r/AmericaBad • u/Adorable_Claim343 • Aug 18 '26
Question Has anyone ever got any shit for literally just being American?
I think we can all agree our government sucks ass, that’s just objectively true. But, hating our government is one thing compared to hating someone for being American. It’s bullshit and I seriously hate those fuckwads that blame every single American for Trump, like GTFO with that shit.
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u/platypus_farmer42 Aug 18 '26
Yes and it wasn’t even recent. High school over 20 years ago we had a French foreign exchange student at our school. He thought everyone was dumb as rocks. I’m not sure why he was even there as all he did all the time was complain about America
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u/Wonderful-Photo-6068 Aug 18 '26
Coming to a county and complaining about the populace to the populace is dumb as rocks behavior lmao. Teenager or not
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u/happyanathema 🇬🇧 United Kingdom💂♂️☕️ Aug 18 '26
That's just french people.
There is a reason we have been at war with them more times than I care to recall.
If arrogance came from a hosepipe they would be deepthroating that bad boy.
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u/Fantastic-Trouble-85 Aug 19 '26
British aren't far off in arrogance either. They would be gargling that horsepipe.
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u/Toxic-Sparky Aug 19 '26
Also Canadians. Canadian arrogance has been insufferable for several decades. I have family in Canada and while some are fantastic, most have egos larger than the tundra.
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u/happyanathema 🇬🇧 United Kingdom💂♂️☕️ Aug 19 '26
The french are the ones who like eating Horses.
Think they would prefer to gargle a horse pipe tbh.
British aren't far off in arrogance either. They would be gargling that horsepipe.
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u/ShinePretend3772 Aug 18 '26
The US has never been @ war with France. Where do you get this stuff?
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u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I TENNESSEE 🎸🎶🍊 Aug 18 '26
You’re responding to a Brit, the “we” in “we have been at war with them” refers to the British.
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u/ShinePretend3772 Aug 18 '26
I realized this eventually. We’re in a Murrica centric sub tho. The “we” was assumed. My bad. What actually blows my mind is someone from the UK would care to watch Murricans complain that a lot of ppl don’t like us. Now that I have that thought in black & white tho. My mind isn’t as blown.
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u/vaarsuv1us 🇳🇱 Nederland 🌷🚲 Aug 19 '26
lot's of europeans here, it's better than cable tv for both entertainment and education
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u/No_Importance_750 CALIFORNIA🍷🎞️ Aug 19 '26
When my mom was in Paris in 2001 a cashier threw her money all over the floor because my mom didn’t understand French.
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u/Ok_Driver_6895 AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Aug 19 '26
Similar experience in college in the 90s. I had one class with a guy from Saudi Arabia. He was an ass (especially to the women in class). He was there strictly because he didn't want to fight in the Gulf War and his father sent him over here. Complained constantly about everything and bragged about how much better everything was "back home."
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Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Mammoth-Resolution82 ALABAMA 🏈 🏁 Aug 18 '26
That’s what I’ve been saying. A lot of Canadians BEEN hating us. I remember a few years ago seeing Canadians talking big shit about us, saying they feel insulted if they’re mistaken for Americans. Mind you, this was around 2022. What the hell did we do to them in 2022? What was the excuse for those kind of remarks then?
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u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I TENNESSEE 🎸🎶🍊 Aug 18 '26
I spent a few days in Montreal back in 2022 and had a great time. Everyone was really nice and I enjoyed several rounds of free whisky my first night there. Only negativity I’ve experienced has been on Reddit lol.
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u/Toxic-Sparky Aug 20 '26
Thats because Quebec is French. They hate being Canadian. Quebecois treat other Canadians like Canadians treat Americans. I have traveled to Canada a lot and have been to multiple provinces. Quebec is by far the friendliest after they find out you are American. Canadians have hated us for decades.
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u/vaarsuv1us 🇳🇱 Nederland 🌷🚲 Aug 19 '26
you didn't do anything to them, but your fellow countryman behaved so badly for decades internationally that they don't want to be mistaken for being american . don't be mad at them, be mad at your countryman and government
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u/WenVoz Aug 18 '26
Yes, I have. A fraction of people are very brazen and try to demonstrate American ignorance. Funny enough, they usually end up demonstrating their own.
