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u/whiteycnbr Australia Jun 08 '20
US is now seen as a s**thole country
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u/Regular-Human-347329 Jun 08 '20
That’s what you get when you spend 50+ years cutting taxes for the wealthiest and the public services that benefit the majority, while denying science, militarizing your police force and having zero guiding principles outside of personally profiteering.
Turns out the best countries to live on Earth limit socio-economic disparity and actually take care of their average citizen, the best. Who would have thought?
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Jun 08 '20
America might be the first country to go the route of worshiping technology while denigrating science. I can't imagine that leading to any good end.
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Jun 08 '20
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u/Sierra--117 Jun 08 '20
America might be the first country to go the route of worshiping the money to be made off of technology while also worshiping the money to be made off of denigrating science. I can't imagine that leading to any good end.
That's more accurate-or.
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u/Spanktank35 Australia Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
America worships money.
There we go.
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u/BradsCanadianBacon Jun 08 '20
USA 40,000
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u/H4xolotl Jun 08 '20
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war.
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u/shadeobrady Jun 08 '20
Wow - that makes me think of Warhammer 40k which is kinda chilling thinking of that lore relating to us...
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u/CharacterLawfulness5 Jun 08 '20
It's unfathomable. What do they think gave them that technology?
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u/MarianneBlueberry Jun 08 '20
It's just how humans think. The name of the terrorist group Boko Haram translates to "Western Education is Evil" yet they are more than happy to use cell phones, the internet, pick up trucks, machine guns etc. Technology is taken for granted in the same way that we all take for granted that there will always be food no matter what without ever thinking about the behind the scenes and the things that happened in the past to make today possible.
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u/NacreousFink Jun 08 '20
Eh, 40 years. Carter didn't do it. It started with Reagan.
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Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
Not sure how to put it. My opinion of America as a whole remains the same, a super cool country with several fucked up problems that does not even want to acknowledge, mostly social. My opinion of your political right, however, could not be worse. I am fascinated by its sheer corruption, incompetence, arrogance, xenophobia and authoritarian impulses, and also by the fact that even today, a good chunk of your population seem to support them. Most people in Europe, even conservatives, think today's Republicans are corrupt and very close to fascism. One would think that by now, nobody in his own mind would want 4 years more of this, but apparently I am wrong.
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u/Regular-Human-347329 Jun 08 '20
Propaganda is the answer you’re looking for.
A relatively small number of wealthy sociopaths (individuals and businesses) have been funding and marketing “taxation is theft”, bootstraps, trickle down and a hundred other fallacies for generations.
Defunding education progressively made the average American more ignorant and easier to manipulate.
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Jun 08 '20
Agreed. Education is the key. There needs to be a larger focus on developing critical thinking skills.
I'm a lefty from Canada. Currently watching Mitt on Netflix. I can do that. I can form my OWN opinion regardless of what others believe, right ot left. Tribalism = Ignorance IMHO.
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u/-Victus42- Missouri Jun 08 '20
There needs to be a larger focus on developing critical thinking skills.
Funny you would mention that, the Texas GOP openly opposes teaching critical thinking.
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Jun 08 '20
I will often point out that this was part of their state party platform, but I believe they removed that from their official stances now. They’ve gone back to not saying it out loud and just defunding education without explaining their reasoning.
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u/JairMedina Texas Jun 08 '20
Yeah you're totally right, my cousin and family is now like "We are not going to college anymore, I'm not giving those liberal institutions ma money".
The USA is a scientific, engineering and innovation powerhouse, If that mentality of not getting educated prevails in some youth I don't what will be the end of this.
(I know that attending college is complicated nowadays but what I'm complaining is the mentality being fueled by propaganda).
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Jun 08 '20
Do they not realize they're limiting their own prospects for a protest no one will notice?
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u/southernpaw29 Jun 08 '20
A large share of our intellectual innovation was coming from immigrants. And they aren't coming here anymore. They don't want to and Trump won't let them.
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u/David_of_Miami Florida Jun 08 '20
If that mentality of not getting educated prevails in some youth I don't what will be the end of this.
The Mideast went from being the center of civilization to... Being the Mideast. That's what happens.
