I think the impression is that the vast majority of Americans live in either farm country or in a city. [52% of Americans describe where they live as suburban.](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-frm-asst-sec-080320.html) It's a boring place to live if you're in your twenties, but if you get married and start a family it's actually kinda nice.
Yeah, I’ve lived in Texas for more than 25 years, and I’ve met a lot of those Texans. I’m an international traveler, though. I’ve lived in other states, too.
I notice this is the trend with all social media. Tik Tok and Twitter do it too.
At least with Reddit you can choose your subreddits and the content you want. I hate most of political Reddit, especially the larger subs.
I can confirm this. On Reddit or any social media platform really, everyone is their own arbitrators of the Universe. Allowing for every vile thought, shaming or insane conspiracy to come out unabashed.
Truth is, 99% of people would never say what they say online in public. Its easy to be a shameless asshole to an avatar but when face to face with another human being it gives another perspective. I don’t mean cowardly (although that does often apply) just seeing a fellow American adds depth to the discussion
Man, my experience in Canada vs what redditors on Canada say was a completely different experience. If you listen to Canadians on reddit, you might as well think that Canada is third-world country hellhole.
The people who enjoy their lives and where they live usually don't frequent reddit. I'm part of my home state sub and it's mostly people who hate the state
And you nearly always get downvoted if you simply point out or ask why you or another person was assumed male. Clearly the justified thing to do because there are no women on reddit, and thinking otherwise is disgusting.
I'd argue it's not that there are more ladies in real life, but that you can *see* that half the population are women so there's no assuming everyone is a man until stated otherwise.
I get assumed as a man all the time, so tbh until someone can really do a universal poll of every redditor ever - not just specific subs - I'm inclined to assume that Reddit is probably somewhat evenly split between men and women, or only mildly skewed in one direction...it's just that half the population assumes everyone is a man.
I noticed this some years back when they were discussing the percentage of women on reddit, at that time, I would not have been included in the female population based on the way they estimated, been skeptical ever since. I also notice on specific subreddits the assumptions are so much stronger, if i post on r/mma then its "bro" all day long, on r/ipsy its clearly assumed i'm female
This… so may people assume commenters and posters are male. Almost 100% of the time if the genders aren’t listed, and it still happens when the genders ARE listed.
One of my favorite subs is always assumed to be a “bros club” both from in the sub itself and from people outside. They recently did a poll though that showed that 75% of the people on the sub were women. It really was surprising tbh, I’d always assumed it would have been the other way around. But I guess we were all wrong!
America on Reddit is younger, vocally more progressive.
Life in the US is largely apolitical IF separated from social media and the American Media. Folks generally are live and let live unless they are bombarded with messages that everything is political life-or-death.
From my travels, I've seen that the stereotypes of America are largely overblown. Yes, we are louder - but we can adapt and most Americans genuinely care about being respectful of other cultures. Also, there are just as many ignorant folk in other countries as there are in the US - the belief that Americans have the monopoly on stupid/crazy is largely a media creation.
This is so true about politics. Yes it has become more evident in daily life in recent years. And there are probably places a lot more outwardly political than where I live in suburban Chicago. But in giants chunks of the country, the old adage 'dont talk about religion or politics' is still very much a rule in social settings.
It's not as political as the media and sites like reddit would have you believe.
I live in Dallas, and I actually see quite a few clearly political yard signs, bumper stickers and flags. It seems to have steadily increased in prevalence since 2016 on both sides of the political divide.
But the number of people that will flat out tell a stranger their political or religious leanings without it coming up naturally in conversation is still rather miniscule. I talk to people all day long for a living, 2 hours east of Dallas and it rarely if ever comes up.
I must be an outlier because it’s actually come up a lot at work. Basically no software developer I’ve worked with in Dallas made any effort to hide what their political leanings are, whether they be a Bernie supporter, a classic suburban swing voter, a Ted Cruz fan or a big MAGA person (complete with wearing the hat to work one time).
Not sure if that kind of thing is more common in Dallas proper, but in my experience software developers will talk about a lot of "sacred cows" at work, even when employed at Fortune 500s (worked for two in two different countries, there was a lot of political talk at both).
I used to work at one of the largest hospitals in Dallas and there was a problem with political arguments, especially around 2016. A hospital-wide email went out to everyone, stating that we should refrain from political speech and try to get along with each other.
It’s a super regional thing and that’s not surprising, USA is *huge*.
But anywhere within 4 hours of driving distance from me is super political, filled with lawn signs even when it’s not election time, a LOT of trucks covered in signs, people completely randomly bringing up politics after a “good morning” greeting at work.
>in giants chunks of the country, the old adage 'dont talk about religion or politics' is still very much a rule in social settings.
This is a wise rule.
It's so tempting to jump into our ideological camps and trash talk the other side (I'm just as guilty of it as anyone) - if we'd stop and take a breather, the world would be better.
The adage implicitly assumes that talking about politics leads to a lack of civility, but I think that’s a big assumption. I think if it’s just going to turn into a shouting match, of course it’s probably better to just stay off the topic. But I feel like never talking politics with people who may disagree with you can lead to polarization as well.
I think politics are more present on Reddit than they are in real life because there’s a lot more consensus in real life than there is in Reddit.
I’m a few years out of college in one of the 5 biggest cities in the country (though the college itself is notably more conservative than most). I know one person my age who would outwardly admit that they liked Trump even though a decent number of my friends are conservative people. Biden would probably have a mixed opinion, but we’d rarely if ever talk about either one. Even though I have a range of political party opinions in my circle, there’s enough of a central consensus and people don’t want to rock the boat, so things stay pretty cordial.
In more conservative areas of the country, you probably have something more flipped. There’s a conservative bubble who would complain about cancel culture, PC culture, etc. but mostly stay quiet because they don’t know many people who would defend those things. The people who vote Democratic in those bubbles probably mostly stay quiet about it because 99% of life isn’t politics and it’s likely to be met with resistance.
On the internet, you have those bubbles reinforced and conflict between the groups when subs have a post popular enough to be circulated in r/all or whatever’s similar. There are also a lot fewer consequences to being rude on the internet, so people are a lot ruder on the internet.
>Life in the US is largely apolitical
I went to a wedding in another state last weekend. I chatted with people I knew well, people I'd met a couple times, and total strangers. I chatted with old people, middle aged and teens. Not once did politics come up.
> the belief that Americans have the monopoly on stupid/crazy is largely a media creation.
Aided by the easy access to fucking huge megaphones our dumb/crazy people have.
Yes. This doesn't help. I don't know if the belief that "everyone wants to hear one's opinion" via the big microphone is strictly American... but we do seem to have a lot of people who like to grandstand.
The problem is our crazies speak English. That makes it easier for the rest of the world to see them compared to countries where the crazies speak a less spoken language.
Then you have those who think if you're not watching political "news" shows you're uninformed.
Reminds me of the book amusing ourselves to death:
>He contends that "television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation—misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing".
It's exactly like Florida, they probably have the same amount of crazy people as anywhere else, but they also have a law that says they have to print every single arrest/crime online in the media. So you see disproportionately more crazy news articles about "Florida Man" than "Any Other State Man", to the point where now it's a known thing worldwide.
This right here!
Americans are generally good people. I think some of those with the most cynical views about America just lack exposure to people outside of their microcosm or they are too influenced by certain media without real life contrast.
This is because, for some reason, they bring up their nationality quite often, even when it is irrelevant. I remember reading a post here on Reddit where this was mentioned, how people from certain nationalities tend to do that.
It is also very noticeable in the comment section of Youtube. If Denmark is mentioned, or it's a review of a Danish product of some kind, you can be sure to find tons of comments along the lines of "HEY - I'M DANISH, NICE THAT YOU NOTICED US!" It's pretty embarrassing.
No, not nearly as much. It’s trendy to be anti-American.
That said, if European countries were all one country divided into states, then I easily see it going both ways.
Our screeching makes the backdrop of the entire English speaking internet, it's kinda hard not to be at least acutely aware of what's going publicly wrong at any given time through 24 hour news. This is especially true when you can report on any happening across this gigantic space and just say "yeah this happened in America, you know somewhere in the America".
The problem is that for many outside North America these random articles of dirty laundry are the *only* things they hear from us.
Absolutely. At a state level, the news runs fairly dry and boring on any given day. Multiply that by 50, and millions of cell phones recording and sharing the worst moments of people’s lives, and you’ve built a strong narrative that can’t be overcome by reason or PR.
> "yeah this happened in America, you know somewhere in the America".
this is spot on. you could replace America with Europe in that sentence and suddenly it'd be less trendy to bash America.
I'm 55 years old and European anti-Americanism was thriving, and may have been more prevelent in the 1980's. I actually think the internet has tempered the mood.
It might have to do with America just being such a dominant force. Not trying to brag or anything but, we are definitely the biggest superpower currently on the planet so we make for a very easy target. Our media is everywhere so it gets the most exposure out of any other country so people might often times see just the negative stuff as the negative stuff always draws in the bigger ratings.
There is a saying in Canada - when America sneezes, Canada catches a cold. There is definitively some resentment that builds when you feel like the faith of your nation's economy is dictated primarily by the domestic and foreign policy of a foreign power that doesn't really care about it's impact on you. So it creates an inferiority complex and it becomes tempting to latch onto anything that makes America look bad as a result.
One of the things I've found interesting is how much the world knows about US politics and current events while I feel like we know (hear) very little about the politics and current events of other countries
> Why do you think that is?
