No Stupid Questions

The Americans I've met in real-life were quite chill, and reasonable. But on the Internet I too have a feeling that they are expressing stressfulness more. It seems to me they can freely talk about the things they hate, and they do it, to the point many things on the Internet about the US are those. And it's hard to touch grasses in Winter.

1. We're a lot of different cultures all mixed in over a large swath of land. That melting pot regularly reaches a boiling point.

2. We pray to Capitalism. It is all important. All else is secondary to the almighty dollar. Many of our politicians are bought out and our legislation is determined by money. Greed guides our decision making processes.

3. The internet has broken many of our brains, although that's not just an American thing. I've been around long enough to have witnessed our politics go absolutely bonkers and the timeline coincides with everyone starting to carry around devices that give them access to the internet at all times. We simply aren't educated enough as a whole to be immune or resistant to misinformation.

Personally, I don't see our situation getting any better any time soon. It will probably get quite a bit worse, actually.

I would argue that any actual increased aggression could simply be attributed to the state of the country (the US federal government is broken) and the fact that most US americans are not having their needs met financially. The billionaires who run the system dramatically increased the prices of everything that's not optional to pay for: food, housing, insurance, etc..

People feel helpless, overworked, and angry.

I apologize, I stopped reading about halfway through your post.

A lot of the call outs in this thread to delete your social media go outside and touch grass are spot on. You’re way too deep in social media and the 24hr news cycle.

I work in an industry that is very much conservative. Even the devoted MAGA people I meet are generally very nice if you speak with them outside of politics. A handful of the ones that seek out and want to talk politics (which is rare) are calm and I usually can get them to acknowledge the shortcomings of Trump when I start questioning the inconsistencies of his policies.

Our politics have grown courser and more extreme because of social media and the news cycle. The MAGA politicians of the Republican party take extreme positions to get attention. Moderation is ignored because it doesn’t grab headlines.

Yes Republican policies and very bad for our nation. But it doesn’t mean common citizens share those views. Usually it is much more nuanced.

I think the combination of access to anonymous social media, or at least access to media without any physical interaction, leads to a lack of empathy and hostile behavior. Then you have the echo chamber effect where any group has its beliefs amplified and the extreme members get the most attention. It is trivial to react hostilely and leave a comment like "Go kill yourself" on someone's post. The other person is just a block of text to you. When I write something I have to reread it a few times to determine "How will someone misinterpret this negatively?" and sometimes I feel like I'm writing for an audience of rabid dogs just itching to bite me. All too often even the most innocuous comment will still get a ridiculously hostile response. I'd say this isn't just an American issue on the internet either. I see it with Europeans and Asians. It is a human issue.

Sadly now negativity has become a kneejerk response. Every stranger's motivations are a personal attack on you, everything is part of some grand conspiracy aimed at you, etc. America's obsession with individualism vs society as a whole seems to have reduced everyone to a crazed survivalist hiding in their bunker.

"many Americans are physically beating their children"

I'd say this is MUCH less now than in the past and is now strictly enforced.

"you can’t even safely walk alone in public during the night"

Depends on where you live. There have always been "bad neighborhoods" in cities and this is true around the world. I have never felt in danger walking alone at night around my area. I'm sure there are neighborhoods in, say, Paris or Marseille you wouldn't walk around by yourself at night.

Delete your social media, turn off the TV, go outside, talk with people. Is it hateful? No. You're being lied to.

Car-centric infrastructure and American individualism have made USAmericans isolated and decimated communities and that has lead to a lot of bad things

A large portion of men are not doing mentally well at all. Increasing suicide rates and decreasing employment participation are just some of the indicators here.

Because they feel weak, there is a tendency to gravitate towards strongmen and dreams of dominance which lead to aggressive antisocial behaviors.

There does not appear to be anyone attempting to solve any of these problems main because those who could fix the problems are the ones who are able to utilize these fears for personal gain. Monetarily and or for political power. A subset of these people are amplifying these problems for the same purpose, personal gain.