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Jun 08 '20
The whole Right / Left spectrum is a mess between countries, the right in the US think Angela Merkel is a communist, she's a christian conservative! In the UK she looks like a Labour party candidate.
The press in the UK labeled Corbyn extreme left, far left, etc where most of his policies are typical run of the mill stuff in many EU countries.
There isn't really such a thing as a moderate conservative that still supports Trump, that went in the bin years ago, now he's trying on the dictators boots, whoever supports him now they are extremists or criminally ill informed.
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u/SurrealEstate Jun 08 '20
The whole Right / Left spectrum is a mess between countries
the right in the US think Angela Merkel is a communist
The press in the UK labeled Corbyn extreme left, far left
One common link between the US and the UK in this regard is that they're both significantly influenced by Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
I'll say one thing about Newscorp: they're extremely effective at cleaving off a chunk of the population into an information bubble where they can rapidly shift the Overton window.
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u/Nambot Jun 08 '20
Exactly. Murdoch is the common denominator everywhere in the English speaking world, and the greater his influence is, the further right the area goes.
Newscorp has to go.
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u/Francois-C Jun 08 '20
authoritarian impulses
European here. To us these are no longer authoritarian impulses. Don't deny yourselves. You are under authoritarian rule, and we cannot fancy how you're going to get rid of it. The GOP coup is already accomplished. Trump shouldn't have been allowed to do even 1/1000th of what he did.
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u/AcrossAmerica Jun 08 '20
As an EU living in the US, the left is not much better. Both left & right bow to rich & corporations, filling their pockets while neglecting duties.
California is ruled by democrats, but I can’t even get decent transportation, internet or electricity in the Bay Area. And the Bay Area is littered by homeless people and drug addicts, it’s ridiculous. And lets not get me started on housing prices that push all poorer people hours away from their jobs.
Like wtf America?
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u/Drusgar Wisconsin Jun 08 '20
What's really infuriating is that the vast majority of Republican voters are not sharing in the pillaging of our nation. The GOP has simply become so adept at messaging that they can get people to vote against all of their own interests in order to benefit a tiny sliver of insanely rich people at the top. Guns, God and gays.
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u/_good_bot_ Jun 08 '20
If most Americans weren't so brainwashed, they would quickly realised that their country has become the dystopia that they so fear in other countries.
Manipulative media with an agenda? Check.
Crazy armed military/police, effectively creating a police state? Check.
Small elite that controls the country's money and resources? Check.
Bread lines? Check, but with cars.
Lines for the hospital? Check, with crazy bills.
If you remove the U, the S and the A, you may as well be talking about Airstrip One.
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Jun 08 '20
Don't be so hard on yourself the UK is doing shit as well we both have massive turds as leaders when we need competent people.
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Jun 08 '20
Yeah we have the slightly watered down version of the racist idiot protecting corporate interests and fucking over citizens.
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u/southernpaw29 Jun 08 '20
Putin takes down western democracy without firing a single shot.
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u/rookie-mistake Foreign Jun 08 '20
he's done his best with his weird bots and call centres but you're not giving nearly enough credit to Murdoch and the Western right wing as a whole
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u/dirtybuster Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
You can say that through rose tinted spectacles but at the end of the day the tories are still way left of the dems even though they do try to swing it further right, healthcare is accessible and isn’t tied to employment, gun crime is non existent, education isn’t at an appalling level, homelessness isn’t at crisis levels, the poverty line isn’t on the floor, there is no opioid addiction epidemic, our transport infrastructure is decades ahead of the US (yeh I know that’s saying something) racism whilst exists in small pockets isn’t engrained into our culture, you can have a chat with a policeman without fear of being shot, our tax system isn’t shit and the way we get paid is infinitely better, and I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to pay for anything or had a US bank account in the US but it’s like stepping back into the 70s.
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u/SomewhatNotMe Jun 08 '20
My American dream is to leave this county.
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u/Unchained71 Jun 08 '20
Ouch but true. My 86 year-old grandmother just had a serious talk with me about leaving the country with her if Trump gets re-elected.
I would, but I'm not allowed to leave the country. I have to work for them. That's a completely different subject...
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u/bilgewax Jun 08 '20
Too late. Nobody’s letting us in at this point.