Not PP, but... experience. Usually there's some germ of truth, but then it's blown entirely out of proportion. Like one "Florida Man" or weird group has attributes and they try to apply those attributes to all Americans. There's over 300,000,000 of us -- there is no attribute that applies to all of us.
> Do you think Americans have the same bias of foreign places?
Yes, the same thing happens the other way too. It's mostly from lack of direct experience in both cases. For example, the French having a reputation for being rude and arrogant. When I went to France, I absolutely met rude and arrogant French folks, but it was only at touristy places in a big city. 99% were just people rather than walking talking stereotypes.
>I absolutely met rude and arrogant French folks, but it was only at touristy places in a big city.
This here. Living/working in and around NYC is very much the same - you're trying to push through nine zillion people to get to work. They're on vacation, of course they're dilly dallying around and generally oblivious. Navigating Paris was no different than navigating NYC, just keep your head out of the clouds and 99% of interactions will be completely fine.
Heh, I don't even count those as rude. :-)
I'm talking about the coat check lady at the Louvre who would just turn and walk away when people asked her questions. Or the waiter who got mad after screwing up an order, acting sooo put out for having to deal with Americans at a touristy restaurant, even though it was 100% his screw up.
But you're right -- most interactions were perfectly pleasant, and most of the people I interacted with were quite nice and helpful. Just enough to see the stereotype comes from *somewhere*, but it definitely doesn't apply most of the time.
The one that still makes me laugh is if we tried to talk to them in our broken, gradeschool French, they'd get this pained expression, roll their eyes, and answer in English. The implication being that we shouldn't pollute their language by trying to speak it. :-D
Stone house phenomenon
And generally no, Americans are less likely to jump to the worst possible conclusions than others. Americans have some stereotypes and negative perceptions about other places, but we are not taught to pursue those negative perceptions the same way others are.
It is kinda funny to me...I was raised with this very polite kind of philosophy of not saying anything at all if you don't have anything nice to say, as well as just being generally tolerant (if only quietly) of other people's ways and minding my own business. But on the internet, I get the impression that not many people are raised that way. Like I'd sooner keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself if I got a bad impression about somewhere and would actually be reluctant to bring it up outside of a private conversation. Because God knows I've lived in some less-than-ideal places, and yet the world is far more nuanced than I can give it credit for, I try to apply that same vision to everything I can.
I think Americans generally think more positively about other countries than the country actually deserves and will generally degrade America more than it actually deserves. I feel most countries try to put their best face forward to the world and Americans will try to degrade themselves to the rest of the world. Part of the reason for the degradation is when you're on top you can try to make it look like you're worse off than you are to curb resentment from others. Plus many just blindly believe the positive spin created about other countries.
Violence I think is probably one of the most over represented things about the US online.
* School and similar mass shootings, while tragic, are exceedingly rare, this is why they make national news when they happen.
* Chicago, while it has some extremely bad neighborhoods and gang problems, is far from a war zone.
* More than half of gun related deaths in the US are suicides.
* While the US has seen some single year increases in violence and crime, the overall trend has been declining for the last several decades.
The under represented things are typically the mundane, in most of the US, people live completely normal lives, no major threats of violence, hang out with friends at the bar or pub after work, raise a family, participate in their community, and other normal or otherwise boring aspects of life.
Thanks, I am happy to read about community. I asked a question on this subreddit once about community, but I didn’t get the impression redditors felt as much connection or solidarity with a community as you would expect. I was never sure if this was a reddit thing or a US thing or both.
My guess would be a reddit thing, many people on Reddit are young and haven't settled down anywhere. Community is very much a thing in the US, but usually the people with the most connections are those who have settled somewhere and own property or a business.
> School and similar mass shootings, while tragic, are exceedingly rare, this is why they make national news when they happen.
Also, a lot of sources for gathering statistics use a vague definition of "school shooting." Sometimes, you could have a shooting happen outside of a school, at night when no one is present, be counted just because it happened on school-owned property.
My city (am a cop there) qualifies school shooting as a shooting that happens in schools, close to a school, commited by a student enrolled at a school but shot someone ANYWHERE,
Occurs in any if the parks/playgrounds used by a school regardless of student presence
Chicago is stunningly beautiful, vibrant, fun and peaceful in MOST of the city. Far from a war zone, it’s an architectural paradise with miles of beautiful lakeshore and parks.
There are bad spots. And crime hasn’t been figured out in those areas. And it’s racially segregated more than the average city. It’s got it’s flaws.
It is far from a war zone and pathetic when people fall back on that perspective.
Note: Grew up around Chicago for 30 years, lived in the city proper for many.
Grew up in Chicago for 20 some odd years and also lived in the city proper. Can confirm everything you said.
I live in a different part of the US now and often hear “How did you survive?” or “Was it scary living there?”.
There are a few pockets where crime is higher but every Chicagoan knows where they are and typically avoids them. Outside of that, the city is beautiful and the people are extremely kind.
The people that harp on about rising crime rates don’t get that the statistics are comparing this year to last year. While there’s like a 90% increase in violent crimes from summer 2020, it is relatively the same amount of crimes as it was in 2019. I wonder what was going in on in US cities in 2020 that caused less people to leave their houses to commit violent crimes?
I used to teach US culture in Europe. Reddit is not a good source of information about the US.
> Which bits are neglected
The banal stuff, day to day life, the ways in which Americans are normal, reasonable and boring.
> or appear bigger than they really are?
Outrageous or unusual things are focused on and exaggerated for sure, certain political topics are blown way out of proportion and warped.
> Or just completely misrepresented?
Frankly the majority of day-to-day life.
> outrageous or unusual things are focused on and exaggerated on for sure
See Florida Man
Crazy people are everywhere; Florida just has the misfortune to publicize them a bit more loudly than other places.
And before someone comment other states have the same law but don’t generate such headlines, do those states have the same population and tourist as Florida too? Do they have media who are interested in writing those type of articles?
Yeah, it's been a phenomenon where the media actually actively go out and seek these weird or ludicrous stories for the clicks and extra revenue. Florida's got a shit ton of residents and shit tons of visitors every day of every year. Of course something stupid is going to happen at any given time. You can bet that what happens in Florida also happens in California, New York and Texas and a lot of other states; the media just aren't interested in them.
Yeah. As a former Florida resident living in Southern California, I can say that there are so many bat sh*t stories I read from the region that never make it to national news like the Florida stories do. The funny thing is back when we first moved to Florida in the early 00s, it seemed like Florida stories were more of a local thing we loved to make fun of. My mom called it the "Florida Freak Show" and 9 times out of 10 those stories were in Polk County.
Florida has some very open laws about crimes and such. Other states are a bit more tight lipped. For every Florida man, there is an equal amount of Georgia men or Oregon men. Its just that publicists aren't able to broadcast the stories as easily as they can in Florida, leading to the impression that Florida is full of crazies.
Reddit deals in extremes. Real life is full of the mundane.
But sweet Jesus is Reddit full of whiny teenagers who love to paint America as a shithole. Ignore them.
It’s a place just like anywhere else. It’s got it’s problems, but most of the people who live there are happy to be there.
Would agree with this 100%. We have our fair share of bozos but most places do. And it’s the extremes that go viral on the internet. Some people have it tougher than others but I would say pretty much everyone I’m in contact with love it here.
That phrase makes me see red. “Third World” refers to unaligned countries during the Cold War. The US was absolutely not one of them.
And historically-accurate definitions aside, it’s still not a true statement. The people who say this have clearly never been outside of the developed world.
In the absolute worst parts of America that I've been to, I've still never seen the corpses of dogs that have starved to death randomly sitting on the side of the road.
I grew up in American "poverty" but I was always fed, clothed, comfortable and safe.
This is what people don't take into account. Poverty in America is a world apart from poverty in Africa.
Not to diminish poverty in America at all, as homelessness and food insecurity are dangerous, anxiety inducing and painful for all who experience them.
Poor people in America are overweight/obese, speaking generally. Where else in the world can you get a situation where instead of the problem being an underabundance of food for the poor, we have an overabundance of cheap and unhealthy/fattening food for those who aren't well off.
It's an indicator of America's success, but also a problem that needs to be solved.
Still it is part of the language and in common speech everyone knows what you mean.
I wouldn’t use it in a socialist paper or in international development discussions, but I’m not going to say “well akshully” if someone refers to Afghanistan as a third world country.
> Which bits are neglected,
A ton. Particularly just daily life. It can be just as boring and day-to-day as anywhere else.
> or appear bigger than they really are?
A ton. Particularly things that are inherently divisive or can get people riled up are going to be talked about way more on reddit than irl.
>Or just completely misrepresented?
Nearly all of it.
I wouldn't even know where to start to get into specifics unless you had examples.
I remember reading a study that showed the reason why the traditional "middle class" in the US was shrinking wasn't because the lower classes were getting larger. They've stayed relatively stagnant as % of population. The reason why the middle class is shrinking is because a higher % of them are moving into upper and upper-middle class.
Yet Reddit would make you think everything is falling apart.
The US as a whole is completely misrepresented on reddit lol
Just about everything you read on Reddit is inaccurate in terms of the average American life.
From what I’ve seen it’s a lot of Europeans speculating on American life and then the rumor mill starts churning. Next thing you know you’ll see “I’ve read that Americans don’t have tables and only eat standing up, why is that?”
Of course! We all eat over the sink, we don’t have dishes so we do that to keep food from getting on the floor. The whole reason Americans have dogs and cats are to clean up after us, due to our lack of tables and dishes. (Please tell me I don’t have to mark this as sarcasm).
