Is America Really That Bad?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Cannizzaro@feddit.ch⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Been seeing a lot about how the government passes shitty laws, lot of mass shootings and expensive asf health care. I come from a developing nation and we were always told how America is great and whatnot. Are all states is America bad ?

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art@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
There’s a lot of opportunities here. There’s a lot of money here. We also have a lot of racism and greed.

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Astroturfed@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The areas of the country that are in terrible poverty, with serious systemic issues, vote for the people who refuse to help them. They’re so proud of it, and being American, and own the most guns. They hate you for not being one of them. It’s a weird place to visit in all these areas.

If you live in a major metropolitan area, it’s fine. The country could have a much higher standard of living if we’d band together and get some labor rights and benefits codified. As a worker your treated better, and have more rights in every other western country.

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postmateDumbass@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
America is very nice if you do not really care about how your life negatively affects others.

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AnthoNightShift@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s not just America. It’s the whole world right now.

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- rich@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Well, I have free healthcare here in my country and no guns.
  
  But we do have stupid cunts as politicians enacting stupid fucking laws (like the online safety act)
  
  So eh, kind of.
  
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  - Barbarian@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I feel this in my bones. Different laws, different stupid shit, equally stupid politicians.
    
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ShooBoo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Every state has its good and bad. We are out of control with the gun thing. There is a higher chance you will get shot and killed while minding your own business in America than most other countries. We are selfish and not much unity unless you are on one side or there and even then, we have become stupid and gullible. We are violent. We are much more violent in general than anyone I have ever encountered in other countries. Maybe England, but even there, it is not the same. Americans have no problem straight up killing each other. We are getting worse.

Is America great? Depends on who you ask. Is America a place where you still have some opportunities to make a better life for yourself. Sure. But it is not the same as that the pamphlet sold to everyone else. We are far from perfect and in many cases, other countries do things better.

Having said that, it is cool. Just keep your eyes open and pay attention.

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- supert@lemmy.sdfeu.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  England’s really not violent at all.
  
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  - ShooBoo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I know some punchy english dudes but yeah, you right. Nothing like America.
    
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nandeEbisu@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
America definitely has its issues, but I think we have historically been good about surfacing problems and making sure they’re at least talked about publicly, even if they’re not fixed. This probably makes it look worse than it is. I feel like even in countries with reasonable free speech, there can be social taboos against talking about certain things.

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- time_lord@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’ll echo this. My understanding is that compared to other countries, Americans are willing to share our lives with strangers. Now, apply that to politics. As a country, we’re very open about everything.
  
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WeebLife@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Depends on the socioeconomic status of the city. I live in a city where it’s odd to not hear gunshots every night…

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coffee_poops@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The new American Dream is to get the fuck out of here.

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- RaoulDook@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Not for me, I’m having a great life in the USA. I can do whatever I want here most of the time, my career is going great, my family is great, and I should be able to pay off my house in a few years.
  
  I live in a low crime area with low cost of living, clean air, and lots of forest land all around. I’m far away from larger cities but I can order anything I want from the internet to my door, and a couple of grocery stores and several restaurants are a 5-minute drive from my house.
  
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  - AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Excellent! I’m also having a great life in the USA. I’m getting paid really well by a world leading tech company, live in a low crime area, and my kids have convenient access to world leading medical care and education. I know my kids will be safe and accepted, and they’ve already experienced a wide array of cultures without leaving home. I like that I get same day or overnight delivery of most things, have gigabit fiber internet, and a full range of town services. I especially like that I live in a small town where we can walk to the center, with a transit hub, many shops and restaurants, and a variety of people.
    
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Guy_Fieris_Hair@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
America is a decent place if you put your blinders on and worry about yourself… and don’t get sick. In America, you get sick and you go bankrupt. Some places in the world you get sick and you die. 🤷‍♂️ People in the US are pissed off because the problems we have are obvious, easy to fix, and the people in charge make blatantly shitty decisions because they stand to profit off of them. Unchecked capitalism has corrupted every branch of the government. And since the leaders are the ones that have to regulate it and they profit off of it, they won’t change it. The elections are actually lies. And there are people that try to say we are an elite, premier example of democracy and the best country in the world. We are not that. The upper half of this country is broken and it’s squeezing the middle and lower class until we pop, for profit.

