deleted by creator
No shit, what American thinks either are true?
America, fuck yeah!
Has been a joke for like 30 years now
You haven’t met much of the rural population, have you?
This. Conservatives have poor media literacy. They don’t understand that they’re the punchline in stuff like that. They miss the point of stuff like RoboCop and Starship Troopers and unironically like those movies for the action and don’t even recognize the social commentary. They watched Team America and guffawed into their 24 packs of light beer at every shallow joke without recognizing that the jokes were intentionally shallow to point out what an idiot would think is a good joke. It’s like the TV show in Idiocracy. The real joke is below the surface.
I used to watch Colbert Report with my dad and it took him years to realize that it was a parody mocking him often personally. My dad was not a dumb man. The conservative bubble is hard to pop. Its like a Stockholm syndrome victim sympathizing with their attacker.
There are different dimensions of dumb.
It blows my mind that when Colbert got his new job he had people coming up to him for years saying they liked his old show better.
They liked his old show, The Colbert Report, better. When it was clearly satire.
His old show was better. But I can’t imagine it working well any more, when reality is already so absurd.
No they were conservative guys who clearly didn’t understand it was satire
Literally the opposite…
Where are you see conservatives talking about how great America has been under Bidnen?
Like, you put zero thinking into your comment, just like you assume the people you’re “dunking on” do.
You’re a different side of the same coin, that’s never meant opposites, you’re th same thing.
Just neither sid bis smart enough to figure it out, and both think only the other side is dumb
Believe me there’s no shortage of people who know that were not the shining city on the hill, unfortunately we’re drowned out by pandering patriotic country music and gunfire from mass shootings.
This clip from the Newsroom sums it up perfectly.
I like the clip, but IMO they basically bailed out in the end by all the nonsense quoted from the ~3:25 mark on.
Jeff basically makes it sound like the US used to be incredibly self-aware, humble, kind, and well-administrated, but I think what most Americans don’t choose to understand is that since the very settling of the continent, it’s been a highly fraught, contentious situation, much of it characterised by greed, cruelty, violence, intolerance and self-righteousness.
Now yes, from what I understand of history, under FDR we more or less hit a peak of being a well-run, progressive country, on the level of many modern Euro countries more or less, but most of that was specifically in response to the utter disaster of the Great Depression and the need to adjust powerfully, swiftly and accurately. Meanwhile, IIRC during his presidency, there was in fact a right-wing movement intending to remove him by underhanded means.
So I like the hopefulness of the clip, but in the end I also find it pretty typical of Americans being largely unwilling to understand the hows and whys of the nation, going back to the early 1600’s.
Eh, sorry for the dang essay. :S
Man I forgot how good that show was
What? We have two right wing parties to choose from! Is that not enough? Should we make three right wing parties so you feel we are better represented?
Yeah, most of us in the U.S. don’t think this way. This is just republicans, and they aren’t really here on Lemmy.
Your population is essentially being farmed by corporations.
Nothing new to that. In 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, the US Supreme Court declared that companies are people too. With the same rights — under the 14th amendment.
But without the responsabilities I bet.
And the option to be thrown in jail.
Whether or not they’re subject to the death penalty seems to still be undecided in the court of popular opinion.
The court has spoken : only the rights.
Vasectomy safe. No wage slave renters coming from this guy.
Universal health care is better than whatever you have, for 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time. And it always was. And always will be.
We know. Even if some of us don’t want to admit it.
This is absolutely true, but I do think that a lot of Americans are in fact ready to hear this. There is just a lot of money and power involved. And those with money and power don’t want to change it since it won’t improve their lives. There’s also religion involved. And many Republicans are religious and have been fooled into thinking that universal healthcare is all about allowing abortion.
But, then who makes money ? It just doesn’t make sense !
Yeah, anyone with a brain knows this… So, like, between 33-66% of the country.
We can’t understand how millions can vote for a senile, convicted sexual predator as president…
Dude half of us don’t understand it either.
It’s amazing what decades of defunding education will do when you mix it with a healthy dose of conservative talk show TV and social media algorithms.
I dunno, i understand it pretty well. Lack of education, lead paint/gasoline, nationalism, fascism, racism, sexism, economic disparity, lack of healthcare to deal with neural degeneracy common in trump supporters, and finally lower borth rates among the more educated. America is a shithole, and has been for the past 40 years at least. Until we finally grow a spine and start “adjusting”, things are going to continue getting worse until were all dead and the olligarchs own everything. Then theyll move on to fucking the rest of the world (harder than they already are)
Was with you to the last bit. What does it mean to “grow a spine and start ‘adjusting’”? Why is “adjusting” in quotes?
a metaphor which means “get our shit together”
Great, thanks. I want to know what OP actually wants us to do. I hate the situation we were in and I sure as shit didn’t vote for this asshole the first or second time, but other than voting and trying to survive what exactly do you want us to do to “get our shit together”.
