Lemmy has a strong tendency to criticize the US, and a lot of the critiques of certain issue with the US are valid. However, I started getting really tired of opening comment sections in innocuous and non-political posts only to see that someone somehow found a way to criticize the US in it. At first, I started thinking that maybe some Lemmy users are really unhappy and find criticizing a something stronger helped them feel better as if standing up to injustice was a passion of theirs. But, we don’t see them do that with other targets, just the US. The more I notice and think about it, I’m starting be suspicious that some of those users and comments aren’t authentic, but made to create divisiveness in the West and reject the US entirely. In other words, they may be Russian, Chinese, et al. agents working to feed a stream of propaganda in order to further cause chaos and lack of unity in the West as we have seen them do before.
Anyone else think about this?
This is what I’m thinking the game plan is:
- Criticize something obviously unjust that the US has done. Ignore that all other major powers have also committed atrocities.
- Link and liken it to other US matters & behaviors
- Paint the US entirely as evil so that nothing the US can do is just
- Attack anyone that supports anything out of the US (we are between here and #3 above)
- Create a black-and-white model of geopolitics: US vs everyone else. EU and Russia on the same team lol
- West fragments as US and EU relationship dwindle from pseudo-populist movements (e.g. MAGA)
- Pick specific countries in the EU to start alienating and repeat the cycle
- ???
- Profit in special economic zones
I’m less worried about the anti-American tendencies than about the pro-Russian and pro-Chinese ones.
There are cases where they legitimately offer something better so they are viewed favorable. Especially China for some regional investments.
These are in my opinion good reasons and you have to ask yourself what the West can do better to change it.
We could always emulate China and start rounding up our minorities into camps and arresting any citizens who speak out. Would that be better?
American here. When you elect a man—twice—whose character and policies have led to a fractured nation, a failing education system, crumbling infrastructure, and a healthcare system that leaves millions behind, it’s no surprise that the world views us with disdain. When your citizens are struggling to afford basic necessities like rent and groceries while a handful of individuals hoard wealth that rivals entire nations, we’ve earned every ounce of criticism.
Buckle up, because the descent into this nightmare is far from over. The worst is yet to come, and it’s going to be a long, suffocating fall.
as an american, i whole-heartedly support anti-american sentiment. we fucking deserve all of it. we voted in a clown shitshow of a government and of course the world should laugh
As an outsider (not american and don’t live in the US) I just want to add that I’m not “anti-american”. The problem is that you guys built a “bully” reputation while at the same time we see the hardships the regular american have to go through without healthcare, education and labour laws, and nobody really cares.
came to write something like this. feel the exact same. we don’t need to post the election results to am I the asshole because we are not the assholes.
Nearly half the electorate didn’t vote for the reactionaries. I’d also add that this regression isn’t an exclusively American phenomenon, we’re just unfortunately at the vanguard.
it wasnte even half… 88 milllion eligible voters didnt vote at all. not voting is making a decision. people that do not vote at all are complicit
Hard disagree, Republicans wouldn’t do so much voter suppression bullshit if it didn’t have any effect. People who don’t vote are almost always being oppressed in a variety of different ways.
they suppress the vote because if all eligible voters voted, they would never win another election. i stand by the fact that if you did not vote at all, you are complicit in letting democracy die at the hands of conservative extremists.
And this isn’t even the first clown shitshow of a government we’ve voted in this century
As someone who would probably qualify as one of these anti-American Americans on Lemmy I can say this: A big factor for me is the despair I feel (having genuinely believed the myths for most of my life) as I see the facade falling away. The genuine awfulness and inhumanity of not just our government, and our economy, but also of the culture, the people themselves, is just overwhelming. These forums are one of the outlets I’ve been using for my rage. I can only speak for myself. I’m not a bot, or a Russian actor, or an edgy teen. I’m a disillusioned middle aged American.
I’ve been there with the disillusionment. It felt like everything I had heard about the US was complete bs. I was really upset with the education I had received and started learning a lot about other countries that had been villainized in American culture because I had felt lied to and wondered what the truth was. I think it is valid to do so when we realize that. I also think that criticizing our government is one of most important duties of every American. It’s one of the founding principles. In fact, whenever I am in Washington DC, I make sure to go flick off the the Capitol. I even take pictures.
