this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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I wanted to ask this question to Americans, do you think it is ok for people who don't have a stake in USA future to discuss USA events and politics?

I personally think it should be encouraged, but I had met a very small minority of people who think it's not ok.

What do you think?

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 months ago (1 children)

americans who try to tell you you're "not allowed" to talk about america are stupid.

there are a lot of them. tell them to fuck off and eat shit

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

There's nothing more American than to tell someone to fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hey now, I'm American, and you can fuck off with this!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Lets all fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago

No American. Why not? Everyone is discussing everything. Such is life. Discuss whatever you want.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago

Sure. America has its slimy tendrils in everyone else's business, so it's only fair that you have a say.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Swede here, I don't require permission to discuss foreign politics or events, nor do I need to grant permission to the relevant foreign person wanting to discuss Swedish politics.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

American here, what’s exciting in Swedish politics these days? I’d like some reprieve from the dumpster fire that is America for a minute.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nazis unfortunately (disclaimer not a swede)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Woah woah woah, hold on a minute. The topic of discussion is Swedes and Nazis, and you feel it necessary to make sure we all know you're not a Swede?! That's the part you want to clarify?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

America influences the world quite a bit. Feels fair for the world to have an opinion on it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Took the words right of my fingertips.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Am I allowed to talk about Russia and Ukraine? Israel and Palestine? Great Britain and Ireland? Australia and some birds?

If something is happening it’s fair game to talk about. We may not be able to fix / change anything, but we can express our opinions on the subject.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Are you familiar with the pūteketeke?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I feel like as long as your country has one of our military bases in it, and the chances are unfortunately pretty high that you do, you've got about as much right to criticize the U.S. as anyone else. The U.S. falling to fascism would have global repercussions, so don't let anyone ever tell you that you don't have skin in the game too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Not only that. We have your nuklear weapons as well.

I recently learned that one of the US nuclear weapon depots was at the german airforce airbase my father was stationed on and we lived nearby when I was a kid.

It wasn't public knowledge and I'm glad I only learned about it 20 years later. But even if they are not there exactly anymore, they are somewhere in Germany at an undisclosed location and that does makes us a target.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Canadian here, if you take away complaining about Americans, we'd have nothing else to talk about

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The weather. We'd still talk about the weather.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Well, hockey season is starting up again soon, so there's that

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm French and I'm never mad when I hear outside opinions on the shitshow currently happening in my country. Second Thought made a good video on the subject, I don't think you should be bound to only discussing the politics of where you are a citizen.

https://youtu.be/T_TheRdobu8

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do you think it is ok for people who don't have a stake in USA future to discuss USA events and politics?

To a degree. But we have enough uneducated opinions coming from inside the house that I'm hesitant to invite any more in. I follow UK and EU politics on a superficial level, but I don't inject my opinion into it because I don't have a horse in that race.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

This is the difference, I think. So many non-American people don’t understand the particular way our political things are screwy, and when they make blanket pronouncements about it, it’s sort of a different conversation than when an American does.

Several times I’ve discovered the person I’m arguing with isn’t an idiot or a right-wing nutjob, they just don’t know the peculiarities of American politics, because they’re not American. Like how unlimited money is allowed to pour into campaigns and are essentially bribes. Or the revolving-door lobbying that happens. Stuff like that.

Idiots and right-wing nutjobs abound here so it’s always a little disconcerting to have to say, “Oh. Oh, sorry, I thought you were a voter and that’s why I cared so much that you had all the information. No, if you’re not American, we can just agree [whatever the thing is] is [stupid] and leave it at that”

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's fine to discuss, not okay to pretend to have inside perspective

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

This puts it nicely and succinctly. It's important to remember that the USA has single states larger than some European countries. It's enormous.

For as much diversity as there is in wherever you are from... just compare the sizes and think a little.

Trying to take pieces of information, even when from reputable news sources, and apply it to the entirety of this massive place with a wildly diverse population like it's some sort of insider information that magically applies to all or even most is foolish.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

If American's didn't want people to talk about American politics perhaps they should stay out of everyone else's politics?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Anyone anywhere should be able to discuss anything about anything within reason.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm a citizen of the United States.

