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As an American living overseas I've come to this realization: If Americans cannot respect the rules of their homeland in the language they understand, how can t

As an American living overseas I've come to this realization: If Americans cannot respect the rules of their homeland in the language they understand, how can they be expected to elsewhere? Outside the USA, the opinion of the USA is not great [0] right now and it seems unlikely these bans will go away. It sucks for those of us who are doing our parts to flatten the curve and prevent overwhelming the medical systems. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/world/europe/Ireland-americans-break-quarantine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/world/europe/Ireland-amer...

pb7 6y ago
I think it's a huge mistake to assume that the people that, say, refuse to believe in science and/or effectiveness of wearing masks are the same people that are traveling internationally. Only ~45% of Americans even have a passport and most will never leave their home state. I'm going to go out on a limb and say those who think the US is the greatest place on Earth and have no desire to step foot outside of it to test that theory don't have the best intentions.
- onepointsixC 6y ago
  You're probably right. More so it seems to me that Americans are easy punching bags to ignore local domestic stupidity. From everything I've seen the 5G causes corona virus folks are largely not from America, but in online conversation they seem to be swept under the rug.
jb775 6y ago
> the opinion of the USA is not great right now The "opinion" of the USA has never been great, ever since our country was founded. And yet we're the only ones everyone talks about. And our culture and policies and businesses and finances permeate the world. And people are literally dying trying to get in. And then we need to save the world from one of their crazy dictators and the cycle restarts all over again.
- refurb 6y ago
  I've noticed this too. Currently visiting Canada and I'd say 70% of the national news coverage is the US which I found really weird. Is there not enough going on in Canada or other parts of the world? And the best part is the Canadian PM is embroiled in a big scandal, but it's getting less coverage than Covid in the US. Oh and this article is a fantastic example of that. Why would the CBC decide this is a topic worth writing about?
  - smegger001 6y ago
    Its a population issue. the US is very close culturally, and has a overwhelmingly larger population. California alone has more people the the entity of Canada.
    - refurb 6y ago
      Completely understand that the US is more relevant to Canada than say European countries, but I guess the coverage is way more than I would expect. I could see covering the major news stories out of the US, but seems to go far beyond that. If you watched the first 20 min of a 30 min national Canadian news show, I'd argue you'd have a hard time telling it apart from US national news shows. And to be honest, I think it would be great if Canada covered other important international news out of Asia or Europe. Just my two cents.
      - smegger001 6y ago
        hell I wish US news covered more international news
- JSavageOne 6y ago
  When was the last time we "saved the world"? When we invaded Iraq? Vietnam? Assassinated the the democratically elected leaders of Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile? Seems to me that the world would prefer less "saving the world" on the US's behalf.
bstar77 6y ago
What do you mean by "Respect the rules of their homeland?" You understand that rules regarding mask wearing are generally decided at the company/institution level. The local governments gives recommendations, but don't generally enforce them. There's no federal mandated law that everyone needs to adhere to. Additionally, the majority of people in the US that travel overseas are likely to be much more cultured and concerned about how they are perceived in a foreign nation than our local Walmart population. An uneducated Karen wearing a Nazi mask ranting about her god given right to not wear a mask is not indicative of the type of person from the US that will be visiting culturally significant sites of Italy.
- pb7 6y ago
  >Additionally, the majority of people in the US that travel overseas are likely to be much more cultured and concerned about how they are perceived in a foreign nation than our local Walmart population. An uneducated Karen wearing a Nazi mask ranting about her god given right to not wear a mask is not indicative of the type of person from the US that will be visiting culturally significant sites of Italy. Would really, really like to emphasize this. I can't count the number of times I was hit with a "Wow, you are nothing like the Americans I read about in the news" internationally. General perception of the US is bad but for the most part, the people that are desperate to explore the world aren't to blame for it. Unfortunately those who are to blame for it will never cross paths with the people who are disgusted with them in other countries.
jcims 6y ago
>As an American... >If Americans cannot respect... >It sucks for those of us... Who are you talking about here? You?
fastball 6y ago
The fatality rate from COVID-19 in the US is still well below many European countries.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  That's ambiguous, and unwise to be saying now in any case. The cumulative number of deaths per million citizens is still lower than a bunch of countries in Europe, but every day the US has 10 to 100 times the number of covid deaths as one of those countries. Double or quadruple all of Europe together. So it seems likely the US will overtake them. My (somewhat simplistic) extrapolation suggests about 4 months to match Belgium.
  - fastball 6y ago
    How are fatality rates ambiguous? There is also the fact that different countries are using different methodologies to count COVID-19 deaths, with the US having one of the most liberal definitions (anyone that had COVID-19 at the time of death is counted, whether or not the actual death can be directly traced back to COVID-19). Many nations are not using this broad-stroke method of counting COVID-19 deaths. The US fatality rate needs to double (from 453/M to 853/M) in order to match Belgium. The trends are definitely not indicating that this will be likely. The current 30/day trend would need to continue for an additional 160 days uninterrupted in order to match Belgium, and that does not seem likely given the data we've seen anywhere in the world (the majority of which has significantly less medical capacity than the US).
closeparen 6y ago
>respect the rules of their homeland I don't think the problem is refusing to follow the rules, so much as electing people who won't even make them.