40+ years ago the Republicans started a war against education and intellectualism. They won.

When I visited Europe, I had a great time talking with strangers there. One in particular said something similar, in that he thought Americans were just inherently more violent.

Listen, the reality of the situation is that we're just as friendly and kind as we ever were. Americans are literally the most charitable population. But we're also living in times of great wealth inequality, while our health insurance is still tied to employment. Something like half a million of us go bankrupt every year from medical debt. We are also all uniquely aware that some people will randomly get lucky, and get a massive windfall of money. Money here doesn't just mean comfort, it means security, because if ever our luck runs out, there is no social safety net waiting to catch us. People can and often do go from the highest echelons of the social ladder, to living under a bridge, dying of some easily cured disease.

In America, it's dog eat dog. It's a zero-sum game. Whatever money you make, is money that I won't. And when money = security, it means that however secure you are, is how less secure I am. 300 million of us all playing the prisoners dilemma. If we work together we could all have a good outcome, but there are so many of us that have fully bought into the me vs. everyone mentality, that it's a near impossibility of getting all us prisoners to work together.

But a big mistake, is looking at boomer news (fox news, newsmax, oann) and thinking it reflects reality. It doesn't. That is 100% hateful news for hateful people. If you like getting a dopamine rush from looking down on others, or doomscrolling, or in being afraid, then faux news is what you watch. Don't mistake it with America, because it isn't. It is actively poisoning Americans, but if ever you were to get an active faux news watcher to turn it off, sit down, and have a chat, you'd be surprised at how friendly they were. They are people who bought into the zero sum game, but even they know how/when to be charitable.

It's always been the case that they fight over the screps billionaires leave for them. But traditionally they had so much friendliness and companionship in and between communities but as with everything since globalisation it was polarised by information tech. Megacorps are the new tribes and that will ruin the planet if it happens, well, already have basically. Any form of collaboration would help but it's so cool that competition breeds competence and great products right? Not remove respect for each other and nature right?

Every part of our society is dysfunctional and declining, and that's self-perpetuating. If you throw a rock, you'll hit a reason why the US is like this. We are pretty FUBAR.

It's pretty much always been this way, like if you look at opinions and rhetoric post-9/11, the overwhelming majority of people supported Bush and it was common to talk about nuking random countries in the Middle East. Back then we were a bit less mask off in that Bush wasn't as blunt and explicit about things as Trump is, but the bodies were just as dead. Trump realized that the facade of politeness had become vestigal and didn't actually matter. As for American liberals, the thing to understand is that they only compare themselves to Republicans and so as long as they are 5% more proper and 5% kinder, 5% more intellectual, etc, they see themselves as having all of those qualities, but from the outside, to someone who has reference points outside of American politics, the differences often seem pretty marginal. So for example, "I can excuse indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo Bay, but I draw the line at torture" and within the context of American politics that's reasonable and even left-leaning but in a broader context, it's like, "You can excuse what?"

There are obviously multiple factors that go into this, but I think the big ones are the systematic destruction of the US educational system and the wealth inequality caused by late-stage capitalism. Fixing the education problem will take decades. Fixing the wealth inequality could be done quickly, but things will have to get worse before people begin to agree that it needs to happen. I'm confident that things will eventually get better. I am no longer confident that it will happen soon or without violence.

Similar things are happening in Europe, with the rise of the extreme right, but the situation there is not as far along as it is in the US. I think Europe still has a reasonable chance of avoiding the worst of this.

The short answer is that we haven't really become any more hateful or cruel, however a VERY vocal minority of Americans have lost their goddamned minds and want to drag the rest of us down with them. Those are the people you're hearing from and they make the rest of us look awful

Using the unsocial 'social' networks?

why are European Nazis so hateful and destructive in 2025 (Germany, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, etc)?

What you see on TV is for-profit corporate media that is showing what their advertisers approve. Its not an accurate reflection of the society as a whole.

