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Those not living in the USA, how do you feel about what's going on there?

P

PastorOfMuppets

Banned
Canadian.

I've pretty much lost any and all desire to visit or live in America for the time being. I have absolutely no respect for it's population either.

I think a lot of Americans are cowards.

It's not just Trump voters or Trump supporters or Republicans that I'm throwing under the bus. Before 2016, I always figured that those people were a small minority in America but they are almost half the country. I think it's cowardly how many people in America have decided to sit idly by plugging their ears and covering their eyes to avoid the uncomfortable fact that their country is descending into madness. I also have absolutely no tolerance or respect for the people who continue to defend racists and Neo-Nazis under the guise of "free speech". The rest? I feel extremely sorry for them.

America, what happened to your ass? It used to be beautiful man.
 
Z

zsynqx

Member
It was inevitable that a country with such strong anti-intellectualism would end up with somebody like Trump. Still pretty crazy to witness from the outside.
 
K

Kraut

Member
Canadian here. I've followed US politics since Obama was elected. At that time, I was in my last year of high school. It's hard not to absorb some of the political news from the States, but I've actively sought it out out of interest. As a result, I'd wager I have a better understanding of American history and government than a typical non-US citizen. This puts me in a bit of an uncomfortable position: I watch what's going on and feel somewhat safely detached from the events, yet still emotionally engaged.

When I reflect on the last 8 years, I can't help but see where there were rumblings of things to come. So in that regard, I feel like it's not surprising that things are the way they are, the line from then to now is pretty clear. But that doesn't make it any less frightening to see self-styled Nazis marching on American streets and the president very seriously flirting with nuclear war.

It's just a really depressing situation and I worry that we're far from seeing the end of it.
 
I

Icolin

Banned
Canadian here in Vancouver (the most beautiful city in the world!). On a surface level, the stuff happening in the US makes me all the more thankful that I live here, and makes me weary of going to the US on holidays and business trips.

Beyond that though, it's just sad to see a country I've admired reach the lows that the USA has under Trump, especially because I have many American friends, I've been to the USA numerous times and have enjoyed my time there, and a lot of GAFfers live in the US. Really hoping that you guys pull through this and stand up to these racist, neo Nazi scumbags.
 
H

hirokazu

Member
I think the US needs to check yo' self before you wreck yo' self. All this time you worry about Mexicans, Muslims, Chayna and all that but it turns out the threat and potential to destroy your country is coming from the inside the House.
 
Amory

Amory

Member
As an American, its obviously depressing to see the news every day.

I make it a point to keep myself informed, but these days I have to ignore a lot of it for my own sanity. Day to day life, at least, has gone on without much change.

As bad as I thought Trump would be when he was elected, he's actually been even worse. And he continues to get worse almost every day.

Even the Trump people I know have cracks in their Trump defense armor. Anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together, Democrat or Republican, knows hes a disgrace. The apologists are going quiet. Which I guess is encouraging.

All this shit that he's spewed these past few days, I'm amazed that this is vacation mode Trump. Like how do you fuck up this bad when you've skipped town and are playing golf every day with no shortage of time to consider your response
 
D

Dead Guy

Member
Canadian here.

Honestly felt incredibly dissapointed in the country right after the election. I know the majority did not vote for trump but still feel the same. No plans to visit while trump is still in office.
 
C

CrocMother

Banned
Everyone I meet is a caring, kind person. The USA is full of amazing, happy, generous, uplifting, people.

Our dark underbelly is being exposed, and rightly so. There is so much hate hidden within the folds of our otherwise amazing and fascinating continent.
 
B

bobbytkc

ADD New Gen Gamer
I mostly feel that the US is rolling back on all their achievements from the hast century.

Maybe this will be a wakeup call for americans, that they cannot take things for granted. Or maybe not.
 
S

Speely

Banned
bobbytkc said:
I mostly feel that the US is rolling back on all their achievements from the hast century.

Maybe this will be a wakeup call for americans, that they cannot take things for granted. Or maybe not.
Click to expand...

It's certainly galvanizing some of us liberals to grow some fucking teeth and stop being hand-waving cowards. How many and how much remains to be seen.
 
G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
My pops loved this country, and loved his party (R). I am sad for him now. He waved an American flag in front of our house and his farm everyday..
 
P

Pedrito

Member
You're getting fucked by your weird political system that gives too much power to low population rural communities that seem to live (or want to live) in another era. Many western countries would suffer a similar fate if things were set up like that so we shouldn't feel too smug.

