There are a lot of stereotypes online about people from different countries. In the case of the United States, people are considered to be stupid, gun-toting radical Christians. The problem with this stereotype, as well as most national stereotypes, is that this only represents a very small portion on the country. They are very loud and seem more numerous, but they are the minority.
Let’s take me, for example. I graduated cum laude from a university, I am a member of four honor societies, and went to school on two separate honors scholarships. I don’t own guns because I hate them. I am also not religious in the least.
There are a lot of national stereotypes that should be dumped. For example, the French being snobs and losers. The Brits all being polite and dignified. The Canadians all being nice to a fault. Or the Germans being a bunch of OCD meanies.
I have encountered one person who meets the American stereotype. He was going across social media spouting all this racist, right-wing Christian, conspiracy theory garbage. He had memes talking about his guns being taken away, and it was all with the worst grammar I had ever seen. So imagine my surprise when I looked at his profile and discovered he was Canadian, born and raised.
I recently unsubscribed from a channel of a YouTuber I used to like when he posted a video of his top cartoon character drowning immigrants on a raft and bombing BLM protestors. He’s a Brit.
Yes, racism and prejudice is not unique to the United States. Sadly, it’s a global problem. Look at the horrible Asian hate found in Australia. Or the lawsuits that are currently being raised against the Canadian government for their continued mistreatment of native peoples. There are Brits screaming in the streets for immigrants to “go back home,” and French people calling for bans on Muslims. Don’t pin that racist thing on us alone.
I see a lot of the ultra-left looking for the grass that’s greener on the other side of the fence. Back in the mid-1990s, it was Japan that was the utopia they were looking for. Then one day a serial killer appeared and made all sorts of commentary on the poor condition of the Japanese school system. Now it’s Europe that’s the fantasy utopia, and the belief is just as misguided.
They say that only the United States can create a candidate like Trump. Well, then where do Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu come from? They’re not Americans, and they are just as dangerous as Trump, if not more so, because it’s pretty much impossible to get them out of office.
We are in another era of dangerous people in charge. It’s been almost a hundred years since we were last in this situation, and look where that went. We don’t have Hitler, or Stalin, or Franco anymore. We’ve got Putin, Netanyahu, and Kim Jong Un, to name just a few. There is no utopia, and there never will be. It’s an impossibility as long as greed is in play.
Nor are the ultra-conservative Americans correct. The United States is not the greatest country in the world, and it never will be. There is no such thing as a “great” country anywhere on the planet, at least not today. Most countries are seriously flawed somehow. I could go over the flaws of the United States, but we’d be here forever.
For one thing, our healthcare sucks. The Democrats boast about the Affordable Care Act, but it was truly a disaster for the middle class. Most people are left with high-deductible insurance, having to shell out upwards of three to ten thousand dollars before their insurance even kicks in. Would you believe it was even worse before this act?
Education is not a top priority in this country. The public school system is a joke, torn apart by ultra-conservative politics that puts in place stupid shit like Creationism in schools and abstinence-only sex ed. Then the ultra-liberals come along with their raising standards to astronomical levels without giving students any means to meet said standards. And God forbid you have any sort of disability or learning difference!
Don’t even get me started on the political system. A two-party system where both parties spend much of their time arguing and bickering rather than getting anything done. Then there is the routine of getting into office and undoing every hint of progress that was made simply because it was done by the other party. We are stagnant because of a bunch of spoiled, rich, bickering assholes who have no idea how the rest of the country lives, nor do they care.
Is it any better in other countries? In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. If you live in Sweden, for example, you better be sure you name your baby from the government approved list of names. In Japan, you have one chance at a test to determine the rest of your life, and you better not have a bad test day or you’re screwed for said life. In Canada, you can get a good education and healthcare, as long as your not a member of the indigenous people.
I could go into a study of one country and pick out all the things wrong with it, but, as with the United States list, we would be here forever. My point is that there is no perfect fairytale home out there. There will be problems wherever you go.
And there will also be conservative assholes. There are plenty of them up in Canada causing difficulties. They are having a problem in Toronto with people vandalizing 5G cell towers because of Qanon-type conspiracy theories. There were several anti-mask protests in the streets from British Columbia to Ontario during the pandemic. Conservatives are actually a big problem in Canada.
They are also a problem in Britain. Look at who was in charge during the pandemic. Was he a liberal powerhouse? Not even close! He was a Covid-denying asshole with a conservative bent. The jackass threw a super-spreader party, for God’s sake!
Don’t even get me started on the conservative programming that you can find down in Australia. It makes Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck look like panty-wastes. There are Bible thumpers there, too. Bad ones!
Education isn’t doing well in a few of these countries, either. Just look at the current crop of young YouTubers that have hatched recently. Their grammar is terrible, they can’t read their way out of a paper bag, and their research is even worse. They are coming from three places: the United States, Canada, and Britain. It’s not an American thing, it’s a Western problem.
What was the purpose of this article? No, it was not to slam other countries. It was to remind people to stop looking through their own narrow national tunnel and see the world as a whole. Stop looking for the greener grass. Stop thinking your own country’s shit doesn’t stink. We are all contributing to the problems of today, and we better damn well find a way to fix them together.