Poll of the Day > For those who live outside of the U.S, what are your thoughts on America?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zeus posted...

tbh, I've been embarrassed by the fact you guys elected Justin Cuckeau. I've never been happier to not be Canadian and to be out of that country.

You pretty much just proved my point.

I mean, ignoring the name calling (Seriously, "Cuckeau"? What are you, twelve?) what exactly has Trudeau even done that's so objectionable?
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mastermix3000 posted...

Just curious because of everything going on. Realized I never really heard any outside perspectives and would like to hear some

BDE-before Drumpf election: We took note of what went on with you because it could be a precursor of where we're going or what not to do
ADE-after Drumpf election: We alternate between laughing at you and shaking our heads in a combination of shame and pity while waiting for you all to get your act together and do something about your tool-in-chief.
All up, it's never been overly positive but now you're mostly a very unfunny joke.

PleasantSlay posted...

Zeus posted...

None of these claims make sense, but whatever.

I guess your an American

Judging from the fact you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're", I'm guessing you're an American as well. Otherwise your nation's schools are as bad as American schools.

darkknight109 posted...

Zeus posted...

tbh, I've been embarrassed by the fact you guys elected Justin Cuckeau. I've never been happier to not be Canadian and to be out of that country.

You pretty much just proved my point.

I mean, ignoring the name calling (Seriously, "Cuckeau"? What are you, twelve?) what exactly has Trudeau even done that's so objectionable?

Besides letting in hordes of refugees then punishing Canadians for voicing dissent? Or just hating free speech in general? Or engaging in nonsense like gender-neutral identity cards? The list of insanity goes on and on. Trudeau is a terrible PM on social issues. He's a terrible PM on economic issues. He's terrible on foreign policy. The only thing he's good on is the eyes apparently, because Canadians were so enamored by his looks they never bothered considering anything else.

Oh, and he promotes safe spaces unironically.
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Unbridled9 posted...

Trump lost the popular vote but won the electoral by a large margin.

No, he didn't. He won the electoral college by a smaller margin than any president in the last 40 years who wasn't named George W. Bush.

Even then, that's misleading because of the winner-take-all nature of states in the electoral college. Trump's margin of victory was roughly 100,000 voters spread across three swing states (or less than a tenth of a percentage point of the votes registered). It doesn't look like it in the aftermath, but 2016 was probably the closest election in living memory other than Bush/Gore in 2000.

Unbridled9 posted...

That's kind of expected considering California and New York are massive Dem strongholds though. I suspect that Republicans will not win the popular vote for a long time just because of those two cities

Erm...

Also, the Republicans won the popular vote as recently as 2004. In fact, it's a relative rarity for a president to be elected *without* winning the popular vote (it's only happened four times in US history).

Unbridled9 posted...

3) Raping so many woman that a notable percentage of the world population (8% of Asians and 0.5% of the world population) are his own descendants.

This isn't as impressive as it sounds. Keep in mind the number of people you draw lineage from doubles every generation (ignoring any inbreeding) - you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, so on and so forth. Going back to Genghis Khan's time would be going back roughly 32 generations, meaning you'd have just shy of 4.3 billion grandparents (32 generations removed) running around, which is (far) more people than were alive at the time (inbreeding, usually of a very benign nature, accounts for the difference).

Go back far enough in time and every single person is either everyone's ancestor or no one's ancestor. Genghis Khan is not particularly noteworthy in that regard.

Unbridled9 posted...

6) Destroying so many books that 'the rivers ran black with ink'.

Wrong Khan. You're referring to the Siege of Baghdad, where the Tigris ran "red with blood and black with ink". However, that siege occurred in 1258, 31 years after Genghis Khan's death (the one in charge of that attack was one of his grandsons, Hulagu Khan).

Unbridled9 posted...

And that's just some the notable stuff. Basically, in order to even start to compare, Trump would need to nuke an entire nation. Not just a city or a tiny one like Iceland, but something on-par with France in order to be in the same league of evil.

You're overblowing Khan's "evilness". Was he a nice guy? No, but he did more good than the "raping, pillaging warlord" image he gets in a lot of western media would suggest.

