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Weirdest thing for me was when I recently listened to a radio program where an expert in Vietnamese culture and history talked about the Vietnam War and how the Vietnamese feel and think about the American part of it and almost universally they are all like “meh, we have dealt with worse”

Meanwhile it seems like the American consciousness think of the Vietnam War as almost a national scar akin to 9/11.

It is of course a simplification of what was talked about in that program, but it really stuck with me how over it the Vietnamese were because they have dealt with injustices far worse than that war and besides America became their ally later so why even worry about that?

Really shows you the differences in mindset. Americans hold on to the past like it’s a lifeline while most other places we kinda just deal with shit and move on. I for one hold no grudges against Germany and my country has mostly forgotten or moved on from occupations and other historical wars because there were so many of those and everybody fought everybody in Europe back in the day so whatever man. Moving on. We technically have a tradition where we are supposed to put candles in the windows on the day we were freed from the Germans. My dad is old enough to remember that day and how people ran through the street with our flag and yelled “the Germans have surrendered”.

But today most people forget to put candles in the windows and life has moved on. We do remember what the war was and what it meant, but we just don’t feel the need to hold on to it like that.

If ww2 had happened to America the same way it happened to Europe, they would have made it they whole identity and pissed and moaned about it still. We would never hear the end of it. Instead they got to spend a few decades gloating about how awesome they were and how they saved the world from the nazis, lol.

“You would all speak German right now if it wasn’t for us” completely ignoring the fact that a good number of European countries speak German and a many others learn German in school for practical reasons.

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outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Part of it is americans cant cope with losing, because they are overwhelmingly little bitches.

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- interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I feel like fragility and dominance go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly. Somehow both perpetrator and victim.
  
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  - outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Well, its kind of my favorite thing about sociopaths: when theyre shitty and abusive, they dont usually need to contrive a justification. So few of them need to say ‘no, that horrible thing i did was good actually’ even if they’re more likely to start doing horrible shit. It’s why i say theyre typically better people than americans.
    
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  - supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    like Boeing and Aviation Malpractice :)
    
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- supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  if you want proof check my comment history assholes
  
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Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Meanwhile it seems like the American consciousness think of the Vietnam War as almost a national scar akin to 9/11.

That’s because it was the first widely televised war we had ever seen plus it was right in the middle of the Civil rights movement. So a war we lost during a major era of change that influenced American attitudes about warfare and civil rights. It left internal scars

Really shows you the differences in mindset. Americans hold on to the past like it’s a lifeline while most other places we kinda just deal with shit and move on.

Well the majority of ppl who remember the Vietnam War are still alive. Considering veterans from Vietnam have health complications from agent orange no one is forgetting anytime soon. Western Europe hasn’t had a major war in almost 80 years

If ww2 had happened to America the same way it happened to Europe, they would have made it they whole identity and pissed and moaned about it still. We would never hear the end of it.

This is just a long winded attempt to complain about Americans. Europeans are exactly the same as Americans. You both carry a smug sense of superiority. The only difference is Americans are louder about it. Just look at attitudes about the war in Ukraine or whenever there’s a terrorist attack in western Europe compared to anywhere in the global south. Both act like they’re the center of the world. Plus its kinda hard to gloat about 2 World Wars that you started in the first place. Only reason it was a world war in the first place is because Europeans felt so superior that they went around colonizing everyone because they were better than everyone else and forced them to get involved

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- outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  i bet Vietnamese actual veterans woukd be more bitter
  
  From what I’ve heard; no. Remember: a lot of these guys fought the french, a lot of the officers and old hands had fought the japanese. This was not their first go around with imperialist shit heads.
  
  Americans genuinely cannot cope with losing. Especially to communists who didn’t all have shoes.
  
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- Vinstaal0@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Grouping Europe (or America) together as one can be corrupt in some situations, but I don’t believe it is accurate to mention the entire of Europe when talking about colonisation. There is a big part of the continent of Europe that never had anything to do with colonisation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colonies
  
  You are right that Europeans and American’s are very similar in some areas, for one that might have to do with the fore mentioned colonisation of America. Heck America has been doing a digital take over of the world, which Europeans are just (or a couple years ago) realising it is in our best interest ot create our own alternatives.
  
  But there are tons of differences as well, for one, that America is a country and Europe is a continent. Which isn’t even all united. The EU only has 27 states and a couple that want to be, while Europe has 51 countries. That is not that important when talking about culture, to be fair. You can see a lot of cultural differences when looking into company culture, work ethics, how people pay, sharing meals/receipts or things like sports, but also on the sense of the military and how nationalistic people are. All of the above are also different between different European countries, some might have similar things regarding sports or things that are centrally arranged like payment methods/platforms, but others are vastly different between countries. The Fresh are generally a very nationalistic people, while the Dutch are more or less the opposite.
  
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  - supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    Heck America has been doing a digital take over of the world, which Europeans are just (or a couple years ago) realising it is in our best interest ot create our own alternatives
    
    I would be remiss as someone who wants to love computers to not for the record state that most people in the US are just realizing or haven’t realized it yet.
    
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Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
We in Europe have a history spanning thousands of years, so we can be generous with it. We all have learned our lessons, and the point that keeping a grouch is pointless is one of them. The US has, in comparison, basically no history, so they kling to what they have.

I remember a couple of American tourists getting off a tourist ship in Cologne. Them, having no clue where they were, they asked “What is this building?”, and we told them that this is the Cologne Cathedral, and it is 750 years old (yes, this was a few years ago). Their reply: “No building can be that old!”…

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- supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  so they *kkkling to what they have.
  
  :(
  
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InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

“You would all speak German right now if it wasn’t for us”

I’ve heard similar about Spanish. Just more xenophobic attitudes.

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