The decision making people in this country are selfish twats. They would be voted out but gerrymandering and electoral colleges (that they control) prevent the people from actually making the decision. Our elections are a farce.

But if you don’t pay attention to those things and you decide to just keep your head down, work, pay rent, consume like they want you too, it’s OK. Keep your head out of the news or you just get pissed off and ashamed.

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AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
We’re very vocal when we see a wrong. We’re also a big country, with different priorities in different places.

My state has the fewest shootings, helped by the strictest gun laws until recently. We’re generally tops in education, near universal health insurance, and quality of life indexes on par with the best in the world. We are generally a safe place for various cultures and preferences, and we’re first in the US to embrace gay marriage We have a strong, innovation-based economy with among the highest pay. We even have a pretty good (for the US) transit system, walkable town centers, an emphasis on sustainability and renewable energy.

We don’t make the news as much because that’s not outrageous: it’s what we want. However I’m sure others may find it expensive, oppressive, or offend their sensibilities

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- EhList@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Trade off you have Boston
  
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  - YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Boston is segregated, as it’s always been
    
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- uis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  How to stop shootings? Make guns illigal. How to stop Unkrainian drone attacks? Make drones illigal. Solving problems Putin-way.
  
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charonn0@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
No, it’s not nearly as bad as depicted.

The USA, for all its faults, remains the standard against which other countries measure themselves (and find themselves lacking). That’s why every embarrassment and mistake gets blasted across the international media.

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- Hyperreality@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  That’s why every embarrassment and mistake gets blasted across the international media.
  
  Do you speak languages other than English fluently?
  
  the standard against which other countries measure themselves
  
  What are you basing this on?
  
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  - charonn0@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    What are you basing this on?
    
    The international newsworthiness of any American embarrassment and shortcoming.
    
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- STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  True that many countries may find themselves lacking to the USA. Americans meanwhile don’t compare themselves to anybody, completely ignoring all the countries which are leaps and bounds ahead of us in terms of social justice & public welfare.
  
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  - charonn0@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    Americans meanwhile don’t compare themselves to anybody, completely ignoring all the countries which are leaps and bounds ahead of us in terms of social justice & public welfare.
    
    Thank you for demonstrating my point.
    
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- clobubba@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I thought that Germany had pretty much displaced us as standard-bearer in Europe's eyes. Would any European care to educate me on that?
  
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- 40hands@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Apologist propaganda.
  
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  - charonn0@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Butthurt denialism.
    
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dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Overall, no. In most places things are peaceful and nice. In some places there is a lot of crime and squalor. A lot depends on your location, perspective, and luck.

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match@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
If you’re in a developing nation, consider this: America has probably about the same amount of wealth inequality as you, but America has probably ten or a hundred times more wealth. So, the American who lives a life similar to you will have more money when he travels; but while he’s in America, there’s some rich, corrupt villain in the nearby big city who has enough money to buy up and destroy his neighborhood at any time, who owns most of the police force and government and media - I am presuming your developing nation is the same way, because only some parts of the EU are different (at least from what I’ve been told)

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Zuberi@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Yes it’s that bad

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n0cturnali@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
American Dream isn’t dead. I’m grinding for mine. It’s just definitely harder now.

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- Jackthelad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I don’t think the “American Dream” ever really existed.
  
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  - FarraigePlaisteach@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s synonymous with exploitation from what I’ve seen. I don’t live there but the news is unavoidable here.
    
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- donuts@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Unfortunately there are a lot of people here (and all over the world) who grind their asses off through multiple jobs while sacrificing their entire life, and still don't earn enough to lead a decent life or own anything.
  
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elscallr@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Honestly, no. People bitch a lot but I’ve lived here a lot of years, my healthcare is fine, despite owning several guns I’ve never seen one fired at anyone, and I can pretty much do whatever I want.