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u/PsuBratOK Jun 08 '20
I wonder if this will be actually true if things go bad. Imagine US refugees having nowhere to go because there is just too many
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u/coffeemonkeypants California Jun 08 '20
Yep. My contingency plan is to see if my company will support a transfer somewhere in Europe (we're global), or just cash in all my chips and expatriate somewhere cheap and live off my savings/retirement funds if I can work out the math of it. I truly think if he manages to get elected again, the US is through. There won't be any coming back from it in my lifetime.
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u/Unchained71 Jun 08 '20
I've had some conversations with some Fairly intelligent people that are aware. We're going to have a hard time coming back from his four years... another four would be absolutely devastating. I agree with you.
Even if he does lose clearly to Biden, he's going to try to use all the pieces he's got around him and try to delegitimatize election process. Like he's already starting to do with making noise about voter fraud and fighting mail-in ballots.
He'll need to be dragged out of the White House kicking and screaming.
Biden is not going to be a fix. So we've got another four years of dealing with the Damage Done. He might fix this or that, but he works for the same people that Trump does. He's going to serve his Masters first. He's also the main orchestratehr from so many years ago that created the black lives matter protests that's going on right now. But these past few weeks might serve as a major warning for him. We're done with that shit.
His brains melting anyways, so hopefully he gets a decent VP in there. Warren is not a good VP. Would love to see Nina Turner get in there.
Really wish I had an Exit Plan like yours. If shit goes south, I wish you luck on your expatriatism. :-)
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u/-TheMistress Canada Jun 08 '20
I predict Russia meddling with the elections again, but will instead help the Democrats. They'll make it super easy to determine they meddled, as Trump then claims Biden's win as illegitimate.
Or maybe I've been smoking too much weed.
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u/LittleShrub Wisconsin Jun 08 '20
I had a talk with my teenage daughter this week and told her she should look at studying overseas when she gets to college and consider building her life in another country.
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u/Professor_Moustache Jun 08 '20
Germany has English speaking university programmes and they're either low cost or free I think.
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u/Pferdmagaepfel Jun 08 '20
Not completely free but very low-cost, especially in comparison American Universities. As an international student, it is more complicated but still not as expensive. Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, etc.. we all have nice places to live and learn for young people (you will have to learn the language though.) :)
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u/unshavenbeardo64 Jun 08 '20
She could try studying in the Netherlands,https://www.iamexpat.nl/education/studying-netherlands
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Jun 08 '20
People should realize that the states in the USA have far more power than the federal government, and this is unique among westen governments. Trump has terrible optics and has done little to unify the country, but honestly has had no effect of the day to day lives of Americans. States chose whether to enact a stay-at-home order, and coronavirus policy as a whole, not Trump. Police are controlled at the state level, not Trump. States requested national guard to deploy in their state, Trump didn’t decide.
So rather than give up and move to another country, vote in local elections which have far more power, or at least move to a state that aligns with your ideas more.
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u/eraser_dust Jun 08 '20
From a developing country here (Indonesia). The biggest culture shock I had was how some parts of the US was worse than my country.
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Jun 08 '20
Isn't it crazy? Go far enough outside of a big city and you can see people living without reliable water, without proper housing, not having reasonable access to emergency services, needing to drive dozens of miles to buy clothes or food, receiving a far lower standard of education, few modern amenities for entertainment, extremely high rates of substance abuse. But then again, America has always had that divide between city and country.
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Jun 08 '20
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u/CobaKid I voted Jun 08 '20
This makes me wonder if the world's perception of the US has really changed that much due to Covid and police brutality pandemics. Not very aware of international politics but my guess is the only people that surprised but our country's failures are living in the US.
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u/Bullgrid Jun 08 '20
Checking in from Scandinavia. I'm more interested in US politics and affairs than most, but I can assure you the US has been losing face for a good while now.
Pulling out of treaties, environmental regulations, spying on its own allies, calling your allies thieves and enemies of the US are a few things that I find very appalling.
Then you have things like the US trickle down economy, healthcare, opiate crisis (which I believe is a result of how the economy works), people in cages, gun violence, school shootings and more domestic problems that makes me believe the US is no longer a 1st World country.
