CannizzaroIs America Really That Bad?
applejacksYes and no.
We do have mass shootings, but we also live in a country in 330 million, but every mass shooting makes national news, so it seems far worse than it is. Also, most mass shootings are gang violence that get lumped in with what we normally consider “random mass shootings” to pump up the numbers and scare people.
Healthcare could definitely be better, but 67% of Americans are satisfied with their insurance. I would still much prefer a universal healthcare system.
Overall, America definitely has its ups and downs, but a lot of the “AMERICA BAD” rhetoric is just a reddit meme where they get rewarded for trashing it.
joeYou skipped over the whole 50% of the population lost the constitutional right to control their own body.
You skipped over a lot of stuff.
America is pretty bad, and we’ll never get better if everyone keeps insisting we’re not that bad.
Do you think we should switch the abortion laws that most european countries have?
Do you know they are typically stricter than what we have here?
Stricter than a complete ban?
Where is abortion banned in the US?
Do you really need me to Google this for you?
This, of course, excludes where the health of the mother is in danger, or in cases of rape and incest.
blanketswithsmallpoxThis is going to be tongue in cheek...
So I can medically treat my body if dying or raped... Good.
Now about abortions lol.
Dude take 30 seconds and google it. Yes some of these places don’t have exceptions for rape and incest.
Look at you being the *chef’s kiss* perfect example of what I’m talking about. Why should anyone take your word on how great or not great America is when you’re this misinformed.
State should not have the right to pick and choose like that. Textbook way of taking away people’s liberty.
The only way we’ll improve is if people realize how shitty it is and vote for better reps and better laws.
I mean, case in point: someone replied to my post apparently not knowing abortion is banned in places in America. I don’t even understand how that’s possible it was everywhere on the news for months.
See, this just isn’t true. There are a number of states that have the right to abortion enshrined in their constitution. Others are voting to have it added to their constitutions. Just because it was removed nationally, doesn’t mean everyone lost that right.
Granted, it is absolutely a tragedy what is going on in the more backwards states. But things like this make it sound worse than the situation is nationwide. This is the issue the OP has. If you only see the negatives that are reported in the news, it sounds like the US is an absolute hellhole, which is not most people’s lived experience.
It is true that 50% of the population lost this constitutional right.
There are state CONSTITUTIONS that protect this right, so no it’s not true.
TurboTurboTrying to downplay the old gun violence again? There is still this though: www.cnn.com/2018/05/21/us/…/index.html
And those numbers only go up to 2018. This year, we have already had as many school shootings by June as during the entire year of 2018: www.edweek.org/leadership/…/01
But yeah, I guess some people consider that ‘scare tactics’. smh
Yes, this is exactly what I was talking about:
www.npr.org/…/the-school-shootings-that-werent
This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” The number is far higher than most other estimates.
But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government’s Civil Rights Data Collection.
We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.
So what about statistics from the Center of Homeland Defense and Security? Probably also just inflated, right? nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a01
Do you not realize how much lower those numbers are than what you originally posted?
You are undermining your own claim.
They also include deaths that never happened at schools.
Also from your own link:
The percentage of youth homicides occurring at school remained at less than 3 percent of the total number of youth homicides
From your own data, in 2018, there were 10 homicides of youths in schools.
www.census.gov/topics/…/school-enrollment.html
On average in America, there are 73.8 million students in school.
That’s a percentage of .0000001%
Go outside dude. “America bad” is not based on reddit, there are millions of citizens out there who have real issues with the way our country is run, real activist groups doing protests and trying to spread awareness.
All you have to do is open your mind to be able to see these problems (instead of downplaying issues like mass murder) and listen to the people who feel they’ve been disadvantaged
Yes, how dare I look at the actual statistics over listening to people that “feel” a certain way.
Healthcare could definitely be better, but 67% of Americans are satisfied with their insurance.
No offense, but this sounds a bit like asking the congenitally blind if they miss seeing.
I don’t disagree with that.
This is why Trump should get elected so he can Make America Great Again, right guys?
But in all seriousness, I imagine it’s a case of that America is nowhere near as good as some Americans make it out to be, but it’s also not as terrible as the media make it out to be either. You can probably apply this to most of the Western World, really.
You got me at first!! Hovering over that down arrow hahaha
A lot of the ones that make it out to be greater than it is are just wishfully thinking. They imagine a place where they don’t need to make any changes while everything else must conform to their ideals and bend for them. They imagine trump is the answer to this. They typically have the simplest of beliefs and solutions that would fail even the slightest scrutiny.
The US is also extremely huge geographically. Towns are different from each other, and states and just general locations can be different from each other. There is no one place you can say “is America”. Hell, you can have a peaceful family friendly neighborhood, and the next street over could be a drugs and violence.