I give you the pass.

Edit: in fact, talk more - specifically to other U.S. citizens about it. Exposure to other countries ways of doing things can only be a good thing, and if they tell you to fuck off - whatever, that's their right.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's alright for anyone to discuss and have opinions on anything.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

As an American, almost none of us would care. Except xenophobes, maybe. Even nationalists would love to to have their nation be the focus of everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

I question why anyone would have a monopole or exclusive right to a topic of conversation :)

But I actually disagree due to another fundamental point: USA politics are in fact involving and impacting the rest of the world. The USA leads NATO and has previously threatened to drop it, as well as the WHO, they get involved (sometimes violently) in foreign affairs (afghanistan). They are a huge economic market to which many foreign companies try to sell or get funding. They are the biggest stock exchange (still today I guess).

The influence of the USA exceeds its borders since quite a while now. It is only normal for people to feel involved, despite not being from the USA. Same with Russia, same with China.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Our shit can often affect a lot of the rest of the world, so it makes sense for our business to be relevant to people outside the US.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Always ok dude.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

It absolutely should be talked about. All events in all of the world should be talked about as long as it involves factual information, which can sometimes be hard to come by these days . It's only extremists trying to create false narratives who would say otherwise. And mostly only because they don't want you telling the people they control the truth or they're so dependent using the lie to their advantage that even they don't want to know the truth.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

As long as they use "Leader of the Free World" for their President without giving me a vote and the fact that American Policy is also very influential in my Country means that I don't have a vote but I sure as hell have an opinion, and a more educated one than many Americans. I follow American Politics and Policy daily.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I (US citizen living abroad) still have to file income tax every year. I cannot contribute to the tax-advantaged retirement plans (iDECO and NISA) in Japan because the IRS considers basically anything they have to offer as a PFIC. I can't put money into my old US retirement accounts for other legal reasons (and the yen is shit against the dollar right now). You'd better believe if I have to deal with all that bullshit, I'm going to both talk about events and vote.

Edit: to head it off, I'm an only child and need to be there for my parents in case anything happens without any visa paperwork or restrictive periods of stay so renouncing is not currently an option.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Who's going to stop you?

Anyway, US politics affects the whole world. I hate a lot of the commentary coming from particular regions (Western Europe, Australia, Canada) but it still affects them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Hell yes! We Americans are raised believing that we’re exceptional. That led to Trump. (It’s being used to propagate lies/misinformation.)

Dig into any discussion you want. Be prepared to learn, but call out lies when to see them. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

On the one hand I believe that as a global power, most countries actually have stakes in US politics.

On the other hand, I hear one more "Cheeseburgers per school shooting instead of metric" joke, and I'm gonna go full Jane Doe with a Market Gardner and air strike over it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

ngl, I love hearing the rest of the world, it gives perspective into what we're doing well, what we're doing poorly, and what's downright fucked up

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Why wouldn't it be? The only thing would be misrepresenting yourself as American, or suggesting you yourself will be voting or similar. We all live on the same rock

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Absolutely. The only time I see an issue with this is when someone only spams "America bad". Yes, the government is bad, but that ignores a lot of the nuance of the situation. Similarly, people who only want to talk about how China, Russia, other colonizing power, etc is bad and refuse to understand that it isn't the people of those places as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

No country exists in isolation. Why wouldn't it be fine to discuss events in another country even if you don't have a direct stake in it?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Free speach baby. They dont like it they can go complain to their government about the first amendment.

If the us is going influence everyone else in the world we at least have the godamn right to talk about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

American foreign politics affects almost everyone on the globe. They have military bases everywhere and the dollar still is the currency used in a lot of international trade, although that's changing.

If they didn't want to be scrutinized, chastised or made fun of then they shouldn't be in the empire building business.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Of course. Although I sometimes think the obsession with US politics goes above and beyond what is practical. It’s probably more important to focus on your local politics where you can actually have an influence.

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