Non-American here.
I don’t dislike America. I was a teenager in the ‘90s, when the culture was peaking in influence here in the UK, so I have great nostalgia for American things (which really helps when playing the daily NYT games). I’ve visited a few times, and always enjoyed my time there.
But I am real fucking tired of the American influence on the internet, on politics, and on attitudes around the world.
I’m tired of the American view being the default on social media, because the majority of social media sites are American, populated by Americans.
I’m tired of saying something that would completely uncontroversial outside the US that attracts a rash of people bitching at you because it’s not normal over there. Like letting our cats outside. I once said something on Reddit about my cat getting killed by a car, and got a bunch of replies from people telling me how irresponsible I am for letting her go outside.
I don’t use TikTok, but my wife does, and part of her kinda wants the US ban to go ahead, so that her feed is a bit more balanced towards Europe. And I get that.
:edit: I accept that this isn’t the fault of individual Americans, and hold no ill-will towards them. It’s down to the vast majority of global tech wealth being held in the US, giving the illusion that the whole internet is an American thing.
I also accept that this is rank hypocrisy coming from a Brit. If we’d had the internet 250 years ago, the whole world would be speaking English now, as opposed to most of it.
Love our land, loath our society.
The natural beauty of America is amazing, but the people seem to be mostly absolute shit.
Non-American here. You all keep making up the vilest “jokes” about French people. The sheer level of ignorance and disrespect deserves nothing but contempt and derision. And that’s what you’ll get from me and most of Europe.
Better learn to cope 😒.
The United States has done far more harm than good for humanity at large. The individualistic values it champions have led to a society that is fragmented and leaves many citizens in misery. Its global hegemony has resulted in the destruction of numerous countries, with countless lives lost due to its military interventions, coups, and regime change operations around the world. Moreover, the US’s extractive policies have prevented other nations from developing their own economies, perpetuating a cycle of underdevelopment and dependency. Additionally, as one of the largest consumers of energy per capita and major producers of fossil fuels, the United States is among the worst offenders when it comes to climate change, exacerbating global environmental crises with its unsustainable practices.
I couldn’t say it better so I’ll just second this.
As a non American who used to live there, I can say some things are amazing and some things are awful.
I love the nature. The national parks are so beautiful. I like many of the people. And there are good job options there in tech.
But the awful things were a deal-breaker for me, and why I’d never want to live there again. The wealth inequality, the guns, the crime, the homelessness, the healthcare system, the partisan politics, etc.
So ultimately I probably fall on the side of not liking it.
Yes, I don’t think many people realize how good we have it here. I say this having traveled to places and seen some shit (war in Iraq, gang violence in El Salvador, abject poverty in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan).
Can the U.S. be better? Of course it can. There are horrible things happening here and people are losing their rights at a scary rate. However, these horrible things are not on the same level of horror as that which is occurring/has been occurring in other countries, it’s apples to oranges.
Anytime I’ve been overseas and I come back to America I realize how much I love it here. We have it so good here, really. But as someone else stated, there is huge inequality that needs to be addressed in order for EVERYONE here to have it so good.
Thats the catch 22 of America, its “good” except when its not, and like 60% of Americans are one missed paycheck away from it being “not” - And once you’re there this country hates you and does everything it can to make sure you stay fucked.
See: SCOTUS ruling the other day that you can’t illegalize homelessness but you CAN illegalize homeless behaviors like sleeping outside or in a tent.
(Because since pot is increasingly legal we have to bolster those legal slavery numbers somehow!)
I totally agree. There’s a huge effort by the wealthy to keep the average person down, otherwise the rich don’t make the money. It’s super fucked up.
It depends on the state.
America big, America great. America have a lot of problems. A lot of good things and a lot of bad things.
We have so much wealth and resources, it just needs distributed much more fairly.
God bless the United States of America
I started to write a novel, but suffice it to say that I left nearly a decade ago and many things seem to be getting worse rather than better.
Does no one understand the difference between a country and the continent where it is?
If you say “I’m going to America” pretty much everyone on the planet knows you mean “I’m going to the United States of America”. No one cares if someone uses the short hand of “I’m going to America”.
Debatable: if someone says that, pretty much everyone would think that such person is from US.
I’ve spoken to people from England that literally say America and mean USA.
Hilarious that yous use England to mean the UK too!
But what is America without US? /s
A better place
Not even a little. We are being forced into sickness and poverty. We make just enough to put food on the table and even that’s getting harder. An unexpected illness is setting people back on their bills. Every law that’s passed goes against what the people want and the only way this will ever change is if we can afford to pay off a politician like all the major companies do. Voting doesn’t feel like it makes a difference anymore and the only platform it feels like they use is “at least I’m not them”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again if someone paid for us to leave the US I’d be packed within a couple of hours.
I have distant extended family in New Brunswick. It’s not good enough to get me Canadian citizenship, but it could be worth a try when Civil War 2: Here We Go Again starts.
I fucking hate this dystopian hellscape of misery and torment and I hope it gets glassed. Land of the fee, home of the slave. If I get drafted in WW3 I’m a turncoat as soon as they hand me a gun.
At least we made UNIX. UNIX is cool.
I like your America, you Americas are so unlike your America.
I’ve always thought of America as a teenager - we’re sophomoric, rebellious, and self- centered. We don’t have the history of most other countries. Our settlement and the beginnings of our government are really not long ago and most of us are just a few generations deep. I’m thankful for my life here and appreciate the struggles my family endured to make life better for the next generation.
You’re past your teenage years; Australia and New Zealand are younger. America is more like someone in their 20s fucking up their life with party drugs. You might make it, you might not. Either way it seems right now you need a hard reset.
Either way it seems right now you need a hard reset.
Yet, half the country seems to be choosing to go back to Trump. There’s no cure for stupid.
Careful with the idea that you’re a young country with limited history. Your indigenous peoples may view the matter (rightfully) quite differently.
In Australia we actually changed the lyrics to our national anthem a few years back. It did say “…we are young and free”. Which is a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to the people who have lived on and cared for the land for upwards of 50,000 years. So it’s now “we are one and free”.
I’m not chastising you, just prompting you to think about things differently.
It’s important to remember that what was before is not now.
Saying it’s all the same is disrespectful to what was taken
Arguably, many people groups indigenous to what is now the US (and often times into Canada and Mexico as well) were each their own countries and sometimes joined into confederacies (for example the Iroquois Confederacy and some others). I do think indigenous voices frequently get lost (and that does need fixing), but I don’t know if there’s value in representing them as a single unit as though they were a single nation before. Many groups came over at different times, migrated around, etc. They’re not even all in the same macro language families (and may have come from separate peopling events, but that’s a whole other can of worms).
Not sure I share that viewpoint for the US, the history of the indigenous is the story of the people, not the nation.
And the US has many more populations that have great history, from EU and Africa.
But the beginning of its history is founded on the gathering and interaction of all those different cultures.
So for me saying the country is young doesn’t quite have the same connotations of erasure from colonialist, it mostly makes me think of how current the melting pot of all those different cultures are.
I still agree we shouldn’t diminish the importance of indigenous people in it.