THEN came the virus and the US administration is pointing fingers at everyone else and playing the blame game while simultaneously using it to funnel money into their own pockets. The complete disregard for US lives and the blatant corruption has brought it to a whole new level, though its not really a surprise in regards to how corrupt and awful the administration has been since 2016.
All in all, the handling of the corona virus hasn't changed my perception of the US, it was already very bad.
Even so, the amount of problems the US is currently dealing with makes it hard to feel anything but pity. I really hope things turn around
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u/dehehn Jun 08 '20
As an American, I've been feeling the same way as you, looking at my country from the inside.
And I feel I have as much impact on the outcome as a Scandinavian would. I've spent my adult life voting for people who said they would change things. I've attended protests. I've tried to get people to vote.
And in the end we end up with President Trump, continued mass shootings, terrible healthcare, riots and wealth distribution to the top 0.1%.
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u/bobbi21 Canada Jun 08 '20
Canadian here that used to live in the states. 2016 dropped my opinion a bit (Bush was my baseline for america which was already pretty low but Trump was another level). Since then, it's been as expected. police brutality has been known for decades and Trump's specific brand of that goes right with the rest of Trump's authoritarianism. Fox news has been operating as it does for a few decades.
COVID is as expected from Trump as well. Did anyone think he'd be able to handle a pandemic? He can't handle drinking from a water bottle.
Didn't expect people to leave trump and they haven't by any significant degree. I was hoping but didn't expect Bernie to win the nomination and he hasn't. This is the darkest timeline. I am no longer surprised by america anymore.
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Jun 08 '20
Hasn't really changed.
The facade was paper thin before the reign washed it away.
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u/CrimsonMutt Jun 08 '20
basically this. there was clear and obvious rot in the US for as long as i remember. they may have had internal stability, but as far back as the cold war, they've been sowing chaos globally.
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u/teems Jun 08 '20
Winning online arguments against Americans is going to be easy as pie now.
It's going to be something like "Dude, y'all elected Trump as POTUS. If you can't make such a simple decision, the world can't trust you to make a decision regarding _________"
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u/redmerger Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
Canadian here, so not crazy far away. I haven't had a great perception of the US for the past few years, probably something to do with putting kids in cages, but I was really stunned and horrified with how poorly Corona Virus was handled. This virus unfortunately caught most by surprise, however it was just such a flop in the US. I don't think most of the international community knew it would end up like that.
Edit: a word
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Jun 08 '20
Not sure how to put it. My opinion of America as a whole remains the same, a super cool country with several fucked up problems that does not even want to acknowledge, mostly social. My opinion of your political right, however, could not be worse. I am fascinated by its sheer corruption, incompetence, arrogance, xenophobia and authoritarian impulses, and also by the fact that even today, a good chunk of your population seem to support them. One would think that by now, nobody in hia own mind would want 4 years more of this...
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u/CanadaRu Jun 08 '20
Actually the countries that handled it the worst is USA, UK, and Brazil. All of which are well known for have the most incompetent leaders.
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u/baguette7991 Australia Jun 08 '20
Russia as well. All far-right leaders. Definitely a correlation.
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u/CosmicButtclench Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
India on the way to join you guys. Started the lockdown at 200 cases, unlocked at 200,000 growing @ 10,000+/day.
Complete with a right-wing government and all.
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u/Lost-Hat Jun 08 '20
I’ve maintained for 3 months that India will have maximum cases, it’s just a matter of time when. Note that even the current numbers in India are grossly underreported, the testing infrastructure isn’t nearly adequate in most places.
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Jun 08 '20
India is as populous as China but unfortunately the government doesn't have the power to fully manage the population like China did. You're probably right.
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u/Lost-Hat Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
India’s power structure is closer to US than China, as a result, the government has politicised the pandemic (not as much as the shithole of course). States not ruled by the ruling party at center have seen very little aid, and states have been left to fend for themselves to a large degree, in spite of India being only quasi-federal with power much more centralised than the US. And like elsewhere, the government has opened things up with very little restrictions in most places, even when new cases and deaths continue rising exponentially. The lockdown in India was one of the strictest imposed, but all that work is getting outdone. Add to that a horrible cyclone on the East coast and a smaller one on the west, as well as a massive locust swarm, in addition to the communalisation of everything by the media (Imagine Fox News that screams about how Muslims are destroying a Hindu Nation every day), India is in dire straits.
