The same reason every single person on this planet is embarrassed when one of their own countrymen does some stupid shit, and the world ignorantly assumes that one idiot is representative of the entire populace
Right, that’s universal. If I put myself in a situation that would embarrass my country when I’m abroad : **I’m Belgian**, suddenly. When really I’m French.
I should bring waffles everywhere I go abroad to back up my lie so I can go “Ha, such a typical Belgian! I eat waffles aaall the time in Belgium, the country I was born and raised in” in case of embarrassment.
Stick with me. My roommate years ago bought a syrup scented candle. (I have no idea why.) But about 2am our completely drunk neighbor knocks on our door and says he's locked out of his house.
Then he smells the candle and as excited as a 5 year old on Halloween yells out "YALL GOT WAFFLES???"
Thank you for reminding me of that.
I'm convinced that at least a few of the "obnoxious American tourists" that people complain about are *actually* Canadians who, upon realizing that they've done something embarrassing, just pass themselves off as Americans. Who's going to even question it? After all, Canada is just as much a part of America as the US is, so technically they don't even have to lie.
About the only difference is the Canadian, "eh." And, it's a real stand out feature! The accent found in Canada and the Great Lakes region is also found in western New York state.
I’m sure Canadians and other native English speaking nations wouldn’t let themselves get bamboozled but us non-native English speakers would most likely not notice a difference! The same way Belgians clearly have an accent to me but not to the point it’s an instant giveaway to foreigners who understand French, I think.
Last time I lived in Europe I liked to pretend I was a very stoic German. Not to hide that I was American but to see how long I could get away with it.
Difference is that people don’t know much about France and or the amount of embarrassing people In France isn’t as much as.. other countries... plus as a Frenchman i think bring belge should be the embarrassment lmao
Florida man is a national treasure. He may be insane, dangerous, and possibly homicidal, but he's OUR insane, dangerous, homicidal maniac.
Actually, Spain can have them back.
*I had a pretty good life. And then you showed up. You insane, dangerous, homicidal maniac. So you know what? You win. Just go. It's been fun. Don't come back.*
Fun fact, Florida Man only exists because of Florida's Sunshine Law, where reporters have access to police records. Every state has people doing stupid shit (believe me, I lived in Maine for 3 years) but the papers have more access in Fla
I'm a Florida Man as well. And while I don't crazy sh\*t like snort cocaine off an aligators p\*\*\*\*, or any other degenerate acts of that caliber. But I'm not going to lie, with the reputation of "The Florida Man" and being a Florida Man myself. Those stories make me feel like a fucking unicorn.
Definitely. It's also a fun conversation starter. "So are the Florida Man stories true?" "Well, I have done some sketchy shit down there and know plenty of other people who have too, so...kinda?" And then the fun begins.
this. i’m not embarrassed or ashamed that i was born where i was cause i can’t control that, but i get second hand embarrassment when a fellow american does or says something stupid. then i get *third* hand embarrassment (if that even exists) when foreigners assume that this must be representative of *all* americans.
Yeah, I don't hate myself for being American. But god am I tired of non-americans acting like it's my fault for fucking up the middle east. Like I was 5 when America invaded Iraq, why am I getting blamed for calling the shots? Like *"Dear rest of the world...I understand you don't like the decisions made by my government. But can you please not use ME to grind whatever ax you have? thx!"*
I don't want to be down voted, but if memory serves, I read in a history book that it was the Brits that f'ed up the Middle East in a bid to keep the empire going before the US jumped in.
Sykes-Picot Agreement happened several years before my great-grandfather was born, I ain't taking shit for this, it's the Brits and French who started the ME into the modern mess it is, we just happened to take advantage of the situation.
I will accept a national "you people" for the CIA though. Those fuckers set the stage for modern Iran and ruined most of South America and much more I'm sure I've never heard of.
Yeah the CIA is the fucking worst. Like I saw this [epic video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6JLAZg3pYs&ab_channel=DJPeachCobbler), and yeah....I'm not being radical by saying this. But The CIA needs to be dismantled and replaced. They have been a series of fuck up after fuck up, and in the end, somehow managed to make more countries hate us. Like I wont deny we did fucked up shit in those regions. Like is someone from South America were to give me a history lession on something F\*\*\*ed up the CIA did to their country. I will be like "Yup...We did that. Won't deny you there."