pb7 6y ago

I think it's a huge mistake to assume that the people that, say, refuse to believe in science and/or effectiveness of wearing masks are the same people that are traveling internationally. Only ~45% of Americans even have a passport and most will never leave their home state. I'm going to go out on a limb and say those who think the US is the greatest place on Earth and have no desire to step foot outside of it to test that theory don't have the best intentions.

onepointsixC 6y ago
You're probably right. More so it seems to me that Americans are easy punching bags to ignore local domestic stupidity. From everything I've seen the 5G causes corona virus folks are largely not from America, but in online conversation they seem to be swept under the rug.

jb775 6y ago

> the opinion of the USA is not great right now The "opinion" of the USA has never been great, ever since our country was founded. And yet we're the only ones everyone talks about. And our culture and policies and businesses and finances permeate the world. And people are literally dying trying to get in. And then we need to save the world from one of their crazy dictators and the cycle restarts all over again.

refurb 6y ago
I've noticed this too. Currently visiting Canada and I'd say 70% of the national news coverage is the US which I found really weird. Is there not enough going on in Canada or other parts of the world? And the best part is the Canadian PM is embroiled in a big scandal, but it's getting less coverage than Covid in the US. Oh and this article is a fantastic example of that. Why would the CBC decide this is a topic worth writing about?
- smegger001 6y ago
  Its a population issue. the US is very close culturally, and has a overwhelmingly larger population. California alone has more people the the entity of Canada.
  - refurb 6y ago
    Completely understand that the US is more relevant to Canada than say European countries, but I guess the coverage is way more than I would expect. I could see covering the major news stories out of the US, but seems to go far beyond that. If you watched the first 20 min of a 30 min national Canadian news show, I'd argue you'd have a hard time telling it apart from US national news shows. And to be honest, I think it would be great if Canada covered other important international news out of Asia or Europe. Just my two cents.
    - smegger001 6y ago
      hell I wish US news covered more international news
JSavageOne 6y ago
When was the last time we "saved the world"? When we invaded Iraq? Vietnam? Assassinated the the democratically elected leaders of Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile? Seems to me that the world would prefer less "saving the world" on the US's behalf.

bstar77 6y ago

What do you mean by "Respect the rules of their homeland?" You understand that rules regarding mask wearing are generally decided at the company/institution level. The local governments gives recommendations, but don't generally enforce them. There's no federal mandated law that everyone needs to adhere to. Additionally, the majority of people in the US that travel overseas are likely to be much more cultured and concerned about how they are perceived in a foreign nation than our local Walmart population. An uneducated Karen wearing a Nazi mask ranting about her god given right to not wear a mask is not indicative of the type of person from the US that will be visiting culturally significant sites of Italy.

pb7 6y ago
>Additionally, the majority of people in the US that travel overseas are likely to be much more cultured and concerned about how they are perceived in a foreign nation than our local Walmart population. An uneducated Karen wearing a Nazi mask ranting about her god given right to not wear a mask is not indicative of the type of person from the US that will be visiting culturally significant sites of Italy. Would really, really like to emphasize this. I can't count the number of times I was hit with a "Wow, you are nothing like the Americans I read about in the news" internationally. General perception of the US is bad but for the most part, the people that are desperate to explore the world aren't to blame for it. Unfortunately those who are to blame for it will never cross paths with the people who are disgusted with them in other countries.

jcims 6y ago

>As an American... >If Americans cannot respect... >It sucks for those of us... Who are you talking about here? You?

fastball 6y ago

The fatality rate from COVID-19 in the US is still well below many European countries.

perl4ever 6y ago
That's ambiguous, and unwise to be saying now in any case. The cumulative number of deaths per million citizens is still lower than a bunch of countries in Europe, but every day the US has 10 to 100 times the number of covid deaths as one of those countries. Double or quadruple all of Europe together. So it seems likely the US will overtake them. My (somewhat simplistic) extrapolation suggests about 4 months to match Belgium.
- fastball 6y ago
  How are fatality rates ambiguous? There is also the fact that different countries are using different methodologies to count COVID-19 deaths, with the US having one of the most liberal definitions (anyone that had COVID-19 at the time of death is counted, whether or not the actual death can be directly traced back to COVID-19). Many nations are not using this broad-stroke method of counting COVID-19 deaths. The US fatality rate needs to double (from 453/M to 853/M) in order to match Belgium. The trends are definitely not indicating that this will be likely. The current 30/day trend would need to continue for an additional 160 days uninterrupted in order to match Belgium, and that does not seem likely given the data we've seen anywhere in the world (the majority of which has significantly less medical capacity than the US).

closeparen 6y ago

>respect the rules of their homeland I don't think the problem is refusing to follow the rules, so much as electing people who won't even make them.