• @KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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    1329 months ago

    What the fuck did you just fucking say about America, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit about America over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” meme was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

    • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      That’s probably because the loudest and most overly defensive ones are the Americans you’re most likely to encounter and remember in online arguments and on American news, so that colors the perception. Especially when you don’t live amongst the more reasonable majority of Americans 🤷

      • @scv@discuss.online
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        359 months ago

        That is not my experience at all. Most Americans get extremely defensive when someone criticizes the US, even people who know better. Many are ok with specific criticism (like, healthcare sucking), but it doesn’t take much for them to revert to 'murican mode.

        I have been living in the US for over a decade and been to 2/3rds of the states.

        • @pthaloblue@sh.itjust.works
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          309 months ago

          Most Americans have their talking points ready to go around certain topics: healthcare, guns etc. But if you get anything that attacks the capitalism, building the country off of slave labor, or the country being the product of a genocide, that’s when the propaganda really kicks in.

          Oh and if you call it propaganda, then the denialism gets even stronger.

          • @SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works
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            149 months ago

            Spaniard here, you get very, very similar reactions here from a lot of people (possibly a lower percentage) if you dare to question the process of colonization or call out the barbaric behavior of some historical figures that have become a part of the national myth. Nationalism is a brain disease.

            • @Tak@lemmy.ml
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              49 months ago

              You get the same shit from most nationalities.

              Nobody is immune to propaganda.

        • @Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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          129 months ago

          That’s really interesting. I’ve lived in 9 states and I can honestly say that outside of the southeast, it is legitimately difficult to consistently find people that dont think the us is a flaming sack of shit or at least headed that way. Seriously, I’ve heard waaaaaaaaaaaaay more negative talk on the us from Americans than anything positive. Especially in like the last decade. But this place is so damn big that anyone’s experience would vary a crazy amount so that makes sense.

          • @scv@discuss.online
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            49 months ago

            Are you in tech or some other field that doesn’t involve interacting with different socioeconomic groups?

            Most of not all states guarantee some “interesting” encounters if you leave the cities. In California I have seen Confederate flags flying, met neonazis, and plenty of Trump supporters. Trump got over 34% of the vote in California, almost 39% in Washington and over 40% in Oregon. Those percentages are not a majority, but I think it sets a floor, since Trump supporters are not exactly trash talking the US.

            I have spent a lot of time doing canvassing and other activities that mean I encounter people with very different ideas, so that would definitely explain the different experience.

            • @scv@discuss.online
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              39 months ago

              If you’re going to accuse me of lying, at least have the decency of doing it in a reply to my post. I lived on the East Coast and traveled up and down some, then I moved to the Midwest, I got into politics and canvassed in several states plus I went on a few road trips for fun. Then I moved to the West Coast, which somewhat limited my ability to go on road trips to other states, but still, I went as far as Colorado, I spent a month there doing backpacking and visiting a few places like Denver and Aspen.

              Why do you think it is so unlikely I could visit 3 states a year?

      • @sock@lemmy.world
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        99 months ago

        well if an american does respond to this it proves them right if they dont respond it doesnt prove them wrong its a bad argument for an otherwise pretty dumb claim

        unless americans do care i hate america and am american so idrk

      • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        79 months ago

        If I ever have to read the bogus claim that “USA #1!!!” I’ll flip my shit.

        #1 in teen pregnancies maybe

        #1 in prison population

        #1 in school shootings

        #1 in wage gap

        What the US is not #1 in: happiness, progressiveness, quality of life, freedom

        • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          19 months ago

          True. While it’s NEAR the top in SOME good things, I’m pretty sure that the US is only #1 in the ones you mentioned and other bad things lol

    • @stonedemoman@lemmy.world
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      319 months ago

      I’m starting to get this feeling too. Most of the Americans I know, myself included, rip America a new one at any given opportunity.

      • gullible
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        139 months ago

        There’s a certain degree of truth to it. Americans seem fine with being the butt of a joke as long as the person joking is American and not far left/right. If you offer any doubt about the political or geographic origin of your joke, it’ll often be taken poorly. I enjoy being flamed and so was eager to figure out the political joke context puzzle. +2/-16 and 6 replies, babeeee

        • @stonedemoman@lemmy.world
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          109 months ago

          Politics is one of the most divisive subjects you can bring up. People react emotionally because it’s an emotional science. What’s “right” comes down to your ethical perspective. I don’t think that should be grouped in with this conversation.

