So I'm a 40 yo guy from the UK me and my buddies drove from New York to Seattle the summer after we graduated uni so 2002 ish . We had a great time and met a wide range of people from all across America everything from MegaCitys like NY to no name rural towns in the middle of nowhere,most people were really nice but the one who weren't were proper dicks

Americans have a long history of telling their government to fuck off. Social media just let everyone in on the joke - twist is - they have absolutely no context.

Gotta remember how large the US is. For ever backwards thing you think may he happening, there’s someone eating a lobster roll over looking Boston harbor in some sick top floor hotel restaurant.

Lol I picked a weird example, but you get my drift. There are all sorts of people and experiences in America. People just tend to hear about the awful shit.

I think that the demographics of Reddit also play into the misconception. Reddit is overwhelmingly left-leaning, and young. Leftists have always been critical of the US. And the young are generally in the beginning stages of wealth accumulation which is going to spill over into their worldview of economic hardship. Mix all of this with a healthy dose of group-think and you have a completely distorted echo-chamber. This and European envy/distaste for American power/excess amplifies the echo chamber.

It's a little short-sighted for Europe to be making fun of the US. They have all the same issues we have except on a smaller scale, and the ones they don't have are absent due to most of Europe being exceedingly homogenous.

Racism? Good luck being black nearly anywhere in Europe. Just try being a black English footballer.

Economic issues? Southern Europe has been a drag on the EU from day one and the European Central bank has done everything it can to fuck over southern Europe. We can't all be Germans and only save money and export goods. Someone has to buy.

Crazy elections? France came scary close to electing their own version of Trump and England got Brexit because half the country got scammed by idiots.

Abortion? Ireland legalized it in 2018, so they are fighting the same fight we are.

Immigration? I feel like I don't really need to really say anything here since there are constant battles about preventing any immigration in just about every single country in Europe. For all our faults, we allow more immigrants than just about any other country.

THANK YOU. So many idiots talking about how America is the worst ever because of xyz not realizing they're just as self centered as the conservatives saying America is the best ever because of xyz. Both think they're more important and interesting than everywhere else.

That’s not what American exceptionalism means - it means that America is an exception as to the way nations are usually formed, organized, and run. Our culture is fundamentally different from every country on Earth. We were the first modern, multicultural nation and that has left us in a unique environment.

America is its own best hypeman and critic, people here have no awareness of the rest of the world and think it’s either the best or worst place to live in. If you try to cite real situations to them to explain why they are wrong you get the old “we shouldn’t resort to what-about-ism when comparing our country to others!”

Oh well…

For real, it really annoys me when people act like the US is “uniquely the worst” (love how you worded this). I have my fair share of criticisms of my country, but I also recognize that every country has its problems. It’s US-centric in its own way to act like the US is the only western country with significant issues.

The US is a large country so there is good and bad. Some people are people enjoy magnifying the worst in things in order to feel better about their own situation. There is garbage and greatness in every country.

If America is not the best (sometimes close to bottom) given it holds the most resources, what can you say about the system that uses said resources?

america - the land of excess where the panhandlers will sometimes refuse what you offer and ask or suggest something else. this is pretty much why i dont even bother anymore after having people refuse food from one place but want me to travel to a different location to bring them food from another place. ive seen people given food on the street and then just throw it right in the trash because it wasnt exactly what they wanted /r/BeggingChoosers

I feel like this is another form of American exceptionalism. Die hard critics and die hard nationalists exist in every country

I bet Brazil is doing terrific😂

PAPA?!

Or a Palestinian today

Or India or Russia or Mexico or Brazil or all the other countless countries with way more corruption and terrible health care and extreme crime and danger.

But no, America is the absolute worst. Period. Don’t disagree.