Less than half apparently…
I guess it’s much less than half.
About 1/7 are less than voting age. Another 1/7 or so voted for the oompa loompa, and another 1/7 voted against. So actually, about half of the population just doesn’t vote because they’re a different type of idiot.
I do hate it here, for what it’s worth.
Welcome to every election, not just presidential and not just a Republican or Democrat problem. Trump is disgusting but Seattles former mayor was way worse and didn’t get a peep nationwide.
And Chicago, and New York, and…
I’m just glad our poor congressmen can legally insider trade, think of the children!
And insider trade of children, and if anyone thinks it’s just Matt Gaetz, let me sell you my nfts.
How is you not understanding that the fault of the Americans?
The original question was not “what bad thing are Americans guilty of?”
Okay, well, how is it that Americans aren’t ready to hear them not understanding something?
Hah! Let’s make a list of the countries where leadership of that ilk has never existed. (We’ll just ignore that most of them did not allow elections.) Won’t take much paper.
Most “third world” or “developing” countries aren’t that bad, and there are places in the US far worse than the median developing country.
Also most people in most places do not want to go to the US, even to visit much less immigrate. It’s generally either the worst of a particular society or those specifically harmed by the US previously and feel their chances are better off with the abuser instead of in the abused country. It’s not a wanted destination.
Trump has a famous line whining about America only getting immigrants from the “shithole countries”. Wonder why, dude.
And us “shithole countries” receive some immigrants from USA that put to shame the worst we could send back, only they call themselves expatriates.
Haah. Never thought about it but this is very true.
Everyone i’ve known who wanted to go to the US was interested in making easy money by scamming people. That’s the type who admire the US.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but at least in the Middle East that’s not the case. It’s a very desirable immigration destination here (less than Western Europe, though).
See the last part of the second paragraph for that. Victims of the empire paradoxically tend to want to immigrate to the empire believing they’ll be better off there than in the country that empire targeted.
That’s… not related at all though. And not all of the Middle East was subjected to (overt) American imperialism.
The UN General Assembly Human Rights Council 2018 report on USA’s poverty and human rights is a pretty quick and clear overview which makes it clear that parts of the USA are just undeveloped:
http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1
“5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty”
“69. In Alabama and West Virginia, a high proportion of the population is not served by public sewerage and water supply services”
International rankings of the US are abysmal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_the_United_States
Peace:
“Vision of Humanity 2024 Global Peace Index ranked 132nd out of 162 countries”
…yup. sounds about right. We’ve been at some kind of war for pretty much the entirety of our existence…
Well at least you’re good at… losing wars, I dunno
The winning or losing was almost always secondary. The main thing is to spend a load of money on wars. We’ve never failed at that.
Military skill was a use it or lose it thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the wars that the US has been fighting have been intentional, specifically in order to maintain skilled soldiers.
Destabilizing other countries and exploitation of natural resources and cheap labor, in order to maintain USD and military hegemony. That’s why.
It’s n.1 in total wealth though, that’s great!
/s
Affordable healthcare
Public transit
Civilian oversight
Prisoner rehabilitation
Universal income
Free education
Separation of religion and state
Wealth taxes
Law enforcement accountability
Environmental regulations…
Please adopt me.
Separation of religion and state
I cringe every time their president or other politicians are talking about god. It’s unbelievable how backward the US are in this regard.
“God bless America”? Imagine what that would look like.
Not America.
Where is this magical place?
Varies state to state and city to city, but my city has the majority of that list… plus the freedom of speech is nice. When I read the news about people in Europe going to prison for comments online but getting slapped on the wrist for violent crimes I’m baffled.
Oh really? I would like to know which city is that so I can confirm, but I seriously doubt you have most of that list since that’s regulated on state or federal level.
Also we have freedom of speech in Europe, but you obviously can’t incite violence, the same is true in the US, going online and trying to get people to bomb a building filled with gays or immigrants is hate speech and will get you arrested in most civilized countries.
I gut upvoted you because I want to confirm your point of view, it resonates with me. But you are asking the guy to doxx himself for an internet argument, besides maybe where he lives isn’t so bad and he wanted to express his sentiment.
Yes, I don’t expect him to answer, even though just naming a city where you lived or have lived before is not doxxing yourself, it is personal information that I understand someone not wanting to share.
That being said, his claim was that his city had most of a list of things, you can’t make that claim and not expect to divulge the city, he could have hidden the fact that it was where he lived or had lived before by saying “X city has most of that” which would have allowed him to give verifiable information about his claim without doxxing themselves. But as it is it sounds like the person who swears he has a girlfriend who lives in another country and has natural blue hair, but no one has ever seen her.
Have you just come here from 9gag?
