This is long text.
I have met many people from a lot of nationalities in the internet. US-Americans are a special thing in the internet, but I don’t know how it is in the land of the free itself. Probably the stupid ones keep staying on the internet, while others behave like “normal” people, but I don’t know for sure.
A majority of people lives on an other continent. They have internet as well and they also can speak english. Why assume, that they do not exist? Look, I don’t like clichés. But in far eastern Europe there was always this cliché about US-Americans, that they are ignorant as fuck. Living in western Europe today, this cliché is still present, that’s something people like to think.
And I really don’t know how to feel about that, I think there is a tendency that this cliché may apply. Not because “people are dumb hahaha”, but more how the US propaganda works. Like it makes them defaulting to USA most of the time.
I was always aware, that there is a world outside, no matter how many friends had and people I met. Even when I visited school, it was always clear, that other countries exist, they are present and they also may have other laws, morals, cultures. Let me repeat it: Other laws, different morals and culture.
On social media plattforms like Reddit and YouTube, where US Americans are not an absolute majority, it is easy to experience. I am also not talking about topics which are obviously centred around the US.
Few example:
Everything related to age is an absolute clusterfuck and you better not engage in any of suchs discussions. They can’t comprehend, that it is different somewhere, like in the most of the world. Some 13yo child murdered his mother and was then charged as an adult. Sounds stupid for me, to be honest.
But it were most of the time US-Americans who absolutely supported this decision:
- Only an adult could have so much criminal energy, so he should be threatened like one.
- He planned it and showed so much brutality, only an adult could do this.
- I hope he dies in pain
I asked if it is OK now, if this 13yo adult could vote, drink alcohol and also have sex with people 40 years older then he is. I mean he is treated like he is an adult. After that, peak mental gymnastics were applied on me and I was not liked that much. They were just angry at me. And didn’t give me an proper explanation, why this 13yo old is now an adult.
However I was blocked few days ago from commenting in a post in a subreddit, because I kept saying that being 17 doesn’t mean to be a child. There is need to differ. I know that this is legally different in other countries, but this matter won’t be resolved by insisting: “I live in the USA and in my state you are a child if you are under 18 and I don’t care" where you all live”. - I am not lying, that was something I read.
US fucking legal system is the standard for the entire world. For real, I rather receive an unsolicited dickpic, where I can at least block the person or inform mods/admins, but there is no way avoid a unsolicited legal advice, why you should sue your neighbour according to law in Florida, despite obviously living somewhere 5000km (3106 miles in freedom units) far away in a different country. I understand the intention, its a friendly one. But this happens on international social media sites. And it happens often.
Also no point in talking about prison sentences. While people which are unluckily not living in Freedomland has the tendency to understand and accept, that there are differences in each country and someone may like or dislike it, pure ignorance is striking many in US Americans. But why, even if you point out that you are from somewhere else? Because morals!
It is morally correct to do x,y and z. But not a,b and c. Why is it morally correct? Because there is an everlasting, unchangeable moral in the world which is rooted in the USA. When is this card used? Often when something is illegal in Freedomland, but legal in the majority of other countries.
Morality is not the right thing to decide if something is OK or not. In some places in the wide world it is morally wrong to be gay and Ramsan Kadyrow will make sure that this moral principle there will stay for sure. This is an other topic of course.
Its like you are desperately trying stay in denial. I thought once that probably some younger people behave that way. Being young means, that you are probably developing in a different pace then others in you age. Many things have an influence if you behave more like a child or an adult. Being very very young also means to believe into absolute things. This usually should change till adulthood. But no, older Yankees prefer to behave the same. What kind of brainwashing is USA performing on their population!? It is absolute effective.
The last thing is easily observed on Reddit. Also on Facebook and YouTube. But Reddit is full of this. They have such an fetish with pedophilia, it is absolutely an insult to vicitms and also a relativization of it. Its like they are actively searching for any clues for anything remote probably illegal by the law of a yankee state.
I indeed feel insulted, if they start calling something pedophilia, if it is indeed not. I experienced very bad things as a child and I also met other victims. But it were almost always USians on Reddit on YouTube who handled this matter with such disrespect. It always sounds more like an excuse for canalising their rage towards someone, never real care for victims of sexual abuse and violence - adult or child. Discussing that or making your point in this matter is like talking with a gorilla, which starts throwing shit at you as soon as you make a sound.
At least I rarely read something about their racist system in categorising people. Something about black, the Caucasus and Spain. But OK, this is present for a long time there and people are used to it. This doesn’t change fast.
I actually somehow accepted this stubbornness and the urge to be in denial and I just think my part. I am sure, very sure that those morons don’t represent the entire US population. I know and met people from US in a political context and they were totally normal people. But maybe they were it that way, because they are well educated communists?
