How does the World view America these days?

  On 7/28/2020 at 10:30 PM, prdctvsm said:

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Bowling Warney, bowling.

  On 7/29/2020 at 10:55 AM, dingformung said:

Let's not forget the student loan crisis and other things. It's pretty bad, no matter what sensationalist phrasing media headlines choose (again, you should be able to see through the click bait attempts and amplification). I sort of get your point. There are worse places in the world (that's for another topic, though). Some places in the world are hellscapes as a direct result of US foreign policy, though (if you want to call wars foreign policy). The entanglement with the Saud family is pretty gross. The whole NSA affair, spying on everyone in the world including allies and foreign industries is one of the more harmless things. Don't be an apologist. A lot of the American ways are violent and idiotic. I could name a few similar things about my own country e.g. allowing the military base Ramstein to be a legal black hole, which is used by the American military to do extra-judicial drone strikes all over the middle east or to illegally supply weapons to Syria. 

Okay, I don't disagree, but that's manners. In the end that goes for all places or are there places that you'd say of: "I only met assholes from there."? They do have this over the top  small-talk culture, which is nice when you're a tourist there and it's not entirely fair to label it as "fake" or "superficial" as you might sometimes hear, I suspect the same goes for Canada. They didn't really have a say in choosing what their military-industrial complex does, other than ticking one box or the other at the ballot, based on distorted information they got by a media landscape almost entirely owned by a few elite groups (not saying there aren't also excellent American news outlets). But even if it wasn't, a two-party system is bollocks.

 

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When my brother worked in Eindhoven we’d go out drinking with his mates. Nothing too rowdy. Anyway, on a few occasions we’d ask someone for a light for a cig and they’d reply “no, fuck off please”. Rude politeness personified. 

  On 7/29/2020 at 10:55 AM, dingformung said:

Let's not forget the student loan crisis and other things. It's pretty bad, no matter what sensationalist phrasing media headlines choose (again, you should be able to see through the click bait attempts and amplification). I sort of get your point. There are worse places in the world (that's for another topic, though). Some places in the world are hellscapes as a direct result of US foreign policy, though (if you want to call wars foreign policy). The entanglement with the Saud family is pretty gross. The whole NSA affair, spying on everyone in the world including allies and foreign industries is one of the more harmless things. Don't be an apologist. A lot of the American ways are violent and idiotic. I could name a few similar things about my own country e.g. allowing the military base Ramstein to be a legal black hole, which is used by the American military to do extra-judicial drone strikes all over the middle east or to illegally supply weapons to Syria. 

 

 

Okay, I don't disagree, but that's manners. In the end that goes for all places or are there places that you'd say of: "I only met assholes from there."? They do have this over the top  small-talk culture, which is nice when you're a tourist there and it's not entirely fair to label it as "fake" or "superficial" as you might sometimes hear, I suspect the same goes for Canada. They didn't really have a say in choosing what their military-industrial complex does, other than ticking one box or the other at the ballot, based on distorted information they got by a media landscape almost entirely owned by a few elite groups (not saying there aren't also excellent American news outlets). But even if it wasn't, a two-party system is bollocks.

 

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Man, every country conducts espionage. Including Germany and every other EU nation. They all do it to the full extent of their capacity and capability to do so. 

Your own media landscape is owned by a select few groups (Bertelsmann and Springer?), so that’s not a unique thing to criticize America about. I do agree that their two-party system is in drastic need of reform. 

I guess my point is don’t conflate what the media reports with the reality on the ground in the country. Even the student loan crisis in the US is all too easily misrepresented. Misuse of averages, short-termism, etc. These all affect public perception, which can impact public policy making. 
 

As to your comments about “small talk” in Canada, all I can say is come visit. I’ve got a spare room in my bourgeois mansion. 


 

  On 7/28/2020 at 10:25 PM, sweepstakes said:

Uhh, what would be the net gain from this, i.e. why the fuck would they do this? This seems like an obvious attempt to stoke xenophobia.

That rigth there is a scam.
The scammer is creating and shipping out fake orders in order to both boost order numbers and place false verified reviews. The country most commonly associated with brushing is China, but packages may also come from other countries. Here is the Wikipedia page that explains brushing, and here is a news article from Forbes about the scheme. Receiving packages as part of brushing doesn't meant that your private information is compromised, and you don't need to do anything.

  On 7/29/2020 at 5:53 PM, Squee said:

That rigth there is a scam.
The scammer is creating and shipping out fake orders in order to both boost order numbers and place false verified reviews. The country most commonly associated with brushing is China, but packages may also come from other countries. Here is the Wikipedia page that explains brushing, and here is a news article from Forbes about the scheme. Receiving packages as part of brushing doesn't meant that your private information is compromised, and you don't need to do anything.

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I liked the idea the seeds might grow into giant flesh eating mutants but yeah, you're probably right

  On 7/29/2020 at 5:52 PM, chenGOD said:

Man, every country conducts espionage. Including Germany and every other EU nation. They all do it to the full extent of their capacity and capability to do so. 

Your own media landscape is owned by a select few groups (Bertelsmann and Springer?), so that’s not a unique thing to criticize America about. I do agree that their two-party system is in drastic need of reform. 