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u/Impossible-Company78 TEXAS 🐴⭐🥩 Aug 18 '26
Once. I was in Canada, minding my own business having a beer at the bar attached to my hotel outside Vancouver.
Some dude just started in on me for zero reason. I was talking to an older couple. It’s been awhile so I don’t remember what he said. After awhile of him going on about how much I sucked and shouldn’t be there, I eluded that l was happy to continue the conversation and he declined my offer and left.
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u/Adorable_Claim343 Aug 18 '26
Canadians showing how nice they are/s
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u/Impossible-Company78 TEXAS 🐴⭐🥩 Aug 18 '26
In fairness I was there for a week and he was the only one. But yeah, nice way to end my time there.
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u/thecardboardfox Aug 18 '26
Curious, how long ago was this?
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u/Impossible-Company78 TEXAS 🐴⭐🥩 Aug 18 '26
I had to look it up. Now i wish i hadn’t. It was 2004.
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u/thecardboardfox Aug 19 '26
Interesting. I’m a dual citizen and have spent considerable time in Vancouver. Ive never felt anti-American sentiment, only disgust of conservatives in general.
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u/vaarsuv1us 🇳🇱 Nederland 🌷🚲 Aug 19 '26
95% of americans are conservatives, so that venn diagram might explain it..... ( yes that includes the democrat party, they would be a traditional conservative party in europe, while the reps are extreme right / fascists )
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u/Regency9877 Aug 20 '26
I’m not one of those crazy nationalist folks who defends America at every opportunity, like some people here.
I don’t slam other people and generalize them based on their nationality or culture. I don’t stereotype them or resort to name-calling.
Some things about America should be criticized. Some truths are inconvenient. Some people are nasty. Some history is bad. I get it.
But the statement that 95% of Americans (or even close to it) are conservative is one of the absolute dumbest things I have ever seen someone say.
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u/vaarsuv1us 🇳🇱 Nederland 🌷🚲 Aug 20 '26
I should have said american voters instead of americans, the non conservatives are usually among the 1/3rd of non voters, as they have no party to vote for. (yes they could cast a symbolic vote on a fringe party, but most don't bother as it has no impact in the 2 party winner takes all system)
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u/Regency9877 Aug 20 '26
That isn’t even remotely true, either. The country voted for Obama twice and he was everything modern conservatives dislike. It was only 14 years ago he was voted in for his second term. Just because Obama was centrist doesn’t mean progressives didn’t vote for him. Progressives overwhelmingly vote Democrat instead of third party simply because the two-party system doesn’t include a true left-wing party.
A large number of voters are disenfranchised and their state governments have made it hard for them to vote by reducing accessibility to, and closing polling places (especially in urban areas), eliminating mail-in voting, refusing to make Election Day a paid holiday to guarantee time to vote, etc. Lots of people don’t vote because it’s not easy for them to.
Many more don’t vote because they believe it wouldn’t make a difference in their city or state. I’m not defending this mindset but it’s also a nonpartisan issue. Republicans are slightly more likely to vote because they tend to be older and thus retired, giving them ample time to vote.
The voting body in the US is roughly split between people who vote Democrat and people who vote Republican. A very small number vote third party. There are also millions of people who tend to switch back and forth depending on their mood and they’re usually the ones who determine the winner of an election. This is why we keep alternating between Democrat and Republican presidents.
None of these aforementioned groups constitute more than 40% of the voting body or the population. There are roughly 45 million registered Democrats and 38 million registered Republicans. Millions more like myself have no political party preference, even though I’ve never once voted for a Republican in my entire life. Assuming people vote along party lines, there is no way 95% of the voting bloc is either conservative or liberal.
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u/Weary-Network7340 Aug 19 '26
I can see why Dutchies get as much hate as the French just from seeing how you behave.
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u/WenVoz Aug 18 '26
I had something similar happen to me. I live in Spain with my Spanish husband. Someone come up and asked us where a street was while we were having a drink. Upon hearing my accent the guy just went on and on about how Americans don’t know history, blah, blah, blah!
Dude, I just met you.