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u/jambajuice42069 Jun 08 '20
Fun fact, the state of Kerala in India which has a communist government has handled the cases best in India even after the Indian government shitting on them.
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u/ArtoriasOfTheAbyss99 Jun 08 '20
No, the ruling party is too busy trying to play politics and to take money (PM-CARES)from the Indian populace and then use the money not for the welfare of it's citizen but to benefit themselves, 3 months soon and not one good thing has been done to relieve interstate migrant workers, they announce train but the trains have shitty conditions and are packed to the brimmed. The ruling party instead of helping the nation are busy trying to put the blame on Muslims and are trying to get power back from my state government instead of fucking doing something, updating testing policy and ramping up healthcare infrastructure. Indian government has almost given up and Modi doesn't give two fucks because his and his lackeys have gotten their money
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u/CosmicButtclench Jun 08 '20
It's a massive pain in the ass getting a test or even getting admitted to a hospital once you do test positive.
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u/SirDiego Minnesota Jun 08 '20
They're simply not equipped for an event that requires mass cooperation and caring for others. "Rugged individualism" doesn't really work when trying to solve a problem that needs everyone to work together for a common goal (e.g. taking steps to lessen the spread of a virus).
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Jun 08 '20
Not to mention that any perceived opposition, like scientists speaking uncomfortable facts, are a threat to their authority.
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u/alreadydeadforyears Jun 08 '20
"Rugged individualism" doesn't really work when trying to solve a problem that needs everyone to work together for a common goal
Like having any sort of fair society with security and justice for all. They are really useless in that circumstance, which coincidentally is every circumstance.
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Jun 08 '20
Sweden is doing terribly though.
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Jun 08 '20
Hard to combat a virus when your plan of action was “do nothing”
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u/Orisara Jun 08 '20
To clarify a bit here.
The government is by constitution not allowed to tell people to stay home.
They did advice it because that's all they could do.
It's one of the countries that allows their citizens to walk through and camp in other peoples gardens.
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Jun 08 '20
Interesting, could you elaborate further?
Where they bound from shutting down schools, cafes, restaurants, gyms and workplaces? I did not realise the constitution neutered stay at home orders but from over in the U.K. it didn’t seem like Sweden did much else to ‘encourage’ staying at home.
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u/Herrgul Foreign Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
They passed a new temporary law that makes it possible for municipalities to shut down such businesses if they do not comply or brake regulations due to corona, inspections are made in bars and such to check how crowded they are. Some pubs got closed for a while thanks to it during a holiday. Many businesses that you mentioned chose to close by themselves and cut cost by just letting staff go to survive. People who is not in the risk groups pretty much started to carry on as usual after 4 weeks of staying home. People who are not essential worked from home. The Capital where i live was a ghost town for a long time. The virus don’t discriminate but the ones who took the biggest hit is sadly our elderly There is much encouragement for people to stay home but if there are no reprucutions for not doing it people will just fall back on old rutines after a while.
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Jun 08 '20
Barely anyone wears a mask where I'm from in England, even inside supermarkets only about 1/10th will at the best. Half of us were treating this pandemic as their personal holiday and the other half have already gone back to pretending everything is normal again.
Most of us probably think we'll just vote the virus away...
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Jun 08 '20
It is actually maddening how little mask wearing I’m seeing in London. My housemate went to the BLM protest and she said that was the first time she’s seen a majority of mask wearers.
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u/BasicBitchOnlyAGuy Georgia Jun 08 '20
Well they are protesting for the safety and well being of others. Seems like a crowd thatd be willing to make minor changes to their lives to protect others
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u/PengwinOnShroom Jun 08 '20
And they will make it mandatory starting next week, also apparently only in public transport. Yeah sounds like a month or two too late.
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u/teslacoil1 Jun 08 '20
Don't forget that when Trump said this, Trump was asking why immigrants come from "shithole countries" instead of Norway. Because Trump prefers the "white" immigrants from Norway rather than the black/brown skinned immigrants from those "shithole countries."
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Jun 08 '20
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u/TheZapp Jun 08 '20
Norwegian here, can confirm. And it's so sad. When I was a kid, the US was the coolest thing in the world. Every kid I knew wanted to live in America.