The thing is that the US also does not have 100% free speech.
You can absolutely get arrested in the US for shouting “FIRE!” In a crowded area.
Regarding punishment for violent crimes seeming low in Europe, that is mainly due to us focusing on rehabilitation rather than revenge. However change is comming, we are moving to longer punishments.
If I got to decide, we would have a system where we focus on rehab for the first X times a person commits a crime, when it has been shown that the person does not want to change, then they are put in containment prisons, they are less nice, and focus on containment firstly, rehab secondly.
Free speech doesn’t not mean freedom from consequences.
Example. If you tell someone to kill someone else, and they do it, you will be charged with a crime. Free speech means that you can voice your views, and the government (not private corporations btw) is not allowed to restrict it. That’s why you can still read Luigi’s manifesto, or the Unabomber’s. It’s why you can still publish and read the Articles of the Confederacy, or the Anarchist’s Cookbook.
The small brained “you can’t yell fire in a movie theater” argument so we don’t have free speech is the intellectual equivalent of Jeff Bezos is poor because he drives a ‘93 Honda civic.
Yet that is exactly your argument, that only the US has free speech because Europe puts people in jail for online comments, without regard to what those comments are, it’s the equivalent to saying the US jails people for speaking in the movie theaters in the fire example.
The main reason US can and could ever delude itself into being great is for having a ridiculous people-to-land/resources ratio. There is nothing inherently great about how the US does things, it just seems that way because you can do whatever you want if you have essentially infinite resources compared to everyone else.
Also, they are geographically isolated which kept them out of most destructive wars.
The people who worship it are also the people who screwed it all up. It’s like a failed experiment that needs to be reset. The freedom that everyone speaks of is mostly just one person’s way of taking freedom from another.
Honestly, speaking as an American, there’s kind of endless examples of us doing most things worse. Healthcare, democracy, workers rights, our “justice” system, incarceration… The list goes on and on.
The U.S. is an oligarchy.
For millions of United States Americans, the so called “American Dream” is achieved in Mexico. They’re often illegal immigrants. They often have mental health problems. They gentrify our cities and are entitled as fuck.
Pot calling kettle and all, but I do wish they’d go back to their own shithole country. They have demonized my country for decades and have weaponized the cartels to feed their own addictions. Most of the problems here can be tied directly to their humongous drug problems.
Yankee go home. The United Mexican States is tired of your shit.
And half of them won’t even bother learning Spanish. I’ll never give someone who immigrates due to hardship a hard time about learning the language, but privileged fucks who go to exploit a lower cost of living or whatever often just end up in expat bubbles and don’t know more than a few words of the local language even after years despite having that privilege of time/money/resources to learn it.
Spot on about the gentrification bit. Entire town populations have shifted from local people to the self called expats and snowbirds. Just look at Chelém, Mérida, San Miguel de Allende, Tulúm, Cancún and many many more including most upitty neighborhoods in México City (Condesa, Roma, San Angel).
I had no idea we had people illegally immigrating that much. Bet they’re the type to use the word “illegals” pejoratively.
The level of nonsensical nationalist propaganda in the US is maybe only second to North Korea’s.
The USA is neither the best country nor the worst country. It’s just one of the countries.
A while ago I watched a live stream of CSPAN (I think?) where the House failed to form a government for several consecutive days. The way the entire process started with a prayer, and the many references to religion throughout, is just as disturbing as the personality cult around Stalin. That whole gang is fucked in the head.
Your traffic laws are weird.
-
Overtaking/passing on the right
-
4 way stops and whoever comes first can go
-
No strict right of way when coming from the right
-
Right on red
-
Grinding all traffic in all directions over multiple lanes to a stop when a school bus stops
At least the last one I can understand a little with the nearly non-existent pedestrian infrastructure.
I’m so confused here.
The right lanes are the slow lanes - we overtake/pass on the left, and you are advised to stay out of the left lane unless you are passing. This makes sense because you need to slow down to exit the freeway, or in case of emergency, you are closer to the side of the road to be able to do so.
How else are you supposed to deal with 4-way stops? In my state it’s first arrival goes first, however if two cars arrive at the same time the car on the right proceeds first. It’s not that complicated, and I’m not sure what’s wrong with it?
And I’m not at all sure what you’re referring to regarding coming from the right? Coming from the right in relation to where?
In the US I believed it’s legal to pass people from the right if they are driving to your left. That’s illegal here, you can only pass from the left.
It’s also illegal to hog a lane, you must always use the right most lane when it’s free, unless you’re passing.
it’s also illegal to hog a lane
Yeah, that’s a HUGE problem here.
You should see us a roundabout! 😉
A note, not all states operate this way, but the concept of ‘right of way’ is going away. Judges do not like the idea of someone feeling privileged enough to make a situation worse. In general, they want to implement fail-safes and not fail-unsafe situations.
