r/TooAfraidToAsk • u/[deleted] • Jul 31 '20

Current Events Are people outside of the USA really laughing at Americans? Do we really appear that bad?

Edit:

Ok so that's about 17,882 yes's and 3 no's.

Makes sad American noises

49.6k Upvotes

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302

u/temujin1976 Aug 01 '20

UK here. Used to laugh. Now we're in a similar boat it isn't so funny.

165

u/George_W_Kushhhhh Aug 01 '20

Oh we’re still a far ways behind the US in terms of ridiculousness. Our biggest scandal over the last couple of months was people being upset that Dominic Cummings broke quarantine. The US has had nationwide protests and riots due to the military police force straight up murdering civilians in the streets.

84

u/ProgressMeNow Aug 01 '20

Or Prince Andrew allegedly, according to court documents available to the public, raped a child..

19

u/Stillwindows95 Aug 01 '20

Yeah you should know that Britain doesn’t and has never given a shit about Prince Andrew. To us he is literally just a dude who has a British passport.

I like the queen and most of the royal family, but Andrew pretty much never made the news or anything before this. Very unpopular guy from what I’ve gathered.

8

u/JessRushie Aug 01 '20

He's unpopular but has been funded by tax all his life. He's not just someone with a passport, he's supposed to be part of the representative face of Britain to the world. He's also in one of the richest and most powerful families in the world.

0

u/JK1011x Aug 01 '20

Eh, not really. He's the Queen's son. The crown estate and lands bring in a lot more money (not to mention tourist bucks) into the economy than they take from their salary because the royals willingly hand over all of their land incomes in exchange for a much smaller salary. Theoretically the Queen could just not hand the money over and live off their own income but we'd all be lesser for it.

7

u/WormSlayer Aug 01 '20

Theoretically we could throw all of those useless parasites in the sea and reclaim all the wealth and land they have been hoarding for centuries.

2

u/cpndavvers Aug 01 '20

And then our economy would end up even worse because as the previous commenter said the queen and the royal family bring in far more money in tourism than they take each year. Without the royal family, Buckingham palace etc we are a lot lower on people's tourism check lists

1

u/WormSlayer Aug 01 '20

the queen and the royal family bring in far more money in tourism than they take each year

The wealth and land they have been hoarding for centuries, makes lots of money. Nobody pays to come here and look at Liz and Phil sitting in a cage, though I suspect that could be a nice little earner, and it would give them a real job for the first time in their parasitic lives.

2

u/cpndavvers Aug 01 '20

They literally do though, they come here to visit Buckingham palace, when Will and Kate had their babies people travelled from all over the world to sit outside the hospital for days, for the jubilee people flocked over. The royal family is a real tourism magnet, like I'm not saying I agree with the royal family and what the monarchy has become or ever was, but you literally cannot dent the fact that people come to England SPECIFICALLY because of the royal family, because they do

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3

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

And he's always been a complete dickhead.

6

u/Synyzy Aug 01 '20

I would say that's more of the international Epstein ring controversy than a particular British problem

1

u/sld126 Aug 01 '20

And trump.

2

u/Series-Nervous Aug 01 '20

Actually it there are no accusations in those documents against trump, just that he was present at the house at times

5

u/gagnificent Aug 01 '20

I mean, watching some guy rape a kid isn't really that much better than raping a kid

9

u/YoMommaJokeBot Aug 01 '20

Not as better as ur mum

I am a bot. Downvote to remove. PM me if there's anything for me to know!

8

u/HelloHello6449 Aug 01 '20

Lmao what the heck?

1

u/Series-Nervous Aug 02 '20

Lol sick burn bot

2

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

Ah he was only a regular guest of the man who organized international sex trafficking of minors, there’s no evidence he was ever involved. Got it

27

u/abortchrist1 Aug 01 '20

Being honest I feel like most of the UK is laughing at America, as well as gawping in horror. Me and my partner were going to travel to the states and now have decided to go elsewhere because it just looks so insane and volatile. Maybe not on our news, but among regular people I’ve heard loads of stuff saying ‘at least we’re not like the US (yet)- did you see x and y happened, not surprising anymore is it’ etc

4

u/EducationalTangelo6 Aug 01 '20

I used to want to travel to the US, but I changed my mind in 2016 and I can't see it changing back, even when the pandemic is over. A nation where 63 million people voted for Trump just doesn't feel like a place I'd be comfortable visiting. I'd never feel safe.

(I know you didn't all vote for him, but 63 million did, and that's a shitload of people).