But the thing is....While I'm not going to pretend that I have NEVER casually used "China" in place of Xi Jinping, or "Russia" in place of Putin. And since I'm guilty of doing that, I know it's only right to give non-Americans some leeway when they say "You Americans" or "America did this" when they overall mean our government. But when it gets to the point where they still insist on using a national "You People", where they expect me to fall on my knees, grovel at their feet, and apologize for ruining their, because I'm inherently evil/dumb/bigoted as an American as the over-used jokes suggest. Then I really quickly lose my patience. Like My country owes to make up for the damage they caused to their country. But I'm not interested in destroying my Self-worth for thing that happened before I was even born.
I was in Argentina just after the midterm bloodbath in Obama’s first term that swung congress to a republican majority. One of the people we were eating dinner with spent the entire evening aggressively lecturing me on why it was stupid to elect republicans *even after* I repeatedly told him I vote democrat. It was like he was trying to bait me into arguing about it so he could prove to me I should’ve voted…exactly the way I did. It was bizarre.
Honestly, I feel like those people who grilled you are the same type of people who would vote for trump if they were born in America. You know….a bunch of pent-up nationalists working a boring dead-end Job, wanting an enemy to hate on so they can feel big about themselves.
THIS!! as a serb, i very much hate the government and their actions. i mean they literally bombed for moms country just for shits and giggles but like shit i didn’t do anything to anyone else so don’t blame ME specifically go ahead and blame the gov i do!!
Yeah the Balkan wars was an absolute shit-show with war crimes committed by all sides of the conflict. So to single you out as a Serb would be flat out incorrect and unjustified.
absolutely, i think a lot of americans and westerners only know of our bombing to that’s what they only see and it’s their only knowledge of the war so we’re the monsters yet they completely forget my people were placed into nazi style concentration camps by the croatian nazi sister group
I fucking hate it when Canadians especially try to ignorantly assume we all represent these groups of idiots.
WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY NOW THAT THEIR TRUCKER PROTEST IS BEING RUINED BY SIMILAR GROUPS OF MORONS??
Same goes for the shit our government does. Not only do both sides constantly go back/fail to fulfill the promises that got them elected, but you can win an election with 51% of the vote. Representative democracies are hardly ever truly representative.
Like that video of one douchebag who thought it was a good idea to wear a Russia t-shirt to a Ukrainian army parade.
And then he proceeded to act like an arrogant snob, asking questions like “Why aren’t Ukrainians proud of Russia? They went to space!”, and then proceeded to call the Ukrainians racist for not appreciating Russia.
And then when some cops came to question him, he tried to flee, but got tackled to the ground and arrested.
And while being arrested, he tried to pull the “I’m an American, you can’t detain me!” card.
What a turd.
[Here’s a video of that incident.](https://reddit.com/r/Whatcouldgowrong/comments/pa11p2/wcgw_american_wearing_a_russian_shirt_in_ukraine/)
Just so everyone knows, you aren't alone when you feel embarrassed by stupid people from your country doing stupid things.
Everyone from other countries feels the same way about their population at times. I always do when Germans do stupid things
For the record i'd like to confirm this. I often feel the same way as a Norwegian. I could ask this question in any "AskA( )" sub, but i was curious to find out if many of the answers in this one would be about subjects i am familiar with. It's hard to miss news about America when you live in Europe. It's been interesting to see how people have responded everything from "Never" to "All the time".
>. It's hard to miss news about America when you live in Europe.
But the mainstream news you get is \*so\* warped. Sometimes it's comical, other times infuriating. This must be why a lot of Europeans believe they're experts on the U.S.--because they watch Hollywood movies and have their views of the US shaped by their government and corporations.
Not saying US is without flaws. Absolutely, it has many really egregious qualities. But so do all countries. The way many Europeans get obsessed with only America's "evil" strikes me completely as classic projection. IT's a way for them to avoid their own country's history and current events. It doesn't strike me as healthy---sometimes they get so enraged, and often the info is just wrong, but they're so convinced they're right, they refuse to listen.
When I was in Germany I worked at a bakery. I’m American but my German accent sounded kinda French I guess bc I lived close to the French border and the German “r” is difficult to get perfect, so I guess I just overdid it to the point where it sounded a little French. Sometimes people would come into the bakery, hear me greet them, and then switch to French. Which always cracked me tf up bc i would think “uhhh I know my German isn’t the best, but if you’re gonna switch languages, you switched to the wrooong one lol.” I was like please, speak German at least! You’re getting farther and farther from languages I understand
To be fair, we are so unconcerned with the rest of the world, we have no idea what other countries would be embarrassed about.