Edit: To add - we’ve actually had this for a while, it’s called ‘failure to yield’. The switch is actually being more driven by emergency services making things worse, which is kind of relieving given the general sentiment. Unfortunately it’s just another phrase for the same thing, semantics…but if you do go to court, you’re better off presenting who failed vs who’s entitled.
I think I have seen this and been confused by it. Does it mean that nobody should assume they have right of way? For example, having right of way isn’t necessarily an excuse for being in an accident because you didn’t give way to someone driving badly.
If a person didn’t yield at a sign saying they should, and caused an accident as a result, they are demonstrably at fault.
Pretty much, the only caveat I’d add is the assumption of ‘right of way’. You can have situations where road conditions were unusual but drivers are not certain to all the conditions. The involved parties can all assume they have the ‘right of way’, when in reality the best option would have been for everyone to yield until conditions ARE certain.
I’ll give a personal example: I once came upon an accident on a bridge, and the cop cars were already on the scene. It was night, raining hard and the cop cars were facing the oncoming lane with headlights set to high. I couldn’t see anything past the cop cars, so I slowed down from 50 to 25. As I passed, I briefly saw a shadow of a person and heard them say “SLOW DOWN”. I still have no idea how close I was to hitting them, but they must have been very close to hear them thru the rain and sirens. I should have gone much, much slower, maybe even stopped. Fortunately, nothing bad happened, but I had assumed that since the one lane was open that it was ok to use. I don’t know why the cop cars oriented themselves in a way to blind oncoming drivers, but had something happened, the fault would have ultimately been mine regardless.
Another example is parking lots, so many accidents occur at busy locations. People forget how you are not supposed to block ingress (to prevent traffic backing up into the street and making things worse) and get road rage because they can’t leave. I’ve seen people try to “squeeze in” and end up blocking an entire lot because they can’t move. One side will say “zipper” (ie: “my turn for RoW”) the other will say “right of way”, and parking lots are notorious for not having any signs.
Edit: and ofc, old ladies who think blinkers give them RoW
Edit2: an example for cops: blowing thru red lights without making sure intersections are clear. To be fair, everyone should yield to a cop car in the performance of their duties, but this doesn’t mean cop cars get a free pass for RoW and can plow thru full speed, damn the consequences. They still have to take safety of others in mind and yield if required.
Edit3: because I’ve had the discussion before. Yes, it’s semantics. RoW and FTY are the same thing. I’m only saying the phrase is being sunsetted, no Judge wants to hear someone say RoW. Some laws even use them together as “Failure to Yield Right of Way”. The goal is to prevent the mindset of entitlement, to make sure the clarity of safeguards remain in place.
Interesting and also makes me want to clarify something. “Right of way” as in “I’m allowed to do this” is not what I initially meant. The concept I’m talking about is called “Voorrang van rechts” where voorrang means right of way, but as you can see it only translates half of it. “Van rechts” means “from (the) right”. I just looked it up to get a proper full translation or equivalent, but all translations stop at “right of way”, which simply is “voorrang”. A language barrier if you will.
Grinding all traffic in all directions over multiple lanes to a stop when a school bus stops
This varies by state, but I think I most of them are setup so that you don’t have to stop if the road is divided, or if there are more than 4 lanes (so 2 lanes for each direction, plus a turn lane in the middle, you don’t have to stop). As always, check your local laws, and when in doubt, signal and stop.
Edit: to clarify, the oncoming lanes don’t stop, the lane behind and adjacent to the bus still have to stop.
“check your local laws”
Lol sorry what? It’s even worse than I thought 😂
There are 50 states in the USA. They generally have the same rules of the road but you are being an idiot if you think that all states have the same laws. Does any other coalition in the world work like that?
No, even in Europe there are small differences in rules and signs even.
Overtaking/passing on the right
Generally illegal, some people do it still.
4 way stops and whoever comes first can go
We get circles in high population areas, but not enough, I agree
No strict right of way when coming from the right
This is actually in our traffic laws, just most are dumb enough not to be able to figure it out :)
Right on red
Varies per state. (which is also stupid) It’s like the circles, it’s a density_safety/cost thing. If you don’t have pedestrians, treating a turn with traffic as a stop sign can keep intersection costs down.
I’d also tac on abysmal public transportation, poorly maintained rail lines and horrible airport candor.
What does “strict right of way when coming from the right” mean? If it’s up for debate there’s usually either stops or yields, or road size rules (double yellow takes priority over local small roads)
When roads meet, whoever comes out of the street to your right has right of way. Signs can be put up to overrule this basic rule, for example when small side roads connect to a main road, but if for some reason no signs are posted, whoever comes out of that small road has right of way. Clear and simple.
-
USA could be, but isn’t the greatest country in the world.