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- Aabbcc@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Just a few million homeless, hungry, and incarcerated, plus the exploitation of workers in poorer nations, and you can be pretty ok with how things are! It’s a great system
  
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  - Hoomod@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Last I checked, US had like 20% of the world’s prison population. Just absolutely insane, plus prison doesn’t exactly rehabilitate anyone, so people just end up back in it
    
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Heavybell@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
8’d say it’s only bad by the standards of the first world. Not counting foreign policy here, mind you.

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Yepthatsme@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
In 2015 I was in Niger doing NGO work and the founder of the NGO said to me that the most important thing about America is the peaceful transition of power. That next year that transition of power came under direct attack and then again in 2020.

From my travels and the people I talk to, we have been under attack since at least 2008. From domestic terrorists working with foreign governments. Factions in spy agencies actively engaged in domestic espionage to help elites take more power. Cultist religious mega churches spreading misinformation and conspiracies in rural areas for decades priming for a “revolution”.

Billionaires that you hear about daily are also in on it.

You better fight for your democracy by showing up to every town meeting you can America because you will absolutely lose everything. Support unions and delete that extreme individualism in your programming that capitalist America wants to instill in each person so you never organize against them.

This is the time to get out in front of 2024 and fight for your rights and a reasonable society not this psycho bullshit we are stuck in right now.

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- Sorchist@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  That next year that transition of power came under direct attack
  
  I'm pretty sure Obama allowed power to be transferred peacefully to Trump, just like every other president had before him.
  
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  - Bipta@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think they meant that Trump said he'd say it was rigged if he didn't win.
    
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kersploosh@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
No. The US has its problems but it’s not the hellhole people like to make it out to be.

It helps to look at the US in parts rather than as a homogeneous block. The country is huge and varied with 300M people in a land are larger than Europe. Laws can be wildly different from state to state, especially on hot topics like abortion or gun ownership or drug possession. Some states are filthy rich and others are depressingly poor. Some places are perfectly safe and others are dangerous.

For example, take a look at these maps comparing US states to European countries. Depending on the metric the US can look great or awful compared to Europe.

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zepheriths@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Every government everywhere passes bad laws l, Canada past laws requiring exposure on online media to be a certain percentage Canadian, but then didn’t give a way for “small” online creators ( non company run) to join the system. The UK is straight up attempting to ban encryption. The French President told the people of the country “no fuck you” after they protested for months about a law to increase pension age. No country is perfect, every nation has active issues. Anyone saying America is the worst, is on aware of what is going on elsewhere in other countries.

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HellAwaits@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Yes. Beware of what being an American really means.

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ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
America is wealthy as all hell regardless. It is part of the reason things like Healthcare is so expensive: there’s a whole lot of economic power to siphon up as an insurance company.

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AttackBunny@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s all relative, but no, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not.

The issue, whether it’s conscious or not, is what we were sold (work hard, be nice, and you can have everything you ever wanted) not matching up with reality for most of us. My parents are squarely in the dead middle of the boomer generation. My step father is a construction worker, and my mother hasn’t worked since I was in high school. So they are one income, and it’s probably not an exceptional lot good income. They own their own home, in a very nice area, have retirement options, the world wasn’t literally on fire, they didn’t have to go through multiple once in a lifetime collapses, etc. In contrast, I’ll probably never be able to afford a home (run down houses on tiny properties are easily 800k here) and husband and I are dual income, I’ll likely never retire, my money is worth far less than theirs was, the world is burning, etc.

I’m also the last generation that didn’t have to worry about school shootings. I was graduating the year columbine happened. Not a single thing has been done in over 20 years since. I’d actually say access has gotten so much worse. Plus the “gun culture”. It’s insanity. The worship is crazy.

Then watching government fall into the farce it is, that’s bought and paid for. With little help coming to those that need it. And being a woman, watching my rights slip further and further away across the country.

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eric5949@lemmy.cloudaf.site ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Yes and no. Better than a lot of places in a lot of ways, worse than a lot of our peers in a lot of ways.

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Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s not as bad as they say it is. And yes it does vary from region to region a great deal.