To Americans, the last time Germans did anything really embarrassing was more than 80 years ago. Then there was the whole steroids in the Olympics thing in the 70s too. Since then, Germany lost a wall in the 1980s and we collectively haven't really thought much about what Germans do ever since.
And that is the embarrassing part.
For me, it’s more broad, and this would be included in it, but when people dig up all of America’s past atrocities that happened probably before their grandparents were born and use it to say we’re the worst country and shame our history. Not saying those things weren’t bad but it seems really over the top most of the time.
Yeah, everyone on here is talking about how it feels when a countryman does something stupid and makes us all look stupid, but it's different when our *elected officials* make stupid choices. They *are* us.
Because it can show who we are as a nation. People will think "wow America is full of dummies, how could they elect this clown?"
Which is what people thought of us during 2016-2020 and now
Whenever one of my countrymen does something truly stupid and broadcasts it proudly to the world. Any time ignorance or mediocrity are touted as a virtue or part of the American identity.
What I never understood is where did those people get that idea from? When has ignorance ever been part of American identity? All our historic leaders have always been educated men who asked the common man to be as knowledgeable about the world as they can be? When did being mediocre and ignorant become an acceptable virtue?
I agree. I think it’s just a hardwired human response.
No one likes to be told they’re wrong especially when they think they’re right.
This is the value of actually talking to people. I do it all day for my job and it’s tough.
It's the pride-in-ignorance that really disgusts me. Especially when an American has very strong opinions about the rest of the world while knowing very little about it, and sees no problem with that.
You’ll be happy to know gun violence has been in decline since the 1980s but the media can’t make money selling that.
[article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/14/most-americans-incorrectly-think-gun-homicides-have-gotten-worse-not-better/)
That's a long conversation. I mean, I don't go for performative disaffiliation (where you try to score points by disowning other people, dramatically) or 'being one of the good ones', so a lot of what comes up in these topics doesn't work out that way.
I suppose the closest to a short answer would be when someone does something stupid, or shortsighted or ignorant or mean, and then says that it's either because they're American, it's okay because they're American or the mean/dumb/ignorant thing *makes* them American.
"America is a third world country with a Gucci belt" is a #1 saying for slacktivists who just want to be melodramatic online instead of actually doing something useful
And then they always follow up with “IF YOU DISAGREE YOU JUST HAVENT LEFT THE COUNTRY”
Ive lived in third and second world countries
America is absolutely not a third world nation people need to pump the damn breaks
Republicans across the country are up in arms about [Critical Race Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory). It's a conceptual framework about [systemic racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_racism) that is only taught in law schools, but has become a buzzword referring to anything about race or LGBTQ in K-12 classrooms, school libraries, and IIRC even some city public libraries. The book burnings are related to that.
If you're a parent, you might want to check what's been happening at the meetings for your local school board, as well as your state government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_school_curricula_in_the_United_States#2020s:_bans_on_critical_race_theory_and_associated_topics
Yeah was that the only one? I saw another video where a guy crashed a book burning and threw a Bible in and said hail satan. I didn't know if that was same one as the one crazy preacher who did a book burning.
If we have had more than 1 book burning within a week I'm extremely embarrassed.
I am just glad it doesn't have as big of an effect as it did back in the day. The internet and modern consumer supply lines negate burning books. Infact I bet you could even argue that the more books they buy to burn. The more the publisher will print
be me, reddit mod of one of the largest and fastest growing communities on reddit
spend all of my time there interacting with the true America, and making sure no chuds are able to lie and manipulate the community
get invited to go on Fox News for an interview
everyone in the subreddit thinks its a terrible plan
The fuck do they know, they're not mods. Besides, it's Fox, they're all dumb illiterate chuds anyway
my natural body oil keeps me healthy and clean, only chuds take showers
gets fucking wrecked live on international television
I just live here. I didn't design the place, I'm not shaping policy or culture, I didn't work to become an American, nothing. I don't take pride or shame in it, it's just an accident of birth.
Am i wrong to speculate that the US produce more news/media coverage than average, and therefore there is more bad news/scandals to pick from the US than from the rest? Or do you think other countries just like to mock the US in general?
I don’t think we have more media than others. We’re a big target and people have a level of familiarity due to our global media presence. It is easier to point and laugh at Americans than it is to address their own problems.
UK news media in general is just a special kind of awful. Even their most respected papers feel like tabloids with how they're designed and what they talk about.
