4 ms·

There sure are a lot of people who don't live here and carefully explain our attitudes to us as though the filters of bias are somehow pure perception. I used t

There sure are a lot of people who don't live here and carefully explain our attitudes to us as though the filters of bias are somehow pure perception. I used to get annoyed by it, but now I just find it endlessly amusing. If I were as clever as a feminist, I guess I could call it Eurosplaining.

Shivetya 10y ago
well it helps them to talk down about American and over exaggerate the issues here so they can ignore what they don't want to see at home. There are enough horror stories everywhere that people fail to acknowledge, first world problems pale in comparison what people suffer in the non Western worlds. From complete lack of some basics we considering necessary to every day threats to their lives and property, should they even have the ability own anything.
- zajd 10y ago
  Why do you think "well it's worse other places" is some sort of defense for our callous handling of our social safety nets? All while every other industrialized nation shows a better way (see: Healthcare)
  - AlgorithmicTime 10y ago
    Why is it better? Because you say so? The American way offers huge rewards for success and punishes failure brutally. It forces you to take risks. Overall, it creates more than other systems.
- jernfrost 10y ago
  I find it odd that you care more about the perception of your country than actually dealing with the horrible problems you have. What is more important solving poverty in America or shut up some smug European saying unfavorable things about America? I would never excuse problems in Norway by saying look how horrible it is for people in Ethiopia. We are a rich country and should be judged by those standards. So is America. It ought to be embarrassing that you are even competing with third world countries. In your sad world I guess you imagine that this is a game to me. That I just want to embarrass America to feel all good about myself. I don't. I feel deeply sad about the many people suffering in the US. Why do I not feel the same about people in say South Africa? Well we humans are odd. We don't care equally much about everybody. As Europeans we will feel strong kinship with Americans. We have many family members there and we can relate to American society as it is another western society with many of the same values. Solving Uganda, Jordan or Colombia's problems are very difficult not at least because they are poor. America's problem seems like the most unnecessary problems in the world because America is so wealthy and still have third world problems. They could have been solved with political will. Other countries don't have that luxury, they actually have to build and industrial base and get rich first.
jernfrost 10y ago
I've lived in the US and my wife is American. I also have distant relatives in the US. I know what their lives are like and I know the struggles various members of my wife's family has gone through as well as my distant relatives. I work with a lot of Americans and deal with a lot of American companies. I'd say in many ways I think see America clearer than a lot of Americans because they have nothing to compare it with. I've lived in several countries and I can compare my experiences. If you have never lived abroad you tend to take too many things for granted and you become blind to so many realities in your own country. Anyway it isn't like American's are the quite guys in the corner never volunteering their opinions to anybody else about how the rest of the world should be run. Quite the opposite, except American are frequently extremely opinionated about things they know absolutely nothing about.
vkou 10y ago
If you were a Congressman, you would call the American version of this phenomena the Voice of America. (The conclusions that it draws are consistently pro-business, anti-labour, pro-Pax Americana, anti-red, etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America

Shivetya 10y ago

well it helps them to talk down about American and over exaggerate the issues here so they can ignore what they don't want to see at home. There are enough horror stories everywhere that people fail to acknowledge, first world problems pale in comparison what people suffer in the non Western worlds. From complete lack of some basics we considering necessary to every day threats to their lives and property, should they even have the ability own anything.

zajd 10y ago
Why do you think "well it's worse other places" is some sort of defense for our callous handling of our social safety nets? All while every other industrialized nation shows a better way (see: Healthcare)
- AlgorithmicTime 10y ago
  Why is it better? Because you say so? The American way offers huge rewards for success and punishes failure brutally. It forces you to take risks. Overall, it creates more than other systems.
jernfrost 10y ago
I find it odd that you care more about the perception of your country than actually dealing with the horrible problems you have. What is more important solving poverty in America or shut up some smug European saying unfavorable things about America? I would never excuse problems in Norway by saying look how horrible it is for people in Ethiopia. We are a rich country and should be judged by those standards. So is America. It ought to be embarrassing that you are even competing with third world countries. In your sad world I guess you imagine that this is a game to me. That I just want to embarrass America to feel all good about myself. I don't. I feel deeply sad about the many people suffering in the US. Why do I not feel the same about people in say South Africa? Well we humans are odd. We don't care equally much about everybody. As Europeans we will feel strong kinship with Americans. We have many family members there and we can relate to American society as it is another western society with many of the same values. Solving Uganda, Jordan or Colombia's problems are very difficult not at least because they are poor. America's problem seems like the most unnecessary problems in the world because America is so wealthy and still have third world problems. They could have been solved with political will. Other countries don't have that luxury, they actually have to build and industrial base and get rich first.

jernfrost 10y ago

I've lived in the US and my wife is American. I also have distant relatives in the US. I know what their lives are like and I know the struggles various members of my wife's family has gone through as well as my distant relatives. I work with a lot of Americans and deal with a lot of American companies. I'd say in many ways I think see America clearer than a lot of Americans because they have nothing to compare it with. I've lived in several countries and I can compare my experiences. If you have never lived abroad you tend to take too many things for granted and you become blind to so many realities in your own country. Anyway it isn't like American's are the quite guys in the corner never volunteering their opinions to anybody else about how the rest of the world should be run. Quite the opposite, except American are frequently extremely opinionated about things they know absolutely nothing about.

vkou 10y ago

If you were a Congressman, you would call the American version of this phenomena the Voice of America. (The conclusions that it draws are consistently pro-business, anti-labour, pro-Pax Americana, anti-red, etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America