Roughly 30% of the US population are supporters of fascism. Largely this is due to poor education.

It's a deliberate push by the elites. They don't want us cooperating, because that would lead to revolt. They fill our media with identity politics, fear and hatred so that we're too bitter to work together. It works beautifully for them.

People cannot handle social media and its impact on society, period.

From my perspective, they've always been there, but now they're louder. They've been emboldened by the public perception that it's okay to be terrible and hateful and selfish. It used to be that those people kept more quiet.

Propaganda. Mostly funded by the rich, in order to, of course, stay on the top of the class hierarchy. Easier to be a filthy evil oligarch when the "rabble" just fight each other and don't pay any attention to you, or worse, kiss your boots.

You're watching the collapse of an empire. The citizens are getting desperate and scared, those of them that don't realize or understand the situation they're in even moreso. What you're seeing isn't driven by malice, it's just too difficult to care for others now. A lotta my friends struggle to pay rent every month and keep food in their mouths. We walk around with the knowledge a stranger could freak out and gun us down at any moment. Is it any wonder that they are numb to violence, numb to threats, even numb to the fear of death?

Once you get that numb and hollow, you cut what's extraneous away and focus on your own survival. Americans are, broadly speaking, panicked animals. The worse things get, the more panicked and desperate they'll become, and the less they'll care about standards and morals in the pursuit of survival.

Because our empire is dying

Don't believe everything you read or hear is what it amounts to. You're getting highly selective, heavily filtered news, not the lives of actual people.

In the old days a person with radical ideas had a hard time finding others with the same mentality. It cost money to send out letters, print stuff, etc. Now you can blast out whatever comes into your head to potentially millions of people. You can form groups with them and feed each other's paranoia and biases. On top of it broadcasting to you has become even easier and targeted and most of what is broadcast as news online is negative and fearmongering.

Then there is the whole issue of the "anonymous asshole" online who feels disconnected to those they are communicating to and makes assumptions (usually hostile) about them and feels freer to be hostile or provocative.

fear leads to anger

anger leads to hate

(its not just the US, every human is like that)

So I'm European and am aware that American culture is very different in many ways. Idk if this is just some type of thing about American culture and mentality in general that has always been there

Observing USians and debating them on social media, I am more and more of the view that substantial proportion of them are properly, certifiably insane.

And it doesn't apply only to MAGA nutjobs, it applies across the political divide and often starts with complete and utter contempt for facts.

I'm gonna bring up a slightly different take on the situation.

2001, during the walk between my 1st period and 2nd period class, my country changed forever. My math teacher had a shocked look on his face, he put the radio on, and told us that it was very important to listen, as we will never forget this moment. An airplane had hit the world trade center. I remember the bell going off, going to my history class, and shortly afterwards, being told that the busses were coming back to take my classmates home. They were terrified, that their school busses would be attacked and that they wouldn't make it home. I found my brother and we walked home early that day. I got home in time to see my mom staring at the TV, which was surreal on its own because she hates TV. By the time I go home, the towers were falling.

That moment was a catalyst for irrational hate and fear taking over the US. Anti-musilm hate (if you can even call it that sophisticated and targeted, really just anyone the right shade of brown) really took off. I remember hearing about men being assaulted and having their beards shaved. Women had their head covering confiscated, and mosques became a primary target for yahoos and bigots to deface and burn. A few years later I remember and popular jingle about bombing Afghanistan, not specifically the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, but just Afghanistan in general. Hate became more mainstream and visible to me than ever. Sure, the US wasn't perfect before, but for my generation, 9/11 was the moment that "Othering" people who didn't look like you, talk like you, and pray like you, became not just a coping mechanism, but a core identity for a significant portion of the USA. If you spoke out about the irrational hate, you were Un-American, or a traitor. My father took me to see Fahrenheit 911, and I remember hearing about protestors attacking theaters that were playing the movie, and people that were buying tickets for it.

