Not everything on Lemmy is US specific.
!politics@lemmy.world shouldn’t be limited to US politics. Same for !news@lemmy.world
Please make US specific communities like !AskUSA@discuss.online more active instead of bringing your local issues to every community
That most of the world would be better off with the collapse of US hegemony.
The US is not the “role model” for how a country should be or what a strong democracy is. Other countries aren’t inspired by or jealous of you.
Many, if not most, of us are jealous of other countries, though. Really, this is only a hard truth for the MAGA crowd, and even that is (I think) largely the fault of the nationalist propaganda that’s been shoveled at us since we were kids.
As an American, I agree with you, though - the US is in no way a ‘strong democracy’, or much of a democracy at all. It may once have been, but it certainly hasn’t been the case for a long time.
Back in 1780s the US constitution was an absolute marvel of progressiveness, but today, it is increadibly outdated and keeps the US political system back from making progress.
We’re like the 40-year-old still wearing his school jacket and talking about winning state.
But we’re really a used car salesman trying to get you to finance a clapped out Nissan Altima with 128k miles, failing clear coat, and a dented bumper.
Four touchdowns in a single game, go Bundy!
Not most unfortunately, that I learned a couple months ago. Most think their squalor is somehow peak civilization
Then why do you sound like you are
Because thats what you’ve been brainwashed to think the world wants, so thats what you hear
lol
This clip from the Newsroom sums it up perfectly.
Man I forgot how good that show was
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
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.
No shit, what American thinks either are true?
America, fuck yeah!
Has been a joke for like 30 years now
The irony is rooted in reality, much like the stereotypes.
I’ve received quite a few hostile reactions when critiquing the US, including idiocy like “FU we have a bigger military” from blowhards.
There are, unfortunately, enough bad apples to spoil the bushel.
You haven’t met much of the rural population, have you?
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
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.
I mean, we generally know the first part. The second isn’t really a surprise either.
Mumbled Scottish
Usa was once founded by a bunch of outlaws and runaways and has never fundamentally changed since.
This is almost way too nice.
America was founded by businessmen who fancied themselves as a new aristocracy, and religious zealots who were such assholes they could no longer co-exist with Europeans.
American cars suck.
Where to begin…
But I’ll touch on something no one else has here.
Shopping carts. It’s mindblowing to me that the country that sent men to the moon still hasn’t figured out that its easier for everyone if they turn on all 4 wheels rather than the 2 front ones.
That way you can slide your cart sideways to make room for other shoppers. And turning it takes no effort.
And even… even if it is some weird cost cutting thing. Why not make them turn on the rear wheels? That would still make it easier than in the front. Since you steer the cart from the rear.
Get your shit together. Put gun controll aside, put your dumb ass two party politics aside and focus on what matters. Your godawful shopping carts.
You need a second civil war
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.
This definitely won’t be a pile of horseshit from people never been there, believe everything they see on TV, and operate completely on stereotypes from various sources, sprinkled with the dumbest takes you ever heard, and a bunch of blaming capitalism like it’s the only nation that employs it.
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.
Government spending in the Military Industrial Complex is the point.
An able
militiamilitary is a side effect.
capitalism is actually the worst possible system
For a growing economy with an excess of people and resources it’s pretty good.
Our current world, not so much.
The problem is that there isn’t a currently viable alternative.
Capitalist realism is a bitch.
There are plenty of viable alternatives; in isolation. The real problem is that capital will always intervene before an alternative can get a foothold.
Unregulated capitalism*
Capitalism in and of itself is a turbo charger for the economy, but like a real turbo charger it need regulations to not destroy itself and the engine.
that’s a pretty good metaphor but assumes regulatory capture isn’t baked into the cake and pulling up the ladder after consolidating all the wealth isn’t the entire point.
You are absolutely right, my comment assumed regulation and acting in good faith.
I am mainly just so tired of everyone just going “capitalism bad”, when that is not the single answer.
Eradicating capitalism would be terrible and idiotic.
I am a firm believer in a social democratic system with a well regulated free market.
You’re correct that everything is being held up by capitalism right now so if you remove it then everything collapses. We need to build alternative structures to hold things up before making any attempt on the current system, which should be as simple as using the alternatives instead but power was never given up without a fight.
I think market systems in general lead to exploitation and democracy is just the tyranny of the majority. We can do better and we should do better.
Democracy doesn’t have to be a tyranny of the majority. In its purest form it is. And that is why constitutional republics ensure citizen’s rights in their constitutions. We need a similar system for economy.
A sketch of that would a be a system where you’d have constitutional republic with independent legislature, judiciary and executive branches. Separated from the economic players as well as possible. They would provide the the outer bounds of a level playing field. Economy would a market economy, where ownership of companies would be distributed among the stakeholders of the system workers, customers and the executive. Similar to how governments ideally function. Workers would have “legislative” power in the company. They would be responsible for company policy. Executives would implement those policies. Customers would decide how well the company performs by either buying their products or withholding their patronage. This would need a lot of guard rails in place. But this would prevent centralization of power in the hands of an “owner”-class.
Transitioning to this type of system would not be that difficult. As most of what it has is already there. In western democracies. At least on paper. There would be a lot of resistance to this from the “owner”-class. I have no doubt of that.
a lot of guard rails
as always any system is only as good as the people perpetuating it.
The level of nonsensical nationalist propaganda in the US is maybe only second to North Korea.
I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you are talking about Americans in the sense of the Americans who live in the USA.
God-damnit guys, not everything is about you.
Now, I don’t know if USA inhabitants are not ready to hear it, but certainly Lemmy USA residents are not.
Like it or not, you guys have a GREAT COUNTRY in the USA
Worldwide, people envy you. The poorest inhabitant of the USA has rights, possibilities and duties that only the richest in any other country can only dream of.
For God’s sake, people are literally willing to kill themselves trying to reach your country, to have an atom of freedom that you guys squander with petty squabbles.
No USA proper citizen has ever been in the need so dire to escape the USA that they need to build a raft to risk their lives to go anywhere from their Homeland.
For that same reason, collectivists worldwide hate you and your country with undying hate. Because you (as in your society) don’t need them. And they do need you. And they resent this so much, that they’re willing to destroy you all just to stop that from being true.
You guys have lived so cozy and accommodated lives, thanks to the disrespected sacrifices made willingly by millions that you are bored out of your minds.
So much in fact, that with a little nudge from the collectivists worldwide seeking your destruction, you yourselves plunge willingly into the chaos of unmaking by allowing the collectivist mindset to pollute your youngest.
Make no mistake, the USA will keep growing and thriving, like it or not.
But not thanks to your internal or external enemies. That’s for sure.
Ok, so I’m going to do one that’s actually likely to be downvoted by the Americans here.
Sometimes censorship is necessary for a safer society.