But there are still a few other problems that are typically americans:
-News as entertainment
-Importance of religion in politics
-Blind nationalism
-Relatively poor social safety net for a rich country
-A major political party that is completely morally bankrupt
-Absurd amount of money in politics
 
L

LegendofLex

Member
mlclmtckr said:
oh fucking come on
Click to expand...

I'm trying to come up with a response to someone I know who is advocating for an end to identity politics, and it'd really help to hear from others who are also outside the US. He has a lot of wrong assumptions about what identity politics is to begin with, so it's been challenging.

It's gotten to the point where he's asked for a list of examples of success stories for identity politics. I'm planning on coming up with a list (it's not hard to think of examples, but finding data to indicate the success of things like affirmative action for example is pretty important to me to drive the point home) but obviously if I can better understand what people outside the US think about the concept, that'll help me understand why this guy's reacting the way he is.

From my limited relationship with guy I'm not sure what to think of his general leanings. That he's falling back on right-wing stereotypes about identity politics (in particular, the reverse discrimination myth) is kind of a red flag. But I understand that in some places in Europe, there's a history of suspicion of/resistance to affirmative action (hell, it's even illegal here in California).

Moppeh said:
It isn't political suicide in Canada, but it seems to be in America to some degree.

Identity politics have always existed in Canada to some degree due to our multicultural nature. And even before we were labeled as a mosaic, identity politics played a key role due to our English and French backgrounds.

You guys are a right-leaning melting pot, so identity politics are a lot trickier since there seems to be an expectation in America to shut up and assimilate.

I don't think American progressives should ignore these issues, but openly espousing it as a primary tenant of the Democratic Party has been met with a ton of backlash.

It is a tough issue that shouldn't be ignored, but I do have to wonder if a more subtle approach would be to the benefit of American progressives.

I do feel bad, though, since such a large percentage of Americans are so willingly ignorant about these issues and have little interest in progress. It's a really fucked up situation.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this response.

Yeah, the situation I'm in is one where the guy basically thinks identity politics is all about starting us vs. them fights. I'm trying to find ways to show him that "no, it's more generally about forming coalitions to find solutions to problems that uniquely impact specific groups." And that's historically been a very effective strategy at creating change.

So any perspectives from other countries are helpful (either about the US or about identity politics in their own experience), since I really only have a US perspective.

Massive Duck said:
You should probably start your own thread since this is a completely different topic
Click to expand...

Maybe. Just felt like a more specific query about the situation in the US, so I thought a place for asking non-US folks about what's going on in the US was a good place for it.
 
C

CyclopsRock

Member
I've been the US a bunch in the last sixth months, all for work. NY three times, LA once and Vegas once. All since he was elected President (and I was there for his inauguration), as well as for this most recently July 4th. Going about my business, it didn't seem any different at all. That said, I typically found myself in pretty liberal bubbles - NY, LA and, well, Vegas is an everything-bubble I guess. I'm also a white male who speaks English as a first language.

I see stuff on here about Charlottesville and Nazi's with their flags and Trump umming and aahing over whether to admonish them and it seems absolutely ludicrous. Like, full on mental. There are innocent people being deliberately run over with cars at protests, police deliberately shooting people to death with little in the way of a justification and people on here saying they're preparing for the end times.

And it's hard to mesh those two things. I don't for a moment doubt the sincerity of the people here when they say what they say. And obviously for the victims - Heather, and the countless people killed by the police etc - dying's dying. This is thrown into even greater relief by the fact that south of the border you have a country where the government literally has gangs of thugs on motorbikes beating a protester before nonchalantly blowing him apart with a shotgun and driving off, where people are dying of starvation because that same government makes it illegal to sell things at a certain price, and all whilst those at the top literally pocket the wealth of the nation. That, combined with the knowledge that there are places - big, significant places - where life is basically going on as normal, and it's hard not to come to the conclusion that some of the anti-X rhetoric is a little over the top.

But again, I say that as someone who's white, male and English speaker (Well, English actually). I'm as Anglo-Saxon as they come. I could walk into the middle of a white supremacist march and no one would bat an eye lid at me, let alone beat me to death. So maybe I was always gonna say that.

I'm certainly not envious of the trajectory that the US is on. I think there are a bunch of times when "it" has made terrible decisions. But I guess my over-all feeling is that of confusion, as I imagine this post illustrates quite well.
 