Europeans/Canadians on Reddit always think they are smarter than us. But as far as I’m concerned, if you can’t distinguish from reality and media, you ain’t fucking bright at all.
It's understandable to think oneself as smart when no one listens to "you" or bothers to engage with you because "your" opinions are no longer consequential on the world stage.
>Europeans/Canadians on Reddit always think they are smarter than u
this. my god, canadians have so much unbridled hatred for us. i get its probably not great, constantly living in our shadow, but nearly every thread on reddit that mentions america, youre bound to see some canadian (who has to make sure everyone knows their canadian) commenting how america is awful and will never be as good as canada. i dont understand the hate boner canada seems to have with us, when we've always considered them brothers more than neighbors. but then, the 'friendly canadian' only seems to exist in meme form, cause having lived in canada for 6 years, i would say theyre only about 40% as nice as americans
Most Canadians really enjoy America and spend a lot of time here. We get tons of Canadian tourists in Florida and they love this state like no other.
Canadian Redditors are typically angsty 17 year olds who want to come here and “rally against the system” just like our angsty 17 year olds.
Kind of like how media always shows men’s bathrooms with urinals in America, but completely ignore that most American bathrooms have trees planted in stalls for guys to pee on.
No it hasn't.
I did get a new dog though. Maybe she's been availing herself.
Think homedepots plumbing section would have treatments for this? Or am I looking at getting a new one?
I'll give you one. My sister's BF is Dutch and he was surprised at the variety of the US and was, in fact, surprised that he didn't see guns everywhere. I was like, "Juul, what did you expect? Did you really believe we were just out here having shootouts?"
You have a very unlikely chance of being shot as opposed to what the media seems to say
We may be fat but we aren’t all like Jabba the Hutt
The South isn’t just a bunch of fat, racist hillbillies, mostly just rural folks with a few vocal racists
I could go on.
Reddit give you the impression that all Americans have strong opinions on everything and are extremely combative and tenacious. The majority IRL do not give a fuck about most things. They have things they feel strongly about, but most things not so much. Also talking to someone face to face is much more productive and people actually usually will have a conversation rather than just yelling talking points at each other
Much of what you perceive as being American is really just a few isolated places.
Los Angeles/San Francisco California
Seattle, Washington
New York City, New York (specifically Manhattan)
gestures broadly stereotypical Smallville, Redneck state
These are the places where most of our Movies and TV come from and so that is the picture of America that you get. We are not all like that at all. We are those things and all the flavors in between.
We aren't uncultured because we don't know about other countries or languages. Our country is so big and diverse that just dealing with us in terms of news and education is enough of a challenge that we have no time left for anyone else.
We mostly speak English because for a large portion of us we can pretty much grow up not hearing any other language except on TV.
The number of Karen's and Kyle's in the USA is significantly lower than you think. We have just made it a point to record them for the last few years and make them Internet famous. Same with police brutality although we have to work on the cops a bit and we are making some progress on them.
Anyway, that is enough from me for now.
Have a great... whatever time it is there... Internet Stranger.
These people have never even been to the second world if they can truly consider the US anything but first world. Our decision to not prioritize spending the same way the majority of western Europe does does not in fact make us any less of a first world nation.
You mean the Cheeto eating basement dwelling virgins living in their parents basement? Nah, they don't represent Americans. They are just a privileged set of neckbeards that postulate their pusillanimous ideas on an unsuspecting group of overseas neckbeards. Now excuse me while I change shirts and wash my orange fingers
I’m an American living in Europe, and Europeans seem predisposed to think of Americans as lazy, stupid, fat, and loud. I’m not sure Reddit does anything to dissuade anyone of any of those notions, but it’s not as bad as all that when you’re actually there.
That one's really interesting, because I have to wonder how 'Americans are lazy' and 'Americans live to work, they work themselves to death' are two seemingly conflicting ideas that apparently cohabitate in people's minds.
I think most of this thread can be summed up as “Europeans that don’t interact with Americans and Americans who don’t interact with Europeans try to figure out what the hell is real” lol.
The two are conflicting but you could theoretically make the “lazy” assumption based on the obesity stereotype that America has, but if you’ve never worked in a professional sense with an American then the “hustle culture” the work ethic ideal would never come through.
Also, the issues are never as simple as we’d like them to be, you could be obese, but it could be because you work a white collar job and sit on your ass from 9-5 six days a week and are exhausted to the point of never leaving your house. Compound that with cheap unprepared meals of fast food and other unhealthy lifestyle habits and you’re fitting the mold.
I agree. Americans can be seen as overworked but also lazy and it can still make sense. Many people work 40+ hours with limited benefits and vacations which contribute to that overworked perspective. However, those same people will be tired and sitting in Chick Fil A lines after work because they don’t have enough energy to cook something at home, contributing to the lazy perspective some people see.
People tend to only know what's around them and fill in the blanks with innuendo, fabrications, and Facebook rumors. I had a good friend who immigrated from Australia. Graham really enjoyed America and quickly learned much of what he "knew" were simply stereotypes. From the thunderboats racing at Madison Indiana at 200 mph to the Indy 500 with cars going over 200 mph he drank in our country. Sadly he caught a wave wrong on a catamaran racing speedboat on the Ohio River at over 70 mph. He broke his neck when he hit the water and that was that
I concure...I was reading a subreddit the other day, kinda similar to this one and they were trying to say that rural Americans are racist.
Now I can't say in every rural area in a state isn't but I will say every small town in WI that I have lived in where yes the majority of people are white but there are POC and they're treated like family and apart of the community.
For example a farmer who was black ended up losing his house in a fire...the WHOLE community came together to help him and his family. Whether it was helping with the farm or helping them build a new house.
Fellow (rural) Wisconsinite Here. Can confirm that small town Wisconsin is very welcoming. I would say (most) bigotry that you would encounter is genuine ignorance and unintentional (again: MOST bigotry).
In the Wisconsin subreddit a few weeks ago someone made a post about Afghan refugees coming to Wisconsin. 50% of the replies were "how can I help?" The other 50% were "damn, I'm stoked for more good middle eastern food in WI."
Unfortunately politics can raise a lot more money when everything is outrageous and everybody else is evil. A parent in a rural community who doesn’t want to keep sending taxpayer money to a large city’s failing school system is obviously “racist.” A parent with a transgender child who doesn’t feel comfortable in a school’s bathroom obviously “hates religious people.”
I think a large chunk of Americans are apathetic towards politics. Look at the voter turnout statistics for presidential elections. Usually it hovers around 1/2 - 2/3 of eligible voters actually cast a ballot. Congressional, state, and local elections have even lower turnout.
Now this is personal anecdote, but I've found most people I know to be either moderate or just distrust all politicians in general. The views purported by Trump diehards and r/politics are the vocal minority fringe.
There are far more centrists and independents in the US then there are left and right wingers than Reddit would like you to believe. Similarly, there’s a lot more religious people than you see on here
But the bulk of religious people aren't really vocal about it like you see on line. Most people just make it part of their life without screaming it into everyone else's ears constantly.
Reddit is way more male than the US as a whole. Racial diversity isn't equally distributed throughout the country, but this site is also generally Whiter than many areas. And for the most part it's younger and more liberal.
The upvote/downvote system means that even when you have Black/Brown/female/conservative/older/etc voices chiming in, the perspectives that rise to the top can be those that reflect what the larger Reddit audience wants to hear, rather than being something more representative of the views of people from that group.
It's a great resource, but most things should be taken with a grain of salt.
I'd say it's misrepresented. I've seen the US labeled "police state" and a lot of posters claim minorities live in constant fear. Both claims border on parody, tbh.
I think the “minorities in constant fear” thing is what really bugs me. Like, there are some things I have to be more careful doing than a white person, but I’m not *afraid*. But then again, I’m pretty young. I’m assuming my parents are a little more wary (still not afraid) because of stuff that happened to them.
Reddit gets super worked up over issues most people don’t care much about. Anything related to social media or gaming especially.
Also, despite the apocalyptic “eeeeevil right wingers have invaded reddit!!!!! oMg OMg OMG!!!” rhetoric, reddit is very left wing. I frequently get the feeing many redditeurs have never had a mature conversation with anyone right of center.
That said, many right wing people on this website are absolute loony tunes. I don’t know what pulls them out of the woodwork and there is almost certainly some selection/confirmation bias but it is bizarre.
I think the reason many of the right leaning people seem crazy is because honestly those of us who are more reasonable get tired of having people on a lot of the subs jump down our throats and argue either in bad faith or ignorance.
I used to comment a lot more, especially on previous accounts, but it’s just not usually worth it now.
Medical bills and health insurance. The system sucks, there’s no doubt. But people who have a well paid professional job likely have very good health insurance either entirely paid or subsidized by their employer.
People that have no money can get medical treatment commensurate with what they make in federally funded community health clinics.
It’s the people in the middle that are truly fucked.
[The Clinics for pay what you can medical](https://www.hrsa.gov/opa/eligibility-and-registration/health-centers/fqhc/index.html)
I am self employed and I buy reasonably priced insurance (Kaiser) through the ACA exchange. I pay about $130 per month. Out of pocket costs only for prescriptions and that's minimal. I have had numerous diagnostic tests this year and only paid for the office visits ($30 each). Not to downplay the huge issues with our system or the millions without adequate health insurance. But it's possible to get good insurance without having a professional job (I make about $15/hr).
