Non-americans really love this weird bogus narrative.
Sometimes it’s a case of you can make fun of your own country but no one else is allowed to.
That’s probably because the loudest and most overly defensive ones are the Americans you’re most likely to encounter and remember in online arguments and on American news, so that colors the perception. Especially when you don’t live amongst the more reasonable majority of Americans 🤷
well if an american does respond to this it proves them right if they dont respond it doesnt prove them wrong its a bad argument for an otherwise pretty dumb claim
unless americans do care i hate america and am american so idrk
That is not my experience at all. Most Americans get extremely defensive when someone criticizes the US, even people who know better. Many are ok with specific criticism (like, healthcare sucking), but it doesn’t take much for them to revert to 'murican mode.
I have been living in the US for over a decade and been to 2/3rds of the states.
That’s really interesting. I’ve lived in 9 states and I can honestly say that outside of the southeast, it is legitimately difficult to consistently find people that dont think the us is a flaming sack of shit or at least headed that way. Seriously, I’ve heard waaaaaaaaaaaaay more negative talk on the us from Americans than anything positive. Especially in like the last decade. But this place is so damn big that anyone’s experience would vary a crazy amount so that makes sense.
Are you in tech or some other field that doesn’t involve interacting with different socioeconomic groups?
Most of not all states guarantee some “interesting” encounters if you leave the cities. In California I have seen Confederate flags flying, met neonazis, and plenty of Trump supporters. Trump got over 34% of the vote in California, almost 39% in Washington and over 40% in Oregon. Those percentages are not a majority, but I think it sets a floor, since Trump supporters are not exactly trash talking the US.
I have spent a lot of time doing canvassing and other activities that mean I encounter people with very different ideas, so that would definitely explain the different experience.
American: makes any sort of joke about any country, even if it’s the smallest most unoffending thing
Person from that country : ur children get shot in schools
Americans when literally anything
Unless we’re talking protesting or voting. Then they’re asleep.
Nah. Democrats protest, Republicans vote. Funny how one of those groups wields a grossly exaggerated amount of political power.
As an American you can make fun of America all you want. It sucks here.
The only Europeans I’ve had a problem with are the Danes. They have absolutely no sense of humor.
Or was it the Swedes? I don’t know. I mean they’re right there together. They’re basically the same people right?
Hehehehehehe
There are only two types of people I hate. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch.
First of all: How dare You!?
They have absolutely no sense of humor. Or was it the Swedes?
It’s definitely the Swedes.
I think it’s definitely true that Americans get defensive when you criticize the US. I also think it’s true that a huge reason for that, is because the only thing the internet seems to enjoy doing at the moment is complain about the US—no one likes to hear their country that they’re living happily in trashed on constantly.
And I say that as someone who deeply enjoys complaining about the US
This is the case for every country. You just see it with the US a lot more since it of course has the biggest footprint on the English-language side of the internet.
Not even close. Also doesn’t help that 'muricans have a very distorted view on how their country is perceived
I think most of us on the internet hear about it constantly and it’s pretty hard not to understand how we are perceived.
According to one source, the only media that for a long time made it into the states is media that the US government approves of. I could go into detail about it, but it shows up quite prominently in this video.
Huh? Americans are like the most willing to admit their country is shit of like anywhere of the Lemmy audience… America fucking sucks, sign American. I had some dude from Pakistan super mad at me for saying women are second class citizens there the other day. Apparently they treat women super well, according to that angry guy anyway. I’m still pretty sure they don’t.
As always, these things can’t be generalised. Every country has people that talk about their own problems, and every country has “patriots” that will deny anything is happening. There are just a lot of Americans on the internet, so people notice those who relentlessly praise America more.
After all, few countries literally ingrain “[country] exceptionalism” into their population in their school system. Many Americans, while thinking they are pointing out problems, still say “but it’s still better than almost any other country at X”.
It usually doesn’t bother me unless it’s something like this
American- criticizes something foreign
Every single reply to that comment- “School shootings!! Hahaha!! Dead kids!!! Hehehehe!!”
Or when they extropolate from America the country being shit, to every individual American being shit for having the audacity to have been born here.
Most of us would also rather it wasn’t like this, but our families, friends, and livelihoods are here, so generally speaking it’s not practical to just up and leave. And our political system is to broken for us to really fix via voting
Trash on the country all you want, I’ll join in with you - but don’t blame the folks who are just trying to live the best we can in this fucked up country
Americans do a lot of stupid things, but they are most likely to be self critical in this space. I think this meme should talk about Western Europe instead, because they have many problems, but they are so often never willing to accept criticism. They’re quick to call the US racist, but in my experience, Europe has so much racism it’s crazy it’s viewed as this anti racist place.
Ask any “America is so racist” European about their thoughts on the Roma people