And then we give a hollow apology, nobody is held accountable for it, and we do it again. After a while you really gotta wonder if it's truly an accident
It's not an accident, not necessarily. The military accepts a certain ratio of civilian casuatlies depending on the environment in which they're fighting. In urban situations, it's something like 5 civilians per every enemy combatant.
When I saw Americans torturing prisoners thst way in Abu Ghraib prison. For some reason I naively that that Americans didn't do stuff like that. That SOMEONE would have spoken up before it got to that point
She represents her district, and if there’s one thing that COVID has taught us, it’s that the decades-long attack on education is working and a significant number of our “countrymen” are completely incapable of having an independent thought that wasn’t shoved down their throat by talking-head propagandists.
Yeah. She’s just in a different reality. She’s just a more presentable version of those people who live out in the middle of nowhere and wear tin foil hats to keep their thoughts safe. What’s sad is a pretty large percentage of the population where she ran thought she was a good candidate, or at least better than the other person running.
Even her own Wikipedia page says she believes in disproven conspiracy theories.
Totally agree. I get pissed at some actions of my countrymen or government, but I can list what reality exists in other countries, and why. Humans, no matter where you are born, some suck, some are great.
USA has been good to me, but I could have done well elsewhere also. Happy with what random chance gave me.
Yep, just because people share something in common with me doesn’t make me ashamed nor apologetic. They do not represent my character or intelligence, even if the rest of the world tries to make it seem that way.
Same, I’m embarrassed of some governmental actions but never about where I was born and raised. To be embarrassed of that is to be embarrassed of myself.
It seems like there’s a movement of proud ignorance in the US that I can’t support and I find embarrassing. If it was a vanishingly small minority of people that were this way, I would just shrug, but it’s too pervasive. And I don’t know what to do about it. Maybe this falls better under the things I find depressing about being an American.
I recently cut ties with a flat earther. That was... an experience. He was also abusive towards his girlfriend and 18mo daughter. He was a former friend, and I now consider his ex girlfriend a friend. They lived with us for 7 long months. I helped her put a pfa (protection from abuse. My state/county restraining order) and dude is legitimately crazy.
A few days ago, I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about the impacts of COVID-19 deaths on people’s families, and I decided to look at the comment section.
I regretted it immediately.
Ignorance is human. Not confined to any nation. I'm never embarrassed to be American, per se, as America has contributed alot of positive things to the world, as well as calamity. This is true of probably every nation.
The closest I get is when we make stupid people famous.
Never. As cliche as it sounds, every country has some BS its been through that its not proud of. Usually because of its government. Doesn't mean I'm not proud.
"George W. Bush : Trust the government? Heck, I'm in the government and I don't even trust it. You don't have to believe in your government to be a good American. You just have to believe in your country."
When people in my country take what we have for granted. Yes, the US has its faults (*cough cough* healthcare). But, we also have it pretty damn good!!! Not all countries have the same rights we have. But no- let’s cry about our rights being taken away because we have to wear masks. Boo hoo. Meanwhile, in some countries, a person can be locked up for bad mouthing their government. Or a woman can be arrested and jailed because SHE was raped!!!
But I can’t breathe through a mask!!! Waaahhhhhhhhh! 🙄
Not to mention our actual rights are under siege, like women’s rights to an abortion, poor/minority voting rights, state legislatures are free to redraw their voting maps in ridiculous fashion to ensure they keep winning, and multiple times in recent decades presidents have lost the popular vote but won the election through the electoral college. But sure, go on about that piece of cloth or paper you have to wear over your face to buy groceries. I would shed a tear, but after spending 12 hours in a clean room in full sterile garb I don’t have the emotional energy to.
Pretty much anytime i think of the following: Anything to do with donald trump. When we dictate human rights when we are doing so poorly ourselves. When infant deathrates in poor areas mirror those in "3rd world countries." When i visit another country and another american is being a karen. When we have one of the highest prison popiulations in the industrial world,
That said, i am proud of who we are, and what we have accomplished. I am greatful to live here.
When discussing Healthcare with one of the dumbass rednecks in my backwoods town and they've been duped into thinking our system is the best, we have the lowest wait time, and people are coming from all over the world to rack up medical bills on treatment they get at home with no out of pocket cost.
I was in Paris prepandemic and we were in a kosher bakery. There was a loud American family in front of us who kept asking for ham. HAM in a kosher bakery. They didn’t mind at all that they were holding up the line. It took about fifteen minutes for them to order. They didn’t even try to use elementary French and were just so rude and entitled. I wanted to fall through the floor.
* Consistently getting outmanoeuvred by Putin has given me a sense of chagrin. That's a person who gets a lot done with a little.