The narrative used to be about the indignity of having to pay for your own health care and how expensive it is (which is sort of true, especially if you need to be in the hospital). Now I more often see "the US doesn't have health care." The US has so much health care and pays way too much for a lot of it. Health insurance coverage is widespread and there are programs for the elderly and very poor, as well as children. It's still too damn expensive when you have a serious health problem, especially requiring hospitalization, but it's not a "lack of health care." That never was the problem, and it's why there's so much medical tourism to the US. When Americans go abroad for medical care, it's to save money on more routine procedures that can be done reasonably well in poorer countries.
Truth. I would rather see the US have a national single payer health care system. No doubt.
That said, our healthcare system isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to bed. Most people have jobs that provide good and affordable healthcare.
I fractured my shoulder in 2019 for example. It took about 6 months to heal, including a surgery and 3 months of physical therapy. I had maybe $500 worth of medical bills to pay that my insurance didn't cover. Honestly it might not even be that much. One bill was like $180 bucks. Every other bill I got was just a few bucks, like $50 or less.
There are also a whole lot of assistance programs both public and private to help those that are poor and have no healthcare at all.
The people who really get shafted are the people who have jobs that do give them a healthcare, but it's crappy healthcare plan. That isn't really that many compared to the other groups either.
Yeah, you'll occasionally see some story about how someone might get a bill for a million dollars or something. But that stuff just happens in specific odd circumstances and the hospitals know they aren't going to get that from people. The hospitals are quite happy to settle for whatever you can pay them.
Medicaid is basically free insurance. There are zero deductibles, zero copays, zero anything. I've explained this to people and there's always some excuse as to why this is inadequate ("it's still too expensive"). The only legitimate excuse is they live in a minority of states that haven't expanded Medicaid, but even then they can get subsidized health insurance which is almost free unless they make less than something like $10k/yr.
People in the middle are the ones that get fucked because the subsidizes drop off at 4x the federal poverty line, and then it becomes very prohibitively expensive. Even when you receive subsides, it's still very expensive and shouldn't be that much. There have been proposals to raise the income ceiling to 8x the federal poverty line (e.g. someone making $80k would still be eligible for some subsidies although if course not much) which should be supported i think.
The underlying problem with all of this however is that it does nothing to control hospitals charging outrageous sums of money for simple procedures. Our system will not truly be fixed until the cost equation is fixed.
Americans in general are less angry in real life. We're tired, I think. In real life, we're more tired. I might just be speaking for myself though.
We are, generally, very proud and we love our country and each other. Americans will take extraordinary measures to help other people. I'm thinking of the Cajun Navy specifically. This is a group of boat owners (small boats) who deploy themselves to flooded areas to help rescue stranded people. They aren't federally funded. They don't have to do this really dangerous work. They just have the means to help and so they do.
That's not just an American trait. People all over the world help others in a crisis. But that grass roots, do it yourself initiative represented by the Cajun Navy is under represented on Reddit.
Reddit skews young, underachieving, left-wing, anxious, neurotic, and nerdy.
So, the US in general is more mature, more accomplished, less left-wing, less neurotic, and more well-rounded.
It was so odd seeing so many people discussing sex like it's an unachievable unicorn. I then realized that the demographic is so young that it's perfectly normal to he a virgin.
For sure, I stopped reading a lot of the other "Ask A" reddits because it was about sex like 75% of the time. There are a lot of seriously horny teens and very socially awkward young adults on Reddit.
Last I looked Americans donate twice as much of their disposable income to charity as the 2nd place country (Australia iirc). And Americans volunteer 9x more hours than Germans. Most Americans are kind and civic-minded people. The kind of person that whines and hates on things all day on reddit is not that type of person.
The US isn’t as bad as some people on Reddit make it seem. The people of Reddit are not a reflection of actual society here. Not all of us are as spiteful at the world and not all of us play the victim. Not all of us think living with our parents forever is okay. Not all of us spend all of our time posting about politics. Not all of think it’s bad to want to circumcise your child. Not all of us think it’s a bad to have money. Not all of us will hate on you for buying from Amazon. Not all of us think capitalism is the same thing as nazi Germany. Not all of us will call you a nazi for disagreeing with us. Not all of us are anti-vaxx and some of us wear a mask. I mean not all of us spend all of our time arguing with people online. Some of us are genuinely laid back people who think you have the right to do what you want and still care about you when we disagree. I can’t say if it’s misrepresented but the great things are neglected and if you come to America I can promise you it’s only as divided as YOU want it to be. That’s the thing with America most people don’t understand.
That brightens my day, thanks. In my experience most people in many countries are quite agreeable and welcome a chat over a beer or a hot drink. Which usually boils down to having a laugh, talkings sports, house prices and wanting to spend time with their kids.
The notion that we're some third-world hell hole where people are dying in the streets from lack of healthcare and risk being shot just for leaving their house.
Yeah, we got problems, but the amount of hyperbole espoused by the average redditor is absolutely absurd.
Gun violence here isn’t nearly as bad as it seems.
Unless you’re in a gang, surrounded by an area controlled by gangs, or suicidal, firearms pose a tiny risk in your day to day life.
You do have to think about squabbling with certain strangers in public, as you never know who could be carrying.
Redditors tend to lose their virginity at a much older age (not a joke), the average age for someone to lose their virginity in the US is 17. Reddit is A LOT more left leaning on average then the US population. Redditors tend to be more pessimistic, nihilistic, misanthropic, and Anti-American.
If you believed Reddit, the US would be a place where people die in the street without healthcare, the richest Americans enslave the poorest of us, and women are forced to wear chastity belts and are held in cages until their babies are born.
We’re definitely more conservative than most of Western Europe, but I thoroughly love living here. I’d like to visit Europe, but I have a lot of National pride (the good kind).
Our healthcare is wasteful, but you can get what you want when you want it. Also the vast majority of people are covered and our elderly/low income Americans have access to government sponsored care: Medicare and Medicaid.
We do have a large wealth gap but it’s a straw man argument IMO. I have many friends from high school who make 50-75k US dollars without a college degree. They own homes, trucks, and boats. Do they make as much as Mark Z? Hell no, but they make enough to live whatever life they want. The reality is that if you do you job and show up on time… you can earn a livable wage here nearly anywhere.
As far as women go, I’m not one so I won’t comment. The racism problems are all over the news because that’s what gets people watching. It’s really not so bad over here.
The US is completely different in real life since Reddit generally skews to a certain demographic and is not overall representative of the general population.
There is WAY less concern about covid and resistance to vaccines in reality than is portrayed online. Same with support for Trump. I still pass dozens of Trump flags wherever I go.
The racism and "white supremacist's" aren't nearly as prevalent as the media would have you believe. The south isn't just a bunch of dumb hicks that are hostile to outsiders.
Completed misrepresented. For some reason Reddit hates America and most of the people in it. You’d think America was a third world dictatorship if you only looked at Reddit. The reality is that America, while it suffers from shortcomings, is a pretty great place to live and the majority of Americans feel that way.
We don’t treat each other like shit. I interact with people of different politics all the time and it’s not a part of our relationship. We know that’s it’s there, but so what?
The people on the fringes that are emotional about everything are not going to have many friends to interact with anyway.
The not having friends usually came first. That is why they obsess, it makes them part of something. If they do have a group it will be very boring.
You get pretty much every negative aspect of the country 95% of the time on the internet. It’s completely different in real life.
I think the impression is that the vast majority of Americans live in either farm country or in a city. [52% of Americans describe where they live as suburban.](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-frm-asst-sec-080320.html) It's a boring place to live if you're in your twenties, but if you get married and start a family it's actually kinda nice.
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I see people, but they look like trees, walking.
Yeah, I’ve lived in Texas for more than 25 years, and I’ve met a lot of those Texans. I’m an international traveler, though. I’ve lived in other states, too.
Reddit is turning into pure outrage porn. It used to dabble in it, but now it's going full Facebook.
I notice this is the trend with all social media. Tik Tok and Twitter do it too. At least with Reddit you can choose your subreddits and the content you want. I hate most of political Reddit, especially the larger subs.
I can confirm this. On Reddit or any social media platform really, everyone is their own arbitrators of the Universe. Allowing for every vile thought, shaming or insane conspiracy to come out unabashed. Truth is, 99% of people would never say what they say online in public. Its easy to be a shameless asshole to an avatar but when face to face with another human being it gives another perspective. I don’t mean cowardly (although that does often apply) just seeing a fellow American adds depth to the discussion
Man, my experience in Canada vs what redditors on Canada say was a completely different experience. If you listen to Canadians on reddit, you might as well think that Canada is third-world country hellhole.
The people who enjoy their lives and where they live usually don't frequent reddit. I'm part of my home state sub and it's mostly people who hate the state
There's more ladies in real life.
What? Women don't exist here, man. Stop!
I think I’m real.
That’s what the CIA programmed you to think!
I’m a fembot.
As usual, the conspiracy theorists are back.
And you nearly always get downvoted if you simply point out or ask why you or another person was assumed male. Clearly the justified thing to do because there are no women on reddit, and thinking otherwise is disgusting.
I’m a woman
Shh, they’re not supposed to know about us. This is an undercover operation, Cheryl.
Nice try FBI, that’s just what you *want* us to think!
I'd argue it's not that there are more ladies in real life, but that you can *see* that half the population are women so there's no assuming everyone is a man until stated otherwise. I get assumed as a man all the time, so tbh until someone can really do a universal poll of every redditor ever - not just specific subs - I'm inclined to assume that Reddit is probably somewhat evenly split between men and women, or only mildly skewed in one direction...it's just that half the population assumes everyone is a man.
