Asking
Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE »

Do you dislike all Americans because of their President?

A very similar post was up for a short time yesterday before being removed for reasons only known to the poster. However, the deletion meant that some very positive comments disappeared along with an interesting sub-thread with views about why Trump was considered the lesser of two evils to some voters. I am giving a chance to those who responded to re-post or for new contributions.

Here's my answer:

No. I know of many fine Americans who have morals and integrity and who are suffering a great deal of angst an the moment as they see what's happening.
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
Philth · 46-50, M
Interesting post.

I'll come straight out and say if I'm about to meet someone new who I'm told is American, I'll be bracing myself.

Sure, I know that the media can choose to show us only a certain perspective in order to skew our views. I also believe that there's some really decent folk out there. Then again, I also know someone who left the country because of Trump... The last time around.

However. From what I experience via profile - to - profile contact with people via social media... Its really not pretty. I'm on a few specialist interest pages mostly engineering related with users from all over the World and of course people have differing viewpoints - they disagree. This is normal. However, if an argument descends into "what the hell would you know, what is your tinpot country known in greatness for" then the user posting this WILL be an American. If I see someone from a smaller nation showing a really clever or novel way of overcoming a problem then the person mocking them with "that's a dumbass way of doing it" will always be an American. They're not interested in that the other user might not have access to the correct (often extremely expensive) tools - they just want to belittle and can't think beyond the way that they've always overcome that challenge. I might see a young lad from a developing nation put up a proud post of his first lathe, operating on a dirt floor from beneath a tin roof with chickens around his feet. Yes, of course it's a worn-out knackered old thing that would be considered scrap in a Western nation. But he's proud of what he has, that he's learning a trade and is performing useful work. There will be many encouraging comments but again, the put-downs will always come from an American. Others may intervene in the lad's defence but.... "Don't tell me what to think. I'm from the nation which put a man on the moon"

Considering that Murica is supposedly a developed nation, what's with the staggering number of construction site fatalities, crane collapses, and the frankly Third World number of train crashes particularly at level crossings? That many communities are drinking heavily polluted water, people don't have access to decent healthcare and that anything resembling a helping hand from the State is immediately branded as dangerous communism? What about the general level of education and that many Americans believe that any invention of any significance always stems from their own nation, not anywhere else? The brainwashing is what you'd expect to be Soviet.

Yes, I am sure that there's a ton of decent, kind, rational thinking folk out there - but the voices which reach me most aren't from those people. For these reasons, I'm bracing myself until proven wrong. Let the decent folk of America rise up against the horrifying events we're currently hearing about.
FreddieUK · 70-79, M
@Philth A thoughtful addition to the debate. I understand the descriptions of the kind of Americans you describe and some of them have tried to provoke on this thread, but look around SW and you will find a whole lot of people with intellectual integrity and who (for the most part) avoid the slanging match you describe.

I am 100% with you on the way some Americans treat those from poorer countries, but this is to be expected from the kind of person who truly believes that poor people have chosen to be poor and it's all their own fault. Crazy, I know.

When living under oppression, whether by law or just mob culture, it is difficult to stand up to the bullies, and we see this in Russia, Hungary and Belarus as well as China and the ultimate in dictatorship, North Korea, so although I am with you in encouraging the right thinking folk to stand up, I also have sympathy for their predicament at this moment.
This comment is hidden. Show Comment