this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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Why Americans are suddenly so touchy about their school shootings, obesity and healthcare?
Accepting it is a low hanging fruit is the saddest thing I've read today. It's so obvious our society is fucked! Don't you have something more creative to say, dumbass?
7% of residential properties in the US are owned by a single corporation, America accounts for 20% of the world's prison population. The average salary of a college football coach in the US is $3,500,000, almost 60 times the average salary of a school teacher. Americas upcoming election will be fought between a barely coherent octogenarian and a proto-fascist serial fraudster & con artist.
Okay okay you can stop now ππ /j (while it is upsetting to me as an American, I also think it's very important to talk about this stuff. carry on lol)
Also barely coherent. But in a different, funnier way
Imagine justifiably criticising a bad trait that someone has in the hopes of having them improve
Most people are going to take that as a threat because they hold that trait deer to them and / or view it as a part of a themselves
americans are likely viewing the criticism as a threat to themselves and their country and are responding with emotionally fueled responses instead of logic based responses
americans should learn to meditate because it can help with the issue of wanting to respond to percived threats emotionally
You're speaking pretty large for an American for not being a school shooter yourself
But as an American who meditates, that is not the answer lol.
We have a bigger issue with the media trying to make us feel like everything outside is scary first. A lot of fear mongering to keep the scared gun owners to buy and advocate for more until a mentally deranged one goes too far and ruins it for everyone else. The media can now sensationalize that shooting and you get either people buying more guns or people advocating for no guns and neither side wants to hear each other anymore. It's one big crazy chain reaction loop we're stuck in and the politicians got the crazies advocating for things that would just make the politicians more money. Sigh.
Yes saying we can do something about it and do better is stupid. Same here in Europe btw, no one has the power to do anything about media and capitalism fucking us over.
However i still think we can joke about it as a way to communicate our problems and relieve ourselves from the tragic.
(Of course that requires some empathy and a shared humour to overcome our cultural differences.)
Cause they just realized that they do have a problem, its not normal and they internally feel like there is nothing to do to change it.
It's the Anger stage
Sadly only the tiny part actually interacting with foreigners online realize this and even they react with anger.
Idk wtf is wrong with all of my countrymen, those are three things we NEED to change.
It's so fucking funny to me because they're probably the same type of Americans that are like "oH aMeRiCa iS sO tOuGh nOt lIkE tHoSe SiSsY cOuNtRiEs iN tHe EU" but here they are all butt hurt when other countries make VERY VALID CRITICISMS about us
Because -- and this might be a hot take -- I don't think it should be socially acceptable to bring up a recent national tragedy as a fucking punchline
We've been voting. We're trying to get the rules changed and we're getting stonewalled by people who only listen to media that makes up reasons for them to hate things that would be good for the masses because it would be bad for a few people at the top and I'm sick to fucking death of people making fun of us for it and treating actual dying children as some sort of own. For Christ's sake, have some fucking empathy. None of us, not even the furthest-right conservatives, think this is okay, and we're trying to do something about it, and it doesn't help when you're like "haha look at all the dead children, isn't it funny how stupid Americans are"
Aguably, conservatives may not think it's ok but they're so scared of losing their guns (because their politicians say dems will take them so they can get elected) that conservatives consider dead kids an acceptable loss. If they didn't, more of them would vote for the party that wants to control who can obtain them.
Or, arguably even more importantly, conservatives argue that this is actually about 'mental health issues' but then subsequently refuse to do anything to improve mental health. So they don't even bother trying their own proposed solution.
You would think at this point that the US would have the most robust mental-healthcare system on the planet!
I wish I could say people were trying to stop school shootings in my area. I live in PERRY FUCKING IOWA, about a mile from the very school that was shot up, and all I fucking see from anyone around here is thoughts and prayers, wear a blue shirt, Perry Strong!!
It's embarrassing.
I do agree that we need more empathy. But that empathy can and should be used to have a better humour.
Because i can't stress enough how humour is important in dealing with tragedy. It's one of the greatest tool to overcome it.
That's why you also see American joking about it. Only their jokes might be funnier than European's because they know and emphasize better with the tragedy.
On the other hand, one thing we do share is trying to change without any or not enough results. That's something most countries know about in this day and age. Media and corrupt system is something European's deals with too.
So i get your anger, it's also good, it's a driving force for us to continue trying to change, however helpless we feel.
Americans: USA is the greatest country in the world. Behold our God given rights and freedoms! We're number 1! We're exceptional! U! S! A! U! S! A!
Europeans: Actually it's pretty arrogant to think your country is so much better than all the other. All countries have flaws and strengths. For example USA have problems with gun violence and healthcare.
Americans: How dare you make fun of our national tragedies! Can't you see we're suffering here? You're making fun of dead children! You MONSTERS!!
Not that's a meme. Which template should I use?
that's a nice strawman you've got there
Hahaha
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism
Hahaha
"I have a Wikipedia article about people who do this. I therefore conclude that all Americans do this."
Oh, I see where you got confused. When people say 'Americans do something' they mean 'most Americans do it' or 'significant portion of American population do it', not 'all Americans do it'. You see, countries are big and there are a lot of people in them and it very rare for everyone in a country to think exactly the same. That's why we usually focus on the prevailing attitudes that shape the country over the years instead of looking for believes shared by ALL citizens (because they don't exists). Currently over 40% of Americans believe that "God has granted America a special role in human history" and it was way higher in the not so distant past, that's why someone could say that "Americans believe it". Hope this helps.
No American I've ever met, online or off, believes this. Hope this helps.
"It doesn't exist in my bubble so the researchers are wrong".
"Some Americans believe this, therefore the Americans who don't and are actually trying to fix this Godforsaken country, and get upset when people accuse them of believing it, are hypocrites and crybabies who can't take criticism."
I know how you feel but you have to understand that the memes are not about you personally. We know that most Americans on lemmy are the cool ones. The ones that don't have guns and are not afraid of socialism. The memes are about the other Americans and, you know, we're just joshing. I though that's obvious, that's why I asked why everyone is suddenly so touchy about it. Usually the cool Americans are in on the joke. Now they are all sensitive about it. It's just weird.
Thank you for that. But I'm having a hard time believing that one comment from me reflects the feelings of "everyone"
Like I don't know if you've seen the rest of this thread but...
Imagine every time you see a person, he tells you you stink; but every time, also mildly suggests you take a shower.
What can you possibly do to make him happy?β¦β¦β¦β¦β¦.