this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Unpopular Opinion

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"The US should do X and they suck because they don't!" Each state has it's own laws on education. Some places suck, some do not. It's not a monolith.

"The US has shitty beer lol" We have some of the best beer in the world but it's local/state/region only and never exported unlike fancy Euro beer.

The US for better or worse is a, hmmm πŸ€” a unity of government states under a federation called America. It's very hard to get federal laws and bills passed, especially for education. The states want the power to chooses for themselves what they do, and the federal government hangs above them, sometimes intervening.

We are a huge country that has a relatively unique circumstance of government, population, and young brutal history. I'm a Californian and I live in the Bay Area which almost literally a different country than most of America, especially the South and Midwest.

I'm so sick of people, especially smug Europeans, talking like they know Americans and America but they don't really know shit about us except the movies and going to NYC and Miami.

Yes I am having a bad day.

To be honest I love Europe and have friends there that I miss dearly! I've been many times. But dumbassery is dumbassery.

EDIT: You people are an exhausting swarm of pecking ravens and I've spent all the "toxic" energy I want arguing with half you because you just hear what you want to hear and fit the stereotype I loathe I think you only commented out of trained reflex and a few of you are just unsophisticated haters. Whatever, fuck you, and all that jazz.

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[–] MushuChupacabra 58 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Like it or not, you're a superpower.

What you do, and how you do it matters to the rest of the planet.

We have no choice but to watch, and what we see isn't encouraging.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Also, everyone loves underdog. The inverse is true. No one likes updog.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

Ligma balls

[–] neatchee 4 points 4 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (9 children)

A single country when it's convenient, 50+ semi independent governments when it comes time to deal with criticism?

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[–] BilboBargains 30 points 4 months ago (6 children)

There is a trail of corruption, poverty, death and destruction everywhere America gets involved in the world. This country loves war and profits from it. Social reforms are in reverse gear at the federal level. Your healthcare is shite and no one can afford to buy a house. The gap between rich and poor has grown exponentially with the richest paying the least tax. This is a country run by mendacious and violent con men for idiots. Not only do you have a gigantic and corrupt military industrial complex, you also have a prison industrial complex, with more prisoners than any other industrialised nation. America sucks ass bro.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (19 children)

Except the one government at the top is the one that interacts with every other nation on the planet and is usually the one making policies and taking actions that piss everyone else. And like it or not, these policies and actions are decided by the congress and the president, which everyone in the U.S. is responsible for electing the people there. And when you look at that federal governmnt, well let me tell ya that it doesn't reflect very well on Americans.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

No, it reflects just fine. We’re just fucking awful.

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[–] gmtom 18 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Yes unlike other countries that dont have any sort of local government whatsoever.

Like the UK is one big monolith government. Definitely not 4 individual countries with their own parliaments that have counties with their own local governments and those counties have local councils with their own councillors and bylaws.

Germany only has the German government, not seperate states.

Spain doesnt have regions that are trying to gain independence.

France doesnt have regions on the other side of the atlantic with their own local government.

Canada doesnt have provinces

Nor does Autralia have states

etc. etc. for literally every country except like the vatican.

America is just so special and different

[–] SPRUNT 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Special and different enough that it should be wearing a helmet and have childproof caps on the paste.

[–] Chriswild 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And probably not play with firearms

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[–] Mitchie151 15 points 4 months ago

I can appreciate that some states are better than others, in a similar manner to being able to appreciate that some EU countries are better than others. I've visited the USA and so I've seen first hand the good and the bad.

It doesn't change the fact that globally, you are represented by your federal government and not your local state ones. As an Australian I might expect a foreigner to know our Prime Minister but never a state premier.

From overseas we just see a lot of the insane shit. Politically, the whole world is interested your federal elections because that is what has a chance to affect us. I don't care who the governor of a state is really because they aren't going to be able to declare some insane war or fuck over or save entire countries.

Even when we see state x legalizes y or outlaws z it just blurs together from out here. Much easier to see your own state doing good things when you're inside it.

And yeah, USA doesn't get enough credit for craft beer!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

As usual, the answer is "It's more complicated than that."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I'm sure the masses on social media with their 7 second attention spans and endless propaganda will get to the bottom of it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

The US is really like the EU both in scale and differences between individual states. National laws are generally just high level and very broad, with the laws most people directly interact with being state, county, city, and other local levels.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (5 children)

The EU is more diverse than the US. There's literally a language barrier everywhere you go. E.g., a Hawaiian and a Texan are more alike than, say, a Finn is to a Cypriot.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I went to Georgia recently, and they're definitely speaking a different language down there. I could not understand a word

[–] bhmnscmm 6 points 4 months ago

There is more to diversity than language... Race, religion, socio-economic status, and political beliefs are just a few other dimensions.

If you broaden your definition for diversity beyond language, the US isn't as homogenous as you're implying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Is there? No matter where I go in Europe, it doesn't seem to be a big issue to find English speakers. It feels like the urban parts are settling on a second language now that trade and travel borders have vanished.

If the EU sticks around for a generation, I wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing European nations reflecting the same demographic oddities that you see in the US regarding age of residents.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah but tell that to the Texans.

Maybe the issue is just that you don't realize how much we hate each other? Like America is dysfunctionally divisive at this point, there would probably be some offense at the idea that the two are alike. Republican-led states definitely don't want to be compared to Democrat-led ones, and vice-versa. Maybe I just dunno how much you hate each other on the continent, but I'd bet a Finn would be nicer to a Cypriot than a Texan would be to a Hawaiian.

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[–] Dasus 7 points 4 months ago (5 children)

The US is really like the EU both in scale and differences between individual states

Bwahahahahhaha! No.

Americans always love to think this is true, but it's nowhere remotely true. The US has an actual federal government. The EU does not, all EU members are sovereign states.

Secondly, difference between individual states? Rofl-fucking-mao.

No your slight change in accent (not in dialect), and slightly different local delicacies are nowhere near comparable to Europe.

The US has a few hundred years of history and most come from the same dozen or less groups from Europe.

The difference between just the top of my country and the bottom of my country is larger than aany state differences in the US. Well, except for, idk, state laws. But language, customs, cuisine. The modern European states have formed all from several distinct groups. The modern nation-state only started being a thing a bit more than a century ago.

All modern European states are made up hundreds and hundreds of previous, hundreds of years old groups.

No offense, but the comparison is pretty ridiculous on most levels.

The EU isn't a federation. (Yet.)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thiught you guys are united or something. It's in the name

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

I hate that the US made this post. They suck for doing that

[–] jpreston2005 6 points 4 months ago

To sum up, nobody likes being generalized.

And, apparently, when Americans say we don't like being generalized, literally everyone else will take offense, and then generalize us.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Yes I am having a bad day.

I hope your day improves our the next day is better.

I also hope your governments improve or the next are better, but frankly all your governments suck.

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[–] muntedcrocodile 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

No they simply come from the rest of the world where it doesnt really matter how u do what u do just that you do it.

This is an extrodinarilly american centered view of the world and failes to see the bigger picture that your fucked up system is just one piece in a bigger pie of global society.

You all fly the same flag its on you for being incapable of self organising. You might not think it but texas says just as much about u as a californian as california says about u. The rest of the world treats america as a monolith because to us from the outside thats all that really matters to us.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is this poster’s argument feigning ignorance of distinction between local vs. federal laws?

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