L

LambdaTeos

Member
Mexican here

I feel sad and in danger

It's terrible how things are going on in the US right now, and how things are handled, what worries me is the people there, but it's hard to feel that much worried and concerned since well, our situation as a neighbor country can go down too

I feel sad because a lot of people is having terrible experiences there and it seems like there is no end to this, not soon enough, and thing keep going worse every minute, but I fear for my country and my people, being a neighbor to the US, a main target to some changes they want to make, and our economy depending in a great way from the US market, it's a matter of concern

I don't know what will happen in the future, I don't know if they will start a war or of something will happen, however, even if I'm not in that territory, we can have consequences too

I don't know what will happen, and it feels bad that you guys in the US are going through a terrible situation, but I fear for my country a little more

our eyes are in your country and the choices of your leader, a lot of things depend from that

it's terrifying
 
P

Parch

Member
Dead Guy said:
Canadian here.

Honestly felt incredibly dissapointed in the country right after the election. I know the majority did not vote for trump but still feel the same. No plans to visit while trump is still in office.
Click to expand...
That would be my opinion as well. Disappointed that so many americans chose such an extreme political opinion, and disappointed that so many other american people would let this party have control.

It's also concerning. As a close neighbor, like it or not the american situation has significant impact on Canada. Having that country go down the toilet is not good.
 
E

Entropia

No One Remembers
I'm pretty hesitant to go to the US while all of this is happening.

I'm pretty disheartened that all of these ideologies of hate and fear are being so widespread and normalized by your country's leader. A leader of a country should be uniting its citizens and making sure they are all taken care of rather than excluding them and taking away their rights because of a variety of factors.
 
G

googly

Member
I have no interest in visiting the US while Trump is president.

With what is happening recently, I'm just disgusted by it. Trump is terrible person in every way.
 
K

Kase

Member
I've always wanted to visit the Big Apple, and possibly move to the US for work. But after seeing everything and seeing how disgusting some Americans can be I'm not really sure I want to ever set foot in it. I'm a minority in a supposedly multicultural country (UK), and I've experienced my fair share of racist abuse. I've moved out of the country, and I'm immensely enjoying the peace and quiet of not having the odd one or two abuse thrown at me even just for drunk bants by strangers. I don't really want to deal with that, especially in a foreign country with sober Nazis.
 
Arjen

Arjen

Member
Im honestly baffled that is legal to walk around in public with nazi flags and spwring hate speech. Im planning to go to new york in november but im kinda feeling against going more and more.
 
P

Pandora012

Member
Kase said:
I've always wanted to visit the Big Apple, and possibly move to the US for work. But after seeing everything and seeing how disgusting some Americans can be I'm not really sure I want to ever set foot in it. I'm a minority in a supposedly multicultural country (UK), and I've experienced my fair share of racist abuse. I've moved out of the country, and I'm immensely enjoying the peace and quiet of not having the odd one or two abuse thrown at me even just for drunk bants by strangers. I don't really want to deal with that, especially in a foreign country with sober Nazis.
Click to expand...

I'll just say this, anywhere in the world you will find disgusting aspects of people. In the context of the US it has it's fair share of racism that foreigners seem to be only noticing now. That said, there is more to the US than all the evils you read and see in the news.

And if you ever decide to visit New York, know that there is more to it than just Manhattan.
 
C

Cjdamon042

Member
UKer here. I’ve always wanted to visit the US. I’ve always loved the look of its cities and landscapes and wanted to live there.

But since Trump became president, I’ve lost all interest. I don’t particularly want to get caught up in what’s going on, nor do I feel like I want to “contribute” to Trump’s America.

I dunno. I know I probably wouldn’t encounter anything crazy if I went, and I know the vast majority of Americans are sane, decent folk who I’d love to meet and hang out with. But Trump is very offputting.
 
Rktk

Rktk

Member
I was in Berlin at the time of Obama's first inauguration. It was a trip with my university and me and another guy stayed behind while the others were out to watch it.

It felt good, the message of hope felt real and that the US was moving forward - I always thought that while it's such a progressive place in many ways the race relations there lag behind, at least that has been my impression but I say that as someone who grew up in London where there is less racism than other areas. Now we have Trump and it feels like all the good that was done as far as how America was perceived on the world stage is being undone. Diplomatically they are a complete joke, you have people hanging swastikas outside their homes, a president who sympathises with the plight of said Nazis and people dying.

That said I'm pretty optimistic, I've moved to Colombia and what is happening in neighbouring Venezuela is a crisis of a much greater proportion. The people of the US don't have to deal with that, they aren't close to that. I don't think Trump is going to last the year or at the least I think the US can recover. The Americans I have known are decent people, but they tend to be the type that have seen more of the world than their neighbouring state.
 
