Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
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Gasoline prices are heavily subsidized in the US, the gas price you complain about is cheap compared to other countries.
Most "third world" or "developing" countries aren't that bad, and there are places in the US far worse than the median developing country.
Also most people in most places do not want to go to the US, even to visit much less immigrate. It's generally either the worst of a particular society or those specifically harmed by the US previously and feel their chances are better off with the abuser instead of in the abused country. It's not a wanted destination.
Trump has a famous line whining about America only getting immigrants from the "shithole countries". Wonder why, dude.
This was a MASSIVE eye opening shock to me. You watch NCIS or any pro military show and they'll pan to Baghdad or anything middle east and you'll see crumbling buildings or warzone with a sepia filter. I was got smacked when I saw a real skyline photo of Baghdad, and istanbul, and most cities. Our media is dead set on continuing the thought of these empty deserts
We can't understand how millions can vote for a senile, convicted sexual predator as president....
Dude half of us don't understand it either.
It's amazing what decades of defunding education will do when you mix it with a healthy dose of conservative talk show TV and social media algorithms.
Universal health care is better than whatever you have, for 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time. And it always was. And always will be.
Needing two jobs to survive isn't a good thing.
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...
Affordable healthcare
Public transit
Civilian oversight
Prisoner rehabilitation
Universal income
Free education
Separation of religion and state
Wealth taxes
Law enforcement accountability
Environmental regulations…
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.
For millions of United States Americans, the so called "American Dream" is achieved in Mexico. They're often illegal immigrants. They often have mental health problems. They gentrify our cities and are entitled as fuck.
Pot calling kettle and all, but I do wish they'd go back to their own shithole country. They have demonized my country for decades and have weaponized the cartels to feed their own addictions. Most of the problems here can be tied directly to their humongous drug problems.
Yankee go home. The United Mexican States is tired of your shit.
The level of nonsensical nationalist propaganda in the US is maybe only second to North Korea's.
Despite his severe back problems, Luigi mangione is the only one of you who has a backbone.
Yes, you really need to rewrite that constitution of yours and declaring something "unconstitutional" doesn't win you an argument, it makes you look like a brainwashed idiot. Just saying.
As an American, I'm gonna barge in with my loud opinion, 'cuz that's what we do. Here's something which people living elsewhere might not know that Americans aren't ready to hear:
Automobiles are luxury toys and fashion accessories, and we shouldn't base our entire lives on them. No, the car industry didn't make our economy strong; it took off after we already had a lot of extra wealth to burn after becoming a world economic powerhouse. We can't afford to keep wasting all that wealth on them as the world starts to burn, and half of our citizens sink into poverty.
A while ago I watched a live stream of CSPAN (I think?) where the House failed to form a government for several consecutive days. The way the entire process started with a prayer, and the many references to religion throughout, is just as disturbing as the personality cult around Stalin. That whole gang is fucked in the head.
You wasted your chance as a hyper-power. The Soviet Union had fallen and the world was essentially yours but you did nothing with it. Now India and China are rising powers and you are going back to being a regular super-power.
The USA is neither the best country nor the worst country. It's just one of the countries.
Your traffic laws are weird.
-
Overtaking/passing on the right
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4 way stops and whoever comes first can go
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No strict right of way when coming from the right
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Right on red
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Grinding all traffic in all directions over multiple lanes to a stop when a school bus stops
At least the last one I can understand a little with the nearly non-existent pedestrian infrastructure.
Credit scores only exist in the US. Everywhere else just compares your income to your debt.
Edit: apparently there are several other countries with credit scoring systems. The more you know... The US system, at least, is still bullshit designed to stratify economic class not only individually but by gender and with generational impact.
Here's one from the Middle East: Fuck your veterans. Y'all were right when you were calling Vietnam vets baby killers, and Afghanistan and Iraq weren't much better. And here's a corollary: Get the fuck out of the Middle East.
Not everything is awful in the US.
Lately I've heard a lot of Americans talk like their country is the worst place in the world. While you do have problems, being grateful for the positive things is also important.
US was founded on Capitalism and is a basket case of rampant Greedy Capitalism, Slavery, War Profiteering and Bullying. It has always been the case and has never stopped. Ever since the British tried stopping George Washington from usurping American Indians' land. The lofty ideals were mere veneer.
The only thing that has changed is that there are many more players in the field and US' shortcomings as a modern society is getting apparent.
Humanity is doomed because of America. Your anti-environmental capitalism and rapacious foreign policy have altered the world in an entirely negative way, and the only realistic scenario for the US to cut this shit out is by losing a war to a major competitor, such as China. China is hugely flawed itself, but is the less harmful option imo.
Not everything on Lemmy is US specific.
[email protected] shouldn't be limited to US politics. Same for [email protected]
Edit: from the sidebar
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Please make US specific communities like [email protected] more active instead of bringing your local issues to every community
All of your sitcoms are crap. The same recycled gags over and over. Unpleasant people who hate each other snarking, saying "oh my god" and then explaining their jokes.
Drastically reduction of guns WILL save your kids lives at school. But not "muh outdated rights from centuries ago".
Btw I'm not against guns, military and officers should have "easy" access to them.