Comments

  1. Diane says

    Well to be fair….
    I think it happened before COVID.
    Republicans elected Trump
    A few visits around the world and countries realized the Americans had a buffoon for POTUS.
    Rest of the world, please note.
    I DID NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP.

  2. JoeBuddha says

    Most of us didn’t. He got in on a technicality abetted by more entitled, vicious idiots than even I expected were here.

  3. Sean Boyd says

    Rest of the world: Americans, you are the butt of our jokes for being stupid
    Americans: heh, you said ‘butt’

    Juvenile? Yes. Overgeneralized? Of course. Feels depressingly accurate? Well, yeah.

  4. robro says

    Fortunately for “Americans” most of us aren’t actually that stupid. Unfortunately, enough of us are and we don’t seem to have a mechanism for changing the stupidity. Stupidity is deeply ingrained in our culture and heavily financed by deep pocket influencers who don’t miss any opportunity to make a buck off of the stupid. You might call this country the United States of Saps, Shills, Grifters, and Conmen.

  5. says

    @#6, robro:

    Nonsense. We have a mechanism for changing the stupidity. Unfortunately, for about 30 years we keep squandering each opportunity to do so by running people who basically agree with it, and tell ourselves that it’s okay because they’re the “lesser of two evils”, as though somehow that mitigates the unbelievable ridiculousness of pretending that people who supported the Iraq invasion, the creation of ICE, drone warfare, and NAFTA are somehow “opposition” to the Republicans.

  6. says

    An increasingly popular joke here in Germany is “What borders on stupidity?” – “Canada and Mexico!”

    I’m sorry, but even I have have given up on defending the US against (over)generalizations…

  7. robro says

    The Vicar @ #7 — If what you say is the case, then that’s not a mechanism for changing anything so I do not stand corrected. As for the “lesser of two evils” problem, that’s just idealistic framing. Idealism is fine, but there are no perfect leaders so it’s a useless argument.

  8. says

    Apparently even Ann Coulter is sick of it.
    “COVID gave Trump a chance to be a decent, compassionate human being (or pretending to be). But he couldn’t even do that.”
    That woman is trash but I have to agree with her there.

  9. vucodlak says

    @ Sean Boyd, #5

    Rest of the world: Americans, you are the butt of our jokes for being stupid
    Americans: heh, you said ‘butt’

    The problem is not the people who will snicker because you said “butt.”

    The problem is the people who will fly into a frothing rage because you said something negative about ‘Murica. We indoctrinate our citizens to worship the USA and, as a result, we get fanatics and zealots. These are the people who start wars, these are the people who lead purges, and these are the people who’d rather millions of USians die than see the flaws in capitalism revealed (because we’re taught that capitalism is synonymous with the USA).

    The people who would laugh have a sense of humor. Fanatics don’t.

  10. hemidactylus says

    @12- Ray Ceeya

    Wow someone went on a Twitter rampage. Trump pissed off the Queen of Toxicity. Thanks for alerting me to this.

    https://www.thewrap.com/ann-coulter-turns-on-disloyal-actual-retard-trump-in-twitter-rant/

    Yipes! Wonder what his response will be. She has no filter, no limits and has no truck with high falutin’ moral high ground. He may have just met his match in the showdown of the wrasslin heels. Actually she is a wordsmith (horrific as she is). He ain’t. Game over.

  11. mastmaker says

    @13:

    Yes. One of the major problems of USA: Constant preaching of exceptionalism and constantly chanting the ‘pledge of allegiance’. Soviet Union would’ve been proud!

  12. publicola says

    @7, Vicar: Your mechanism is faulty because it assumes stupid people don’t vote, which, if you check the White House, is tragically untrue. I’ve said it before: you can’t fix stupid.

  13. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    Ray Ceeya: “Apparently even Ann Coulter is sick of it.
    “COVID gave Trump a chance to be a decent, compassionate human being (or pretending to be). But he couldn’t even do that.””

    I am trying to imagine the lack of cognizance it would take for Ann Coulter to utter those words. Nope. Can’t do it.

  14. jack16 says

    @9
    I gave up years ago. When I was young I learned flag discipline in a military school and for years after the flag meant something to me. I’d get thrilled with the sound of a halyard whacking a flagpole. Now I know more history; what I see it stand for today is war, treachery, and despotism.
    jack16

  15. blf says

    I’m unsure if “giving up” is a wholly accurate way of putting it, but, with dramatic license albeit not in any strictly literal sense, that is what I’ve done: After moving to “Europe” waayyy back in the last millennium, and discovering I rather liked living & working here more than disliked, I said “I probably won’t return to the States until I retire”. When bush ][ was anointed, that mutated to variations putting further conditions on the “until I retire” but still leaving open the possibility. Now I don’t say anything at all on the subject (except “we’ll see what happens” when pressed), which must not be construed as neither having made nor acted upon any decision.

    I do — and have for some time — engage in USAlien† bashing (with a bit more insider, albeit sometimes dated, information), even when speaking to friends &tc now trapped in that evil catnazi paradise.

      † Derived from USAian as a (snarky?) synopsis of just how alien the States can seem to be to apparently much of the rest of the world, usually not in a good sense (e.g., the USAian’s american exceptionalism & other such myths). Some people have complained it seems to be an attack on them or other people, which is not the intent, albeit I can see how it could so be construed.

  16. Dante Zaupa says

    Silver lining, at least you’re not brazilian. Our so-called president is actually using the pandemia to divert attention from his and his family’s obvious criminal practices.

  17. blf says

    Oh for feck’s sake! I tried to write @19 very carefully, but still managed to introduce an error! I said Now I don’t say anything at all on the subject [of returning to the States], which must not be construed as neither having made nor acted upon any decision.

    Which is confusing and/or backwards. To be more precise, my not-saying anything does not mean I’ve made any decision. And also, my not-saying anything does not mean I taken any action on a possible eventual return to the States. I have made NO decisions about a possible eventual return to the States. And I have take NO actions precluding a possible eventual return to the States.