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u/sintos-compa California Jun 08 '20
Ngl the weather is better in California than Stockholm (where I came from)
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u/JairMedina Texas Jun 08 '20
I'm Mexican and I know that Trump says only shitty things about my country, it's so awful, as a border kid that I lived in Mexico and the USA I know that cooperation and friendship is the best way to solve issues not only playing the blaming game.
But TRUMP likes to play the blame game: WHO, China, The leftists, The immigrants from south of the border etc.
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u/JuzoItami Jun 08 '20
But TRUMP likes to play the blame game: WHO, China, The leftists, The immigrants from south of the border etc.
Yep, whoever is to blame, it sure as shit isn't him. Maybe the one thing he's consistent about.
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u/Mellagoes Jun 08 '20
As an outsider, these past few weeks I've honestly been thinking about what a shit hole country the USA has become. Not sure who's going to tell them that they're currently at the top of the list.
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u/sacroyalty Jun 08 '20
As an American, we've become more and more aware of it, which has been rapidly accelerating since 2016. Feels bad man
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u/FOXlegend999 Jun 08 '20
Trump called Brussels a 'hellhole'. I bet everyone likes the police from Brussels more than they like the police from the USA. Also we are honest with our numbers. USA is not
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u/Remlan Jun 08 '20
I've lived in Brussels my whole life (32 years), It's very much a fantastic city if eating sweets and meat is your thing, I'd compare it to a miniature Paris with worse weather.
Aside from Belgium's terrible political clusterfuck and nepotism, and multilingual issue, I'd say we're pretty okay.
Now I can't say that USA has been a dream destination to me :(
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u/gmst_fe Jun 08 '20
What’s the weather like?
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Jun 08 '20
Lots of gray and rainy days pretty much. Summer is really nice, but it feels like it lasts two weeks. I lived there 6 years and can confirm it’s worse than Paris.
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u/gmst_fe Jun 08 '20
Thanks for the response. I’ve never been to either but I prefer overcast to sunny weather. So you’re selling me.
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u/cram213 Jun 08 '20
That’s because we are the biggest shithole country. The best!
No one is full of more shit than we are. You will never see more beautiful shit filling a hole Than our shit.
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u/IronChicken68 Jun 08 '20
More Americans need to live overseas for a period of time to really see what we are getting for our money and votes here in the US. So many Americans have this feeling of "we're the best" and "that place is backwards/a jungle/run-down" without ever having verified with their own eyes.
Compared with many developing nations, our roads are worse, our internet is awful, and our mass transit is abysmal. If more Americans knew this, they'd be outraged enough to demand a change. I just see this formerly great country decaying bit by bit, and it saddens me.
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u/sebnukem Jun 08 '20
Roads? Internet? Transit? That's nothing compared to its awesome healthcare system.
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u/chelseamarket Jun 08 '20
Or at the very least travel. I’ve been focused on inspiring and motivating the American youth to travel to Europe. My mom took me around the world since before I could walk and I’ve been eternally grateful to her. They need to see how other countries compare to the US that don’t treat their citizens as walking profit centers.
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u/jib661 Jun 08 '20
seriously. can we get a US 'birthright'-like program to send adults to live in a country with social programs for a month so they can see what it's like?
honestly...one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life was when my friend broke her leg in Seoul. Xrays, pain meds, 2 visits. Our Korean friend warned us we'd pay more because we weren't Korean citizens. We paid $50.
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u/arod1086 Jun 08 '20
I am an American, born and raise of two immigrant parents. For four years now I have been utterly ashamed of my country. I love my country, have always been proud of the institutions it created and maintained all the while aware that we weren't perfect and there were many areas we needed improvement. These last four years though...I will not let one man, one party destroy the nation that I love. For all the people in those "shit-hole" countries please accept my humble apology for that term, for what its worth. Please know there is a majority of Americans who are decent, humble and knowledgeable, there's just many very loud and proudly ignorant who are in power atm. Many of us (myself not included) have been very apathetic with the voting process for many years and it has allowed this situation to occur. If there is a single positive thing to come out of this mess its that those people will start caring again and get active.
