We live in a country that is so bloodthirsty that it has not only been involved in wars around the world for 80-90% of it’s existence, but there are mass shootings being perpetuated every week or so with no end in sight. We’re so desperate to kill one another that it’s not even safe to go a grocery store.

But at the exact same time, the laws that allow this state of affairs to continue aren’t used for their intended purpose. The 2nd Amendment is supposed to be for stopping the government from becoming tyrannical, but the ones who seem to champion it the most are the tyrants. Rights get taken away, protesters get brutalized but nothing ever really escalates like in other places. We all just decided to stop caring and move on within a week, mostly to keep our oppressors from clamping down even harder.

Sometimes it feels like the U.S. is a land full of hostages. Where the few hold the power and their armies of well paid thugs are encouraged to crush any resistance.

  • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    2 years ago

    I wonder what people truly think about the USA around the world. The USA has enjoyed unprecedented hegemony over the world the past 30 or so years.

    • MexicanCCPBot@lemmygrad.ml
      26·
      2 years ago

      As a Mexican I can say the average person here believes the US is a utopia where everyone is rich, owns a huge suburban house, has material abundance, public schools are great, there’s no crime, and you can get all of this off a blue collar worker’s wage. The US has amazing PR for normies despite the internet existing where you can see reality how it is. Hollywood, celebrities, social media stars, rich border shopping towns, and the exaggerated success stories of immigrants all help sell that image. People here see that the minimum wage over there is $7 per hour and don’t understand that everything costs more as well. I’m generalizing of course. A lot of people pay attention to the news, read books, and/or have first-hand experience with the more shitty aspects of the US empire and have plenty of criticism about them, but it might not be the majority.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
        23·
        2 years ago

        As a Mexican I can say the average person here believes the US is a utopia where everyone is rich, owns a huge suburban house, has material abundance, public schools are great, there’s no crime, and you can get all of this off a blue collar worker’s wage.

        This was one of the deciding factor in socialism annihilation in Europe. We were flooded with such propaganda about USA and mostly West Germany. People simply did not known such social stratification as a concept, the gap between poorest and richest income was like 1 to 6, they thought everyone lives like top labour aristocracy in the FRG…

        The more i think of it, it is clear that the socialism did not lost Cold War or the economic war. Socialism lost culture and propaganda war, they sown the seeds of their own destruction for allowing the subtle lies to seep.

      • TheConquestOfBed@lemmy.ml
        7·
        2 years ago

        As a Mexican I can say the average person here believes the US is a utopia where everyone is rich, owns a huge suburban house, has material abundance, public schools are great, there’s no crime, and you can get all of this off a blue collar worker’s wage.

        🤣

    • Camarada Forte@lemmygrad.ml
      19·
      2 years ago

      For quite a while here in Brazil, the United States was somewhat respected up until the 2010’s. Of course, those more inclined to history, humanities or left-wing politics despise the country, perhaps except the liberal leftists, who normally don’t care about the external world. The non-political minded are inclined to idealize and like the US because it’s related to the media they consume – sports, music, series, etc. Besides that, the country is largely ignored by Brazilians.

      Usually the US is admired by the extreme right-wing of my country, especially after Trump’s election. For instance, here is a right-wing gathering in Brazil, where these cursed flags are displayed:

      After the election of Biden, the US has been slowly losing its prestige among the right-wing nuts. They still idealize the country, but are extremely disappointed by the president.