          • gullible
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            9 months ago

            It’s less that I put out an overt political view or location identifier and more that if my post seems agnostic, inferences will be made and a coin will be flipped. The funny thing is, I sometimes win the flip in one place and lose it in another. I can be +5 on lemmy and -10 on kbin because of ambiguity. I’m just like “kids getting shot is bad” and I can feel the hatred pointed at my British self. (I’m not British)

            • @stonedemoman@lemmy.world
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              59 months ago

              I do believe that’s the response you get, people do like to assume the worst. Do you have any solid proof that any hostile response you get is from Americans? I’m still very skeptical it’s a problem specific to one nation.

              • gullible
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                59 months ago

                It’s far from unique to the US, people from India, France, China, and Russia often despise seeing outside criticism as well and they comprise over half the population of earth. And it’s mostly the topic of conversation and time of day. Were you not to have identified as American earlier, I’d have assumed you to be German or British at this hour.

                • @stonedemoman@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  🤷 As far as I’m concerned, as long as people are laughing with me and not at me I don’t give a shit. I can’t speak for the rest of my countrymen though.

      • @KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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        79 months ago

        If we say “Capitalism is ruining our lives”, it’s fine, but if someone from Russia says “Capitalism is ruining your lives”, folks are ready to throw down.

        • @UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world
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          79 months ago

          I think that’s more the hypocrisy of a Russian citizen criticizing American-style capitalism and imperialism when Russia has its own brand of it.

  • @WiildFiire@lemmy.world
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    839 months ago

    American: makes any sort of joke about any country, even if it’s the smallest most unoffending thing

    Person from that country : ur children get shot in schools

      • @Perfide@reddthat.com
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        9 months ago

        Okay, but you do realize that comeback makes you look bad right, not us? No matter your reasons or intentions, you are mocking children being murdered. Like in the example below:

        American: lol British people eat spotted dicks.

        A brit: lol American children get shot at school.

        Wow. What a zinger, you really got me with that one, a fool I was to not recognize the comedy of children dying horrifically.

        (To be clear, I didn’t come up with that example randomly. I’ve seen the mocking of spotted dick be met with “lol child murder” more than once)

        • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          289 months ago

          They’re mocking us for letting children get murdered. Don’t get all civility politics up in here if you can’t even grasp the concept of the jab.

          • @Perfide@reddthat.com
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            9 months ago

            It’s a fucking ignorant ass jab directed at the wrong people. The majority of Americans support stricter gun laws, it is NOT the common mans fault that our centuries old political system is set up in a way that a minority party can have so much influence.

            Like I already said, no matter the reasons or intentions, they ARE mocking children being murdered. Maybe it’s “lol you guys let children die lol” instead of “lol child death lol”, but either way children are dead and they are laughing. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are horrified by it and pissed off nothing is being done by our government to stop it.

            It’s also just incredibly thin-skinned. Really, you’re gonna get so offended over a joke about spotted dick that your only response is “you guys have school shootings lol”.

            • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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              59 months ago

              The majority of Americans support stricter gun laws, it is NOT the common mans fault that our centuries old political system is set up in a way that a minority party can have so much influence.

              I didn’t personally throw any tea into the Boston harbor but you better believe I’m going to use that as ammo against a brit if I feel like it. Personal agency has no meaning when talking about entire countries.

              Civility politics is cringe as fuck. Get over yourself and threaten to liberate their country instead of whining about people being mean on the internet.

          • @Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world
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            169 months ago

            Is spotted dick political? I suppose us americans should have known it was a contentious subject that warrants jokes about child murder

            • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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              29 months ago

              Then how about you do something about it instead of complaining that other people point it out?

              It is not like any other developed country has that problem.

            • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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              19 months ago

              Either everything is OK to joke about or nothing is. You can have your personal line you won’t cross but don’t project that onto other people.

        • RaivoKulli
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          179 months ago

          Seems like the comeback is working since it gets Yanks flustered and writing paragraphs of text as a reply lol

        • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          39 months ago

          Nobody is mocking children for being murdered, that would be disgusting.

          People are mocking the very much unique to the US culture of yes, we know children are being shot in schools, and no, we aren’t going to do anything about it, you crazy freedom-hating commie!

          It’s a macabre mocking of your crazy gun culture and politics. Not of your children. I thought that was pretty obvious.

      • @Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        59 months ago

        You should be ashamed of yourself. Many wonderful people live in this country. We have so much to do - and yes, we are plagued by many horrors - but we persevere.

          • @Perfide@reddthat.com
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            49 months ago

            What do you want me to do? Wave my hands and say some magic words and presto have everything be fixed? It doesn’t fucking work that way.

            I do what I can within my means. I vote every election for candidates supporting gun and mental healthcare reforms, I do my best to educate my less politically aware friends, I support activist organizations, etc… I’m fucking sorry if I’m not personally out there torching politicians houses or whatever the fuck you expect me to do, but I’ve got people that depend on me not being in fucking prison.

        • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          29 months ago

          You ever considered that maybe the US deserves to be ridiculed for seeing children die and choosing to do nothing about it?

          I understand it’s a touchy subject, but come on. It’s a serious stain on the US. The US deserves immense criticism for it.

      • @andysteakfries@lemmy.world
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        49 months ago

        Sure, maybe it’s crass for me to mock you for something so traumatic, but on the plus side I have never personally murdered a child so I think I’m doing just fine.

      • @Cantello@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        At least over here we do have some school shootings even with stricter European gun control laws. It‘s just not as prevalent as in the US.

        I guess sometimes overly criticising the US can be seen as some kind of envy. The freedom we admire but the shortcomings we don’t want to have or admit. It‘s just that this extreme bipartisanship and reluctance to talk civilly with each other is disheartening to see.

        • @gonzo0815@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago
          1. Right wing sources, yay.

          2. If you honestly compare Germany and the US, you will notice that the prevalence of rape is much higher in the US (US: ~43/100k vs. Ger: ~15/100k, source: statista.com). Comparing gang rape specifically is more difficult though, because the US doesn’t seem to keep track of that (or at least i couldn’t find absolute numbers). According to Wikipedia 22.8% of rapes with female victims where gang rapes. That makes ~9/100k in the US vs ~1/100k in Germany.

          Then again I don’t think statistics regarding a lot of crimes are easily comparable. There might be differences regarding underreporting and legal definitions that skew numbers in different ways.

        • @jcit878@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          mental health may be one of the source causes but the cultural enabler of prolific gun ownership and worship is the missing key no other country has

          edit: I will add many Americans here are pretty antigun which is great, I just wish there were another 300m like you

          • PP_GIRL_
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            19 months ago

            The overwhelming majority of so-called school shootings are single-target attacks over gang/drug disputes carried out by poor inner-city kids. They’re victims of poverty and mental health, no amount of overnight gun reform will fix the illegal guns that these kids have access to.

    • No_
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      9 months ago
      • One of them is a stereotype based on ignorance and racism.

      • The other one is children getting shot at schools.

      Funny how both of these things come from the US.

  • @Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Huh? Americans are like the most willing to admit their country is shit of like anywhere of the Lemmy audience… America fucking sucks, sign American. I had some dude from Pakistan super mad at me for saying women are second class citizens there the other day. Apparently they treat women super well, according to that angry guy anyway. I’m still pretty sure they don’t.

    • @FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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      209 months ago

      As always, these things can’t be generalised. Every country has people that talk about their own problems, and every country has “patriots” that will deny anything is happening. There are just a lot of Americans on the internet, so people notice those who relentlessly praise America more.

      After all, few countries literally ingrain “[country] exceptionalism” into their population in their school system. Many Americans, while thinking they are pointing out problems, still say “but it’s still better than almost any other country at X”.

      • @Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
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        99 months ago

        Romania doesn’t ingrain Romanian exceptionalism, but it does keep a lot of the REALLY horrible things Romanians have done out of the history classes.

        Starting soon, the Romanian holocaust and communist period are going to be taught in high school history classes. AUR (basically our Republican party) is completely flipping their lid right now. They’re a small party, but very loud and aggressively ignorant.

    • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      19 months ago

      Instead of “thinking something is true about an other country” why don’t you research the topic? Laws are easy to find.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_related_laws_in_Pakistan

      While yes, there were some Sharia laws back in the 1980’s, many recent laws in the last 20 years have been giving more rights to women.

      And that is the problem with many of you Americans, you read something online once about an other country or hear it on one of your news stations, and you instantly believe it without ever checking if it is factual or not.

      The same type of people exist in other countries of course, but the blatant ignorance of Americans about other countries is staggering.

  • @Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    429 months ago

    American folks want to poke fun at other countries? I say no problem, break a leg! Actually please don’t because it’d probably bankrupt you.

  • @FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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    409 months ago

    I haven’t encountered Americans getting mad over that but what I have encountered is them thinking everything involves the US, especially lately. For example people claiming the Ukraine - Russia war is a proxy war between the US and Russia instead or that NATO = US. Like chill, your country is not relevant to everything in the world.

  • @Matthew@programming.dev
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    399 months ago

    This is the case for every country. You just see it with the US a lot more since it of course has the biggest footprint on the English-language side of the internet.

    • @Gabu@lemmy.world
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      229 months ago

      Not even close. Also doesn’t help that 'muricans have a very distorted view on how their country is perceived

      • @theragu40@lemmy.world
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        239 months ago

        I think most of us on the internet hear about it constantly and it’s pretty hard not to understand how we are perceived.