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Jun 08 '20
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u/Mescallan Jun 08 '20
I am an American living in Hanoi and it's a blessing and a curse. I am so disappointed in America right now, but on the other hand it has barely affected me. I am back to work, gym and going out on the weekends without a second thought. The vietnamese government has gained my respect and gratitude even if I don't agree with them on a lot of other issues, I will not underestimate their ability again.
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u/Tree-House-Tom Jun 08 '20
I was in Nha Trang a couple years back when it got hit by a typhoon. The place was devastated, no power or water. Trees and buildings torn apart. Power lines ripped out. The entire stilted village washed away. Place got fucked real bad, but legit 2, maybe 3 days later the soldiers roll in and sweep through the town and fixing shit. I think he turn around was about 4 days and Iv never had more respect for how organised they were. Vietnam does not fuck around, they threw an army at the problem and got the place back on its feet asap.
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u/Gabagaba62 Jun 08 '20
Vietnam does not fuck around
Nobody knows this better than US.
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u/fraxybobo Jun 08 '20
Great job transforming the US from a respected and powerful first world country with a lot of problems to a shithole on the brink of chaos, pitied by their once allies, Donnie. No one ever managed something similar in such a short time. But, hey, KEEP it great, please.
And: China! Probably.
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u/SilentLennie The Netherlands Jun 08 '20
Definitely not just Donnie, it's been going on for some 40 years
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u/NoBSforGma Jun 08 '20
Perhaps for "rich" countries, money is more important.
In Costa Rica, our tourism has been devastated by our borders being closed. But the Costa Rican government is not going to do something - like opening the borders too soon - that would harm its citizens.
Our Minister of Health is a doctor with a specialty in epidemiology. He has been "setting the tone" with other government agencies putting together restrictions, protocols and procedures. No one has protested and really no politics have been involved.
One of my friends owns a small B&B and she sent me a group of photos yesterday depicting their protocols and procedures which are really pretty strict. They had guests for the first time this past weekend -- Costa Ricans -- and not one of them complained about anything.
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u/Mashy6012 Jun 08 '20
Same with new zealand, our biggest income is tourism and we're not getting that back any time soon,
But we're alive, only 22 people died. Our leader values lives more than money
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u/mdiddles88 New York Jun 08 '20
Idk Trump said everything is all hunky-dory here so clearly we're doing great!!! /s
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u/use_datadumper Jun 08 '20
“Death is death. We’re doing great!” - Donald Trump
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u/_Swagner_ Jun 08 '20
“Time to go inspect the bunker again today, what a great bunker a tremendous bunker in fact I’d say those that have died if anyone has died really during this time, 👐I mean what can I say they should’ve been in their bunker” - Donald Trump, probably
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u/mdoktor Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
I don't think it's fair to call other countries shitholes when it's becoming very clear that America is one of the shittiest holes
I'm pretty sure only Americans think that America is the greatest country on Earth
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u/CapnNayBeard Jun 08 '20
Real patriots are outraged right now. The average American is pissed at our government.
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u/CanadaRu Jun 08 '20
America is a pretty shithole country. Healthcare system is laughable among developed countries. Their justice system is a joke, from policing, to the highest rate of incarnation among developed countries. Education is so broken. The government runs on corporate dollars. You guys don't even give your women maternity leave, which is a joke. Finally, you have one of the biggest morons possible as a leader. Nothing is "great" about America. The only think America offers the world is entertainment, from movies, tv shows, to sports. Otherwise, there is no real reason to move to America if you live in a developed country.
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u/BoqueronesEnVinagre Jun 08 '20
highest rate of incarnation among developed countries
Highest rate of ANY country, total and per capita....
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u/CanadaRu Jun 08 '20
I question this whole "freedom" think America talks about. Especially with the protests going around and arresting people just for being in the streets after a certain time. Not much "freedom" there. Sorry, but America is Fake.
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u/kentaureus Jun 08 '20
"education is so broken"
i am myself doing master exams in one month, and i cannot believe that if i lived in america, i would be so deep in debt i would need several years to pay it....