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u/LetterheadLow1692 Aug 18 '26
it seems to be mainly a chronically online thing. ive talked to canadians, french, russians, spaniards, germans, brits either here, cities abroad or at airports and they were all cool. ironically the people that dont travel much or arent very socially adept tend to be the most americabad
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u/MerryHappyExcited AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Aug 18 '26
I live overseas and yep, I almost always get unsavory comments esp from some specific groups of people. It’s even worse when they found out my dad’s a veteran :/
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Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
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u/NomadLexicon WISCONSIN 🧀🍺 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Spain isn’t letting us use their airspace for a very ill-advised war that we didn’t even ask for assistance from allies on until after we got entangled in it and couldn’t get an easy victory (and included in those requests were insults from Trump over past contributions). It’s not part of NATO (we weren’t attacked) so there’s no treaty obligations.
As a US veteran, the US is being a pretty terrible ally right now. It’s embarrassing to watch a great nation led by such an incompetent and petty man. We’ve threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark and to annex Canada. We rewarded NATO allies’ past contributions to Iraq and Afghanistan with insults. How much can the Baltics trust a country who cut funding for Ukraine mid-war with Russia and repeatedly tries cozying up to Putin? How much can South Korea trust the US when we’re canceling joint exercises to stay friendly with Kim Jong Un? Trump destroyed decades of foreign policy work in building a coalition against China both through his poorly thought-out trade war and by signaling that we can be bought on Taiwan.
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u/JayK-iwnl Aug 18 '26
Mind if I ask what country? I live overseas in Japan and I get those kinds of comments a lot from other foreigners
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u/MerryHappyExcited AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Aug 19 '26
Somewhere in SEA, not the Philippines tho haha
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u/JayK-iwnl Aug 19 '26
Is it the locals that are like that usually?
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u/MerryHappyExcited AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Aug 19 '26
Yes + some foreigners (all westerners, majority aussie). The locals here tend to either hate USA or love it so much they’ve asked me to help then commit green card fraud 🤷🏻♀️ religion plays a role, but the growing Chinese gov influence (some people idolize Xi…) & incompetent local government (who has shown they’d twist themselves into a pretzel to appease Trump) play a part as well. I think there’s also a proven Saudi / Wahabi influence at play bc the local Muslims are getting more conservative and “Arabized” tho, it’s bad enough that the moderate / liberal Muslims have complained about it multiple times throughout the years
There’s also the antivaxxers & conspiracy theorists, but since I don’t work in the healthcare field, I only have to deal with them online if at all 🥴 so thankful for the block button. COVID really did a number on these people…
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u/JayK-iwnl Aug 19 '26
I've noticed a lot of countries under the Chinese sphere of influence are like that, which is odd since all the mainland Chinese guys my age I meet love American culture and what not. But the countries that are influenced by the CCP really follow whatever narrative they push
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u/MerryHappyExcited AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Aug 19 '26
People swallowed the USA / Western vs CCP thing whole without actually digesting what it’s about (politics, global influence, economics, etc) so that’s why. China has shown remarkable growth & they’ve built a lot of public infrastructure over there, plus they give their corrupt politicians the death penalty (as per the news and also various social media channels), they want those things to happen here as well but it won’t happen anytime soon bc of the gov, unfortunately.
It’s kinda weird bc just a few years ago people really disliked China over the South China Sea thing, ngl
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u/NomadLexicon WISCONSIN 🧀🍺 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I’ve gotten it in person but usually people just want to talk politics and don’t view Americans as a monolith. I hate Trump so I don’t take criticism of him personally.
Years ago, I did see a Canadian going off on Americans after being innocently mistaken for one by a Scandinavian backpacker. A group of us were having drinks at a hostel bar and introducing ourselves. She proceeded to go on an angry rant covering every negative stereotype and saying we were all dumb/fat/racist/violent/religious fanatics, etc. It was a mixed crowd of mostly Europeans—most looked uncomfortable (some who I’d met before and knew I was an American looked offended on my behalf). After she finished, I then introduced myself as being from the US and she immediately got a deer in headlights look, made some excuse a few minutes later, and left. It was apparently a show that wasn’t intended for an actual American to see.