Khan allowed almost total freedom of religion - an almost unheard-of concept for conquerors of the day - and generally allowed defeated enemies to keep their customs and cultures. He established one of the most robust trading networks of the age and created one of the world's first reliable postal services. He was absolutely ruthless in war and showed no mercy to those who resisted him, but actually a pretty decent ruler to the lands he was in charge of. To this day he's revered as a hero in Mongolia.
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Better not miss my response, DK!
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Zeus posted...

Besides letting in hordes of refugees

Who have done... what, exactly, other than live peaceably? Oh yeah, they did help out by donating to support Albertans left homeless by the Fort McMurray fires:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/syrian-refugees-in-edmonton-step-up-to-help-fort-mcmurray-fire-evacuees-1.3581122

Also, apparently 40,000 refugees (aka about a tenth of a percentage point of Canada's population) constitutes a "horde". Who knew?

Zeus posted...

then punishing Canadians for voicing dissent

In what way have Canadians been punished for voicing dissent?

Zeus posted...

Or just hating free speech in general?

Justin Trudeau's government has not passed any laws curtailing free speech, nor have they advocated for the same.

Seriously, I thought you might actually have a well-founded opinion on this, but so far this just sounds like sensationalist right-wing bullshit. Seriously, "hating free speech"? You're not actually expecting me to take an accusation like that seriously, are you?

Zeus posted...

Or engaging in nonsense like gender-neutral identity cards?

Which hurts no one, so who cares?

Zeus posted...

Trudeau is a terrible PM on social issues.

Which, of course, is why he remains the most popular leader in the country, with approval ratings higher than all provincial premiers and all of his federal rivals.

Zeus posted...

He's a terrible PM on economic issues. He's terrible on foreign policy.

You listed precisely zero economic issues and your only complaint on Canada's foreign policy was the refugee issue, which was bullshit.

For the record, Canada added 70,000 new jobs in May and is growing at a rate of 3.5% (over the last three quarters), which is levels not seen since prior to the 2008 recession - the growth in the first quarter of 2017 (3.7%) was the best amongst all developed nations in the world.

Pretty impressive for such a terrible PM.

Zeus posted...

The only thing he's good on is the eyes apparently, because Canadians were so enamored by his looks they never bothered considering anything else.

I always have a good chuckle when a right-winger says this, because it was this exact underestimation of Trudeau that allowed him to get elected in the first place. Both the Conservatives and the NDP just sort of took it for granted that he was just a pair of pretty blue eyes with no brain behind it and seemed legitimately surprised when he held his own in the debates and showed some solid political chops afterwards.
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Zeus posted...

Better not miss my response, DK!

Yes yes, I know you seek attention. Fear not, I have delivered.
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What I do admire about America's political culture is the attitude of voters towards their elected representatives, the attitude that says, "Listen, let's get one thing straight: you work for us, not the other way round. You're not our bosses -- you're our employees. And I want to know that I'm getting my money's worth: I want to know how you voted on issues that matter to me, I want to know how much tax you pay, I want to know how much time you actually spend doing your job."

That's in complete contrast to the political culture in the UK, where your total ration of democracy consists of a cross in a box once every five years; and whatever happens after you put your cross in that box is entirely in the hands of the 650 self-serving bastards who've just gotten themselves a seat on the gravy train, because we don't really care whether they do their job or not.
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Zeus posted...

Judging from the fact you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're", I'm guessing you're an American as well. Otherwise your nation's schools are as bad as American schools.

Or I'm on mobile and don't give a flying fuck about grammar?
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Funkdamental posted...

What I do admire about America's political culture is the attitude of voters towards their elected representatives, the attitude that says, "Listen, let's get one thing straight: you work for us, not the other way round. You're not our bosses -- you're our employees. And I want to know that I'm getting my money's worth: I want to know how you voted on issues that matter to me, I want to know how much tax you pay, I want to know how much time you actually spend doing your job."

That's in complete contrast to the political culture in the UK, where your total ration of democracy consists of a cross in a box once every five years; and whatever happens after you put your cross in that box is entirely in the hands of the 650 self-serving bastards who've just gotten themselves a seat on the gravy train, because we don't really care whether they do their job or not.

