I call BS. I feel it’s more popular than ever to dunk on the US. Like, there’s still a sect of 'MURICAN PATURYOTS that get big mad, but most of us are well aware of reality.
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
So I work with a lot of people from a variety of countries. Some of those countries have really bad governments. When we joke about each other’s countries, it’s about the governments. I remember this guy who used to work with me from the Philippines. It was near the beginning of lockdowns and just after Duterte was elected. He made fun of the shit Trump was saying and doing, and I got to joke that they had their own Trump(maybe worse) coming. Australian co-workers laugh along when we joke about their shit politicians.
What we don’t do is joke about the people or the culture. That’s shitty. All those people are just as much victims of their own circumstances as we all are of our own. But we’re adults who work with each other every day and it’s easy to remember that we’re all real people. The internet however…
I haven’t noticed Americans getting upset when people criticize shitty government policies or decisions. At least not from people who aren’t boot-lickers from jump. The problem is when people make fun of American stereotypes. Americans are fat and loud and whatever. Like, if all you heard was people talking about Canadians being stuck up about needing things written in French or topped with poutine, it would probably get old, right? “Go cry at your Tim Horton’s and take your polar bear for a walk.” (okay, so I had to google Canadian stereotypes and it’s a short list.)
I don’t like America’s gun culture either. And I hate when it comes up there’s always someone who comes in and preaches the gospel of the 2nd amendment. It also doesn’t feel great when people make that generalization about me. This thread is full of people saying Americans are dumb and racist. That’s just shitty behavior that no one bats an eye at because it’s normal to make those jokes. If I started making comments about like, French people smelling bad or (insert some other offensive thing. I don’t keep track of bad stereotypes and I’m done googling it) then that would also be bad and it’s a thing I think we should start calling out across the board.
You’ve absolutely nailed it. The problem is when people use the faults of a country to generalize or reinforce predijuce about individuals, and it is interesting how quickly some people just accept it.
I also work within an international collaboration, and the xenophobia on the internet is so shameful. There’s no way any of it would fly in real life. You have to develop respect for people as individuals to work closely/effectively.
Americans (and Canadians, we’re not above this problem): “I hate our government! They lie about everything and have no regard for human rights or even basic integrety! But also I uncritically believe everything they say about other countries that they already hate and have a massive political and economic incentive to smear because their governments are obviously way worse, I know that because my government told me so.”
Lol, what? You can make fun of us. We’re pretty fucking funny… But like, in a sad, defeated kind of way… Like, we’re sleeping in the gutter and pretending we’re fine, but at least we are looking at all those stars.
We don’t need to move. This is fine. We’re fine. Fuck off, we’re fine. You can’t help us, anyway.
A good analogy to this is the emperor of America. He was just some homeless crazy dude in San Francisco in the 1860s. He attempted to price gouge the Chinese during their rice famine but shortly found himself under water on his rice contracts. This left him homeless and bitter so he named himself emperor of the United States. He somehow started printing his own money and some places feeling bad for him took it.
That’s how the world sees America. Oh, the crazy folk are just down on their luck. They’ll likely either die or end the world in a few years but at least they’re making record profits.
Yeah especially if you happen to be south of us in the Americas. America works very hard to make sure the current status quo is maintained. That status quo originally won by govt agencies on behalf of the political elite’s rich friends.
The highest estimate for US emigrants is 9 million. Since there’s no perfect way to track emigrants, the Dept of State uses available numbers from multiple sources and extrapolates it. The UN puts their estimate at about 3 million, but their data comes from censuses which can be inaccurate or non-existent.
Americans so fucking stupid. Hah wait. That’s it? That’s the joke?
This I don’t understand. Where is this coming from and who honestly would be okay with being called a big dumb dildo and laugh along like it’s such a well known fact about their country? We’re a lot of things, act like we own the world and everyone owes us money and gratitude, eat like shit while letting everyone know how to be healthy, use little creamer cups instead of cream. We’re not idiots.
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
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