5 ms·

When I was a child (in central Europe), USA was seen as a heaven where everyone would like to live - and I did too. Nowadays I'm very happy I live in a "poor",

When I was a child (in central Europe), USA was seen as a heaven where everyone would like to live - and I did too. Nowadays I'm very happy I live in a "poor", speaking by numbers, but much more free republic in the middle of the old continent.

tr1ck5t3r 10y ago
Communism and capitalism are both experiments to see what are the most effective control mechanisms. Communism told you directly what you had to do & think, the other is a system of suggestion that uses indirect often voluntary chosen means of communication, beit news channels, facebook meme, virals, data reports, bills and so on to help you arrive at the conclusion they want you to arrive at. Its a clever system of control if you cant see whats going on and believe you make your own decisions, whilst discounting how much you defer your decision making to experts, like teachers, Doctors, police, politicians and so on. Even the politicians are manipulated by the reports they get shown. The puppeteers are banking on your motivation in more ways than one.
krab 10y ago
The same here. The reputation of USA changed really a lot since the end of communism and the nineties. We really appreciated their involvement in dismantling the Iron Curtain. We were also fascinated by some western goods :-). Nowadays, people see USA as one of the superpowers in the world who influence or intervene in other countries for their own benefit. If I had to choose, I'd still prefer to live in USA over China or Russia. But thankfully, these are not the only options.
- jjcc 10y ago
  It's worse that the US policy makers intervene other countries mainly not because of their own benefit but because of they believe they are promoting the best values in the world. It's more deceptive and often supported by naive American public. Politicians pursuing pure self interest are more detectable. Hitler won't be in power again. But those who with strong ideology will be elected by American people. Similar situation also happened in Europa. NATO bombed Libya because French supported to overthrown a regime. Now waves of refugees come to Europa because of chaos and war.
stefantalpalaru 10y ago
> USA was seen as a heaven where everyone would like to live - and I did too You can thank propaganda for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#Smith.E2.80.93Mundt_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#Smith.E2.80.9... Radio Free Europe started as a CIA operation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty#Funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert... While they were useful for access to some real news and for organising the diaspora, these radio stations were also responsible for the false hope that Americans are coming to save us any day now. Most of the people behind the iron curtain channelled their frustration in this benign form of resistance - listening to forbidden radio stations - instead of doing something with an actual chance at bothering the regime.
chrisper 10y ago
Same here. I am a European who lived in the US from 2012, but I am going to move back to Europe this year. Even in 2012 I thought the US is going to be awesome, since everyone says how awesome it is. Well, after 5 years my views have certainly changed. Now I kind of dislike this place. Of course, I wish I had a chance to live in other areas of the US before judging the whole country, but that is not possible now. So Europe, here I come!

tr1ck5t3r 10y ago

Communism and capitalism are both experiments to see what are the most effective control mechanisms. Communism told you directly what you had to do & think, the other is a system of suggestion that uses indirect often voluntary chosen means of communication, beit news channels, facebook meme, virals, data reports, bills and so on to help you arrive at the conclusion they want you to arrive at. Its a clever system of control if you cant see whats going on and believe you make your own decisions, whilst discounting how much you defer your decision making to experts, like teachers, Doctors, police, politicians and so on. Even the politicians are manipulated by the reports they get shown. The puppeteers are banking on your motivation in more ways than one.

krab 10y ago

The same here. The reputation of USA changed really a lot since the end of communism and the nineties. We really appreciated their involvement in dismantling the Iron Curtain. We were also fascinated by some western goods :-). Nowadays, people see USA as one of the superpowers in the world who influence or intervene in other countries for their own benefit. If I had to choose, I'd still prefer to live in USA over China or Russia. But thankfully, these are not the only options.

jjcc 10y ago
It's worse that the US policy makers intervene other countries mainly not because of their own benefit but because of they believe they are promoting the best values in the world. It's more deceptive and often supported by naive American public. Politicians pursuing pure self interest are more detectable. Hitler won't be in power again. But those who with strong ideology will be elected by American people. Similar situation also happened in Europa. NATO bombed Libya because French supported to overthrown a regime. Now waves of refugees come to Europa because of chaos and war.

stefantalpalaru 10y ago

> USA was seen as a heaven where everyone would like to live - and I did too You can thank propaganda for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#Smith.E2.80.93Mundt_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#Smith.E2.80.9... Radio Free Europe started as a CIA operation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty#Funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert... While they were useful for access to some real news and for organising the diaspora, these radio stations were also responsible for the false hope that Americans are coming to save us any day now. Most of the people behind the iron curtain channelled their frustration in this benign form of resistance - listening to forbidden radio stations - instead of doing something with an actual chance at bothering the regime.

chrisper 10y ago

Same here. I am a European who lived in the US from 2012, but I am going to move back to Europe this year. Even in 2012 I thought the US is going to be awesome, since everyone says how awesome it is. Well, after 5 years my views have certainly changed. Now I kind of dislike this place. Of course, I wish I had a chance to live in other areas of the US before judging the whole country, but that is not possible now. So Europe, here I come!