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Since Trump was elected I have been thinking a lot about the US, it's politics and it's citizens. Some things that are really perplexing to me as a German: This deep, deep divide in terms of political opinion and especially the immense hate that comes with it. So many people seem to actually despise and wish real harm on people just because they voted for the other major political party. The things I see are mostly examples of Republican voters expressing their extremely hostile attitude towards Democrats, but that is probably just because I mostly see these sort of things as screenshots or stories shared on pages like SA or Reddit and the hostility probably also goes the other way. People over here, of course, also have very divergent political opinions, but I just don't see the sharp divide and this strong "you are either with me or against me" mentality. The fact that in many states employees have basically no rights regarding their employer. How people just accept the reality that everyone can be fired for no reason at any time and often even think that this is a good thing because 'it creates jobs' or whatever. One of the most baffling things to me is, for example, that companies have the power to to forbid their workers from dating each other and similar things that concern only their private life. And that in the land of the free. Still, many people seem to have been led to the believe, that unions are a scam somehow. That many citizens, apparently even many of those that clearly have benefitted from it, still hate the idea of universal healthcare and actually believe that it ultimately leads to things like death panels and full communism, even though the people in pretty much every other western country seem to be universally happy about the fact that should they ever lose their job they won't have to die because they can't afford their diabetes medication. Also that apparently it is a defendable position for a politician to just straight up deny that human-induced climate change is real, which I think is a thing that would get you laughed out of the Bundestag. It's incredible to me that so many people in America just won't accept what seems to me to be an indisputable scientific fact. Of course, it's entirely possible, that there are more climate change deniers over here than I think, but I just don't see them. There's lots more stuff like the influence religion still has on politics, but those were the things that immediately came to mind and I am not even sure if the things I wrote fit OPs idea for this thread. Sorry for my English by the way, it is obviously not my first language. /e: Also, of course, everything that has to do with your new president and that he can get away with lying people in the face every day even though his lies are being debunked every evening on the news and comedy programs. skit herre fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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Feb 28, 2017 19:16
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 13:26 |
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your friend a dog posted:Because his opinion is worthless, and the question posed by the op is too? Why would you assume that some average random kiwi, or anyone anywhere else outside the US, would hold an opinion that even scratched the surface of the reality of the situation? What insight is he expecting to gain? That the people of other countries have shallow understandings of millions of different and diverse people that they don't understand? Secondly, from a sort of 'real politik' view, why would anyone care what someone from another country thought about America? Their countries are small, and insignificant on the world stage, and the opinion of someone from NZ, or Australia, or Sweden or whatever does not matter in the slightest to the world's sole superpower. And what great role do you play in the world's sole superpower that you think your opinion matters?
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Feb 28, 2017 23:41
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lllllllllllllllllll posted:German grandma: "Of all the occupants the Americans treated us best of all. Just think of the "Raisin Bombers". And they're such a nice bunch of people: they even celebrated Thanksgiving in public and sold cooked, salted corn. The Russians on the other hand did not get involved with the Eastern German population at all." My dad's answer would pretty much be "fat people that love their guns too much". He's a simple man.
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Mar 1, 2017 15:43
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JnnyThndrs posted:Kinda chuckling to myself about Germans calling Americans 'loud' and 'rude'. If Americans are one thing, it's loving loud. At least when they're visiting other countries. Cheap though? Never heard that about Americans.
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Mar 3, 2017 12:14
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American food is actually great and incredibly diverse.
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Mar 4, 2017 17:58
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I have seen people on this forum claim that Fahrenheit is so much better for talking about the weather with the dumbest arguments that in the end boil down to "I am used to this, so obviously it makes more sense to me". As if people in the rest of the world were constantly wondering if they should wear a jacket and gloves or shorts and a shirt at 21° Celsius or whatever.
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Mar 5, 2017 10:08
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Tarantula posted:I don't think Americans take criticism of their country very well, they always seem to have to jump to it's defense no matter the issue especially if it's a foreigner saying something about them. Also in general they seem to lack a good sense of self depreciating humor. Oh yea and the nationalism in even people who call themselves leftist is creepy as gently caress with all the flags and military worship. Doesn't matter how far left they are or how many grievances they have with their country and it's politics, "America is the greatest country in the world" is just an unshakable truth in their mind. It's weird.
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Mar 5, 2017 13:08
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fantastic in plastic posted:I'm an American, so maybe I've been brainwashed by my culture, but this has always seemed like a very strange criticism. Doesn't everyone believe this about their country (or nation, if that's different than their country)? Not really, at least not in western countries. People are proud of their country, but this thinking of it being the greatest, no matter what, is not very common in my opinion. (And I bet a lot of people that read this are thinking "yeah, that's because the greatest country is obviously America") Americans also love to make jokes about stereotypes of countries (no problem with that) but get super defensive when the jokes on them. These opinions are obviously mostly only based on my personal experiences. Also I feel kind of lovely writing this stuff, I love the US and I would love to live there if I had the money
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Mar 6, 2017 00:00
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 13:26 |
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Morbus posted:Most of this is just garden variety nationalism, combined with the relative international isolation of most Americans. Part of it, at least for me (US goon), is that I can't help but roll my eyes a little when people from large and historically powerful European countries get sanctimonious while making critical comparisons between the US and their homeland on matters of foreign policy, military, politics, etc. Exactly what I meant with weirdly defensive. Imagine that guy from Germany would go on a similar boring tirade every time someone makes a nazi joke about Germany.
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Mar 6, 2017 15:28
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