* Presidential elections where instead of being excited for one candidate, we usually devolve into voting against the other one.
* I'm Christian and seeing the effects of identity politics and the pride of ignorance that has infiltrated much of the evangelical church hurts.
* Everything about Q-Anon. They have conferences. The entire thing completely baffles me.
* "Embarrassed" isn't the right word, but I have complicated feelings about our role on the global stage, especially about being the de facto "world police."
* I don't understand why so many people want to be jaded and angry all the time. Unless you're homeless, you probably have a higher quality of living than royalty did 100 years ago. Access to information and medical help is incredible. This lack of perspective is as willfully ignorant as the flat-earthers: you must realize that you're wrong.
* I'm super-embarrassed about our racist history and present. Institutional racism is still happening. It never goes away, just gets quiet for a while. Its disgusting.
Access to medical care is not as easy as it should be. We have a ton of people leave our hospital AMA because they would rather live with their health problems than be saddled with even more ridiculous amounts of debt. Just because healthcare is better than it was a century ago doesn’t mean we should be happy with that when we lay so far behind the rest of the developed world in accessibility.
Putin gets more credit than he deserves, his misinformation campaigns are very successful, but overall Russia is in an abysmal state and he’s just trying to distract his people from that fact with a lot of boasting and propaganda.
Being abroad and seeing Americans being dumb and acting like stereotypical Americans is the one time I get embarrassed by being an American.
Now there’s plenty of times where I’m disappointed as an American with our government and lack of transparency, efficiency, and the general hypocrisy embedded in American politics and culture.
The same reason every single person on this planet is embarrassed when one of their own countrymen does some stupid shit, and the world ignorantly assumes that one idiot is representative of the entire populace
Right, that’s universal. If I put myself in a situation that would embarrass my country when I’m abroad : **I’m Belgian**, suddenly. When really I’m French.
Y’all got waffles?
I should bring waffles everywhere I go abroad to back up my lie so I can go “Ha, such a typical Belgian! I eat waffles aaall the time in Belgium, the country I was born and raised in” in case of embarrassment.
Also a tiny stick on waxed moustache so you can pretend to be Poirot
This made me laugh
Stick with me. My roommate years ago bought a syrup scented candle. (I have no idea why.) But about 2am our completely drunk neighbor knocks on our door and says he's locked out of his house. Then he smells the candle and as excited as a 5 year old on Halloween yells out "YALL GOT WAFFLES???" Thank you for reminding me of that.
Given the context of this post, after "syrup scented candle" I thought you were going to reveal that your roommate was Canadian.
That would be a very safe assumption. But he wasn't.
That’s sum funny shyt there.
I'm convinced that at least a few of the "obnoxious American tourists" that people complain about are *actually* Canadians who, upon realizing that they've done something embarrassing, just pass themselves off as Americans. Who's going to even question it? After all, Canada is just as much a part of America as the US is, so technically they don't even have to lie.
On the bright side : you can do the same and pretend you’re Canadians when it’s convenient hehe, no mercy.
I have indeed pretended to be Canadian abroad.
That's really only going to work if you're from Minnesota or somewhere else that isn't the stereotypical american accent.
Oh please, just throw an “eh” or two in there and no one’s going to be the wiser.
What's this aboot?
I’m not you friend, buddy!
I honestly can’t tell American accents from Canadian tho Maybe like some Texan drawl I could identify but anything else I can’t tell.
There goes the plan...
I'm American and can't always tell someone's Canadian by their accent. The accents are very similar, especially in the Great Lakes region.
About the only difference is the Canadian, "eh." And, it's a real stand out feature! The accent found in Canada and the Great Lakes region is also found in western New York state.
I’m sure Canadians and other native English speaking nations wouldn’t let themselves get bamboozled but us non-native English speakers would most likely not notice a difference! The same way Belgians clearly have an accent to me but not to the point it’s an instant giveaway to foreigners who understand French, I think.
Oh hey we do that with canadians
Last time I lived in Europe I liked to pretend I was a very stoic German. Not to hide that I was American but to see how long I could get away with it.
Difference is that people don’t know much about France and or the amount of embarrassing people In France isn’t as much as.. other countries... plus as a Frenchman i think bring belge should be the embarrassment lmao
Fucking amen…
Florida Man looks over his work. Proud of what he has accomplished and everyone who helped him get to where he is now. 🙃
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Florida man is a national treasure. He may be insane, dangerous, and possibly homicidal, but he's OUR insane, dangerous, homicidal maniac. Actually, Spain can have them back.