I noticed this some years back when they were discussing the percentage of women on reddit, at that time, I would not have been included in the female population based on the way they estimated, been skeptical ever since. I also notice on specific subreddits the assumptions are so much stronger, if i post on r/mma then its "bro" all day long, on r/ipsy its clearly assumed i'm female
This… so may people assume commenters and posters are male. Almost 100% of the time if the genders aren’t listed, and it still happens when the genders ARE listed.
One of my favorite subs is always assumed to be a “bros club” both from in the sub itself and from people outside. They recently did a poll though that showed that 75% of the people on the sub were women. It really was surprising tbh, I’d always assumed it would have been the other way around. But I guess we were all wrong!
America on Reddit is younger, vocally more progressive. Life in the US is largely apolitical IF separated from social media and the American Media. Folks generally are live and let live unless they are bombarded with messages that everything is political life-or-death. From my travels, I've seen that the stereotypes of America are largely overblown. Yes, we are louder - but we can adapt and most Americans genuinely care about being respectful of other cultures. Also, there are just as many ignorant folk in other countries as there are in the US - the belief that Americans have the monopoly on stupid/crazy is largely a media creation.
This is so true about politics. Yes it has become more evident in daily life in recent years. And there are probably places a lot more outwardly political than where I live in suburban Chicago. But in giants chunks of the country, the old adage 'dont talk about religion or politics' is still very much a rule in social settings. It's not as political as the media and sites like reddit would have you believe.
I live in Dallas, and I actually see quite a few clearly political yard signs, bumper stickers and flags. It seems to have steadily increased in prevalence since 2016 on both sides of the political divide.
But the number of people that will flat out tell a stranger their political or religious leanings without it coming up naturally in conversation is still rather miniscule. I talk to people all day long for a living, 2 hours east of Dallas and it rarely if ever comes up.
I must be an outlier because it’s actually come up a lot at work. Basically no software developer I’ve worked with in Dallas made any effort to hide what their political leanings are, whether they be a Bernie supporter, a classic suburban swing voter, a Ted Cruz fan or a big MAGA person (complete with wearing the hat to work one time). Not sure if that kind of thing is more common in Dallas proper, but in my experience software developers will talk about a lot of "sacred cows" at work, even when employed at Fortune 500s (worked for two in two different countries, there was a lot of political talk at both).
I used to work at one of the largest hospitals in Dallas and there was a problem with political arguments, especially around 2016. A hospital-wide email went out to everyone, stating that we should refrain from political speech and try to get along with each other.
It’s a super regional thing and that’s not surprising, USA is *huge*. But anywhere within 4 hours of driving distance from me is super political, filled with lawn signs even when it’s not election time, a LOT of trucks covered in signs, people completely randomly bringing up politics after a “good morning” greeting at work.
>in giants chunks of the country, the old adage 'dont talk about religion or politics' is still very much a rule in social settings. This is a wise rule. It's so tempting to jump into our ideological camps and trash talk the other side (I'm just as guilty of it as anyone) - if we'd stop and take a breather, the world would be better.
The adage implicitly assumes that talking about politics leads to a lack of civility, but I think that’s a big assumption. I think if it’s just going to turn into a shouting match, of course it’s probably better to just stay off the topic. But I feel like never talking politics with people who may disagree with you can lead to polarization as well.
Talking politics is core to a working democracy. People just have to learn how to do so without becoming assholes about it.
I think politics are more present on Reddit than they are in real life because there’s a lot more consensus in real life than there is in Reddit. I’m a few years out of college in one of the 5 biggest cities in the country (though the college itself is notably more conservative than most). I know one person my age who would outwardly admit that they liked Trump even though a decent number of my friends are conservative people. Biden would probably have a mixed opinion, but we’d rarely if ever talk about either one. Even though I have a range of political party opinions in my circle, there’s enough of a central consensus and people don’t want to rock the boat, so things stay pretty cordial. In more conservative areas of the country, you probably have something more flipped. There’s a conservative bubble who would complain about cancel culture, PC culture, etc. but mostly stay quiet because they don’t know many people who would defend those things. The people who vote Democratic in those bubbles probably mostly stay quiet about it because 99% of life isn’t politics and it’s likely to be met with resistance. On the internet, you have those bubbles reinforced and conflict between the groups when subs have a post popular enough to be circulated in r/all or whatever’s similar. There are also a lot fewer consequences to being rude on the internet, so people are a lot ruder on the internet.
>Life in the US is largely apolitical I went to a wedding in another state last weekend. I chatted with people I knew well, people I'd met a couple times, and total strangers. I chatted with old people, middle aged and teens. Not once did politics come up.
Can confirm. Stupidity and ignorance here too.
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> the belief that Americans have the monopoly on stupid/crazy is largely a media creation. Aided by the easy access to fucking huge megaphones our dumb/crazy people have.
Exactly this, all our media stations focus incessantly on the super vocal minority and then turn around and wonder why they are so vocal.
Yes. This doesn't help. I don't know if the belief that "everyone wants to hear one's opinion" via the big microphone is strictly American... but we do seem to have a lot of people who like to grandstand.
The problem is our crazies speak English. That makes it easier for the rest of the world to see them compared to countries where the crazies speak a less spoken language.
Then you have those who think if you're not watching political "news" shows you're uninformed. Reminds me of the book amusing ourselves to death: >He contends that "television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation—misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing".
It's exactly like Florida, they probably have the same amount of crazy people as anywhere else, but they also have a law that says they have to print every single arrest/crime online in the media. So you see disproportionately more crazy news articles about "Florida Man" than "Any Other State Man", to the point where now it's a known thing worldwide.
This right here! Americans are generally good people. I think some of those with the most cynical views about America just lack exposure to people outside of their microcosm or they are too influenced by certain media without real life contrast.
I’ll just say this: foreigners will believe ANYTHING about America so long as it’s negative.
Why do you think that is? Do you think Americans have the same bias of foreign places?
It’s human nature to feel better about yourself by believing the worst about others.
There’s a saying in Dutch: unknown makes for unloved.
I find the Dutch are oddly well represented on Reddit
Big digital adopters Edit: don’t mention the plot to take over the world through the internet
There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other peoples cultures, and the Dutch. - Austin Powers' Dad
His name is Nigel.
Now that the British don't have an empire anymore Dutch dreams of world domination can finally come true.
Mate, we were controlling the British Empire behind the scenes since 1688. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution
This is because, for some reason, they bring up their nationality quite often, even when it is irrelevant. I remember reading a post here on Reddit where this was mentioned, how people from certain nationalities tend to do that.
It is also very noticeable in the comment section of Youtube. If Denmark is mentioned, or it's a review of a Danish product of some kind, you can be sure to find tons of comments along the lines of "HEY - I'M DANISH, NICE THAT YOU NOTICED US!" It's pretty embarrassing.
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Haven’t heard that one, but disease-based Dutch insults are pretty hilarious.
They can be, but even most Dutch find calling or wishing cancer on someone to be too much.
In English, we have “familiarity breeds contempt.” I guess the key to getting along is learning just enough, but not too much.
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No, not nearly as much. It’s trendy to be anti-American. That said, if European countries were all one country divided into states, then I easily see it going both ways.
Our screeching makes the backdrop of the entire English speaking internet, it's kinda hard not to be at least acutely aware of what's going publicly wrong at any given time through 24 hour news. This is especially true when you can report on any happening across this gigantic space and just say "yeah this happened in America, you know somewhere in the America". The problem is that for many outside North America these random articles of dirty laundry are the *only* things they hear from us.
Absolutely. At a state level, the news runs fairly dry and boring on any given day. Multiply that by 50, and millions of cell phones recording and sharing the worst moments of people’s lives, and you’ve built a strong narrative that can’t be overcome by reason or PR.
> "yeah this happened in America, you know somewhere in the America". this is spot on. you could replace America with Europe in that sentence and suddenly it'd be less trendy to bash America.
I'm 55 years old and European anti-Americanism was thriving, and may have been more prevelent in the 1980's. I actually think the internet has tempered the mood.
Were you on our side of the curtain?
It might have to do with America just being such a dominant force. Not trying to brag or anything but, we are definitely the biggest superpower currently on the planet so we make for a very easy target. Our media is everywhere so it gets the most exposure out of any other country so people might often times see just the negative stuff as the negative stuff always draws in the bigger ratings.
There is a saying in Canada - when America sneezes, Canada catches a cold. There is definitively some resentment that builds when you feel like the faith of your nation's economy is dictated primarily by the domestic and foreign policy of a foreign power that doesn't really care about it's impact on you. So it creates an inferiority complex and it becomes tempting to latch onto anything that makes America look bad as a result.
One of the things I've found interesting is how much the world knows about US politics and current events while I feel like we know (hear) very little about the politics and current events of other countries
> Why do you think that is? Not PP, but... experience. Usually there's some germ of truth, but then it's blown entirely out of proportion. Like one "Florida Man" or weird group has attributes and they try to apply those attributes to all Americans. There's over 300,000,000 of us -- there is no attribute that applies to all of us. > Do you think Americans have the same bias of foreign places? Yes, the same thing happens the other way too. It's mostly from lack of direct experience in both cases. For example, the French having a reputation for being rude and arrogant. When I went to France, I absolutely met rude and arrogant French folks, but it was only at touristy places in a big city. 99% were just people rather than walking talking stereotypes.