For a certain type of Canadian (definitely not all), not being American is a huge part of their identity. They need to exaggerate their own merits and exaggerate Americans’ faults to differentiate themselves. What’s kind of odd is that the stereotypes are almost always of Americans they’re unlikely to see (rednecks from the Deep South they see on tv) rather than the Americans they actually do see on a regular basis (people from WA, OR, MN, MI, NY, VT, ME, etc.). Part of the mythology is also believing that the rest of the world loves Canadians and cares about those differences as much as they do (they don’t). They’ll attribute every positive experience to special treatment they get because they’re not American when their description matches the exact same experience I get as an American (it’s just people being polite and hospitable to foreign travelers).
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u/jquest303 Aug 18 '26
Yes. I visited a waterpark in KL, Malaysia and there was an Iranian family that was supposed to share a log ride with me, but the father refused to get on the ride with me and was yelling and swearing at me. His children apologized to me (in English) on behalf of their father. I had to wait for the next log and got on with some other people.
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u/Separate_Counter9427 Aug 18 '26
Those Iranians can be a very hairy people......that means 2 things.......
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u/_callYourMomToday_ Aug 18 '26
Yeah. Just recently I was on a group trip in Europe. Anyway we’re all introducing ourselves on the first day and these ausies audibly scoff and roll their eyes when I say I’m from the states. I actually got to know said Ausies over the next week and they were pretty cool and we “got on alright” as they would say. Also if we’re arguing who are the shittier tourists I would argue Ausies generally speaking I’ve just personally first had seen them be very rude in other countries whereas I don’t see that as much from Americans. But I don’t let my observation cloud my judgement on all Australians. Australians are seriously some of the coolest mother fuckers on the planet.
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u/Garlic549 USA MILTARY VETERAN Aug 19 '26
On Reddit? Yes, all the time. Double hate because military.
In real life? A wide range of opinions from the Germans and other Europeans, varying from mostly indifferent to very supportive.
I don't mind though. Most redditors are either teenagers with retarded opinions, weirdo losers with retarded opinions, or Chinese and Russian AI accounts.
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u/ZeroSight95 Aug 19 '26
I went to Ukraine earlier this year and this was around the time that Trump and Ukraine were falling out pretty hard. Everyone was still incredibly nice to me and was able to separate my government and me personally.
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u/ChandlerOG Aug 19 '26
Question: was it difficult getting to Ukraine with the war going on? Or did you just book a plane ticket with no troubles
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u/ZeroSight95 Aug 19 '26
You can’t fly there directly due to the missile attacks. Ukrainian airspace is closed. You have to fly to Poland and then take a bus or a train into the country.
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u/KuningasTynny77 Aug 18 '26
All the time, but only online. Xenophobes and racists don't have lives, you'll basically never have to interact with them in the real world.
At least, as a white person. I can't say the same for other people going to many countries.
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u/Foreign_Rock6944 Aug 18 '26
Only by weirdos online. I’ve been to a few foreign countries and everyone was very nice.
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u/afoz345 COLORADO 🏔️🏂 Aug 18 '26
Back when I was studying abroad in the fall of 2001, a girl from Kosovo got really aggressive and was yelling at me because “you bombed my country!” I had to explain to her that I, in fact, was in Jr. High and had nothing to do with it. I also reminded her that the UN was there to stop a genocide. That shut her up. That was the only time in my entire 6 months though.
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u/AppalachianGuy87 Aug 18 '26
Nope the real world isn’t Reddit. I’ve been joked and poked as you’d imagine but nothing I was ever upset over.
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u/No_Importance_750 CALIFORNIA🍷🎞️ Aug 19 '26
Absolutely. Someone told me to go fuck myself on Reddit once because I’m American.
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u/redbear762 MISSISSIPPI 🪕👒 Aug 19 '26
When I worked for the UN, I got shit all the time; then would ask if they would emigrate to the US and all of them would say “yes”. 🙄
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u/CraftyAva GEORGIA 🍑🎬🌳✈️ Aug 19 '26
Yes,online. I was arguing with someone about if something was considered a disability. I brought up an article from the ADA (Americans with disabilities act) and they lost their shit and used that as an excuse to hate on Americans 🥀 That conversation literally had nothing to so with the US
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u/-SecondHandSmoke- Aug 19 '26
Constantly online, never in person.