I met younger and older reactionary people from Russia, Britain, Germany, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Moldavia and Chechen. Reactionary? Yes. But even they were not really comparable with US-Americans on Reddit, Facebook or YouTube.
There is something very wrong with people in USA and I think capitalism is to blame for it. Where can I find US-Americans, where this cliché from the Soviet Union about them, don’t apply so easily? Or am I dumb and don’t see them, because the annoying ones are so annoying that it is easy to notice them?
Thank you very much if you read it all. It took a very long for me to write it all and I am proud, that I did it without DeepL!
People like e.g. the Lebanese (just one example) get that there are a variety of cultures in the world.
They meet someone and are perceptive of the fact that they’ll have different values, thoughts, etc.
Americans meet people and assume they’ll think the “normal” way.
I have been asked “Do you vote Democrat or Republican” and had to explain that other countries have different parties.
Another example: I have had to explain that the words ‘civil war’ have a general meaning, don’t refer to one war in the USA one time.
It’s not that Americans even say this in a domineering way, they just seem confused.
Oh yeah and meant to say this becomes a grave problem when they’re talking about politics/religion.
Americans can cross the line to “Why do you have those treasured cultural practices that’s fucking dumb”. Impossinle to imagine a Lebenese saying that.
Or “Why aren’t you woke? You should have [[ideology created by the specific ethnic struggle in the USA]]”
Again, it’s more ignorant than domineering, but fully deserves being taught a lesson.
The short version of the answer, that someone far more articulate than me can explain better is: in the USA, we’re fed the line “America #1 best nation” from the minute we’re born until the day we die, from any of the following list: parents, teachers, preachers, TV, movies, etc. Years and years of that tends to take deep roots, especially before the internet made it easier and easier to spread reality far enough to break through the American propaganda noise.
“America #1 best nation” from the minute we’re born until the day we die, from any of the following list: parents, teachers, preachers, TV, movies, etc.
Funny is that I remember how television channels here where flooded with cheap documentaty films from the US when I was a child. Biggest/Mightiest/Strongest what ever and it was often some military stuff. Or prison stuff, where the prisoners where obviously struggling. Worst thing was, that its hard to know if it was staged or not: “America, fuck yeah! Look at those criminal scum which is suffering, beaten up by police because they are still not behaving”. This sounds like pure satire.
Sadly, a lot of those are meant to be exactly what it looks like on the tin. Shows be like ‘Help us celebrate how horrible we are to people because “they deserve it” (please ignore the systemic racism, it’s all their fault and not at all the system designed to make them poor and desperate all their lives)’
The vast, vast majority of Americans are like this.
I once had a coworker from Azerbaijan. I was his only coworker who knew where his country is. He was baffled and appalled at the general ignorance.
“It was part of the Soviet Union!”
Poor dude thought America teaches literally anything about its past or present rivals in schools. After that, another coworker just called him “Russian” for the whole rest of the time I worked there.
Same thing here except with Ukraine. Had two people from there at a place I worked. Surprisingly, they were communist; as I expected them to be more western-aligned by moving here. I learned more over time about the overall situation in Ukraine and talked to them about it a bit.
Turns out I was the only one who knew where Odessa was. They were also called “ruskis” by HR. Fucking vile.
Funny, but sad. They were good, hard-working people I talked to a lot during my off-hours as a maintenance guy during hot summer days.
They do not deserve the treatment. They moved because of Maidan and saw the writing on the wall for their family. One of the sinister parts of the imperial core is that one of the best ways to flee is towards the west preying on their hopes for a “better world”.
I don’t think my other comment really answers your question, so I’ll be clearer. This phenomenon is not just a Soviet cliché. It is a clear picture of the American people’s knowledge about the outside world. A high schooler who can point to France and Germany on a map is doing better than most of their peers.
Online is the only place you can find any American who knows anything. The ratio offline is even worse.
Americans are chauvinist little piggies who should be pitied were we not so destructive. The vast majority of the symptoms you describe stem from intentionally curated ignorance. People here can’t be taught about other cultures, lest we cease being amenable to their exploitation. The fundamental approach with which we engage with the world is also tailored to this end-- our noble troops protect our freedoms (enable hyper exploitative capitalist extraction), those criminals deserve what’s coming to them (maintaining the world’s largest prison population, who, conveniently can be legally enslaved), whites are superior to other races (justifying the maintenance of immense wealth disparities accrued over 200 years of discriminatory policies) etc. What you are witnessing is the artificial skin stretched over the gleaming terminator skeleton of american imperial hegemony.
Of course the communists you engaged with are better, we recognize and reject all of these framings. It can’t be stated enough just how much deprogramming it takes to be a communist in the US.
That’s scratching the surface. Reddit is a whole different can of worms-- the pedophilia shit for example is a distinctive reddit phenomenon… Along with a lot of the other bad takes one would expect from a large concentration of white men employed in high paying industries.
Stay off reddit and you will be happier I think :)