          • @theragu40@lemmy.world
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            79 months ago

            Pushy, ignorant, reactionary, racist, isolationist, nationalist. Stick our noses into the matters of other countries where we don’t belong. Assume everything is centered around us. War/military happy. Arrogant. Loud.

            Not sure if I’m missing any, but these are the prevailing things I see when people are talking about the US and the people who live here.

            What is hard is that there are of course people (many people, even) that match one or multiple of those descriptions. But the same as it is silly to generalize all of Europe (or even any one European country), it is silly to generalize all Americans.

      • Iron Lynx
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        99 months ago

        According to one source, the only media that for a long time made it into the states is media that the US government approves of. I could go into detail about it, but it shows up quite prominently in this video.

    • @zorlan@aussie.zone
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      49 months ago

      I think other countries are a lot more open to self deprecation as part of their humour / culture. Not saying there aren’t some examples of this in America, it just doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as in British comedy for example.

  • @ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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    379 months ago

    It usually doesn’t bother me unless it’s something like this

    American- criticizes something foreign

    Every single reply to that comment- “School shootings!! Hahaha!! Dead kids!!! Hehehehe!!”

    • @bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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      59 months ago

      Or when they extropolate from America the country being shit, to every individual American being shit for having the audacity to have been born here.

      Most of us would also rather it wasn’t like this, but our families, friends, and livelihoods are here, so generally speaking it’s not practical to just up and leave. And our political system is to broken for us to really fix via voting

      Trash on the country all you want, I’ll join in with you - but don’t blame the folks who are just trying to live the best we can in this fucked up country

    • @MrSqueezles@lemm.ee
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      39 months ago

      This recently

      • French people rude. Haha yeah.
      • Greek people cheap. Okay you got us.
      • Americans so fucking stupid. Hah wait. That’s it? That’s the joke?

      This I don’t understand. Where is this coming from and who honestly would be okay with being called a big dumb dildo and laugh along like it’s such a well known fact about their country? We’re a lot of things, act like we own the world and everyone owes us money and gratitude, eat like shit while letting everyone know how to be healthy, use little creamer cups instead of cream. We’re not idiots.

  • CurlyWurlies4All
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    349 months ago

    National boundaries just divide workers to obscure the fact that they have more in common with each other than with the ruling classes.

  • CyclohexaneM
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    299 months ago

    Americans do a lot of stupid things, but they are most likely to be self critical in this space. I think this meme should talk about Western Europe instead, because they have many problems, but they are so often never willing to accept criticism. They’re quick to call the US racist, but in my experience, Europe has so much racism it’s crazy it’s viewed as this anti racist place.

    • RawrGuthlaf
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      109 months ago

      I (a US citizen) literally didn’t get a job in Germany because one member on the team objected because I didn’t speak German yet. The company is “English first” and I worked in the US division previously. So yeah, Europeans are certainly as capable of being racist. And they didn’t even try to hide it!

        • RawrGuthlaf
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          19 months ago

          I see you deal in absolutes. The person wanted a fluent German speaker despite being an English first company. Put it together in your head.

      • @TheKingBee@lemmy.world
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        79 months ago

        Yeah, it’s racist to hire another more qualified candidate that can speak multiple languages in a setting that would benefit from that skill…

        • CyclohexaneM
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          69 months ago

          Idk about OP, but from my experience, you can speak German perfectly correctly, but have an accent, and that will make your job search many times harder, because they know you’re not “German”. I highly doubt this is about skill.

        • RawrGuthlaf
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          19 months ago

          Clearly you must have all the details about where I worked and applied already. What an amazing ability!

    • PP_GIRL_
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      99 months ago

      Ask any “America is so racist” European about their thoughts on the Roma people

    • @jormaig@programming.dev
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      69 months ago

      I’m not sure what are you talking about. I’m Spanish and the first people to criticize Spain is Spanish people. Probably you’ve never even heard of all the problems our country has. Unemployment, corruption, house okupation, lots of small crime, mafia related crime for all the drugs trying to enter Europe, lots of immigration as Spain is one of the doors to Europe… I can go on. For all of these there’s a lot of debate and not much being done so far…

  • balderdash
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    9 months ago

    As others have said, we often make fun of ourselves. On these platforms, the liberal side of America is very vocal about the conservative side of America. Healthcare, guns, cost of living, etc. are something we’re constantly being made fun of (often from ourselves).

    If you’ve experienced pushback, it’s likely because it gets stale as a subject. We know our country has problem; most of us feel powerless to change it.

    Maybe that’s what happens when you have this much diversity in a country. We’re not like the French who can all unify and protest when needed.

    edit: Rereading this, it makes it sound like I think diversity is a bad thing. Didn’t mean to imply that, its just that we’re so different its harder to unify.