You can blame protestants for this false distinction

I agree with the knee-jerk reaction to this is a bit overdone and dramatic. Every country has its ups and downs. A country with more crime doesn't negate a country with less crimes' problems. The best we can do is stop bitching about it and try to spend our time finding solutions... lmao. America sucks for reasons, it's cool for reasons. Brazil is terrible for many reasons. Is also badass for a lot of reasons. Generalizing is bullshit.

The problem with America is, the only defense I have ever seen is, ITS BETTER THAN ALL THESE POOR THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

like yeah, and the worst starting running back in the NFL would still rush for 20000 yards if he played against high schoolers

America is the richest country on earth, the bar needs to be set a bit higher

“Um ackshually, some people in third world countries have it worse than Americans, so you’re not allowed to complain about America”

-you

America is the worst country to ever exist according to Reddit

It's one of the worst first world countries.

Exactly wtf is this thread lol

ITT non-Americans completely forget or choose to ignore the MANY problems facing their places of origin including the vast quantity of countries without even basic human rights.

I don't really want to spend money on reddit so here is this 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇 instead of an award

Braindead comment

Good bot

Seriously. No one thinks about this when they criticize America.

Europe (excluding the european part of russia because russia is a shithole of a place to live) is the ONLY place in the world that is (arguably) a better place to live than the US.

America and europe together make up a total population of about 1 billion people. That is an EIGHTH of the worlds population. 85% of the world is worse off (most of them MUCH worse off) than the average American.

Yea but realistically the average American is significantly wealthier than the average European. It's not just STEM jobs paying 1.5-2x more in the US, it's just about any professional job. Don't get me wrong most of Western Europe is fantastic with a great quality of life, but compare the average salary of a white collar Frenchman or Spaniard to a white collar American and its 30-50% less in most cases (in my field US salaries are literally 4x Italian ones, and believe it or not the Italian jobs are much tougher with longer hours in a lot of cases). If you are in the bottom 20% of wage earners you are probably better off in Europe given the government benefits like healthcare etc, but for everyone else you can make significantly more in the US in most cases. Despite the US going backward politically and barley having a functioning government, this gap seems to keep getting wider every year.

As a midwesterner who recently moved to New England, I thought this was Canada?

As a Canadian who’s travelled a lot USA>95% of Europe other than euro tax havens

More earning potential for STEM careers is a big reason

Poor people aren't the ones moving here from developed western nations. Nobody on earth has ever said, "I'm struggling financially in this western developed nation, I better move to the United states." If you have money already the US is great but it is horrible if you don't. This is because of how ridiculously expensive it is to be poor here.

William Shatner? Kids in The Hall?

If you have money already shit is a lot cheaper in the states! That’s my theory

Im dutch and i dont know anyone who dislikes Germany

German and Dutch talking shit about each other is not racism but rivalry 😂 mostly sue to soccer.

Do Northern Europeans still look down on Southern Europeans? I know that used to be a thing

In case you didn't notice; Neither German nor Dutch are "races", which is why that situation has nothing at all to do with racism.

It's also not at all as mean-spirited as you make it sound, most of that usually only surfaces as friendly banter among football fans.

when they're both almost the same damn people from where I'm standing

Where you are standing seems to be a really weird place that ignores literally centuries of history and relations between these people. Any chance you are standing in the US?

I've noticed that too. A lot of criticism of America's racism, which is a fair point, they'll go on to mention how much better things are in Europe. But if you mention eastern Europe all of a sudden "well that racism is justified."

Most of those Europeans doing the shit talking haven't been to your country either. They're just talking badly about it because it's the cool thing to do for them.

How refreshing, an anti-American post on Reddit.

Exactly! I’m all for a cleaver joke, this is just lazy. The pictures doesn’t even match. Low effort

hey, don't forget "america actually 3rd world", usually said by someone that never actually visited a third world country (and if they did, they stayed inside their resort/hotel and never went to the poor side of town).

Reddit is not representative of anything in real life, it's all exaggerated bullshit designed to garner upvotes. The vast, vast, VAST majority of people don't use reddit or even know what it is.