How does the World view America these days?

  On 4/29/2021 at 3:57 PM, chenGOD said:

I'm sorry your wife and kids had to go through that. Good job on confronting the guy.

  On 4/29/2021 at 1:40 PM, apriorion said:

Sorry, man. Gut churning stuff just to hear about. I hope he felt like a piece of shit after you talked to him. He ought to. 

  On 4/29/2021 at 2:40 PM, randomsummer said:

Sucks, man, sorry to hear that.  It's amazing how empowered these people have become lately.  I think they've always been around, but only recently have felt empowered enough to be more active in their racist behavior.

Well - I point blank told him that there is a better way to communicate with new neighbors than yelling at them in front of their kids.  I also pointed out that this really rubs me the wrong way because of the "write it down" comment in the light of all the recent hate against Asian-Americans.  Guy (and his wife who came to his defense) was like, "Well we're from New York, we're not some rednecks."  I basically said, "Ok guys. Just don't let it happen again." 

Oh and we live in one of the most diverse cities in the US - Houston.

Facepalm.

  On 4/29/2021 at 2:51 PM, Cryptowen said:

I think anti-Chinese sentiment has really increased in the last year because many Americans came to recognize for the first time just how powerful China has gotten. It's been a long time since the USA has had not just a serious rival, but one that could possibly overtake them & upset the neoliberal global order that they've spent many decades constructing. So I think there's a great deal of paranoia/fear of the unknown (ie is China manipulating our media? Did China release the virus to destablize us?) similar to the height of the Cold War, but with the added disadvantage that Chinese People are much further removed racially/culturally from the west-European foundations of the USA than the Russians were

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this very well could have something to do with it on a deeper level. but the reason I suspect as to why anti-Chinese sentiment and racism in general are surging in the US right now is because of one much more obvious factor - Trump. he stoked the flames throughout the entirety of his disastrous presidency, and literally as he was being booted out of the oval office, kept calling it the Chinese flu, or whatever dip shit term he was using. he made racism great again amongst his turd cult of parasites.  

It's not just anti-Chinese, but anti-Asian scapegoating in general that's been a huge problem lately. Can't say for sure if it's all because of Trump or if it's a more loose but widespread phenomenon of 21st Century ignorance. It's as if racists lose the ability to retain knowledge and education after their mid-teens.

...if they ever received any real education in the first place. 

Also, rednecks are not just localized in one part of this country. In my experience (including 8 years in central new york, 8 years in florida, 10 years in the midwest, and lots of time scattered throughout), there is a background radiation of redneckhood permeating this whole country. The "we're from NY" excuse is fucking dumb. 

  On 4/29/2021 at 6:02 PM, apriorion said:

Also, rednecks are not just localized in one part of this country. In my experience (including 8 years in central new york, 8 years in florida, 10 years in the midwest, and lots of time scattered throughout), there is a background radiation of redneckhood permeating this whole country. The "we're from NY" excuse is fucking dumb. 

Yep.

  On 4/29/2021 at 6:02 PM, apriorion said:

there is a background radiation of redneckhood permeating this whole country.

As a Canadian, what's struck me any time I've visited the states is that everyone feels somehow more, i dunno...not "extraverted", but...more intensely themselves than the average person you'd meet in Canada. Like in Canada it always feels like people are reigning themselves in quite a bit, deliberately presenting a more neutral/generic persona until they really get to know someone. Whereas with most of the Americans I've met, it felt like right off the bat they were giving me their complete, unfiltered personality. So I guess that means that anyone who could theoretically get in your face with some inflamatory opinion is going to do so at the first opportunity

  On 4/29/2021 at 4:26 PM, zero said:

but the reason I suspect as to why anti-Chinese sentiment and racism in general are surging in the US right now is because of one much more obvious factor - Trump. he stoked the flames throughout the entirety of his disastrous presidency, and literally as he was being booted out of the oval office, kept calling it the Chinese flu, or whatever dip shit term he was using. he made racism great again amongst his turd cult of parasites.  

yeah this is true. trump's whole shtick was to rustle up the particular reactionary sentiment that's been growing in America since at least the mid-00s (a kind very distinct from oldschool boomer racism or anything like that) by implicitly presenting himself as the charismatic fascist dictator they wanted to see take the reigns. And obviously the fact that he was more just a swindling businessman than an aspiring Supreme Leader, his bumbling still went a long ways to normalizing what had previously been sentiments people spoke about in hushed tones in smokey backrooms (or 4chan, the millenial equivalent of a smokey backroom). Basically the theme of the last four years for all ideologies has been accelerationism

  On 4/29/2021 at 2:55 AM, chenGOD said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/nyregion/rudy-giuliani-trump-ukraine-warrant.html

warrants served on Rudy G, apartment and office searched. Kind of exciting. 

especially for the neighbor

poor people should have their taxes raised. they are a burden to society anyway

  On 4/29/2021 at 6:59 PM, Cryptowen said:

As a Canadian, what's struck me any time I've visited the states is that everyone feels somehow more, i dunno...not "extraverted", but...more intensely themselves than the average person you'd meet in Canada. Like in Canada it always feels like people are reigning themselves in quite a bit, deliberately presenting a more neutral/generic persona until they really get to know someone. Whereas with most of the Americans I've met, it felt like right off the bat they were giving me their complete, unfiltered personality. So I guess that means that anyone who could theoretically get in your face with some inflamatory opinion is going to do so at the first opportunity

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definitely. I've mentioned on here before that I'm an American who lived in Canada for a long time, and have first hand knowledge of the cultural & personality differences between the two. Canadians on average are far more reserved than Americans, for sure.