I dunno... certain sects of America have a distrust of their government that strays well into unhealthy paranoia. I notice it a lot amongst the fringe-right survivalist crowd, the sort that insist gun ownership is essential to keeping government under control (while seemingly ignoring that there are dozens of fully functional democracies around the world that somehow manage just fine without having their populace armed to the teeth).
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Duck-I-Says posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Reagan was basically Emperor Palpatine, shifting it from a republic to an autocracy with his deregulations, etc. It simply took time for the changes to really destroy things.

The US is a Corporate Oligarchy,or Corporatocracy, not an autocracy. Palps didn't hand the reigns over to private contractors, he was beholden to no one. He may have delegated to his governors, but 1) they weren't private corporations and 2) if they fucked up he'd have no problems force lightening them. Palpatine is much closer to someone like Augustus than Reagan. In fact I wouldn't be surprised at all if Lucas modeled him entirely off of Augustus.

I agree, I suppose, but it's fitting that the Separatists were all bankers and other corporate dickheads.
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The stupid people are REALLY vocal.
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Zeus posted...

He's terrible on foreign policy.

You seem to have abandoned this topic after my last response, but in case you're still reading this crossed my browser today:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/07/04/canada-seen-as-the-most-positive-influence-globally-infographic/#584a4ec9a371

Canada is seen to have the most positive influence on global affairs, with 81% of the 18000 people surveyed believing Canada is a somewhat or strongly positive influence. For reference, just 40% think the same of the US (a 24% drop since when Obama was president), ranking them behind China at 49%.

So apparently Trudeau is doing something right.
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So, I'm from London, United Kingdom.

The system in the USA frightens me. There seems to be less compassion: gun crime, police brutality, a willingness to let people die because they can't pay for health insurance, a draconian welfare system compared to the rest of the first world. The whole attitude just seems like, if you screw up, you're a worthless piece of ****, and scarcely deserve help, and everyone's ok with that.

For a superpower which appears to present itself as a paragon of virtue, democracy, etc., an electoral college which allows the president to win with fewer votes than their rival is pathetic.

Loud. Certain of self-righteousness.

Fiercely divided, partisan. No desire to work together across the political divide. Often dogmatic - some of the rallies, be they presidential, NRA, military, whatever, are terrifying to foreign eyes. That sort of blind devotion just doesn't exist in Europe. They remind me of those forced to support dictators in other parts of the world... But these people choose to, in their free time. Bizarre.

A more intense closed-mindedness than what exists in other countries. To pull out of the Paris Climate Accord is despicable. Can't believe there's still skepticism about man-made climate change, and that you're letting China take the lead. They're building a solar farm in the shape of a damn panda, for crying out loud. https://www.google.ie/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/458279001/

These are just some views/ prejudices off the top of my head. I am of course aware that these are all huge, sweeping generalisations, that many Americans feel differently, are wonderful people etc. But as a general impression - yes.

Shark8637 posted...

So, I'm from London, United Kingdom.

The system in the USA frightens me. There seems to be less compassion: gun crime, police brutality, a willingness to let people die because they can't pay for health insurance, a draconian welfare system compared to the rest of the first world. The whole attitude just seems like, if you screw up, you're a worthless piece of ****, and scarcely deserve help, and everyone's ok with that.

For a superpower which appears to present itself as a paragon of virtue, democracy, etc., an electoral college which allows the president to win with fewer votes than their rival is pathetic.

Loud. Certain of self-righteousness.

Fiercely divided, partisan. No desire to work together across the political divide. Often dogmatic - some of the rallies, be they presidential, NRA, military, whatever, are terrifying to foreign eyes. That sort of blind devotion just doesn't exist in Europe. They remind me of those forced to support dictators in other parts of the world... But these people choose to, in their free time. Bizarre.

A more intense closed-mindedness than what exists in other countries. To pull out of the Paris Climate Accord is despicable. Can't believe there's still skepticism about man-made climate change, and that you're letting China take the lead. They're building a solar farm in the shape of a damn panda, for crying out loud. https://www.google.ie/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/458279001/

These are just some views/ prejudices off the top of my head. I am of course aware that these are all huge, sweeping generalisations, that many Americans feel differently, are wonderful people etc. But as a general impression - yes.

This was great

To all the international posters, thanks I enjoyed the resposes

Everyone else stfu and thanks for wasting my time with useless arguments
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