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NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The only reason I didn’t get financially destroyed by the accident I was in, was just because the driver who struck me off my bicycle was 100% at fault and there was no denying it. You can try to say I served in front of you but at the end of the day you struck a bicyclist from behind on the road.

Anyways, because of laws on how much you can sue for I was capped out. So I didn’t get a ton of money but thankfully they also were forced to cover all my medical expenses along with the payout, which would have easily bankrupted me even with really good insurance if I had to pay that back.

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- STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  And America can’t be bothered to build safe bike lanes. I refuse to ride my bike on the road. Anyone who doesn’t like me riding on the sidewalk can fuck off
  
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  - RemembertheApollo@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The problem is you’d have to tear up a shitton of infrastructure to do it because built-up areas have no room to extend road widths safely to accommodate bike lanes. The driver behind that problem (pun intended) is the car culture and lack of public transportation. They can’t get rid of car lanes to hand them over to walking/biking dedicated areas because there’s too many cars and people that rely upon them to get around. There would never be enough people that would vote for or support such a project. Rural areas DGAF and are too poor to build bicycle infrastructure.
    
    It’s not that we can’T be bothered, it’s the usual problem of Americans not wanting to pay for anything that they don’t use themselves or that might inconvenience them even though it’s good to get cars off the roads and keep people safe.
    
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  - Nemo@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    But riding on the sidewalk is less safe! Not just for pedestrians, for YOU, the cyclist. There are more hazards and less visibility.
    
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  - ihavenopeopleskills@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I will give you that. The DC area is incredibly cyclable / walkable and it's nice, considering how scarce and expensive parking is.
    
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Vaggumon@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As an American, let me assure you… no, it’s not that bad. It’s much worse.

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andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Honestly it isn’t that bad.

I’m over fifty now and have never been even close to a mass shooting. Outside of a gun range I’ve never heard a gun shot. I’m definitely not middle class or upper middle class and other then a 2 year stretch I’ve never had a problem getting insurance or getting insurance to pay my medical bills. In the last year my mom has started having a problem with certain medical bills getting paid by insurance. They always pay but sometimes it requires a call or two to the insurance or doctors office to fix it.

It’s amazingly easy to start your own business in the US. The number of opportunities is crazy. That goes for both people who just came to the US and for those that were born here.

Are there problems? Yea. Same as in any country.

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- KoboldCoterie@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  In the last year my mom has started having a problem with certain medical bills getting paid by insurance. They always pay but sometimes it requires a call or two to the insurance or doctors office to fix it.
  
  I would like to provide an anecdotal counter-point, because I don’t think your experience is representative.
  
  My father was a master plumber and operated his own business, very successfully, for 30+ years until he died of lymphoma. We fought with insurance tooth and nail but when all was said and done, his estate - which included property, savings, and his business assets - were drained to less than $10,000 by medical bills when all was said and done.
  
  He was a military veteran, and was also getting support from the VA - if not for that, he’d have been bankrupted years before he died.
  
  This was someone who, by most metrics, did everything right - he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, was an absolute workaholic, and worked hard to make his business successful, and for all of that, he checked out with less than $10,000. And he died at 64 - he was working up until about 2 weeks before he died.
  
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- 40hands@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Sorry, your privileged anecdotes don’t change reality. You might have just as well said, it’s not that bad if you already have money.
  
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dotslashme@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Not American, but I imagine that news reporting uses loaded terms and partly drives the division between republicans and democrats. I assume that in reality most people are levelheaded people that don’t hate or fear their neighbors.

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elouboub@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
There are lots of worse places to be, but it definitely isn't "namba wan". Remember, it's a country of extremes and superlatives. "Everything" is "always" the "worst" or the "best". There's "never" a middleground.

Also, out interface with the US is online and the media. Online, people often express their unfiltered opinion or an extreme opinion + behavior, simply because they aren't face to face with others. It feels much less intimate and thus people behave that way. This has been going on long enough that the opinions online have taken a foothold IRL and the US is a good example thereof (from my outside view).

Also, don't forget, there are many people speaking English and talking about the US that do not actually live there and weigh in on stuff. Some crazy af opinions might not even be coming from a person physically in the US.

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