However, I think it’s disingenuous and unhelpful to only criticize the US, both government and people. The US has done helpful things, regardless of supposed intention. The impact of policies and behaviors are the same. Additionally, something that is only criticized ultimately has no option but to not care about its impact on other and be solely selfish. Otherwise, I can only cease existing because there’s no option to improve and be welcomed. Personally, I think a more helpful approach to concerns with the US would be to also celebrate what it does right. This allows for it to correct itself and aim to be a more just and enjoyable country. It also allows for unity and growth with Western countries at a time when it looks the world is headed for a war between major powers. Hate the US all you want, while Russia has its positive as most countries do, it is my opinion that it is magnitudes worse of a county to live in many areas of life, from government oppression to economic hardships. On the positive side, it does seem to have an interesting history, unique problem-solving approaches, strong patriotism, valuable contributions to science, and outstanding artistic capacity.
How insanely American to think America being criticized a lot must mean propaganda.
Lemmy.world may have the least of this since they neolib gobblers
What’s lemmy.selfhostcat.com known for?
Based on this thread, sucking off China.
We all have hobbies.
I’m American. I love where I live. There’s a lot of great people, food, experiences, and places. It’s a vast place where a lot of great, forward looking things happen.
However, the government allows billionaires to control it and prevents it from serving its people. We are fucking angry.
Your question contains hints at where you’re coming from.
At first, I started thinking that maybe some Lemmy users are really unhappy and find criticizing a something stronger helped them feel better
You look at the criticism and you think they’re simply people being jealous or something, that’s not it at all. To be fair I’m not sure about what criticism are you seeing constantly, but the ones I’ve encountered mostly reflect my own criticism of it, e.g. the worst health care in the world, terrible education, abismal class gap, blatant racism, police brutality, overspenditure in military, school shootings, etc, etc, etc. Let me be absolutely clear, the US is NOT stronger than any developed country in any of these, I’ve lived in places with terrible healthcare that I would not wish on my worst enemy and they’re still leaps and bounds better than what you guys have.
But, we don’t see them do that with other targets, just the US.
But we do, the difference is no one is making posts claiming Russia is a better country and that’s why people criticize it. And most other countries accept their shortcomings, take it from the thread a while back from what people in the US need to hear and the similar one for Europe. Every single one of the answers on the US had someone saying that it was just jealousy, or that it wasn’t all that bad, or that that was better than the alternative, or one guy even tried to tell me that his city had none of those issues. On the other hand in the EU one most of the answers were more akin to “you’re right, this is something that’s really bad here”.
reject the US entirely. In other words, they may be Russian, Chinese, et al. agents working to feed a stream of propaganda in order to further cause chaos and lack of unity in the West as we have seen them do before.
Let me be extremely clear here, Fuck Russia, Fuck China. For all of my criticisms of the USA it is still a (very weird and indirect) democracy. So if I had to choose between those 3 I’ll take the USA every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Luckily I don’t, and I can live in a country without any of the issues I see there and express my opinion on how poorly the USA treats their citizens (you have to keep paying taxes after moving abroad for crying out loud) in the same manner I would express myself against any other country doing the same.
Criticize something obviously unjust that the US has done. Ignore that all other major powers have also committed atrocities.
Most of the criticism I see re for what the US is doing NOW, not in the past.
Paint the US entirely as evil so that nothing the US can do is just
I don’t think that’s what the majority is doing, there could be a few people like it, but for the major part I think people recognize that the USA is a a “decent” place to live, especially when compared to Russia or China. But what you need to understand is that it’s not the greatest country of all like you think, most of us would not move there unless we were offered ludicrous amounts of money.
EU and Russia on the same team lol
No one in Europe believes that, in fact you can still see plenty of Ukrainian flags around.
West fragments as US and EU relationship dwindle from pseudo-populist movements (e.g. MAGA)
If you think MAGA is pseudo-populism I would hate to see what you consider as real populism.
The short answer is that you’re probably not used to people telling you the US is not all that great, so you see that as an attack, and you think that because people criticize you that means they are trying to make others hate you, but I think most of us are just pointing your shortcomings because a lot of you act like very entitled narcissists who think there’s nothing wrong with the USA so obviously those who speak against it must be puppets.
TL;DR: criticism of the USA doesn’t mean there’s nothing good there, much less is it an endorsing Russia or China. But you don’t need to tell narcissists what they’re doing well, they’ll tell you themselves.
the difference is no one is making posts claiming Russia is a better country and that’s why people criticize it.
I see you also wisely blocked Lemmy.ml
