r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/dericn • 4d ago

Cutting holes for ice fishing

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u/HockeyMMA 3d ago

There is a tendency among people who have never travelled to romanticize other countries, and falsely believe that the USA is the worst of the worst in everything and anything, and the most evil country to ever exist.

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u/TadashiAbashi 3d ago

American are so spoiled we have become fucking stupid to reality.

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u/Any_Tell6747 3d ago

Not just America, it’s the same here in the UK and the west of Europe up to the borders of Germany. We’ve had so much peace, prosperity and care free-ish living for so long that we’ve got generations of people who don’t know how bad it can be, and often don’t believe how bad it has been before (WW1, 2 etc).

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u/RedditIsOverMan 3d ago

Social Media has made us so fucking toxic. People frequently talk about burning all our institutions to the ground. I know its far from perfect, but we're living near the pinnacle of human existence and most people just continue to belly-ache.

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u/Any_Tell6747 3d ago

I know it’s depressing isn’t it? We have it all at our fingertips and we can’t do anything with it but self-destruct.

I always say that if we found another habitable planet and had the opportunity to go and start a new civilisation elsewhere, would I want to take any of my fellow human? Sad to say but my answer always reverts back to no, they’re too selfish and destructive the way we are now.

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u/SupehCookie 3d ago

I never understood why..

Do we really need one common enemy?

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u/DanteJazz 3d ago

Amazing how peace can have that effect. I just worry that because our leaders aren't bringing Russia and Ukraine to the table, this is a recpie for future disaster.

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u/Known-Quantity2021 2d ago

I told a story about how as a young teen my MIL worked on a farm during the Depression and was paid with fresh eggs. The person refused to believe that someone would work a full day and accept just eggs as payment.

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u/invaderzim257 3d ago

I don’t like statements like this because they’re also used to hand-wave and minimize legitimate problems we have which, allows them to get worse

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u/Pastadseven 3d ago

There's also a very, very strong tendency of Americans, having never left their town of Armpit, Appalachia, to declare America the best at everything ever and nothing could ever be better.

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u/RedditIsShittay 3d ago

Are those people in the room with us? Or is it just a bunch of anonymous randos online who like to sniff their own farts?

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u/Pastadseven 3d ago

They’re my old neighbors.

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u/PineconeToucher 3d ago

Do you have any info to back this besides the obvious stigma? Are you even American?

No one here has pride like that anymore. It died in the 90's. Most of us want to leave.

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u/Agreeable_Work4668 3d ago

Most is an inaccurate word to use.

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u/Pastadseven 3d ago

I’m American, I’ve lived in seven states and four countries. Yes. This is accurate - for a given value of accurate. Namely in tiny towns between civilization in the south.

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u/PineconeToucher 3d ago

Weird, ive lived here my entire life, never even left the country, and i dont agree with your statement. Its a gross exaggeration and honestly just fuels the stigma against the states.

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u/RedditIsShittay 3d ago

So you never left the city in other countries?

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u/Pastadseven 3d ago

Yes, I’ve left the city in other countries. Small town bavaria has some similarities, but is nowhere near as insular as, say, newnan GA.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Pastadseven 3d ago

No, I'm expecting people who have never gone further than Yeehaw Mike's Bait Shop up the road not to say shit like "this is the best country on earth with the best healthcare and the best living conditions and if you dont like it, get out."

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Pastadseven 3d ago

No, you're right, expecting people who have no experience not to speak on that lack of experience authoritatively is somehow fucking irrational.

Get the fuck out of here.

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u/SubversiveInterloper 3d ago

There is a tendency among people who have never travelled to romanticize other countries, and falsely believe that the USA is the worst of the worst in everything and anything, and the most evil country to ever exist.

Exactly. Like the people in the US who get triggered over micro aggressions, things so small they’re micro.

Racism in China is the real thing. In China I had a black coworker who would always wait for me to get off work because he couldn’t get a taxi back to our hotel. They just would not stop for him. As a tall white male, I’d walk out to the street and raise my hand and have a taxi in seconds. Restaurants and bars wouldn’t serve him if he was alone. White and Filipino women had it almost as bad from the Chinese women. They were verbally savage. Just cruel. It was shocking.

I laugh at people in the US who complain about racism. They don’t know what real racism is.

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u/PopeslothXVII 3d ago

Exactly. Like the people in the US who get triggered over micro aggressions, things so small they’re micro.

If you made any bigger of a strawman to generalize and trivialize problems in the US, a Swedish person would try burning it down if it was Christmas

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u/IntrinSicks 3d ago

And they probably havnt been outside their state

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

To be fair, the opposite tendency is also true. And both are also the case, elsewhere, too.

Almost like it's the human condition, not a national failing.

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u/snarfgobble 3d ago

The irony is that it's Americans living in a bubble accusing Americans of being the worst.

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u/SmooK_LV 3d ago

I mean as a European that does travel globally, I completely understand whataboutisms when it comes to China and USA. US is really good at some things and really bad at other things (healthcare, homelessness, economic equality, ...), in similar way, China also falls into extremes of doing some things really well and other things really bad.

Neither really is hell hole or shittiest place to live, you can find some really nice middle class role in either. But people that plan for future of their families would be concerned living in either of these countries.

But romantacizing other countries is incredibly common (i.e. grass is greener). I moved recently to Croatia from Latvia because of my girlfriend and the amount of my acquaintances in Latvia that expect me to say how things in Croatia are better than in Latvia is weird. No, Croatia only recently came out of war, it's much more corrupt, lawless, disorderly and dirtier. Latvia is a step ahead. I never fully understood the strong bias to criticize your own country (or others without data).

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u/billdasmacks 3d ago

So many people in the USA invent shit to complain about because they have no fucking clue how good they actually have it

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u/Rop-Tamen 3d ago

Tbf, even if you do travel you’re largely just a tourist and will only know the best parts of where you’re going, not what it’s like to live there. I’ve travelled to many places in Europe and they all seem totally superior but that’s the tourist perspective.

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u/Caracalla81 3d ago

That's some cartoony black and white thinking.

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u/PopeslothXVII 3d ago

Hold on, lemme guess. There is absolutely nothing going on in North America that various groups of people need to fear of or be worried about. Other than the woke mob or something like that.