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As a quasi-immigrant to the US myself, I applaud the author for having the courage to write such an excellent and detailed critique of life in the United States

As a quasi-immigrant to the US myself, I applaud the author for having the courage to write such an excellent and detailed critique of life in the United States. I totally agree that life here has it's pros and cons. It seems that it is expected amongst the native citizens that you be grateful to be provided the privilege of living in a developed nation (my own experience). If you want to critique, you can always go back to your third world nation where you came from ("if it's so bad, why are you still here?"). This article is an excellent showcase for why you can be grateful for the opportunities and still point out what isn't normal by other countries standards and what can be improved. thank you

ta847019377 7y ago
Agreed that it's an excellent article. I'd also agree that it's normal to prefer things about the old country, or the previous job, or the previous anything, and there's nothing wrong with saying so. But, I also think it's normal that sometimes things work the way they do because it's part of the local culture and the natives actually like it that way. Other times, of course, the bad aspect is just dumb, yet also very hard to fix (American healthcare). In the last couple of decades in America, some "thought leaders" have made a serious effort to convince us that "it's like that because we live here and like it that way" is not a valid reason, at least when that reasoning gets in the way of the country being more of a commercial clearing house. In other words, a political trend to convince Americans that if you don't have an economic argument, you don't have an argument. This frustrates many people, and I guess sometimes makes them say reductivist stuff like "if it's so bad, why are you still here?" Edit - typos
klipt 7y ago
And because many Americans are ignorant about how things work in other countries, when they do realize there are some downsides to American culture, instead of recognizing it's an American problem they will usually blame it on whatever group they're politically opposed to. Eg take for example the lonely individualism and lack of community the article talks about. If you discuss that with an American gender studies student, they'll say "oh we have many studies about that, it's called toxic masculinity" which implies it's a global problem with men who need to be "fixed". But actually as the article points out, no such lonely individualism exists for men in many other cultures, so it could more accurately be called "toxic Americanism".
- Der_Einzige 7y ago
  I can assure you that this is a gross mischaracterization of gender studies students. There are a significant number of them (maybe over 50%) who don't even use language like "toxic masculinity" and out of the remainder they won't attribute American individualism to it.
- danbolt 7y ago
  Interesting, most examples of toxic masculinity I see are related to machismo when it hurts men and those around them. Wikipedia [1] seems to consider masculinity toxic once it is considered “harm”. I’m curious if you have sources about it being related to lonely individualism. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity
  - klipt 7y ago
    > I’m curious if you have sources about it being related to lonely individualism. Literally the second paragraph of your link: "Self-reliance and emotional repression are correlated with increased psychological problems in men such as depression, increased stress, and substance abuse." "Self-reliance and emotional repression" are phenomena which as the OP article says, are much less present in eg Armenia than America.
    - danbolt 7y ago
      Haha, I should have read it further. Thank you for pointing it out!
- pjc50 7y ago
  No, it definitely manifests in other countries, but because it's cultural it looks different. Lots of places have an ugly relationship with alcohol, violence, and football, especially at the same time.
refurb 7y ago
I applaud the author for having the courage Writing a blog post of your own opinions is courageous? This seems like a pretty standard blog post where the author has strong opinions about how people should live and then critics his adopted country using those same opinions.
- vsskanth 7y ago
  I think it's courageous because it is not easy to critique the country you immigrate to without inviting a lot of pushback. It implicitly feels like it's not your place to complain because you weren't born here.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Shitting on the US is the internet’s favorite pass time. If anything the guy would get kudos for writing it.
    - abalashov 7y ago
      Only because we read US-centric parts of the Internet—which are admittedly many, given the US’s standing in the world. Still, I’m pretty sure many readers in Country X would agree that “shitting on Country X is the Internet’s favourite pastime”, or perhaps “among the favourite pastimes of the Internet”.
abalashov 7y ago
Oh yeah. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard — and still hear — “love it or leave it”. Well, I’ve been here since I was 6. It’s home. I’m not going anywhere. I’m still allowed to have a critical view.

ta847019377 7y ago

Agreed that it's an excellent article. I'd also agree that it's normal to prefer things about the old country, or the previous job, or the previous anything, and there's nothing wrong with saying so. But, I also think it's normal that sometimes things work the way they do because it's part of the local culture and the natives actually like it that way. Other times, of course, the bad aspect is just dumb, yet also very hard to fix (American healthcare). In the last couple of decades in America, some "thought leaders" have made a serious effort to convince us that "it's like that because we live here and like it that way" is not a valid reason, at least when that reasoning gets in the way of the country being more of a commercial clearing house. In other words, a political trend to convince Americans that if you don't have an economic argument, you don't have an argument. This frustrates many people, and I guess sometimes makes them say reductivist stuff like "if it's so bad, why are you still here?" Edit - typos

klipt 7y ago

And because many Americans are ignorant about how things work in other countries, when they do realize there are some downsides to American culture, instead of recognizing it's an American problem they will usually blame it on whatever group they're politically opposed to. Eg take for example the lonely individualism and lack of community the article talks about. If you discuss that with an American gender studies student, they'll say "oh we have many studies about that, it's called toxic masculinity" which implies it's a global problem with men who need to be "fixed". But actually as the article points out, no such lonely individualism exists for men in many other cultures, so it could more accurately be called "toxic Americanism".

Der_Einzige 7y ago
I can assure you that this is a gross mischaracterization of gender studies students. There are a significant number of them (maybe over 50%) who don't even use language like "toxic masculinity" and out of the remainder they won't attribute American individualism to it.
danbolt 7y ago
Interesting, most examples of toxic masculinity I see are related to machismo when it hurts men and those around them. Wikipedia [1] seems to consider masculinity toxic once it is considered “harm”. I’m curious if you have sources about it being related to lonely individualism. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity
- klipt 7y ago
  > I’m curious if you have sources about it being related to lonely individualism. Literally the second paragraph of your link: "Self-reliance and emotional repression are correlated with increased psychological problems in men such as depression, increased stress, and substance abuse." "Self-reliance and emotional repression" are phenomena which as the OP article says, are much less present in eg Armenia than America.
  - danbolt 7y ago
    Haha, I should have read it further. Thank you for pointing it out!
pjc50 7y ago
No, it definitely manifests in other countries, but because it's cultural it looks different. Lots of places have an ugly relationship with alcohol, violence, and football, especially at the same time.

refurb 7y ago

I applaud the author for having the courage Writing a blog post of your own opinions is courageous? This seems like a pretty standard blog post where the author has strong opinions about how people should live and then critics his adopted country using those same opinions.

vsskanth 7y ago
I think it's courageous because it is not easy to critique the country you immigrate to without inviting a lot of pushback. It implicitly feels like it's not your place to complain because you weren't born here.
- refurb 7y ago
  Shitting on the US is the internet’s favorite pass time. If anything the guy would get kudos for writing it.
  - abalashov 7y ago
    Only because we read US-centric parts of the Internet—which are admittedly many, given the US’s standing in the world. Still, I’m pretty sure many readers in Country X would agree that “shitting on Country X is the Internet’s favourite pastime”, or perhaps “among the favourite pastimes of the Internet”.

abalashov 7y ago

Oh yeah. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard — and still hear — “love it or leave it”. Well, I’ve been here since I was 6. It’s home. I’m not going anywhere. I’m still allowed to have a critical view.