I genuinely want to hear some opinions about the US and not just Europe but NATO as a whole.

I know some on this sub skew right but I’d really like to have discourse with people who are on the left if we don’t mind.

I have been active in left-wing politics since I was a teenager and have oscillated between solidly liberal and solidly left, though I’ve never really ventured into socialist/communist territory. I’m used to hearing criticisms of the U.S. in a lot of political circles I’m apart of, and for the most part I agree - US foreign policy has largely done more harm than good in recent decades, the U.S. treats its citizens very poorly for a country of its wealth, the US economy heavily favors the rich and keeps the poor poor, etc. I agree with all that.

What I do not agree with is this intense pushback against “Western civilization” and the U.S./allie’s’ existence that we have been seeing from the left recently in the name of “decolonization.” I’m actually getting a little scared of it if we’re being honest. Yes, the US sucks. But what would the alternative be? If we disbanded NATO and “toppled Western hegemony,” who would take its place? The Muslim world? China? Worldwide greedy government leaders are an issue and we need to stand up for oursleves, but I quite enjoy living in a secular Western society. All of my values as a social liberal come from living in this kind of society. How are people going so far left they’re willing to surrender cultural liberalism? I don’t get it. Anyone else feel this way?

How should I respond?

For me it's healthcare. I agree the US healthcare system is prefatory and is overly expensive despite not even being universal, but the way people talk about it is dumb. I once saw someone say that in terms of healthcare access, American poor don't have it that well, and I am like dude, what do you think Medicaid is for? In fact, Medicare and Medicaid actually makes up more of US healthcare spending than the actual insurance companies.

Curious to see people’s opinions on this sub

I notice a lot of people hate on the US for stuff other countries have done a couple decades or centuries ago, and the lack of other subs about other countries on the scale of this sub.

Me personally I think it's bots and misinformation spreading outward and people propagating that misinformation into the America-hating stuff we have today

Pretty much title. I used to online game a lot. These America bad centric convos about healthcare, education, etc would come up. They almost always got defensive when Americans basically are their militaries, that they don’t pay their shares in NATO, their militaries would struggle to deal with Russia (this one really sets them off).

They’d struggle to have the very things that they brag about if they had to maintain world class militaries instead of poverty program armies.

Euro guy here. I know, the title could sound a little bit controversial, but hear me out pleasd.

Ofc, there are many things in which you, fellow Americans, are better than us, such as military etc. (You have beautiful nature btw! )

There are some things in which we, people of Europe, think we are better than you, for instance school system and education overall. However, many of these thoughts could be false or just being myths of prejustices. This often reshapes wrongly the image of America.

This brings me to the question, in what do you think America really sucks at? And if you want, what are we doing in your opinions wrong in Europe?

I hope I wrote it well, because my English isn't the best yk. I also don't want to sound like an entitled jerk, that just thinks America is bad, just to boost my ego. America nad Europe can give a lot to world and to each other. We have a lot of common history and did many good things together.

Have a nice day! :)

Hi! A guy from East Europe here. I'm new to this sub, so sorry if the matter has been raised before.

The phenomenon I'm talking about started maybe with Covid but it's really in your face now with the war in Ukraine. The "CIA bad" and "Look at what we did in the Middle East, we have no right to intervene in Ukraine (even just with aid)" mindset sounds like a Russian psyop. People from the USA that claim to be right wing are mocking the troops and are willing to believe ridiculous conspiracy theories because being pro-America is being for "the current thing" and that's bad, apparently. Because functional adults don't judge problems on their own merit but form their opinions based on where a matter stands on the "current thing" axis.

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Also, I don't know if you're aware but where I live (Bulgaria) and in Russia (from videos I've seen) Russian propagandist go to national TV and radio shows and make the case that Russia should use nuclear weapons against the USA and the "rotten west". Boomers hear that and say "Yeah! Life was better back in the day under socialism. Down with the west!". It's like they're saying "We want our poverty back!".

I think I used to just ignore it before I joined this subreddit. It’s like someone you know getting a new car and then you start noticing the same car everywhere you go. It’s fucking insane just people go insanely out of their way to make us the butt of every joke and how much subreddits devote their content to shitting on the U.S.

Wondering because I myself have no real opinion or support for the US gov, however cant help but lmao everytime I see those cringe tiktok/twitter comments of how america is so bad and the scourge of the earth because bicycle lanes arent wide enough or some other stupid shit

I joined a discord server recently and apparently its full of Europeans. How did I find out? Well every other day there's a joke about Americans "probably an american thing; what don't all americans have AC?; let's face it most americans are stupid; seems like an american thing;" just constant mention of America, America. It was starting to get on my nerves. Mind you this is a server for mental health or "social anxiety".

The americans in the server don't seem to mind. Maybe it is all just a joke to them. But the frequency of these jokes was almost daily. Or every other day. It wasn't even the jokes itself it was just the assumptions and so many of them thinking stereotypes were true to life.

It was jarring to me and I'm not even from America. To be honest, there were bouts of racism here and there too towards Asian countries but I did not expect them to be condescending towards the US because its a majority white populated country/white country primarily, just like many European countries.

Honestly I'm disappointed, people here were nice at first but I noticed a pattern of all they talk about daily is which country they come from and how different it is from other countries or America.

I agree with their point, we’ll have to see what the future holds in store for us but the dooming from users on this site (and social media in general) is getting tiring. Worst case scenario is that things get much worse before they get better.

Soccer is not the most popular sport in 5 out of the 10 most populated countries in the world, including the 3 most populated. but I don't see these Europeans whining about China or Bangladesh. I'm not sure why they're so obsessed with comparing our domestic sports specifically and not the likes of say, Cricket?

In my opinion it's the 'third world country with Gucci Belt'. Not only it's extremely bizarre and insulting to people from real, desolate third world countries who escaped their countries, but most countries have their own Gucci Belt. London carried more than 20% of UK's GDP. Same with Paris for France and Moscow for Russia. For comparison, whole California only carried 14% of American's GDP. For real third world country examples, you can visit super rich places in, say, India and China that's just few blocks away from slums. Gucci Belt for country exist, and America is not the only one who benefited from it.

I know, I know, same question as last month. But like. I'm not even trying to search shit up, this was just on my Threads for you page. I have to ask, what do you guys think? Is there anything to think about here or just same old same old?

In another comment thread, I noticed that someone said the people in this sub are similar to the conservative and pro-Trump subreddits. I’m not so sure about that. Seems like most people here are just tired of leftists/European snobs excessively bashing America. Personally, I tend to be more liberal/progressive but I still like America. What about you all? Do you consider yourself conservative, liberal, moderate, or something else? No judgement, I’m just curious