Obviously America has problems that should be addressed, but I tend to think these "blame the US for everything cuz it's irredeemable" are doing a pretty big disservice all around. If we could singularly find these problems to be a uniquely American thing, that would be great! That means we've identified the problems and conceivably we could change the US to suddenly fix it. I think the reality is that it's not that simple. History has shown us that people across basically every nationality are vulnerable to demagoguery, and I seriously don't think the US is unique in electing a bunch of blowhards as leaders.

There are lots of things about the US I would change (socialized healthcare being the obvious thing in my mind), but I don't think that we should delude ourselves by saying that the US is beyond redeemable.

It all depends. If one side believes the election was stolen and proceeds to rig elections in their favor in retaliation. America is done. We're at a point where fact don't matter. This is story illustrates that. Fact that SSN were sent out publicly doesn't matter. Fact that any security expert would say this wasn't hacking doesn't matter. Experts no longer matter. Whether they are doctors, scientists, etc.

I agree that the lies about election fraud and whatnot are dangerous, but I fail to see how that's uniquely American. Conspiracy theories exist all over the place, and predate anyone alive today.

I will agree that the acceptance of conspiratorial thinking in conservative circles is especially harmful (I wrote more detail about that in a sister thread), but you don't have to look very far in European history to find them electing demagogues too.

I agree this is a problem, but there are also problems everywhere. The US doesn’t have a monopoly on stupid. We’ve lasted through dumb, inept government before.

Yep, Brazil comes to mind.

America is a third world country wearing a gucci belt.

Ah here, steady on.

I know it's commonplace to wail on the USA because of all the shite that seems to be getting shittier but there is _so much_ goodness in the USA.

The systems are a bit broken. The constitution needs modernization, access to and application of the laws need to be made measuably fair, and the economic model requires reformulation. Racism, sexism, and perverse idolatry need to be educated out of the standard models of discourse. But.

The USA is still a paradigm of democratic republicanism. It's still full of amazing humans, many of whom work hard to improve other people's lives. It is seething with debate, invests hugely in technology, and still reacts quickly to changes of circumstances. It's fucked, but not irredeemably so.

Mainly it needs to focus on education and healthcare, especially by removing pernicious, profit-seeking, short-term motivations.

Also, stop voting Retardicans.

To be fair, Demoticrats are a pretty shoddy bunch of disorganised and intellectually confused herd of kittens, but they at least _try_ to improve the lot of other humans. The Retardicans are big business first and all else after, with a whole heap of contempt for thought on the side.

Wait until you see the rest of the world.

The South is a crazy place.

So is the south of France. My cousin moved to Paris because his kids were going to school with Marine Le Pen supporters

That is a pretty unhealthy reaction to living near people with a different political viewpoint.

Perhaps, but we do not claim Missouri.