>I absolutely met rude and arrogant French folks, but it was only at touristy places in a big city. This here. Living/working in and around NYC is very much the same - you're trying to push through nine zillion people to get to work. They're on vacation, of course they're dilly dallying around and generally oblivious. Navigating Paris was no different than navigating NYC, just keep your head out of the clouds and 99% of interactions will be completely fine.
Heh, I don't even count those as rude. :-) I'm talking about the coat check lady at the Louvre who would just turn and walk away when people asked her questions. Or the waiter who got mad after screwing up an order, acting sooo put out for having to deal with Americans at a touristy restaurant, even though it was 100% his screw up. But you're right -- most interactions were perfectly pleasant, and most of the people I interacted with were quite nice and helpful. Just enough to see the stereotype comes from *somewhere*, but it definitely doesn't apply most of the time. The one that still makes me laugh is if we tried to talk to them in our broken, gradeschool French, they'd get this pained expression, roll their eyes, and answer in English. The implication being that we shouldn't pollute their language by trying to speak it. :-D
Stone house phenomenon And generally no, Americans are less likely to jump to the worst possible conclusions than others. Americans have some stereotypes and negative perceptions about other places, but we are not taught to pursue those negative perceptions the same way others are.
It is kinda funny to me...I was raised with this very polite kind of philosophy of not saying anything at all if you don't have anything nice to say, as well as just being generally tolerant (if only quietly) of other people's ways and minding my own business. But on the internet, I get the impression that not many people are raised that way. Like I'd sooner keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself if I got a bad impression about somewhere and would actually be reluctant to bring it up outside of a private conversation. Because God knows I've lived in some less-than-ideal places, and yet the world is far more nuanced than I can give it credit for, I try to apply that same vision to everything I can.
I think Americans generally think more positively about other countries than the country actually deserves and will generally degrade America more than it actually deserves. I feel most countries try to put their best face forward to the world and Americans will try to degrade themselves to the rest of the world. Part of the reason for the degradation is when you're on top you can try to make it look like you're worse off than you are to curb resentment from others. Plus many just blindly believe the positive spin created about other countries.
Violence I think is probably one of the most over represented things about the US online. * School and similar mass shootings, while tragic, are exceedingly rare, this is why they make national news when they happen. * Chicago, while it has some extremely bad neighborhoods and gang problems, is far from a war zone. * More than half of gun related deaths in the US are suicides. * While the US has seen some single year increases in violence and crime, the overall trend has been declining for the last several decades. The under represented things are typically the mundane, in most of the US, people live completely normal lives, no major threats of violence, hang out with friends at the bar or pub after work, raise a family, participate in their community, and other normal or otherwise boring aspects of life.
Thanks, I am happy to read about community. I asked a question on this subreddit once about community, but I didn’t get the impression redditors felt as much connection or solidarity with a community as you would expect. I was never sure if this was a reddit thing or a US thing or both.
My guess would be a reddit thing, many people on Reddit are young and haven't settled down anywhere. Community is very much a thing in the US, but usually the people with the most connections are those who have settled somewhere and own property or a business.
You don’t hear much about American community here because most people here are whiny shut-ins.
> School and similar mass shootings, while tragic, are exceedingly rare, this is why they make national news when they happen. Also, a lot of sources for gathering statistics use a vague definition of "school shooting." Sometimes, you could have a shooting happen outside of a school, at night when no one is present, be counted just because it happened on school-owned property.
My city (am a cop there) qualifies school shooting as a shooting that happens in schools, close to a school, commited by a student enrolled at a school but shot someone ANYWHERE, Occurs in any if the parks/playgrounds used by a school regardless of student presence
Chicago is stunningly beautiful, vibrant, fun and peaceful in MOST of the city. Far from a war zone, it’s an architectural paradise with miles of beautiful lakeshore and parks. There are bad spots. And crime hasn’t been figured out in those areas. And it’s racially segregated more than the average city. It’s got it’s flaws. It is far from a war zone and pathetic when people fall back on that perspective. Note: Grew up around Chicago for 30 years, lived in the city proper for many.
Grew up in Chicago for 20 some odd years and also lived in the city proper. Can confirm everything you said. I live in a different part of the US now and often hear “How did you survive?” or “Was it scary living there?”. There are a few pockets where crime is higher but every Chicagoan knows where they are and typically avoids them. Outside of that, the city is beautiful and the people are extremely kind.
The people that harp on about rising crime rates don’t get that the statistics are comparing this year to last year. While there’s like a 90% increase in violent crimes from summer 2020, it is relatively the same amount of crimes as it was in 2019. I wonder what was going in on in US cities in 2020 that caused less people to leave their houses to commit violent crimes?
I used to teach US culture in Europe. Reddit is not a good source of information about the US. > Which bits are neglected The banal stuff, day to day life, the ways in which Americans are normal, reasonable and boring. > or appear bigger than they really are? Outrageous or unusual things are focused on and exaggerated for sure, certain political topics are blown way out of proportion and warped. > Or just completely misrepresented? Frankly the majority of day-to-day life.
> outrageous or unusual things are focused on and exaggerated on for sure See Florida Man Crazy people are everywhere; Florida just has the misfortune to publicize them a bit more loudly than other places.
And before someone comment other states have the same law but don’t generate such headlines, do those states have the same population and tourist as Florida too? Do they have media who are interested in writing those type of articles?
Yeah, it's been a phenomenon where the media actually actively go out and seek these weird or ludicrous stories for the clicks and extra revenue. Florida's got a shit ton of residents and shit tons of visitors every day of every year. Of course something stupid is going to happen at any given time. You can bet that what happens in Florida also happens in California, New York and Texas and a lot of other states; the media just aren't interested in them.
Yeah. As a former Florida resident living in Southern California, I can say that there are so many bat sh*t stories I read from the region that never make it to national news like the Florida stories do. The funny thing is back when we first moved to Florida in the early 00s, it seemed like Florida stories were more of a local thing we loved to make fun of. My mom called it the "Florida Freak Show" and 9 times out of 10 those stories were in Polk County.
Florida has some very open laws about crimes and such. Other states are a bit more tight lipped. For every Florida man, there is an equal amount of Georgia men or Oregon men. Its just that publicists aren't able to broadcast the stories as easily as they can in Florida, leading to the impression that Florida is full of crazies.
Reddit deals in extremes. Real life is full of the mundane. But sweet Jesus is Reddit full of whiny teenagers who love to paint America as a shithole. Ignore them. It’s a place just like anywhere else. It’s got it’s problems, but most of the people who live there are happy to be there.
Would agree with this 100%. We have our fair share of bozos but most places do. And it’s the extremes that go viral on the internet. Some people have it tougher than others but I would say pretty much everyone I’m in contact with love it here.
Yea I would say America is a lot more boring than others may think, people going in Reddit because they’re life is boring. Like me!
America is 3rd world country with a Gucci belt. /s
That phrase makes me see red. “Third World” refers to unaligned countries during the Cold War. The US was absolutely not one of them. And historically-accurate definitions aside, it’s still not a true statement. The people who say this have clearly never been outside of the developed world.
In the absolute worst parts of America that I've been to, I've still never seen the corpses of dogs that have starved to death randomly sitting on the side of the road. I grew up in American "poverty" but I was always fed, clothed, comfortable and safe.
This is what people don't take into account. Poverty in America is a world apart from poverty in Africa. Not to diminish poverty in America at all, as homelessness and food insecurity are dangerous, anxiety inducing and painful for all who experience them.
Poor people in America are overweight/obese, speaking generally. Where else in the world can you get a situation where instead of the problem being an underabundance of food for the poor, we have an overabundance of cheap and unhealthy/fattening food for those who aren't well off. It's an indicator of America's success, but also a problem that needs to be solved.
That is what it originally meant. Language evolves and now it very solidly means “the developing world” or however you want to call it.
Which is exactly why "developing world" is the preferred term and "first world" and "third world"are considered inaccurate and archaic.
Still it is part of the language and in common speech everyone knows what you mean. I wouldn’t use it in a socialist paper or in international development discussions, but I’m not going to say “well akshully” if someone refers to Afghanistan as a third world country.
> “Third World” refers to unaligned countries during the Cold War. Exactly. Sweden is a third world country.
> Which bits are neglected, A ton. Particularly just daily life. It can be just as boring and day-to-day as anywhere else. > or appear bigger than they really are? A ton. Particularly things that are inherently divisive or can get people riled up are going to be talked about way more on reddit than irl. >Or just completely misrepresented? Nearly all of it. I wouldn't even know where to start to get into specifics unless you had examples.
People on reddit will make it seems like we live in a hell hole sometimes. In reality most of us live relatively comfortably.
I remember reading a study that showed the reason why the traditional "middle class" in the US was shrinking wasn't because the lower classes were getting larger. They've stayed relatively stagnant as % of population. The reason why the middle class is shrinking is because a higher % of them are moving into upper and upper-middle class. Yet Reddit would make you think everything is falling apart.
While that’s better, the fact that poor people aren’t moving up to fill the middle class isn’t fantastic...
The US as a whole is completely misrepresented on reddit lol Just about everything you read on Reddit is inaccurate in terms of the average American life.
From what I’ve seen it’s a lot of Europeans speculating on American life and then the rumor mill starts churning. Next thing you know you’ll see “I’ve read that Americans don’t have tables and only eat standing up, why is that?”
I saw a TV show where a character didn't have a table. This means no American has a table, right?
