Comment on Is America Really That Bad?

mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• partyparrot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • imaqtpie@communick.news ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    How many other countries have you been to?

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• justinw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Our tap water is in crisis. What hasn’t been privatized is either being operated with outdated technology, or being polluted, and EPA protections are being weakened by the Supreme Court.

  And, in most of America there aren’t freely available public restrooms. They are all located in businesses that will outright deny you access, or force you to make a purchase. Their policies allow them to discriminate against the unhoused, and the disabled.

  I am an American, but I’m not going into I get into the broader discussion here, just had to respond to your two points, as they don’t seem grounded in reality.

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  • mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    You just walk into a starbucks or a gas station. They’re all in businesses, but saying you have to make a purchase is straight up false.

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    • guangming@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Even when you CAN do this, it’s usually because the employees are either kind enough or inattentive enough to let you do this. And if you are clearly unhoused or poor, your chances of being able to do this are much, much lower than if you can fit in in a middle class white area. (Restaurants with predominantly poor clientele or many homeless people nearby tend to be much stricter about this.)

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      • ChronosWing@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Starbucks is iffy but I’ve traveled nearly every state and never once have I been to a gas station that required a purchase to use the restroom.

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    • EhList@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That depends on the state/municipality. In my hometown there were zero public bathrooms available. That’s since changed because only really wealthy boomers can afford homes there so more businesses have them.

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• Widowmaker_Best_Girl@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Thank you for the actual sane take. I swear people on Lemmy are actually worse than Redditors when it comes to shitting on America. It is extremely obnoxious.

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  • mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Well it’s a much larger EU crowd on here so yeah

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  • applejacks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    yea, finding out that lemmy is actually more insufferable than reddit in a lot of aspects.

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  • bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Blame the tankies

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  • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    As an American, they are usually right.

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    • applejacks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      self loathing americans are even more annoying

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      • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You misspelled “introspective people who aren’t oblivious jackasses”

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• stergro@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  A good way to get an impression about real america as an outsider is to follow smaller hobbyist YouTubers from middle sized towns. One guy from Michigan I follow has a remarkable boring life that’s completely different from every American stereotype.

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• justinw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Furthermore, what part of the country are you living in that leads you to believe we are less racist than other countries!? Our racism has defined our country ever since it was created.

  Seriously, I am curious what part of the country you live in? It is sheltered from most American realities

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  • mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If you think I’m denying racism, you read that comment incredibly wrong. I’m saying in comparison to other coutnries.

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    • justinw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Your point was that we’re better because we talk about it.

      All over the country legislatures are banning books, and curriculums that even mention racism. It isn’t an isolated incident either.

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    • kilgore_trout@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I agree with you on the exaggeration of racism.

      I don’t think you bring valid points to why the United States are better than portrayed, but nonetheless believe so myself.

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  • HeavyTwenty@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I look asian. I experienced more racism traveling through Europe for 6 weeks than I have living 15 years in the US (primarily Atlanta and Jacksonville). Most of the time it came from drunk assholes.

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• pascal@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  As an European, I was tempted to downvote you. But not because your very valid points but because you started your whole speech by stating defensively that only people who never been to the US tell bad stuff about America, that’s unfair.

  I have relatives in the US and I’ve been there for several occasions. Except the midwest and Texas, I’ve been in most of the States and, it’s true, America is like 50 different countries.

  But on average, what I can say is that I love interacting with Americans, speaking with them it’s like talking with some old friends, even in NYC (known by other Americans for being very un-american) I found friendlier people than in my home country. Kind of ironic that the only bad chats with Americans happened online.

  I’ll skip about the tap water, it’s probably excellent, but to me born and raised in Switzerland, it always tasted like bleach, probably because of the added fluorine, I don’t know. It’s still better than tap water in UK, Turkey and half Europe and by far safer than most of Asia and Africa.

  Finally, visiting America as a tourist is great, and I dreamed of living there as a child, but as an adult, I feel safer and more taken care in Europe, both from a healthcare point and from labour safety. But I live in a privileged country, if I lived anywhere else in the world, I would still chase the “American dream”.

  What really saddens me about America, while the people are great, the nature is amazing and the spaces are immense, is that is governed by corporations and bribes and make shows like House of Cards a documentary.

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• kurap1ka@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Was there, several times, all corners. Sorry to tell you, but your tap water smells like chlorine.

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  • Gold_Tea@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ve lived in several states and visited over 20. LA has the worst tap water, but most places are pretty good. Larger cities tend to taste worse than medium cities and rural places.

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  • mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    no it doesn’t lol

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    • kurap1ka@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It does, but you might not notice it since you’re exposed to the smell/taste all the time. But go abroad to Europe or some other place that doesn’t use chlorine for drinkwater treatment and you’d be surprised when you get back how noticeable it is.

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    • nodrod@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’d say it’s hit or miss on tap water. Depends where you live and how the utilities company handles their water purification. Take Flint, MI for example.

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  • EhList@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That isn’t true everywhere but absolutely is true in some locales.

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  • qjkxbmwvz@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Grew up on rural well water. Tastes great, a bit hard. Now I drink Hetch Hetchy’s finest. Tastes pretty good. (My grandma’s water was another story.)

    We have one federal government, yes, but painting all of the US with the same brush is naive at best.

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  • pascal@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Same, I’m used to Swiss tap water (I know, sounds like cheating) and the water in America always smells like bleach. You have to get used to it, it’s probably because of the added fluorine. It’s still safe to drink. Can’t say the same in other countries around the world. Even in Germany and Italy, that’s Europe, you should avoid drinking from the tap.

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    • embit@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s quite safe to drink from the tap in Germany.

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      • pascal@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        In houses, yes. But public fountains I’ve found in Germany have often the sign Kein Drinkwasser on them. Meanwhile in Switzerland, almost every public fountain is 100% safe to drink.

        Things maybe have changed in the recent years, I see you’re on a German instance and I guess you’re German, so I trust your statement more than mine as a foreigner.

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• ZombieTheZombieCat@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There’s a lot of Americans who aren’t having a great time here. I don’t think negative commentary about the US is one hundred percent Europeans’ fault. Nor is it just that we’re “vocal” about things, which is really a positive since it’s the only way to create change anyway.

  For example. I just saw a local news story that cops in a major SoCal city are arresting/citing/fining people for just…being homeless. They want them to go to shelters, but they admittedly don’t create enough shelter space. So it just becomes illegal for certain people to exist. The city gets pissy and aggressive about homelessness being a problem, when they’re the ones who created it and are the ones who refuse to fix it. Sure, give a homeless person a record so that it’s even harder for them to get jobs and approved for an apartment, and then fine them knowing they can’t pay it, resulting in doubling late fees that put them in debt. Sounds they really care about fixing the issue, great fucking job. But think about that - it’s against the law, it’s a crime, to not have a mortgage or rent payment. I’ve been hassled by cops for sitting in my own car in a grocery store parking lot. There is no public space. You have to buy something to be allowed to exist outside of a park, and in coastal places like SoCal, you have to pay to be in those too. And yes this was in one city, but it’s applicable to almost every major city in the US, even if there’s some variations in local laws. It’s just an example of how disposable human beings are here. The minute we don’t have labor to sell, the minute we stop consuming, we’re thrown the fuck away. And that’s not just an economic issue, it’s a cultural issue as well.

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