation. It completely lacks focus and is a commonly used manipulative point any just about any conversation. I know you think you are driving some phantom point home with it, but it's not connected and you didn't.

Originally Posted by frank_one

As an European (Italian) I'm not laughing at the U.S., not at all! But, honestly, if I ever were to visit your country I would be afraid of being killed just crossing a street with all those weapons around. Having a gun is very uncommon here, unless you are a hunter or... a criminal.

This post is exactly what I was talking about it in my post just above it. It's completely uniformed and given life by some kind of media perspective that isn't true at all. You are widely by and large safe walking around America in my a total of 99% of the country - even in a place like Chicago this is true. You'll never hear that truth or have it given perspective amidst how the media covers "shootings" and whatnot.

Originally Posted by Leo656

I assume it's the hysterical mainstream media that perpetuates the whole Gun-Crazy American myth throughout the rest of the world. The truth is far more boring

YYup. This is what I mean about foreign people hearing stories and just subscribing to the shallow thinking. It's like here we are in the 2020s and you've still got simple minded ass wipes who hear these stories and can't think for themselves.

I know that I'm growing increasingly vitriolic in these statements, but I have no tolerance anymore. I want the f'n heads of the stupid who propagate this nonsense.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

A racist problem? In tiny pockets of the country where you could expect to find it, sure, but it's hardly like a pressing issue that needs solving.

Exactly what I'm saying regularly as well. Again you have people of focus trying to explain this to the people of the internet who have no other outlet but to propagate some extreme narrative which makes it worse.

I want. Heads. From stupid f'n people.

My biggest failing is that I began having these conversations with "the people of the Technodrome" years ago under the thought that it was conversation with normally established people. My failing was not recognizing the situation and joining whereas I should've just observed with the rest of successful America who lols and shakes their head at the thought processes here. But I failed at that in good intent. It's like I said - I used to post here about perspective and remembering that you are talking to swaths of people that you assume are well adjusted but most likely aren't. But now i'm sick of it. I want f'n heads from the idiot population. These will be the same people that read this and then say that I'm calling everyone on the Technodrome group the "idiot population". It's those mouth breathers I want. It's ironic because I have a more positive and realistic world view than the people I'm describing have, but at this point I'm far, far more vitriolic about them. Extremely ironic.

[Jephael]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Archie Bunker is a gem you godless heathen. Siddown an' shaddap, meathead!

Of course he was a gem, dude! You missed my point though. He was way too much of a hot-head. From what I understand, actor Carol O Connell even had some reservations himself about the role, hence the issues he had with the series creator (or atleast that's how I interpreted it)

Originally Posted by Leo656

I like to stay open-minded. But I have to feel like God sure would have had a bit to say Out Loud by now about all that sh*t. The fact that He hasn't said a word says an awful lot. Either He ain't real or He likes the Chaos. I'm uncomfortable with either, frankly, but I can't see any reasonable Option C.

Maybe he's really just some Steve Buscemi looking goofball who doesn't know his @$$ from a hole in the ground!

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by frank_one

As an European (Italian) I'm not laughing at the U.S., not at all! But, honestly, if I ever were to visit your country I would be afraid of being killed just crossing a street with all those weapons around. Having a gun is very uncommon here, unless you are a hunter or... a criminal.

Don't believe the MSM bs machine. You'd get run over for jaywalking long before getting shot.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Yeah, there is definitely a growing obesity problem (in a culture attempting to shift glamor on being obese), but I don't think that's what he was talking about.

A racist problem? In tiny pockets of the country where you could expect to find it, sure, but it's hardly like a pressing issue that needs solving. Like if it is, it wouldn't even make the "Top 50" list. Nowhere near what the media is implying. They make it seem like you'll be tripping over 20 "white supremists" a day just going about your business. I've never met one. I've never known anyone that knows one -- that's fake (oh, but go on Facebook and every SJW with a keyboard is finding "nazis" everywhere). Now, there IS growing -- actual -- racism coming from the left and especially the media, with corporations bending to it. That's concerning.

Homophobia problem? No, not really. At least, what little there is is on its way out. In the 90s you would be stuffed in a locker by 20 laughing kids if even a rumor got spread about you being gay, let alone if you actually were... now? You even use "gay" in a derogative way your parents might get sued and you might get expelled. And nobody is getting stuffed in lockers anymore. Turn on the TV and 80% of all new shows have some (mis)representation of the LGBTQ on them. I think the WAVES of acceptance that have happened since then should be celebrated, not the few outliers now and again focused on and whined about to propagate victimhood. Also, that shouldn't be attached to a ramp that ends with 12 year olds being taught about 30 genders in the classroom either.

He's right you know...