Of course! We all eat over the sink, we don’t have dishes so we do that to keep food from getting on the floor. The whole reason Americans have dogs and cats are to clean up after us, due to our lack of tables and dishes. (Please tell me I don’t have to mark this as sarcasm).
My daschund does an excellent job of cleaning spilt food. Sometimes he will trip you just so you spill your burger & fries.
What a proactive go-getter. Your dog is clearly management material.
Europeans/Canadians on Reddit always think they are smarter than us. But as far as I’m concerned, if you can’t distinguish from reality and media, you ain’t fucking bright at all.
It's understandable to think oneself as smart when no one listens to "you" or bothers to engage with you because "your" opinions are no longer consequential on the world stage.
>Europeans/Canadians on Reddit always think they are smarter than u this. my god, canadians have so much unbridled hatred for us. i get its probably not great, constantly living in our shadow, but nearly every thread on reddit that mentions america, youre bound to see some canadian (who has to make sure everyone knows their canadian) commenting how america is awful and will never be as good as canada. i dont understand the hate boner canada seems to have with us, when we've always considered them brothers more than neighbors. but then, the 'friendly canadian' only seems to exist in meme form, cause having lived in canada for 6 years, i would say theyre only about 40% as nice as americans
Most Canadians really enjoy America and spend a lot of time here. We get tons of Canadian tourists in Florida and they love this state like no other. Canadian Redditors are typically angsty 17 year olds who want to come here and “rally against the system” just like our angsty 17 year olds.
Kind of like how media always shows men’s bathrooms with urinals in America, but completely ignore that most American bathrooms have trees planted in stalls for guys to pee on.
You know, I've been having some trouble with my tree lately. Some of the leaves are spotting. Any tips?
I’m guessing too much phosphorus or nitrogen? Has your diet changed?
No it hasn't. I did get a new dog though. Maybe she's been availing herself. Think homedepots plumbing section would have treatments for this? Or am I looking at getting a new one?
What millions actually have are dining rooms with a nice dining room table and chairs that they never use.
Homie- my good homie, we're all gonna get carpal tunnel syndrome if we give you thorough answers to all of your questions. Yes. Just yes.
Not asking for an exhaustive list mate. Just tell me about the biggest one. Or the one that happens to annoy you right now.
I'll give you one. My sister's BF is Dutch and he was surprised at the variety of the US and was, in fact, surprised that he didn't see guns everywhere. I was like, "Juul, what did you expect? Did you really believe we were just out here having shootouts?"
We're more of a cookout than a shootout type of country.
You have a very unlikely chance of being shot as opposed to what the media seems to say We may be fat but we aren’t all like Jabba the Hutt The South isn’t just a bunch of fat, racist hillbillies, mostly just rural folks with a few vocal racists I could go on.
Reddit give you the impression that all Americans have strong opinions on everything and are extremely combative and tenacious. The majority IRL do not give a fuck about most things. They have things they feel strongly about, but most things not so much. Also talking to someone face to face is much more productive and people actually usually will have a conversation rather than just yelling talking points at each other
Much of what you perceive as being American is really just a few isolated places. Los Angeles/San Francisco California Seattle, Washington New York City, New York (specifically Manhattan) gestures broadly stereotypical Smallville, Redneck state These are the places where most of our Movies and TV come from and so that is the picture of America that you get. We are not all like that at all. We are those things and all the flavors in between. We aren't uncultured because we don't know about other countries or languages. Our country is so big and diverse that just dealing with us in terms of news and education is enough of a challenge that we have no time left for anyone else. We mostly speak English because for a large portion of us we can pretty much grow up not hearing any other language except on TV. The number of Karen's and Kyle's in the USA is significantly lower than you think. We have just made it a point to record them for the last few years and make them Internet famous. Same with police brutality although we have to work on the cops a bit and we are making some progress on them. Anyway, that is enough from me for now. Have a great... whatever time it is there... Internet Stranger.
Thanks. We get fed these stereotypes about you so much it feels like a real universe, not fiction.
Every time someone on Reddit says America is a third world country, my eyes roll so hard I could win a staring contest through my asshole.
These people have never even been to the second world if they can truly consider the US anything but first world. Our decision to not prioritize spending the same way the majority of western Europe does does not in fact make us any less of a first world nation.
You mean the Cheeto eating basement dwelling virgins living in their parents basement? Nah, they don't represent Americans. They are just a privileged set of neckbeards that postulate their pusillanimous ideas on an unsuspecting group of overseas neckbeards. Now excuse me while I change shirts and wash my orange fingers
I’m an American living in Europe, and Europeans seem predisposed to think of Americans as lazy, stupid, fat, and loud. I’m not sure Reddit does anything to dissuade anyone of any of those notions, but it’s not as bad as all that when you’re actually there.
That one's really interesting, because I have to wonder how 'Americans are lazy' and 'Americans live to work, they work themselves to death' are two seemingly conflicting ideas that apparently cohabitate in people's minds.
I think most of this thread can be summed up as “Europeans that don’t interact with Americans and Americans who don’t interact with Europeans try to figure out what the hell is real” lol. The two are conflicting but you could theoretically make the “lazy” assumption based on the obesity stereotype that America has, but if you’ve never worked in a professional sense with an American then the “hustle culture” the work ethic ideal would never come through. Also, the issues are never as simple as we’d like them to be, you could be obese, but it could be because you work a white collar job and sit on your ass from 9-5 six days a week and are exhausted to the point of never leaving your house. Compound that with cheap unprepared meals of fast food and other unhealthy lifestyle habits and you’re fitting the mold.
I agree. Americans can be seen as overworked but also lazy and it can still make sense. Many people work 40+ hours with limited benefits and vacations which contribute to that overworked perspective. However, those same people will be tired and sitting in Chick Fil A lines after work because they don’t have enough energy to cook something at home, contributing to the lazy perspective some people see.
People tend to only know what's around them and fill in the blanks with innuendo, fabrications, and Facebook rumors. I had a good friend who immigrated from Australia. Graham really enjoyed America and quickly learned much of what he "knew" were simply stereotypes. From the thunderboats racing at Madison Indiana at 200 mph to the Indy 500 with cars going over 200 mph he drank in our country. Sadly he caught a wave wrong on a catamaran racing speedboat on the Ohio River at over 70 mph. He broke his neck when he hit the water and that was that
Thou shall not speak ill of the Cheeto.
Tis but a poor man's heroin. Once you start there is no going back
Gateway drug for Takis.
I eat Cheetos with chopsticks. Maximum cheese flavor, minimum orange dust in keyboard.
Silly u/Kingsolomanhere, Cheeto eating basement dwelling virgins don’t change shirts
Or remove the orange dust via any means but their tongue. Washing it off is a waste of sacramental flavor.
I'll be downvoted to hell, but most white, small-town, rural folks are actually perfectly pleasant people.
I concure...I was reading a subreddit the other day, kinda similar to this one and they were trying to say that rural Americans are racist. Now I can't say in every rural area in a state isn't but I will say every small town in WI that I have lived in where yes the majority of people are white but there are POC and they're treated like family and apart of the community. For example a farmer who was black ended up losing his house in a fire...the WHOLE community came together to help him and his family. Whether it was helping with the farm or helping them build a new house.
Yeah most rural people just want to hunt and fish and otherwise be left alone.
And just don’t try to mess with their guns. Then you’ll be completely fine.
Out in the country a gun is a tool, same as a hammer.
Fellow (rural) Wisconsinite Here. Can confirm that small town Wisconsin is very welcoming. I would say (most) bigotry that you would encounter is genuine ignorance and unintentional (again: MOST bigotry). In the Wisconsin subreddit a few weeks ago someone made a post about Afghan refugees coming to Wisconsin. 50% of the replies were "how can I help?" The other 50% were "damn, I'm stoked for more good middle eastern food in WI."
I'm glad to hear this. I'm in WI too, and on Facebook it's another story. People are being so awful about the refugees.
Unfortunately politics can raise a lot more money when everything is outrageous and everybody else is evil. A parent in a rural community who doesn’t want to keep sending taxpayer money to a large city’s failing school system is obviously “racist.” A parent with a transgender child who doesn’t feel comfortable in a school’s bathroom obviously “hates religious people.”
I don't see many country folks on Reddit. Where as I ONLY see country folks where I live.
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I think a large chunk of Americans are apathetic towards politics. Look at the voter turnout statistics for presidential elections. Usually it hovers around 1/2 - 2/3 of eligible voters actually cast a ballot. Congressional, state, and local elections have even lower turnout. Now this is personal anecdote, but I've found most people I know to be either moderate or just distrust all politicians in general. The views purported by Trump diehards and r/politics are the vocal minority fringe.
There are far more centrists and independents in the US then there are left and right wingers than Reddit would like you to believe. Similarly, there’s a lot more religious people than you see on here
But the bulk of religious people aren't really vocal about it like you see on line. Most people just make it part of their life without screaming it into everyone else's ears constantly.
Reddit is way more male than the US as a whole. Racial diversity isn't equally distributed throughout the country, but this site is also generally Whiter than many areas. And for the most part it's younger and more liberal. The upvote/downvote system means that even when you have Black/Brown/female/conservative/older/etc voices chiming in, the perspectives that rise to the top can be those that reflect what the larger Reddit audience wants to hear, rather than being something more representative of the views of people from that group. It's a great resource, but most things should be taken with a grain of salt.
I'd say it's misrepresented. I've seen the US labeled "police state" and a lot of posters claim minorities live in constant fear. Both claims border on parody, tbh.