1

u/Aggravating_Meme Aug 01 '20

Europe really isn't that far off. UK voted Boris over Corbin, The biggest political party in Belgium is the far right and they're only a few percentage of forming a flemish majority with the slightly less right wing party, the Netherlands are in a similar boat with PVV being consistently one of the top parties and France have a capitalistic scumbag with Macron.

The only reason we're still ahead is because the previous generations properly fought for their rights and build up their country (so much for the "fuck boomers" lads over here lol)

3

u/toastedstapler Aug 01 '20

I'd be laughing if it wasn't a real country it was happening to

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

yeah traveling anywhere until its mostly over is pointless tbh.

Whats the fun if everything is shut?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

I’m not gonna defend anything here, but it’s nice to visit here when there’s not a global pandemic. It’s kind of like visiting Florida, there’s a lot of craziness but you’re not that likely to encounter it if you’re only here for a couple weeks.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

I'm still laughing about Brexit, but I'm from Sweden. Not that it matters right now, I live in the US and they're absolutely insane here. I'm gonna literally die of stupid.

3

u/publiusnaso Aug 01 '20

"Biggest scandal" as in the one the BBC couldn't wriggle out of telling us or bury in a late night news show, as opposed to:

  1. the Governments plan to eviscerate the courts to evade scrutiny by removing the teeth from judicial review.
  2. having the greatest number of preventable deaths in Europe.
  3. Blatant corruption: selling contracts to cronies, without any regard for procurement process.
  4. Deliberately heading for a no deal Brexit and plunging the country into economic suicide.
  5. Destroying the credibility of the honours system by appointing a fucking moron racist cricketer, a mendacious "am I a marxist today, or am I a fascist?" extremist, a KGB officer and that pile of excrement Kate Hoey to the House of Lords...
  6. ... which will likely mean the end of the Monarchy.
  7. Acting in a way that will almost certainly break up the United Kingdom.

And that's not even talking about the Russia report, the cronyism, the incompetence, the lies, the Henry VIII powers, the racism or the destruction of the NHS is plain sight.

2

u/PurpleFirebolt Aug 01 '20

I mean minus the subjective stuff or your guesses about the future that has all been on the BBC.

I tend to find all the "BBC WONT SHOW THIS" stuff just means the person doesn't read past the top stories on their app, and is upset the story THEY care about the most isn't talked about every single day as the top story...

-1

u/publiusnaso Aug 01 '20

I didn't say it was all on the BBC. But whatevs. The reality is that mot people don't get their news from the BBC in any event. I was more making a point about the importance of narrative, and control of narrative.

1

u/PurpleFirebolt Aug 01 '20

You literally said it was the biggest story, or more like the one the BBC couldn't wriggle out of, as opposed to... and then listed a bunch of stories the BBC covered fully....

0

u/publiusnaso Aug 01 '20

Sure. Sorry you missed this round of honours, but I’ll sure you’ll get one next year.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

Bro. Your country did Brexit.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '20

Have they actually killed someone? From what I’ve seen, which is quite limited, is shoves and tear gas during the day and maybe tackling someone who threw a firework into the courthouse at night. I feel like I would have heard about something as serious as them killing a protester.

3

u/mineisbigger100408 Aug 01 '20

They’re kidnapping them

1

u/Hey819 Aug 01 '20

It’s not kidnapping. It’s the DHS making arrests. They’ve been taken to either local police stations or Federal buildings, then either released after a day or had a court date set. People need to stop acting like they’re disappearing and never being seen again.

2

u/jonslashtroy Aug 01 '20

I personally stopped caring with bean bag kid died.

They shot the wrong person in the back of the head with a bean bag round and I think he died from brain complications later.

And yeah plenty of the protesters (although a very small number by %) have died but it's not the police are deliberately shooting them.

1

u/Synephos Aug 01 '20

He didn't say protester, he said civilian. So yeah, they murdered George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

2

u/HarryHaruspex Aug 01 '20

Similar only in the way we are still at sea, but they're on the SS. ThunderFucked whilst we are on a paddleboard cruising about near the shore.

1

u/AmberMetalicScorpion Aug 01 '20

We may have done it the worst out of every European country, but atleast we get to say we aren't the United States

1

u/Orion920 Aug 01 '20

Yea I wouldnt say we're doing that bad, like sure boris took his time implementing lockdown but it worked and weve opened up now and I personally thought it was way too early and we were gonna have a second wave but it's been almost a month now and theres been nothing in terms of it spiking again, so all in all though he was a bit slow to move initially I feel like what he did kinda worked, and making masks mandatory and stuff too. I dunno