I guess my point is don’t conflate what the media reports with the reality on the ground in the country. Even the student loan crisis in the US is all too easily misrepresented. Misuse of averages, short-termism, etc. These all affect public perception, which can impact public policy making. 
 

As to your comments about “small talk” in Canada, all I can say is come visit. I’ve got a spare room in my bourgeois mansion. 
 

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Thanks for the friendly invitation. Don't be too surprised if I actually accept it at some point, lol

  On 7/29/2020 at 5:47 PM, cwmbrancity said:

When my brother worked in Eindhoven we’d go out drinking with his mates. Nothing too rowdy. Anyway, on a few occasions we’d ask someone for a light for a cig and they’d reply “no, fuck off please”. Rude politeness personified. 

... etc., dad humour, but I'm sure that has some merit and can be retranslated the other way around.

  On 7/29/2020 at 11:24 PM, dingformung said:

Thanks for the friendly invitation. Don't be too surprised if I actually accept it at some point, lol

Please do! I always like to meet WATMMers in person.

it's fucked up that masks got so political. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-29/almost-30-million-in-u-s-didn-t-have-enough-to-eat-last-week 

  On 7/30/2020 at 9:13 AM, bendish said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-29/almost-30-million-in-u-s-didn-t-have-enough-to-eat-last-week 

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Make America... Great... Again....?

US on a massive diet. I guess the fight against obesity is the best approach to fight the corona virus...

  On 7/29/2020 at 11:24 PM, dingformung said:

Thanks for the friendly invitation. Don't be too surprised if I actually accept it at some point, lol

 

... etc., dad humour, but I'm sure that has some merit and can be retranslated the other way around.

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Oh, if only someone had handed Joyrex this before he listened to Drukqs.

Joyrex has the same level of understanding of British as the Dutch? What a backhanded compliment! ;D

kinda funny how that one infamous comment still gets referenced here almost 20 years later. not saying it shouldn't, just interesting how those 2 words "quite good" are so ingrained in this website's lore. I wasn't here at the time to hear it told as the event unfolded, only heard numerous variations of it told over the years. it's like some old wives tale that gets passed down from generation to generation. 

The impact of that comment will have an impact that will be felt by generations to come. The history between RDJ and Joyrex basically has a before and after "quite good". Although the kickstart-event should not be ignored, the "quite good" event is the WATMM-equivalent to the big meteorite that ended the dinosaurs period.

In order to make big changes you have to throw everything out and start from scratch. That would put maybe 50 to 60 million people out of work. There is a lot of blood money , too, Like Lockheed.  Being a huge wealthy nation you have a lot of baggage and vested interests.  The thing most Europeans and Aussies notice is America feels like a mix of first and third world country. Our infrastructure is horrible. Airports are run down. And the homeless situation is horrible. All these things are part of the vested interests, I mentioned. Oh and our desserts are too sweet.

  On 7/29/2020 at 5:52 PM, chenGOD said:

Your own media landscape is owned by a select few groups (Bertelsmann and Springer?), so that’s not a unique thing to criticize America about.

That's true and I hate them both with passion. Rupert Murdoch tried to buy Springer and I'm glad he has failed because it would have pushed it even further to the right. Springer is the reason people here keep voting Merkel's party (Christian Democrats). The thing is that German companies don't have CEOs, instead they have a Vorstand and an Aufsichtsrat, the latter of which has workers union members in it and in that way there is more workplace democracy than in the Anglo-Saxon countries, including the US and Canada. Therefore it's more difficult for a single person or media owner to set an agenda for the news output and impede the press freedom of journalists working there. Also, we have public funding for public service broadcasting unlike in the US where PBS is dependant on donations. It's still a suboptimal media landscape here and I tend to watch the Federal Press Conference without journalistic editing in its entirety, when I find the time and gusto, and also make resource of alternative media that doesn't belong to one of the big umbrella companies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors#Two-tier_system

Edit: That being said, workers unions are pretty spineless here and the system doesn't work as well as it should. Have a look at Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway instead, where everything seems to work a bit better

anyone have an idea of what "some patriot sh*t" is?

  On 7/31/2020 at 12:23 AM, Nebraska said:

anyone have an idea of what "some patriot sh*t" is?

red shite & poo?

  On 7/31/2020 at 12:23 AM, Nebraska said:

anyone have an idea of what "some patriot sh*t" is?

 

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had to look her up. what laugh that was. her about page on her website is hilarious. her IMDB even more funny. Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance - is an example of her work as a "hollywood elite". I guess she shows her fake boobs a lot or something. not that there's anything wrong w/that but it's funny she characterized herself as a hollywood elite who 'opted out' of california's "insane taxes and unconstitutional gun laws".

she ran for congress and came in 3rd in the primary a while back. the replies to that tweet are just as insane as you'd guess. 

  On 7/31/2020 at 12:23 AM, Nebraska said:

 

anyone have an idea of what "some patriot sh*t" is?

 

Isn’t that where you take a shit while singing the national anthem?

  On 7/31/2020 at 10:02 PM, chenGOD said:

Isn’t that where you take a shit while singing the national anthem?

i think it's when you eat a wasp nest. 

  On 7/31/2020 at 10:08 PM, ignatius said:

i think it's when you eat a wasp nest. 

 

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Yeah I saw that on reddit dude is fucking way out there.