X

Xando

Member
It's pretty sad but i was kinda expecting it with how crippled the political system there is.


Feels like so much potential wasted
 
P

Parch

Member
Arjen said:
Im honestly baffled that is legal to walk around in public with nazi flags and spewing hate speech.
Click to expand...
I'm baffled by the number of americans that defend hate speech. They are so adamant that protecting their "free speech" is so important that they're willing to let their country go to the horrible levels it is now. They can't see or want to believe that multiple countries have successfully controlled hate speech without falling into the supposed "slippery slope" that they're so worried about.

Americans need to take a look at other first world countries and learn a thing or two. It has become blatantly obvious that the american way is not the best way.
 
B

Beefy

Member
Disgusted. Most of my fam still live in Jamaica/ America and I am worried for all of them. Crazy how Trump has made Nazis so confident to spew their shit.
 
C

civilstrife

Member
Canadian who lived in the US for 3 years for school.

Americans aren't doing nearly enough. That there is a resurgent, racist, backwards element in the country isn't news to me. I lived in Ohio.

But the sheer APATHY of basically the entire country to do anything other than complain on the internet. That surprises me. The moment a presidential candidate promised to ban an entire religion from the country, that was it. That was the call to action. And the entire country whiffed HARD. Media, politicians, average citizens, everyone.

I know there were protests. I know there are protests currently. It's clearly not enough. It's too little too late. Bigotry has regained a major foothold in the country. Oops.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
I knew that the US was a divided country long before Trump. It's just a bit of a shock that this clown was actually elected as president - not by the majority of votes, but well, that's how their voting system works. It's never been a secret that large swaths of the country between the two coasts lean heavily conservative

been three times to the US with the family as a kid (Florida, NYC and Washington, CAL and Vegas), I'm not terribly interested in visiting another time. There's plenty of other places around the world that I find more exciting. I'll make an exception for Hawaii, though, that always seemed like one of the nicest parts of the US. I could imagine living there if I ever had the opportunity, heh
 
C

Com Truise

Member
I don't care all that much. Stuff happens in foreign countries and I read about it. It's all just news articles and GAF posts to me.
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
A combination of disbelief, disgust, and horror.
2DbWNUF.png
 
H

Hashmal_Bringer_of_Order

Member
I think most people are overreacting like fuck. Hundreds clash with hundreds, one death. Meanwhile hundreds of millions go about their daily lives. It's all about perspective, and from a rather removed one it's just not a big deal.
 
P

Parch

Member
I have traveled to the US on several occasions for both business and pleasure. If you go as a tourist and just visiting sites and restaurants, the experience is good. They do want your money after all.

But if you go on business and experience the attitudes of the general population, it's a completely different experience. When you see the racism, xenophobia, and apathy towards others by a huge percentage of the american population, it's not surprising to me to see how the country has gotten to this point.

No country is perfect. Everybody has their problems, but the US is something else. A huge part of the population have extreme and disturbing attitudes.
 
F

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
It feels like some Americans looked at the most outlandish american stereotype you can find in Europe and said "Actually.....this looks pretty good!"
 
E

Elfotografoalocado

Banned
Spanish, GF tells me horror stories, I read horror stories on GAF and elsewhere, I think there are many fucked up trends going on, and a very flawed American culture.
Visited NY last year, I'm not sure if I want to visit again. Maybe California where GF used to live, but the whole gentrified Techie world doesn't attract me.
It all just feels either bigoted or shallow and fake.
 
D

darscot

Member
If I am completely honest, I feel that you education system is a disgrace to a third world country. I feel that no able bodied educated human being should be able to be fooled by the likes of Trump let alone enough people to win an election in a democratic nation. Until you have a basic level of education how do you expect democracy to function?
 
L

LaMagenta

Member
I am an American from immigrant parents and I live in California all my life. I really hope the world is not judging all Americans based on what they see on TV. Yes those things on tv are happening in those places they talk about in that instant, but America is a large place. Trump did not win the majority vote. Those racist ppl have always been around just probably quieter and they feel Trump is an excuse to act out. There is racism all around the world, corrupt law enforcement, and prob a lot of the same stuff going on everywhere. For those who said this is payback for what America has done to your country, you are a small minded person. We need to stop blaming the citizens for the evils or bad choices leaders make. The good thing about our democracy is that Trump is not a dictatorship. Even if he manages to stay on full term, we will have another president in the next election, hopefully a good one.
 
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