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

I voted as a non-American citizen who feels that US citizens should indeed care, inasmuch as I was repeatedly told and read everywhere for the last four years that the former President was laughed at the world over, which I know full well isn't the case either at home or abroad, and yet only now is the American (fraudulently elected, and yes, Virginia, there was election fraud) "president" a joke in every single regard but no one seems to care. And those that do care do nothing about it. By all means, wait until the bastard and his handlers turn the country into North Venezuela, install a fascist dictatorship, racial quotas to promote "diversity" (ie, keep the leftist electorate happy with the illusion of change), cause a full-blown humanitarian crisis at the border, and just in general leave the US bowing down to China with Xi's tiny penis in its mouth for all time. /rant

America is the beacon. Please don't let it go out.

If you're serious, this is pretty spot on.

If you're joking, you still nailed it perfectly.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Only country in the entire world where you can be born a pauper and die a millionaire.

That potential exists nowhere else on Earth. And that's pretty damn "exceptional" from where I sit.

As for "room for improvement", well... duh. That's the process. America isn't the country it was 200, or even 100 years ago. As for the things people like to pick at and cry about as to how supposedly "bad" we are, like racism, homophobia, and even violence... all of that sh*t was WAY worse even in the very recent past than it is Right Now. The media loves to squeal and moan about how "things are worse than ever", but... the numbers and Actual Historical Fact simply don't support that narrative. Not at all.

Like, for example, as recently as 25 years ago you could potentially get away with killing a gay person by using the "Gay Panic" defense. Lots of people, in fact, did just that. Not so, anymore. The media will run a story about "So-and-so killed a gay person for being gay", and use that as "proof" that things are getting worse, when in truth, you're simply never getting rid of homophobia or people lashing out with violence about things they think are "gross" or "wrong" or whatever. You will never eradicate Those Incidents, because for all the education and empathy and whatever else that people are being brought up with nowadays, Some People Just Plain Think That Sh*t's Gross.

You can't change or eliminate the thinking. BUT. The people who use that thinking as justification to commit violence and hurt people who are "different" from them - be it racism or homophobia or whatever other prejudice behind it - ARE held more accountable nowadays and they ARE punished for it, FAR more than they were even in the fairly recent past.

That's Progress. Again, you'll never completely overcome these challenges, but it's enough that people can no longer act with impunity as they once did not so very long ago. And, as usual, it's This Country that pretty much leads the way in this sort of "progress", anyway. Out of all the world's "Superpower" nations, America is by far the least racist, homophobic, and "whatever-ist" by ten miles.

I mean, let's just Be Real. When it comes to "leading by example", as imperfect as we are we've still done the best at it compared to anyone else. And we're a lot farther along Today than we were 100 or even 50 years ago. People can try and dispute that, but they're not being honest with themselves.

The only really "bad" thing I see where it seems like we're regressing as a nation, is that we're only about one or two decades away from corporate monopolies once again becoming the standard, and what's worse is that it's coming at the behest of the public themselves, most of whom obviously flunked Social Studies. But you hear them say it out loud, "I just wish Disney owned everything, it would be easier"; "I wish I only had to shop at Wal-Mart or Amazon", etc. etc. THAT is going to be a Very Real Problem in the very near future, and it's way bigger and more important than "systemic racism" or who gets to use what bathroom or which crackhead died in police custody this week while blatantly resisting arrest. Those are, to be blunt, non-issues.

And if you pay Very Close Attention, you start to notice how the media uses those non-issues as a way to distract you from the Big Issue, that being the corporations swallowing up the smaller companies like whales. You're not supposed to notice or talk about that. You're not supposed to remember how the first half of the 20th Century was about the government being forced to step in and dismantle multiple corporations who had done Exactly That before, and how it's all repeating itself (except with public and government approval this time, rather than outrage). "Don't worry about it. Don't think about how Amazon bought out another competitor this morning, don't worry about how like three companies own every single magazine, newspaper and website in America. You don't care about that; Let's talk about George Floyd, instead (just not all the Really Awful Stuff He Did, we purposely don't want to talk about THAT Stuff)."

The biggest problem with America isn't that we're "arrogant" or "mean" or "self-important" or "______-ist", or any of that. No, the biggest problem with America is simply that, on a good day, WAY too many people are supremely naive and gullible, to the point where they get distracted by petty nonsense and can't see the Bigger Picture. But even that comes from a "good" place; it's just unfortunate because it allows them to be manipulated easily by those who absolutely do not have their best interests at heart.

Way better than I could ever write it up.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

If you're serious, this is pretty spot on.

If you're joking, you still nailed it perfectly.

I'm serious. Member of the European branch of the Church of MAGA over here. The world needs the America you/we had before 2001 back, but it's gonna go away for good, and soon, unless the good people of your country really start caring and do something to preserve that. I grew up on the notion of America as a paradigm of all things good and decent, and while I came to understand that's not always the case - as in any country -, even with its flaws and missteps it's still the best damn example of what a nation should be in the whole of human History. It terrifies me to imagine there will ever come a day when all of that is swallowed up by the utter lunacy we're having pushed on us daily. Not the least because it means my own country and all others are next.