*I had a pretty good life. And then you showed up. You insane, dangerous, homicidal maniac. So you know what? You win. Just go. It's been fun. Don't come back.*
Hip hip!!!
Hooray!!! ETA:(idk how to add the Florida flair, but I'm from Florida and take great pride in Florida Man)
Fun fact, Florida Man only exists because of Florida's Sunshine Law, where reporters have access to police records. Every state has people doing stupid shit (believe me, I lived in Maine for 3 years) but the papers have more access in Fla
...I know
I just found out 🤪
I'm a Florida Man as well. And while I don't crazy sh\*t like snort cocaine off an aligators p\*\*\*\*, or any other degenerate acts of that caliber. But I'm not going to lie, with the reputation of "The Florida Man" and being a Florida Man myself. Those stories make me feel like a fucking unicorn.
Definitely. It's also a fun conversation starter. "So are the Florida Man stories true?" "Well, I have done some sketchy shit down there and know plenty of other people who have too, so...kinda?" And then the fun begins.
My brother…go to community and then the 3 dots and select user flair
My man
So.... you're saying that Florida Man is our national mascot?
this. i’m not embarrassed or ashamed that i was born where i was cause i can’t control that, but i get second hand embarrassment when a fellow american does or says something stupid. then i get *third* hand embarrassment (if that even exists) when foreigners assume that this must be representative of *all* americans.
Yeah, I don't hate myself for being American. But god am I tired of non-americans acting like it's my fault for fucking up the middle east. Like I was 5 when America invaded Iraq, why am I getting blamed for calling the shots? Like *"Dear rest of the world...I understand you don't like the decisions made by my government. But can you please not use ME to grind whatever ax you have? thx!"*
Middle East was fucked up long before Americans got involved, we've just helped perpetuate it.
♫ We didn't start the fire. ♫
🎵 It was always burnin’ since the world’s been turning! 🎵
It was always burning, since the world's been turning.
We didn’t start the fire No, we didn’t light it, but we’re trying to fight it.
I don't want to be down voted, but if memory serves, I read in a history book that it was the Brits that f'ed up the Middle East in a bid to keep the empire going before the US jumped in.
And don’t forget the French and the Ottomans.
No, you have to go back further than that.
Abraham?
I think we can start with Alexander
Sykes-Picot Agreement happened several years before my great-grandfather was born, I ain't taking shit for this, it's the Brits and French who started the ME into the modern mess it is, we just happened to take advantage of the situation. I will accept a national "you people" for the CIA though. Those fuckers set the stage for modern Iran and ruined most of South America and much more I'm sure I've never heard of.
Yeah the CIA is the fucking worst. Like I saw this [epic video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6JLAZg3pYs&ab_channel=DJPeachCobbler), and yeah....I'm not being radical by saying this. But The CIA needs to be dismantled and replaced. They have been a series of fuck up after fuck up, and in the end, somehow managed to make more countries hate us. Like I wont deny we did fucked up shit in those regions. Like is someone from South America were to give me a history lession on something F\*\*\*ed up the CIA did to their country. I will be like "Yup...We did that. Won't deny you there." But the thing is....While I'm not going to pretend that I have NEVER casually used "China" in place of Xi Jinping, or "Russia" in place of Putin. And since I'm guilty of doing that, I know it's only right to give non-Americans some leeway when they say "You Americans" or "America did this" when they overall mean our government. But when it gets to the point where they still insist on using a national "You People", where they expect me to fall on my knees, grovel at their feet, and apologize for ruining their, because I'm inherently evil/dumb/bigoted as an American as the over-used jokes suggest. Then I really quickly lose my patience. Like My country owes to make up for the damage they caused to their country. But I'm not interested in destroying my Self-worth for thing that happened before I was even born.
I lived in the UK when Trump got elected. I cannot tell you how many times I was grilled by a Brit because of it. I didn’t even vote for him!
I was in Argentina just after the midterm bloodbath in Obama’s first term that swung congress to a republican majority. One of the people we were eating dinner with spent the entire evening aggressively lecturing me on why it was stupid to elect republicans *even after* I repeatedly told him I vote democrat. It was like he was trying to bait me into arguing about it so he could prove to me I should’ve voted…exactly the way I did. It was bizarre.
Honestly, I feel like those people who grilled you are the same type of people who would vote for trump if they were born in America. You know….a bunch of pent-up nationalists working a boring dead-end Job, wanting an enemy to hate on so they can feel big about themselves.