Anyway, that's my two cents on where millennials (at least) got their hate enemas from.

HATEFUL AND DESTRUCTIVE??? HATEFUL AND DESTRUCTIVE??? FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!!!!

sets your car on fire

HOW COULD YOU CALL ME HATEFUL AND DESTRUCTIVE???

There are still a lot of us around these parts that strive to be kind and generous, it’s just that kindness and generosity doesn’t sell a lot of newspapers.

If you look around you’ll see it’s not just Americans. The earth is dying. Resources are running out and economic systems are reaching end of viability. People are struggling while the corporatocracy fleeces the masses any value left. As this happens people become more agitated, stressed, and radicalised. They blame outsiders, reject science, and embrace misinformation. Expect it to get much, much worse.

The problem is unfettered capitalism. Our leaders are far more concerned about enriching themselves than acting on behalf of their constituents, so we've got this really jaded electorate.

And then as a dominant super power in the world, we've been targeted with enormous misinformation campaigns, both from our own "news sources" (Fox News is NOT real news, it's lies and half truths and proliferation of hatred!) and fake internet trolls. All of that on top of decades of political corruption, decades of businesses lobbying in their own best interest and spreading lies to support their position ("tobacco is safe and very cool!" "guns don't kill people", "weed is the root of all evil!", "pEoPlE ARe tERMinatInG 9 mOnTh oLd feTUseS anD bORn bABiEs!").

Conservatives have always been the temporarily embarrassed millionaires, and once they get theirs, fuck everyone else. Generations bought homes at affordable prices, then pulled the ladder up behind them and fuck all future generations. "Pull yourself up by your boot straps!" is sort of bullshit you get from them, but they didn't do that at all and they've broken the whole system in their favor.

Now conservatives are trying to break our educational system by banning books, banning subject discussion like evolution or slavery, foregoing sex education in favor of the provably bad "abstinence education". A country founded on "separation of church and state" is pushing harder and harder to make a "Christian nation" that doesn't and shouldn't exist. They want a stupid electorate making tons of babies who also grow up stupid and vote for them. The majority of Americans are liberal and have genuine sympathy and compassion for others, so before they wake up and actually get involved, the conservatives have to breed up a bunch of idiots they can convince real easily to vote their way.

All that to say... I don't think it's going to get any better anytime soon. Get me the fuck out of this place.

American here.

First, you're right. About basically all of what you said above.

I think you particularly hit the nail on the head with this:

I’m always thinking “dude, you need to chill” cause literally no one is attacking them and they’re fully secure. But it seems like they’re always searching for a fight or something.

The media here, funded by the big corporations, manufacture tons of FUD ("fear, uncertainty, and doubt.") Things to be scared of. "They're putting chemicals in the water that's turning the frogs" (and by extension, your kids) "gay." "The 'woke mafia' is trying to convert your kids to atheism." "The Democrats are going to take your guns so they can install a totalitarian one world government without any resistance." Most of it's not true at all. Some has a nugget of truth but it's not actually any threat.

I will say the Republicans are worse about this than the Democrats (the Democrats' concerns are more legitimate than the Republicans'), but the Democrats are far from immune. Both are living in fantasy worlds.

...until something very bad happens like the second civil war...

Indeed there's plenty of rhetoric out there pushing the idea that the U.S. is in a civil war. Between the woke antifa (short for "antifascist") and the fascist conspiracy theorists.

A lot of this is explained by poor reading comprehension mixed with paranoia.

Americans will read pretty much any comment in an aggressive, hostile tone by default

Hence the popularity of in-jokes on the internet, Americans can generally only recognise jokes if they already know them, or if they're telegraphed from a mile off (that's around 738 washing machines)

Anything else is assumed to be a personal attack. It doesn't help that a good chunk of them are also absolutely desperate to be offended on someone else's behalf all the time lol

There's war in Europe. Climate change is fucking up the world faster than we can respond, and America is burning to the ground physically and metaphorically as we speak.

Tensions are a bit high.