Utter monsters that need to be humbled.

  • Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    They will. But take it from a Brit, most won’t realise it is happening and will simply perform mental gymnastics to assume everyone still respects them and their history. I used to be just like that. I know how nationalists think.

    • Gucci_Minh [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Its why they keep making up shit about other countries, so Americans can point and go “but look at how bad it is in [bad country]” when [bad country] has surpassed them in every metric except military spending.

      • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Evergreen article

        A claim like “There’s cultural genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang” is simply unreal to most Westerners, close to pure gibberish. The words really refer to existing entities and geographies, but Westerners aren’t familiar with them. The actual content of the utterance as it spills out is no more complex or nuanced than “China Bad,” and the elementary mistakes people make when they write out statements of “solidarity” make that much clear. This is not a complaint that these people have not studied China enough — there’s no reason to expect them to study China, and retrospectively I think to some extent it was a mistake to personally have spent so much time trying to teach them. It’s instead an acknowledgment that they are eagerly wielding the accusation like a club, that they are in reality unconcerned with its truth-content, because it serves a social purpose.

        What is this social purpose? Westerners want to believe that other places are worse off, exactly how Americans and Canadians perennially flatter themselves by attacking each others’ decaying health-care systems, or how a divorcee might fantasize that their ex-lover’s blooming love-life is secretly miserable. This kind of “crab mentality” is actually a sophisticated coping mechanism suitable for an environment in which no other course of action seems viable. Cognitive dissonance, the kind that eventually spurs one into becoming intolerant of the status quo and into action, is initially unpleasant and scary for everybody. In this way, we can begin to understand the benefit that “victims” of propaganda derive from carelessly “spreading awareness.” Their efforts feed an ambient propaganda haze of controversy and scandal and wariness that suffocates any painful optimism (or jealousy) and ensuing sense of duty one might otherwise feel from a casual glance at the amazing things happening elsewhere. People aren’t “falling” for atrocity propaganda; they’re eagerly seeking it out, like a soothing balm.

        • Ketchup@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          Your message implies we don’t see all the problems in our own country and we have a positive perception of it and its place in the world. I can’t think of an American I know that doesn’t know how fucked we are or how we’ve fucked other governments unfairly. Unless you’re thinking news stations represent our opinions

          • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            There is no contradiction between “westerners know their countries are awful” and “westerners want to believe other countries are worse off.” It’s why the things they believe about other countries are so patently absurd, because that’s what it takes to make their own countries look good in comparison, e.g. “Sure I’ll lose my job and my health insurance and my ability to pay rent if I so much as utter the word ‘union’ at work, but at least I don’t live in China where the communists chop up dissidents to harvest their organs”

            • Ketchup@reddthat.com
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              1 year ago

              Yet, I’ve heard most Americans here speak positively about other countries and their experiences traveling to them. Europe, Asia, south and Central America. Americans know any other country has have better work life balance, better education systems, etc. you’re just wrong dude.

                • Ketchup@reddthat.com
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                  1 year ago

                  Sure I’ll go another round. Let’s call it, word spreads. I’ve never been to Europe can’t afford it. Yeup. Poor. Make below poverty line. Still sounds nice to wake up in just for example, Spain, work for 2 hours close for 2, Go out to dinner and live. You can’t make as much I hear but the quality of life is good. Now change that narrative to insert the positive qualities of living other places all over the world. Even the so called “3rd world countries” have a reputation of friendlier communities than the nearest Walmart.

                  • I take it you’ve never been to Missouri then? I would never recommend that anyone go but if you really want to hear about how the United States is the greatest country in the world they’ll be happy to tell you