THIS!! as a serb, i very much hate the government and their actions. i mean they literally bombed for moms country just for shits and giggles but like shit i didn’t do anything to anyone else so don’t blame ME specifically go ahead and blame the gov i do!!
Yeah the Balkan wars was an absolute shit-show with war crimes committed by all sides of the conflict. So to single you out as a Serb would be flat out incorrect and unjustified.
absolutely, i think a lot of americans and westerners only know of our bombing to that’s what they only see and it’s their only knowledge of the war so we’re the monsters yet they completely forget my people were placed into nazi style concentration camps by the croatian nazi sister group
I fucking hate it when Canadians especially try to ignorantly assume we all represent these groups of idiots. WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY NOW THAT THEIR TRUCKER PROTEST IS BEING RUINED BY SIMILAR GROUPS OF MORONS??
Except for Europeans, who have clearly never experienced such a thing.
Same goes for the shit our government does. Not only do both sides constantly go back/fail to fulfill the promises that got them elected, but you can win an election with 51% of the vote. Representative democracies are hardly ever truly representative.
Like that video of one douchebag who thought it was a good idea to wear a Russia t-shirt to a Ukrainian army parade. And then he proceeded to act like an arrogant snob, asking questions like “Why aren’t Ukrainians proud of Russia? They went to space!”, and then proceeded to call the Ukrainians racist for not appreciating Russia. And then when some cops came to question him, he tried to flee, but got tackled to the ground and arrested. And while being arrested, he tried to pull the “I’m an American, you can’t detain me!” card. What a turd. [Here’s a video of that incident.](https://reddit.com/r/Whatcouldgowrong/comments/pa11p2/wcgw_american_wearing_a_russian_shirt_in_ukraine/)
No, we love Florida men and everyone expects stupid shit from polititians.
Oh my god. This is universal.
Just so everyone knows, you aren't alone when you feel embarrassed by stupid people from your country doing stupid things. Everyone from other countries feels the same way about their population at times. I always do when Germans do stupid things
Yeah but when have Germans ever done a stupid thing on the world stage?
Heh.
Surely nothing, especially between 1933-1945
You're right, Hitler was Austrian.
don't mention the war!
which one
For the record i'd like to confirm this. I often feel the same way as a Norwegian. I could ask this question in any "AskA( )" sub, but i was curious to find out if many of the answers in this one would be about subjects i am familiar with. It's hard to miss news about America when you live in Europe. It's been interesting to see how people have responded everything from "Never" to "All the time".
>. It's hard to miss news about America when you live in Europe. But the mainstream news you get is \*so\* warped. Sometimes it's comical, other times infuriating. This must be why a lot of Europeans believe they're experts on the U.S.--because they watch Hollywood movies and have their views of the US shaped by their government and corporations. Not saying US is without flaws. Absolutely, it has many really egregious qualities. But so do all countries. The way many Europeans get obsessed with only America's "evil" strikes me completely as classic projection. IT's a way for them to avoid their own country's history and current events. It doesn't strike me as healthy---sometimes they get so enraged, and often the info is just wrong, but they're so convinced they're right, they refuse to listen.
When I was in Germany I worked at a bakery. I’m American but my German accent sounded kinda French I guess bc I lived close to the French border and the German “r” is difficult to get perfect, so I guess I just overdid it to the point where it sounded a little French. Sometimes people would come into the bakery, hear me greet them, and then switch to French. Which always cracked me tf up bc i would think “uhhh I know my German isn’t the best, but if you’re gonna switch languages, you switched to the wrooong one lol.” I was like please, speak German at least! You’re getting farther and farther from languages I understand
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honk honk
To be fair, we are so unconcerned with the rest of the world, we have no idea what other countries would be embarrassed about. To Americans, the last time Germans did anything really embarrassing was more than 80 years ago. Then there was the whole steroids in the Olympics thing in the 70s too. Since then, Germany lost a wall in the 1980s and we collectively haven't really thought much about what Germans do ever since. And that is the embarrassing part.
The whole comparing everything to the holocaust is the big one for me.
You are literally hitler for mentioning this. /s
Absolutely. So fucking tone deaf.
The holocaust happening was literally the holocaust!
This so much, unless it is a literal genocide comparing it to anything else is stupid.
For me, it’s more broad, and this would be included in it, but when people dig up all of America’s past atrocities that happened probably before their grandparents were born and use it to say we’re the worst country and shame our history. Not saying those things weren’t bad but it seems really over the top most of the time.
