I think it’s definitely true that Americans get defensive when you criticize the US. I also think it’s true that a huge reason for that, is because the only thing the internet seems to enjoy doing at the moment is complain about the US—no one likes to hear their country that they’re living happily in trashed on constantly.
And I say that as someone who deeply enjoys complaining about the US
So I work with a lot of people from a variety of countries. Some of those countries have really bad governments. When we joke about each other’s countries, it’s about the governments. I remember this guy who used to work with me from the Philippines. It was near the beginning of lockdowns and just after Duterte was elected. He made fun of the shit Trump was saying and doing, and I got to joke that they had their own Trump(maybe worse) coming. Australian co-workers laugh along when we joke about their shit politicians.
What we don’t do is joke about the people or the culture. That’s shitty. All those people are just as much victims of their own circumstances as we all are of our own. But we’re adults who work with each other every day and it’s easy to remember that we’re all real people. The internet however…
I haven’t noticed Americans getting upset when people criticize shitty government policies or decisions. At least not from people who aren’t boot-lickers from jump. The problem is when people make fun of American stereotypes. Americans are fat and loud and whatever. Like, if all you heard was people talking about Canadians being stuck up about needing things written in French or topped with poutine, it would probably get old, right? “Go cry at your Tim Horton’s and take your polar bear for a walk.” (okay, so I had to google Canadian stereotypes and it’s a short list.)
I don’t like America’s gun culture either. And I hate when it comes up there’s always someone who comes in and preaches the gospel of the 2nd amendment. It also doesn’t feel great when people make that generalization about me. This thread is full of people saying Americans are dumb and racist. That’s just shitty behavior that no one bats an eye at because it’s normal to make those jokes. If I started making comments about like, French people smelling bad or (insert some other offensive thing. I don’t keep track of bad stereotypes and I’m done googling it) then that would also be bad and it’s a thing I think we should start calling out across the board.
Americans do a lot of stupid things, but they are most likely to be self critical in this space. I think this meme should talk about Western Europe instead, because they have many problems, but they are so often never willing to accept criticism. They’re quick to call the US racist, but in my experience, Europe has so much racism it’s crazy it’s viewed as this anti racist place.
I (a US citizen) literally didn’t get a job in Germany because one member on the team objected because I didn’t speak German yet. The company is “English first” and I worked in the US division previously. So yeah, Europeans are certainly as capable of being racist. And they didn’t even try to hide it!
Yeah, it’s racist to hire another more qualified candidate that can speak multiple languages in a setting that would benefit from that skill…
Clearly you must have all the details about where I worked and applied already. What an amazing ability!
Is that racism?
Ah yes, the English language speaking race
I see you deal in absolutes. The person wanted a fluent German speaker despite being an English first company. Put it together in your head.
IIT: dozens of extremely sensitive Americans not getting the irony
We’ll show you how much we can take a joke by down voting this comment!
(Yes, this comment will be downvoted too)
Didn’t vote + outplayed + you predicted wrong + go touch grass
You sure showed me the error of my ways!
It usually doesn’t bother me unless it’s something like this
American- criticizes something foreign
Every single reply to that comment- “School shootings!! Hahaha!! Dead kids!!! Hehehehe!!”
This recently
- French people rude. Haha yeah.
- Greek people cheap. Okay you got us.
- Americans so fucking stupid. Hah wait. That’s it? That’s the joke?
This I don’t understand. Where is this coming from and who honestly would be okay with being called a big dumb dildo and laugh along like it’s such a well known fact about their country? We’re a lot of things, act like we own the world and everyone owes us money and gratitude, eat like shit while letting everyone know how to be healthy, use little creamer cups instead of cream. We’re not idiots.
Kinda like how the entirety of France isn’t rude and not all Greek people are cheap