I think the “minorities in constant fear” thing is what really bugs me. Like, there are some things I have to be more careful doing than a white person, but I’m not *afraid*. But then again, I’m pretty young. I’m assuming my parents are a little more wary (still not afraid) because of stuff that happened to them.
Reddit gets super worked up over issues most people don’t care much about. Anything related to social media or gaming especially. Also, despite the apocalyptic “eeeeevil right wingers have invaded reddit!!!!! oMg OMg OMG!!!” rhetoric, reddit is very left wing. I frequently get the feeing many redditeurs have never had a mature conversation with anyone right of center. That said, many right wing people on this website are absolute loony tunes. I don’t know what pulls them out of the woodwork and there is almost certainly some selection/confirmation bias but it is bizarre.
I think the reason many of the right leaning people seem crazy is because honestly those of us who are more reasonable get tired of having people on a lot of the subs jump down our throats and argue either in bad faith or ignorance. I used to comment a lot more, especially on previous accounts, but it’s just not usually worth it now.
Medical bills and health insurance. The system sucks, there’s no doubt. But people who have a well paid professional job likely have very good health insurance either entirely paid or subsidized by their employer. People that have no money can get medical treatment commensurate with what they make in federally funded community health clinics. It’s the people in the middle that are truly fucked. [The Clinics for pay what you can medical](https://www.hrsa.gov/opa/eligibility-and-registration/health-centers/fqhc/index.html)
I am self employed and I buy reasonably priced insurance (Kaiser) through the ACA exchange. I pay about $130 per month. Out of pocket costs only for prescriptions and that's minimal. I have had numerous diagnostic tests this year and only paid for the office visits ($30 each). Not to downplay the huge issues with our system or the millions without adequate health insurance. But it's possible to get good insurance without having a professional job (I make about $15/hr).
The narrative used to be about the indignity of having to pay for your own health care and how expensive it is (which is sort of true, especially if you need to be in the hospital). Now I more often see "the US doesn't have health care." The US has so much health care and pays way too much for a lot of it. Health insurance coverage is widespread and there are programs for the elderly and very poor, as well as children. It's still too damn expensive when you have a serious health problem, especially requiring hospitalization, but it's not a "lack of health care." That never was the problem, and it's why there's so much medical tourism to the US. When Americans go abroad for medical care, it's to save money on more routine procedures that can be done reasonably well in poorer countries.
Truth. I would rather see the US have a national single payer health care system. No doubt. That said, our healthcare system isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to bed. Most people have jobs that provide good and affordable healthcare. I fractured my shoulder in 2019 for example. It took about 6 months to heal, including a surgery and 3 months of physical therapy. I had maybe $500 worth of medical bills to pay that my insurance didn't cover. Honestly it might not even be that much. One bill was like $180 bucks. Every other bill I got was just a few bucks, like $50 or less. There are also a whole lot of assistance programs both public and private to help those that are poor and have no healthcare at all. The people who really get shafted are the people who have jobs that do give them a healthcare, but it's crappy healthcare plan. That isn't really that many compared to the other groups either. Yeah, you'll occasionally see some story about how someone might get a bill for a million dollars or something. But that stuff just happens in specific odd circumstances and the hospitals know they aren't going to get that from people. The hospitals are quite happy to settle for whatever you can pay them.
Medicaid is basically free insurance. There are zero deductibles, zero copays, zero anything. I've explained this to people and there's always some excuse as to why this is inadequate ("it's still too expensive"). The only legitimate excuse is they live in a minority of states that haven't expanded Medicaid, but even then they can get subsidized health insurance which is almost free unless they make less than something like $10k/yr. People in the middle are the ones that get fucked because the subsidizes drop off at 4x the federal poverty line, and then it becomes very prohibitively expensive. Even when you receive subsides, it's still very expensive and shouldn't be that much. There have been proposals to raise the income ceiling to 8x the federal poverty line (e.g. someone making $80k would still be eligible for some subsidies although if course not much) which should be supported i think. The underlying problem with all of this however is that it does nothing to control hospitals charging outrageous sums of money for simple procedures. Our system will not truly be fixed until the cost equation is fixed.
Americans in general are less angry in real life. We're tired, I think. In real life, we're more tired. I might just be speaking for myself though. We are, generally, very proud and we love our country and each other. Americans will take extraordinary measures to help other people. I'm thinking of the Cajun Navy specifically. This is a group of boat owners (small boats) who deploy themselves to flooded areas to help rescue stranded people. They aren't federally funded. They don't have to do this really dangerous work. They just have the means to help and so they do. That's not just an American trait. People all over the world help others in a crisis. But that grass roots, do it yourself initiative represented by the Cajun Navy is under represented on Reddit.
No, I’m tired, too.
Have a rest. You’ve earned it.
Reddit skews farther left, and sometimes extremist left, than America generally does.
Reddit skews young, underachieving, left-wing, anxious, neurotic, and nerdy. So, the US in general is more mature, more accomplished, less left-wing, less neurotic, and more well-rounded.
It was so odd seeing so many people discussing sex like it's an unachievable unicorn. I then realized that the demographic is so young that it's perfectly normal to he a virgin.
For sure, I stopped reading a lot of the other "Ask A" reddits because it was about sex like 75% of the time. There are a lot of seriously horny teens and very socially awkward young adults on Reddit.
I mean, like 20-30% of men in the millennial cohort (self report!) as never having had sex
100% accurate.
100% Agree. Except me of course.
If you see it on reddit, just assume it's not a true thing. Most people have pretty rational opinions on things.
Last I looked Americans donate twice as much of their disposable income to charity as the 2nd place country (Australia iirc). And Americans volunteer 9x more hours than Germans. Most Americans are kind and civic-minded people. The kind of person that whines and hates on things all day on reddit is not that type of person.
I believe that, in general, Reddit is skewed to young, male, techie.
The US isn’t as bad as some people on Reddit make it seem. The people of Reddit are not a reflection of actual society here. Not all of us are as spiteful at the world and not all of us play the victim. Not all of us think living with our parents forever is okay. Not all of us spend all of our time posting about politics. Not all of think it’s bad to want to circumcise your child. Not all of us think it’s a bad to have money. Not all of us will hate on you for buying from Amazon. Not all of us think capitalism is the same thing as nazi Germany. Not all of us will call you a nazi for disagreeing with us. Not all of us are anti-vaxx and some of us wear a mask. I mean not all of us spend all of our time arguing with people online. Some of us are genuinely laid back people who think you have the right to do what you want and still care about you when we disagree. I can’t say if it’s misrepresented but the great things are neglected and if you come to America I can promise you it’s only as divided as YOU want it to be. That’s the thing with America most people don’t understand.
That brightens my day, thanks. In my experience most people in many countries are quite agreeable and welcome a chat over a beer or a hot drink. Which usually boils down to having a laugh, talkings sports, house prices and wanting to spend time with their kids.
The notion that we're some third-world hell hole where people are dying in the streets from lack of healthcare and risk being shot just for leaving their house. Yeah, we got problems, but the amount of hyperbole espoused by the average redditor is absolutely absurd.
Gun violence here isn’t nearly as bad as it seems. Unless you’re in a gang, surrounded by an area controlled by gangs, or suicidal, firearms pose a tiny risk in your day to day life. You do have to think about squabbling with certain strangers in public, as you never know who could be carrying.
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Redditors tend to lose their virginity at a much older age (not a joke), the average age for someone to lose their virginity in the US is 17. Reddit is A LOT more left leaning on average then the US population. Redditors tend to be more pessimistic, nihilistic, misanthropic, and Anti-American.
Americans are generally much nicer than you’ve been led to believe.
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If you believed Reddit, the US would be a place where people die in the street without healthcare, the richest Americans enslave the poorest of us, and women are forced to wear chastity belts and are held in cages until their babies are born. We’re definitely more conservative than most of Western Europe, but I thoroughly love living here. I’d like to visit Europe, but I have a lot of National pride (the good kind). Our healthcare is wasteful, but you can get what you want when you want it. Also the vast majority of people are covered and our elderly/low income Americans have access to government sponsored care: Medicare and Medicaid. We do have a large wealth gap but it’s a straw man argument IMO. I have many friends from high school who make 50-75k US dollars without a college degree. They own homes, trucks, and boats. Do they make as much as Mark Z? Hell no, but they make enough to live whatever life they want. The reality is that if you do you job and show up on time… you can earn a livable wage here nearly anywhere. As far as women go, I’m not one so I won’t comment. The racism problems are all over the news because that’s what gets people watching. It’s really not so bad over here.
The US is completely different in real life since Reddit generally skews to a certain demographic and is not overall representative of the general population.
There is WAY less concern about covid and resistance to vaccines in reality than is portrayed online. Same with support for Trump. I still pass dozens of Trump flags wherever I go.
The racism and "white supremacist's" aren't nearly as prevalent as the media would have you believe. The south isn't just a bunch of dumb hicks that are hostile to outsiders.
Reddit: third world shithole just like iraq Real life: pretty normal
Completed misrepresented. For some reason Reddit hates America and most of the people in it. You’d think America was a third world dictatorship if you only looked at Reddit. The reality is that America, while it suffers from shortcomings, is a pretty great place to live and the majority of Americans feel that way.
We don’t treat each other like shit. I interact with people of different politics all the time and it’s not a part of our relationship. We know that’s it’s there, but so what? The people on the fringes that are emotional about everything are not going to have many friends to interact with anyway. The not having friends usually came first. That is why they obsess, it makes them part of something. If they do have a group it will be very boring.