  On 4/29/2021 at 6:10 PM, Extralife said:

  On 4/29/2021 at 6:02 PM, apriorion said:

Also, rednecks are not just localized in one part of this country. In my experience (including 8 years in central new york, 8 years in florida, 10 years in the midwest, and lots of time scattered throughout), there is a background radiation of redneckhood permeating this whole country. The "we're from NY" excuse is fucking dumb. 

Yep.

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Plenty of racist WASPS in upstate New York. Not sure why they thought it was a good excuse.

  On 4/29/2021 at 9:35 PM, Braintree said:

Plenty of racist WASPS in upstate New York. Not sure why they thought it was a good excuse.

plenty of 'shit kickers' in every state and outside every city. in miami you drive 15 minutes north and you're in Davie, Florida which is historically redneck and 'country'. they have a rodeo every year. 

any place that has a fair share of yuppies or people who appear upwardly mobile or however you want to phrase it.. has the opposite of that appearance as well. so, it's like a macho rebellion against people in collared shirts or people who appear to be wealthy. rednecks are like some macho version of PC. they use chewing tobacco, they think soy milk is for gays and will make you gay if you drink it.. recycling is also for gays.. so is science fiction, fuel efficient cars and electric lawn mowers. "you don't mow your own lawn? you let another man mow your lawn?"

30-60 minutes outside atlanta is like 1950 in some places. rednecks w/pick up trucks w/axe handles in the gun rack in the back window. 

this is a generalization or stereotype but it exists in a big way w/variations of course. redneck machismo as a reaction against arugula is real. 

  On 4/29/2021 at 9:44 PM, ignatius said:

plenty of 'shit kickers' in every state and outside every city. in miami you drive 15 minutes north and you're in Davie, Florida which is historically redneck and 'country'. they have a rodeo every year. 

any place that has a fair share of yuppies or people who appear upwardly mobile or however you want to phrase it.. has the opposite of that appearance as well. so, it's like a macho rebellion against people in collared shirts or people who appear to be wealthy. rednecks are like some macho version of PC. they use chewing tobacco, they think soy milk is for gays and will make you gay if you drink it.. recycling is also for gays.. so is science fiction, fuel efficient cars and electric lawn mowers. "you don't mow your own lawn? you let another man mow your lawn?"

30-60 minutes outside atlanta is like 1950 in some places. rednecks w/pick up trucks w/axe handles in the gun rack in the back window. 

this is a generalization or stereotype but it exists in a big way w/variations of course. redneck machismo as a reaction against arugula is real. 

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I just think saying "redneck" is pretty classist and that they showed their hand with that statement.

  On 4/29/2021 at 9:44 PM, ignatius said:

redneck machismo as a reaction against arugula is real

This is gold. Be right back, I’m gonna go wave some arugula at some cowboys. 

uphold marxism-leninism-redneckism thought reactionaries will be smashed and destroyed

  On 4/29/2021 at 10:52 PM, cyanobacteria said:

uphold marxism-leninism-redneckism thought reactionaries will be smashed and destroyed

 

 

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Fortunately, they look like they’re on the path to select themselves out of the gene pool. Cinnamon rolls and no airbags. 

  On 4/29/2021 at 9:57 PM, Braintree said:

I just think saying "redneck" is pretty classist and that they showed their hand with that statement.

it's a generalization and often yeah i agree.. it's a classist thing. many people equate poor w/redneck when it's a white person. "white trash" etc.  i've met many people who others would call rednecks based on appearance who are salt of the earth working class people who are much more independent in their thinking and have a more objective perspective than the average college educated middle class person. 

there's a lot of classist thinking and urban/rural divide that is truly just a lack of cultural understanding. 

that being said.. the pervasiveness of macho personas who brag about spitting out lot's of diesel exhaust from their truck into the face of some guy in his convertible BMW is a thing

  On 4/29/2021 at 10:44 PM, chenGOD said:

This is gold. Be right back, I’m gonna go wave some arugula at some cowboys. 

google "arugula eating liberals" if you want a laugh

  On 4/29/2021 at 11:45 PM, ignatius said:

google "arugula eating liberals" if you want a laugh

My god you weren’t kidding.  
http://patriothealthdaily.com/2018/10/11/liberal-lettuce/

TBH I feel "American" only by citizenship. Never could grasp the "loud and proud" extroverted machismo that pervades the American mainstream. In fact I've always preferred the opposite.

Pretty sure I'm not alone. I wonder if many 'Muricans here (on W.A.T.M.M.) feel like spiritual expats in a sense.

It sounds like the DOJ was inside Giuliani’s iCloud for over a year before raiding his assets. Imagine how much incriminating shit he must have said during 2020:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawyer-feds-got-rudy-icloud-023335029.html

  Quote

the Justice Department revealed on a Thursday conference call that the feds had penetrated Giuliani’s iCloud long before Wednesday’s search warrants were executed

The thumbnail says it all, "ok Dad, now do you remember where you left your adult diapers?"

  Quote

Plans for 3D-printed, self-assembled “ghost guns” can be posted online without U.S. State Department approval, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

[...]

Ghost gun parts can be purchased online or 3D printed from blueprints and the weapons put together at home.

Federal figures showed that nearly a third of guns seized in California in 2019 were ghost guns.

Such weapons generally lack serial numbers, which are used to trace them. California has a law requiring anyone building a homemade gun to get a serial number or identification mark from the state Department of Justice but there are concerns that the law isn’t being widely followed.

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U.S. court says ‘ghost gun’ plans can be posted online (Associated Press)

  Quote

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

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-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)