No, I’m not saying you can’t criticize America because you’re from another country. I’m saying you don’t get to sit on a moral pedestal while pretending your country is somehow above the same behavior.
Your country has participated in military interventions, surveillance, controversial policing, treatment of Indigenous peoples, immigration detention, and plenty of other policies that deserve criticism. Yet somehow America is uniquely evil while your country gets a pass. That’s selective outrage.
So yes, I’m going to defend my country when someone from another country spends their time lecturing Americans as if theirs is fundamentally different. It isn’t. The differences are often a matter of degree, not kind.
You can criticize America all you want. I have no issue with that. What I take issue with is the double standard. If you’re going to condemn the United States for something, then apply that exact same standard to your own country. If you don’t, then this isn’t about principles, it’s about your bias against America.
Don’t expect Americans to quietly nod along while foreigners endlessly dump on their country. We’re allowed to push back, we’re allowed to defend it, and we’re allowed to point out when the criticism comes from someone whose own country engages in many of the same practices they’re denouncing. If you don’t like being called out for that, the solution isn’t to tell Americans to stop defending their country, it’s to apply your standards consistently.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No, I’m not saying you can’t criticize America because you’re from another country. I’m saying you don’t get to sit on a moral pedestal while pretending your country is somehow above the same behavior.
Your country has participated in military interventions, surveillance, controversial policing, treatment of Indigenous peoples, immigration detention, and plenty of other policies that deserve criticism. Yet somehow America is uniquely evil while your country gets a pass. That’s selective outrage.
So yes, I’m going to defend my country when someone from another country spends their time lecturing Americans as if theirs is fundamentally different. It isn’t. The differences are often a matter of degree, not kind.
You can criticize America all you want. I have no issue with that. What I take issue with is the double standard. If you’re going to condemn the United States for something, then apply that exact same standard to your own country. If you don’t, then this isn’t about principles, it’s about your bias against America.
Don’t expect Americans to quietly nod along while foreigners endlessly dump on their country. We’re allowed to push back, we’re allowed to defend it, and we’re allowed to point out when the criticism comes from someone whose own country engages in many of the same practices they’re denouncing. If you don’t like being called out for that, the solution isn’t to tell Americans to stop defending their country, it’s to apply your standards consistently.