I agree the media absolutely makes it seem worse than it is. Especially with all the 24/7 news and fear mongering to grab attention.
HamartiogonicI have very mixed feelings about Trump. Obviously, he really isn’t good for any country, so I hope he doesn’t get re-elected. Just throw him in the jail already. Unfortunately, I can’t deny the fact that on some sick and twisted schadenfreude way I also enjoyed watching the first four seasons of the Shitshow. Oh, what a rollercoaster that was.
MelllvarNo, it’s not nearly as bad as depicted.
The USA, for all its faults, remains the standard against which other countries measure themselves (and find themselves lacking). That’s why every embarrassment and mistake gets blasted across the international media.
This is very chauvinistic.
Please explain why I’m incorrect.
You gave an opinion that can’t really be called “correct” or “incorrect.” It’s just chauvinistic.
That’s a cop-out. You’ve accused me of being a chauvinist. Either you have a reason for that or you don’t.
If you do, spill it.
If you don’t, then you’re just being insulting.
The USA, for all its faults, remains the standard against which other countries measure themselves (and find themselves lacking).
This statement - do you not see how that’s an incredibly arrogant and patronising thing to assert?
Please explain why I’m incorrect.
“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence” (Hitchen’s razor), you made the claim.
Actually, I explained my reasoning.
You’re incorrectly assuming that something has to be incorrect to be chauvinistic.
Chauvinism is defined as “excessive or prejudiced support for their own cause or group”.
Excess and prejudice are incorrect bases for an opinion.
I am not going to debate over semantics with you.
You already started.
He probably doesn't know what it means
Aww, did I hurt your feewings?
What a condescending, bratty thing to say. You don’t have to belittle people just because you disagree with them. You can have respectful, mature conversations with people :)
I understand you're coming from a good place, but I disagree. Someone who says stupid and arrogant things should be made fun of. Me included! I don't like being made fun of, but it sure helps me learn.
To paraphrase Asimov, his ignorance is NOT worth just as much as my knowledge.
ExecutiveStaplerAh, what a great example of a thought terminating cliche, a statement that does what it says to save you from cognitive dissonance and nuance. You are clearly using chauvinistic as a pejorative, so you need to either justify how they're wrong or take it back and stop muddying the waters with your empty ideological language.
To be clear, I don't necessarily agree with op's statement. The US as a developed nation clearly has more opportunities and advantages than developing nations, but there are other developed nations that meet and sometimes beat the advantages the US brings. I'd argue the US is at least in top 3 of being the most successful nation in diversity and global influence, but other nations have better welfare programs, housing policy, and cultural aspects imo.
You’re reading very far into my use of a word. I used it because its meaning is very applicable here. It’s not “empty ideological language.” It means something similar to “patriotic,” though I didn’t use that word because for some reason in the US patriotism is considered to be a good thing.
This user seems to think the US superior to all other countries. The word’s definition certainly seems to apply:
Militant devotion to and glorification of one’s country; fanatical patriotism.
Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one’s own gender, group, or kind.
This user seems to think the US superior to all other countries
No I did not.
Short memory, you said:
The USA, for all its faults, remains the standard against which other countries measure themselves (and find themselves lacking).
How to interpret that sentence:
How not to interpret that sentence:
I agree you used chauvinistic to mean that, but you then followed it up by saying that you didn't have to justify why what they said is wrong. You do. It's also not the case that what they said was definitionally chauvinistic, although I'll let that slide because it was something similar enough.
Suppose it was the case that one nation was in every way better than all other countries. Shouldn't the citizens of that country be proud of that? Beyond pride, shouldn't they do everything they can to spread their glorious system to the world and bring prosperity to all? That doesn't necessarily mean wars and colonialism, that simply means all soft power efforts to implement systems that show themselves to work. I think the answer to this hypothetical is this nations citizens should feel pride and should spread their system.
The key point here is the United States isn't better than every country in the world, thus Americans shouldn't feel such extreme pride about their country. However, the United States is pretty good. I think some form of pride / patriotism are justified for Americans and even forms of soft power to implement effective policies are justified, but this answer is impossible to reach when you throw out all feel good thoughts about nations as chauvinistic.
LithWell, for one, when compared to other countries, the United States is pretty consistently lacking no matter what aspect of it you’re measuring. I wouldn’t exactly call that a standard. Maybe a minimum standard?
Could you summarize which datapoints you’d like to hilight?
This is a summary.
I can read Wikipedia anytime. I’m here for a discussion.
That’s why every embarrassment and mistake gets blasted across the international media.
Do you speak languages other than English fluently?
the standard against which other countries measure themselves
What are you basing this on?
What are you basing this on?
The international newsworthiness of any American embarrassment and shortcoming.
Do you speak languages other than English fluently?
Why?
Are you going to compare your country’s favorably to the US on that point?