Right after they told me that they would blow up the world to prove it.
That was a fairly shitty 8th birthday.
I’m not an American but seeing that bit from The Newsroom was kind of a hammer on the nail. America is not the greatest country in the world
I wanna know at what point America was the greatest country in the world when he said we use to be. Excluding one set of ppl America pretty much sucked for everyone else that lived here since its creation
One could argue America was a straight white man utopium in the 20s. After the first World War America was the saviour of the western world. The economy was booming and the capitalist society we know today felt love opportunity and wealth.
But again, this was definitely not the case for everyone.
I think ‘the greatest country’ really rather depends on the metrics by which you judge these countries. It would stand to reason that the people in the video would see America as the greatest country by metric of wealth, power and freedom (for some). Skating over gender oppression, race oppression, poverty… For some people it would be better to be in America than anywhere else in the world.
And the 20s were not the only decade this was the case. The 50s had many of the same appeal for wealthy, straight white men. And the 80s. Since then it’s been downhill.
On the other hand… I wouldn’t wanna answer the question what is the greatest country in the world right now. As a European, I like to look at Scandinavian countries as a model for a great country. But I wouldn’t really leave the Netherlands for Denmark.
It’s a pretty subjective question really. If you mean greatest country for rich white guys then the US probably qualifies as the best for a reasonable chunk of its history.
For everyone else, not so much.
Growing up in western Washington does it to you automatically. No one I know has ever felt that way.
A while before realizing that the anti American propaganda they feed us is also a lie.
Anything in particular?
Many popular and controversial ideologies. Propaganda has been massively successful thanks to the global web of misinformation and has found deep roots in American culture.
That’s not very particular at all, what you’ve said there is infact, very non-specific, and generic.
I mean, just turn on the TV. Not worth spawning the trolls and tempting the ban hammers.
Sounds like you’re afraid your world view will be easily pushed aside as incorrect if you air it. A fear your ideology is deeply flawed.
People making claims then not willing to back it up.
I bet anti American means something like people demanding PTO and maternity leave lol
Reading A People’s History of the United States put that on my radar. I hadn’t given the idea any thought until a college course assigned this book. I was educated in a standard American public school during the Reagan and Clinton eras, complete with Pledge of Allegiance. The standard schoolbooks omit a lot of atrocities and smooth over the ugly reality.
Whatever legitimate criticisms you lay on it, Zinn’s takedown opened my worldview and intensified my pre-existing anti-authoritarian streak.
9/11 happened shortly after and by then I considered Bush an illegitimate president. I watched him wage an unjustified war, and with the whole of our bloody rampage across the globe that clicked neatly into place. “America #1” is a sick joke.
When I graduated from college. I was fed the, “work hard, go to college, live well” spiel. I worked hard, I went to college, graduated with honors.
All I have to show for it is debt.
I work a job that’s… Fine, but I also cry most days because of the misery of it. I haven’t gone to a doctor in years because I can’t afford it. I can barely save (I have, like, $100 in “savings”). I will likely never be a home owner, and I will most likely have to work until I die, which breaks my spirit the more I think about it.
On less personal note, when I got to sit at the “grown up” table in regards to politics, I quickly realized that (most) people in government either don’t give a shit or actively work against the peoples interest. I hear of other countries with their free Healthcare and education, workers rights, pensions, and I weep with envy. America is like a third world country in a first world mask.
Keep your head up. I know it’s Reddit but maybe you can escape. Be one of the lucky ones.
Thank you. Saving the comment.
the healthcare shit in the US still baffles me. there’s literally no material reason for it to be that way other than disdain for people. even countries you’d consider “shitholes” have better healthcare (and things that contribute to healthcare like sick days and paid leaves) for the general population.
i always knew it was bad there but i was still baffled when i saw one video where someone breaks their leg (or something i don’t remember well) but they were begging people around them not to call an ambulance… i thought wtf why not. then i learned that not only do they charge like some fucking Uber drive but they charge insane amounts.
'richest" country in the world and in history. unbelievable.
The distain for people isn’t the reason, it’s the side effect. The goal is profit, profit above all else. The problem the US (and most everyone) has is it’s very hard to put the cat back in the bag.
After WW2 many countries were decemated and people banded together to help each other. This became the basis for social healthcare. They didn’t have huge corporate interests to fight against as so much was already dismantled.
The US however came out on top with healthy industry so there was no “start from scratch” point. Because of this any attempt at socializing healthcare comes at the cost of destroying the profits of all the companies that have been built on the back of the current system. Capitalism is built on investment and investors do NOT like losing profits. Therefore maintaining the status quo so that investments remain stable is priority #1.
The sad truth is that things have to get bad, really bad, before people consider a complete reboot. Up until recently it’s only been really bad for the poor, now the shrinking middle class is starting to feel it. Eventually it will become to much to bear, but until then there’s still more sweet profit in the next quarter.