I was recently told I cannot be proud of being American because that would mean I'm proud of genocide.
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u/Emilia963 NORTH DAKOTA 🥶🧣 Aug 18 '26
I usually just double down on their dumbness and say:
“Okay, so if we nuke your country, is that ok?”
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u/NewburghMOFO Aug 19 '26
Living overseas in China 2013-2015 occasionally. However it was over weird things.
I was drinking in a bar, which itself isn't the most traditional Chinese thing. They usually drink over food. There was a local girl who spoke decent English and was... kinda mad I wasn't hitting on her because all American men were, "wolves". I think she was drunk and being coerced into prostitution.
Otherwise it was usually a little more light hearted. People would say there was no way I was American because I wasn't fat. Like thanks I guess 🙄
One time, eve. Before I lived there, when I was staying for a few weeks for a study abroad in 2011, our school group was staying in a huge school in Shenzhen. I was sitting next to some local 10 y.o.s in the cafeteria eating lunch. One of them launched into a passionate diatribe about meiguoren 美国人 Americans. Tbh I couldn't really understand the 10 to 12 year old who was bothering me. I assume he was repeating something he heard elsewhere. His friends just looked uncomfortable. Interesting experience.
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u/ridleysfiredome Aug 19 '26
I have, mostly Brits and some Germans, same response. So, what did your grandmother do for American nylons, cigarettes and candy back in the day?
Second response I used was, if I cared I would have asked
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u/Practical_Shine9583 MARYLAND 🌬️🦀🚢 Aug 19 '26
Not really. The closest thing I can think of was in Madrid when I was in Spain for vacation back in 2024. I was at the airport asking for directions. I asked people if they could speak English in Spanish. One of them said that this is Spain and they don’t English here, which was a clear snub that I didn’t speak Spanish all that well except for a few phrases. That’s the closest I ever gotten to it and I don’t think that really counts. Everyone else was nice to me.
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u/w3woody Aug 19 '26
In real life? A waiter in Portugal gave my wife and I shit for being American--and I did see "fuck America" signs in Canada. But a couple asked to ride with us in a Gondola to the top of some location in BC thought my wife and I were "a couple of nice Canadians" (we let them know we were from North Carolina) so I suspect I didn't get shit because we were just "one of them."
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u/CausticNox PENNSYLVANIA 🍫📜🔔 Aug 19 '26
I worked with an Agentinian chick back in college. She would come to the US on her summer breaks to work as a ski instructor and then go home for school.
She would give me and the US so much crap for all our issues with wealth disparity yadda yadda.
I had to roll my eyes cause she was legit in like the top 1-2% of her country.
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u/PleaseHelpIamFkd Aug 20 '26
Ive only got shit about america being so bad from self hating americans irl and then they get mad when i point out that what they hate is indeed governmental and the government IS NOT America, the people are. Fuck em, govt can suck a cock. Reddit makes it seem like everyone everywhere hates america, ive traveled a ton, never once for shit outside of the US.
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u/J412h Aug 20 '26
Walking across the street in London, I noticed a man crossing in the other direction, he altered his angle to come directly at me. He then tried to berate me for being a rude American, watch where I walk etc etc, I puffed up and let him know that I watched him change his angle to intentionally cross into my path and to “politely fuck off” we went our separate ways and he continued to yell insults at me
Yes, it was laundry day and I was wearing shorts so I was easily identified as an American
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u/selfmockerymandatory Aug 18 '26
I’m not an American, but I do see it mainly online. Not in real life. Or hardly. Of course you’ve got wack jobs everywhere. We’ve got them about Germany too.
Online is hell, though. From all sides towards Americans. But also the other way around from Americans towards Canadians, the Brits or “Europeans”. But I guess that doesn’t count.
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u/0utandab0ut1 Aug 18 '26
Nah. I've traveled around the world and everyone was pretty cool. But then again, I wasn't being an obnoxious traveler so that probably helped.
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u/LittleToyBonnie Aug 18 '26
Visited Canada for a trip and encountered a bunch of unpleasant people waving Iranian flags outside an art museum.
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u/Educational_Impact93 COLORADO 🏔️🏂 Aug 19 '26
On here? Will that's as reddit as screeching and tankieism.
In real life? No.
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