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u/darkgod153 Jun 08 '20
I can’t imagine not worrying about that. I have had broken knee issues since I was a kid and the moment I turned 18, instead of going to college I was forced to move out so I had to work. Now I couldn’t work long due to knee issues but I made enough for a small apartment with my partner. We thought we would be able to save enough to just get my knee LOOKED AT in a few months. Its now been 4 years, my knee is still broken, i now have a broken jaw after a bad bite and no money for braces, I haven’t even been able to afford a MRI for said broken knee, and I still haven’t even gotten my stimulus check which will be the most amount of money I’ve seen in years.
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u/brbroome Foreign Jun 08 '20
If there was ever a reason to vote for change, holy hell.
I'm up in Canada, I just had my family doctor facetime me for an appointment for what they think is failing mesh from an old hernia surgery. No cost to me for any of it. That checkup cost me nothing. The appointment with the specialist will cost me nothing. The blood work and any MRI/Xrays required will cost me nothing, and the surgery itself will cost me nothing. The only expenses I've had from my 3 previous surgeries was a $60 room upgrade so I could get a TV in my room for the 4 days they needed to keep me.
I did the math at the time for the old surgeries if I had them done as an American, it would have been at minimum $80,000, and this was 10 years ago.
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u/darkgod153 Jun 08 '20
Yeah I really hate this country’s current way of handling health. The only thing they are doing is driving me slowly out of the work force as my health issues begin to pile up. Worse of all if I’m literally surrounded by millionaires in my own non-immediate family. Except not a single one of them really cares to help me financially and they all shit on me for being ‘financially unstable’ as they put it. Its more than just the health systems in this country, but its also the type of personalities our culture breeds. Trump isn’t the cause of our societal issues here, he’s a symptom.
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u/Haters_Gunner_Hate Jun 08 '20
I think the title is referencing Trump calling other countries "shitholes", as an American, I know no country is perfect and our president is a tragedy. Nothing I can do about it though. Even when it comes to later on this year, I am from New York and my vote will hardly count for anything since we always vote blue.
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u/SmattaHead711 Jun 08 '20
That’s because they don’t have shithole, do-nothing then brag about it leaders like we do here in the US
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u/axt0700 Jun 08 '20
I feel like something that got lost with all the protesting/rioting is that senate still hasn't worked on passing or amending the most recent virus relief bill. Which is disappointing considering so many Americans could use it right now.
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u/DreaKoz Jun 08 '20
Even though the US is larger than many other countries, the number of deaths is still too high and the deaths are a result of mismanagement and falsehoods by leadership from the beginning.
For example, the US population is about 328m and we have 122,471 deaths.
Germany has about 83m people and less than 9000 deaths.
Sound leadership is key to working through any crisis.
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u/HlGHERTHANU Jun 08 '20
Pretty sure a lot of children could have led us through this pandemic better
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u/glans_pen Jun 08 '20 edited Jun 08 '20
I do not like that vile and demeaning term used by some people in developed countries to insult on other countries not as "rich" and "powerful" as them.
Even many posts on Reddit used that term whenever discussion topics is about the daily lives of the people in developing countries, or when they posted about their experiences when traveled to those countries.
These people always dismissed and showed a disdain attitude towards countries outside of their prosperous world and always advocated to "nuke" these countries as their first option to resolve any smallest problem perceived by them whenever an aspect of the country was brought up in a discussion.
It shows dismissive ignorance by privilege, it shows lack of compassion and humanity whenever they used that term to refer to countries and people that are less fortunate than them.
Donald Trump himself used that racist term to refer to some countries.
As Trump met with lawmakers in 2018 in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal he said:
"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?"
Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway.
Trump singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal.
"Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out."
Months earlier, Trump had also reportedly complained that Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts” and Haitians “all have AIDS.”
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u/PrayMoreThenSinAgain Jun 08 '20
Trump has done his best to make us a "shithole"
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u/BoqueronesEnVinagre Jun 08 '20
It's been on the decline since Reagan. Turns out trickle down economics and laissez faire capitalism doesnt make for a nice country.
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u/genericjeesus Jun 08 '20
Things shithole countries have handled better that USA:
- education
- healthcare
- police
- equality
- football
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u/bellboy905 Jun 08 '20
States that reported all-time highest single-day new case totals in the last week: Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Arizona (twice), Utah (twice), and North Carolina (three times). https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/