Non-American here!
I’ve visited America a bunch of times and I really like it as a place, they have amazing scenery pretty much everywhere you look, and just about every individual American I’ve met has been really nice.
BUT…
I’d never want to live there. Their healthcare system is insane (sorry Americans but it is) and politically as a nation they’re pretty bonkers. Guns, religion, general sort of global belligerence etc.
Also as an aside, San Francisco is genuinely one of the strangest places I’ve ever been to. I dunno if I was just there at a weird time, but it seemed like every single person there was either a millionaire or homeless. Absolutely nothing in between.
Their healthcare system is insane (sorry Americans but it is)
Don’t apologize! If anything that’s an understatement. And everything else you said is on point too.
Source: Am American.
Ask any San Franciscan and they’ll tell you that’s just San Francisco.
Work takes me to Houston from time to time, and I wholeheartedly agree. I would never want to live there.
It seems that whenever you find something likeable about the place, it turns out to be a product of a predatory system.
I seriously hope the workers at T.J. Birria Y Mas down in Missouri City are well paid and cared for (I doubt it), because they’re doing an awesome job and it’s hard not to love that place.
Oh nobody likes the healthcare system except the people profiting from it and the people who think billionaires will love them and share if they sing their praises enough.
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I agree, though I haven’t watched the debate yet. Personally, I have mixed views on current America, particularly on mass surveillance. But I believe we can change that if we all try hard enough!
I appreciate Chase Oliver’s views and see him as a better choice than RFK in my opinion. He’s running as libertarian, supports immigration, opposes war, is pro-gun rights (his motto is ‘Armed and gay’), against government surveillance, pro-abortion, 38 years old, and wants to end the war on drugs. I feel like I could vote for him, even as a right-leaning straight white male! I really don’t like Trump or Biden, and I refuse to give them my vote.
Sadly, the effect of not voting for one of the 2 candidates is to intensify the power of the most extreme views. Say 100 people can vote. 25 on each side are going to vote for their party no matter what. 20 want something crazy in one direction and 20 in the other direction, and both sides are likely to protest and/or not vote if their guy doesn’t pander to them. That leaves 10 persuadable people – mostly people who are busy with other stuff and not paying attention to the minutia of various policies and the likely after effects they will cause.
What is a candidate to do? They pander to the crazies. They can hardly bother to assuage the persuadables because those folks aren’t paying attention anyway. They have to go after the people who might bail if they aren’t appeased. I hate the system, but there it is.
Libertarian=hard pass.
Libertarian Police Department Copypasta
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
VIDEO FROM THE NEW YORKER Throwing Shade Through Crosswords
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him
Pro gun rights is precisely why I don’t like America, along the other statemente in this thread. Y’all got it tough to only be able to vote for two terrible options.
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I’m genuinely glad we live in a country that recognizes the horrors of its past. Even with all of the “whitewashing” that occurs in textbooks in parts of the country, like “states’ rights” in the Civil War and praising Columbus, there’s still an overwhelming consensus that minorities were wronged for our entire history.
I love America. I’m rather less fond of some of the people in it. The land is beautiful and varied. There is so much space here. And the constitution is really special, I think, though not perfect. The biggest flaw is people haven’t been taking politics seriously and have elected unserious people.
I swore to defend it many years ago. At the time I was a kid just paying lip service to a required oath, swearing to a god I never believed in, but the truth is I do love it and I would fight for it, warts and all.
people haven’t been taking politics seriously and have elected unserious people.
This is the inherent flaw. We have a representative government that never intended “people” to take politics seriously. Politics was for the landowners.
I love this take. I was the same way when I raised my right hand.
No, I live here.
I hate
- religious zealotry
- massive dichotomy in polotical ideologies
- identity politics
- warmongering
- brainwashing (pledge of allegiance?!)
- poor treatment of poor and homeless
- prison complex
- poor education system
- incredibly expensive healthcare
- terrible zoning laws and car centricity
- hiroshima, native genocide, iraq, and so many more. The US has shed so much blood and terror inflicted on the world population
- world police, vigilante, the US is basically every bad movie villian in country form
- regressing views on women’s rights
- the history of slavery
It depends on what you mean. America the government courting christofascism? Hell fucking no. I wish all the Republicans and neolibs in power would have a heart attack. I also wish to live long enough to read Trump’s and Alito’s obituaries. But I do love my local community too much to just abandon them. At best, I would call my relationship with America akin to Stockholm Syndrome.
Fun fact: The term “Stockholm Syndrome” was a term coined to silence a woman who criticized the bumbled police response that put her and other hostages in even more danger. She wasn’t enamored of her captors, but instead critical of the police.
love your country, hate the government
Naw, it made some kinda sense for a while but the writers really jumped the shark in the past decade.
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.
America, americans, or american politicians? I’ve got different opinions. The common american may be misguided or misinformed, but they’re not hateful. America itself, has done incredible damage to the world, all while claiming they’re all for liberty and freedom after being dragged into the most clear-cut good vs. bad war almost a hundred years ago. Ever since, it’s has been dragged kicking and screaming towards progress, and fighting very hard to go back to the stone age. American politicians are nearly all wastes of skin.
For reference, I’m latino.
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.
I love it, and that’s why I want to improve it. And you can’t fix a problem without acknowledging it exists.
I’m European and I have mixed feelings about the US.
There are some great sceneries, nice peoples and my accent does wonders there. I like its smaller towns and countryside.
But at the same I hate its cities. You can see the most widen gap between poverty and absurdly rich peoples in the same street. You can have a wonderful avenue and once in the back alley it looks like third world. I’ve never seen that many weird people than in the us. There’s too much violence and capitalism. And don’t get me on the fucking tipping culture.
America sucks. The government and the “America” it upholds is an institution of evil, a factory for global war and oppression all while insultingly calling itself “land of the free”, and anyone who latches onto its historical “achievements” probably sucks too.
I would feel better about america, as a non american, if the country on the whole would accept they aren’t the only country in the world, and didn’t continuously consider themselves the greatest. Actually acknowledge their history and the atrocities committed to get it to where it is today.
Have some god damn humility
Meh. I’m an American and I don’t hate it here. But I’m from (and moved back to) a culturally distinct place (New Orleans) so I don’t really identify with the dominant culture. I loathe the politics/corruption and how our government is structured. (The amendments are the best part of our constitution and maybe we should think about that for a bit.) I’m deeply ashamed that we’re the world’s biggest arms dealer and oil/gas producer.
That being said, we have beautiful landscapes and individual American people are usually kind, decent people, at least on an interpersonal level. The corruption of companies and elected officials doesn’t usually extend to the middle class. (Like, you don’t have to bribe someone to get a driver’s license or permits or whatever.) There’s obviously loads of advantages to being an American citizen, just as there are to being an EU citizen. I love our national parks. Just the western half of the United States contains enough varied forms of amazing landscapes to keep a person occupied for a lifetime.
So, I wouldn’t say I like America as a political entity. It’s definitely in my top 30 or so countries to live. I wouldn’t give up my citizenship for a random place but, having travelled extensively, there’s a lot of countries that have a better form of government and a healthier balance between oligarchs and labor.