9/11. My first thought when watching TV that day was ‘Bush did this’. Now maybe he did or maybe he didn’t, but it’s clear as day the US was just itching pass the Patriot Act and go to war. Every year since then has shown me this country’s government couldn’t give a shit about poor and downtrodden people in other countries. In fact, the US is doing the trodding, and the poor of this country are also in its sights.
At least we still have social programs here, which is good thing, but it feels like something left over from when more people cared.
I really, really wish the US would get the f out of the Middle East, stop arming Israel and begin making reparations. Unfortunately, those of us wanting peace tend to be meek (up to a point), which isn’t a bad thing. Meek people can be strong enough to build a more stabile society, but a lot of unfortunate things are going to have to take place first.
An unironic “Bush did 9/11”, incredible
Lol, I know. I was just saying what I thought then. Nowadays I believe the US knew of a plot, but failed to act for the reasons I gave before. Never let a good crisis go to waste, and all that.
1984, when I moved to Jakarta.
When I was living in Japan and felt more “free” than in the US. “Land of the free” is such a load of shit.
It is #1.
I say this having traveled around the world to experience everything from extreme poverty to extreme wealth.
By most measures, the US is still the best place to live for a vast majority of everyone.
It is only good for high income individuals and the owners. Everybody else is eating shit.
What are you basing this claims on?
if ‘everyone’ means white men from wealthy families. The pollution and iffy food regulations alone make it pretty shit for the actual average person.
They really did a good job of brainwashing you, and many others.
It’s far from the best or even one of the best, objectively. It’s not even close to the top.
If you’re wealthy it’s the best place to live. If you’re not it sucks. Source, someone who’s travelled a bit, including the States, and has a reasonable amount to compare it to.
It’s not even in the top ten
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/standard-of-living-by-country
Even the fucking Cato institute puts the US at like 19th for freedom.
My parents are American and I spent almost half of my life in the USA. Like you I have also traveled around the world. Possibly my view is skewed because I’m currently traveling around the Gulf states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida) on vacation and they are super poor, but to claim that the US is better than almost anywhere in Europe is crazy to me. Japan and South Korea and New Zealand also seemed nicer. Heck, you only have to cross the border to Canada to get to a place more more rational. Every place has problems, and not every place is great for every person, but the US is far down on the list of places that I would want to live ever again.
Iraq. Or maybe it was just meeting other folks from other places and realizing I’m more of a person than an American because while they may do things a bit differently over everywhere else they’re still just people over there. I grew to love my country in a “well it’s my home and I think we can make it better” way.
Though it may have been around my teenage years when the climate started collapsing and some dumbass motherfucker in congress brought a snowball to work to argue that climate change isn’t real. And not too long after the alt right started organizing and by the gods I learned some damn shame in my country over that bullshit.
Wait… what?? Isn’t america the best country in the world?
It is by many measures. But there are a lot of problems too.
You know, I’m not sure one measure by which America is the best country in the world, at least with a metric that matters to the average person. So not like GDP, number of billionaires, or number of prisoners.
No, Kazakhstan is. All other countries are run by little girls.
Australia is run by Arisa Trew so we’re doing pretty well at the moment.
Perspective from a mid-twenties American. I realized it was horseshit during the 2016 Trump election.
I was turning 18 just in time to vote in this election, and it was right around then that I started forming my own ideas about politics and what political “side” I stood on. Like a majority people with a semi-functioning brain, I thought Trump was an actual joke, a meme that had no chance at actually winning, like how we were acting when Kanye ran. Unironically, I thought that having trainwrecks of a leader was something that “other countries” did, obviously America wouldn’t let someone like this win because even though we make little mistakes here and there like Iraq and slavery we’re still the good guys and we wouldn’t actually let a moron like Trump become our president.
When it became obvious that he was more than a joke and an actual serious candidate with high potential to win, I realized that the only people consistently talking about how amazing America was at everything were the people voting for him, and I started dissecting the things I’d taken for granted.
You think slavery was a “little” mistake?
As an aside, my autocorrect wanted slavery to be Disney and I was a little tempted to let it stand.
Nah I don’t think they think slavery was little. They were just being “cheeky.” You can tell because of the big jump from Iraq to slavery. If they used immigration instead of Iraq I’d have a different opinion on their intention.
I’m not sure it ever wasn’t propaganda (they never provided any metrics) to me, but I think I started to care during the Bush II administration as an adolescent/teenager. I still remember thinking how f***ed up it was that Gore had the popular vote while still losing the election. --I guess that made me unsurprised when it happened again. I didn’t realize how bizarre our ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ habits were until I was in my twenties, though.
Not an American, but I realised it when I had to talk one of my online friends out of suicide because he almost worked himself to death (ten or more hour shifts six days a week for over a month) and couldn’t afford rent.