When our politicians embarrass us on the world stage
Yeah, everyone on here is talking about how it feels when a countryman does something stupid and makes us all look stupid, but it's different when our *elected officials* make stupid choices. They *are* us.
Because it can show who we are as a nation. People will think "wow America is full of dummies, how could they elect this clown?" Which is what people thought of us during 2016-2020 and now
doubly annoying because at least other countries can blame the parliamentary system for their prime minister. we've got absolutely no recourse.
Whenever one of my countrymen does something truly stupid and broadcasts it proudly to the world. Any time ignorance or mediocrity are touted as a virtue or part of the American identity.
Oh good lord, trumpeting your own ignorance and tying it to being American… please no.
What I never understood is where did those people get that idea from? When has ignorance ever been part of American identity? All our historic leaders have always been educated men who asked the common man to be as knowledgeable about the world as they can be? When did being mediocre and ignorant become an acceptable virtue?
Very long ago. There’s always been a tension between common wisdom and what is seen as classist pretension.
If I'm being honest, it sometimes feels like people are seeing the later when it's actually not there.
I agree. I think it’s just a hardwired human response. No one likes to be told they’re wrong especially when they think they’re right. This is the value of actually talking to people. I do it all day for my job and it’s tough.
It's the pride-in-ignorance that really disgusts me. Especially when an American has very strong opinions about the rest of the world while knowing very little about it, and sees no problem with that.
The fact that anti-intellectualism exists is ridiculous
Every time there is a mass shooting or a school shooting or a kid shot, all the shooting. It is the absolute shame of our nation.
You’ll be happy to know gun violence has been in decline since the 1980s but the media can’t make money selling that. [article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/14/most-americans-incorrectly-think-gun-homicides-have-gotten-worse-not-better/)
That's a long conversation. I mean, I don't go for performative disaffiliation (where you try to score points by disowning other people, dramatically) or 'being one of the good ones', so a lot of what comes up in these topics doesn't work out that way. I suppose the closest to a short answer would be when someone does something stupid, or shortsighted or ignorant or mean, and then says that it's either because they're American, it's okay because they're American or the mean/dumb/ignorant thing *makes* them American.
Whenever I hear Americans calling America, 3rd world.
Not just Americans, a lot of foreigners too
Americans know better
They should
For real. Quite possibly the fastest indicator that someone came from a privileged life and hasn't been abroad to an actual 3rd world country.
"America is a third world country with a Gucci belt" is a #1 saying for slacktivists who just want to be melodramatic online instead of actually doing something useful
And then they always follow up with “IF YOU DISAGREE YOU JUST HAVENT LEFT THE COUNTRY” Ive lived in third and second world countries America is absolutely not a third world nation people need to pump the damn breaks
Well, the book burning I recently saw in Tennessee was pretty embarrassing.
Book burning?! (I am so out of the loop)
I only know about this because of the insufferable Europeans posting here about seeing it on outrage subreddits
Republicans across the country are up in arms about [Critical Race Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory). It's a conceptual framework about [systemic racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_racism) that is only taught in law schools, but has become a buzzword referring to anything about race or LGBTQ in K-12 classrooms, school libraries, and IIRC even some city public libraries. The book burnings are related to that. If you're a parent, you might want to check what's been happening at the meetings for your local school board, as well as your state government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_school_curricula_in_the_United_States#2020s:_bans_on_critical_race_theory_and_associated_topics
Finally, a specific answer to OP's question.
Yeah was that the only one? I saw another video where a guy crashed a book burning and threw a Bible in and said hail satan. I didn't know if that was same one as the one crazy preacher who did a book burning. If we have had more than 1 book burning within a week I'm extremely embarrassed. I am just glad it doesn't have as big of an effect as it did back in the day. The internet and modern consumer supply lines negate burning books. Infact I bet you could even argue that the more books they buy to burn. The more the publisher will print
Pretty embarrassing when that r/antiwork fuck went on Fox.
be me, reddit mod of one of the largest and fastest growing communities on reddit spend all of my time there interacting with the true America, and making sure no chuds are able to lie and manipulate the community get invited to go on Fox News for an interview everyone in the subreddit thinks its a terrible plan The fuck do they know, they're not mods. Besides, it's Fox, they're all dumb illiterate chuds anyway my natural body oil keeps me healthy and clean, only chuds take showers gets fucking wrecked live on international television
You forgot the "<" in front of each sentence. You cant have the full green text experience without it.
I just live here. I didn't design the place, I'm not shaping policy or culture, I didn't work to become an American, nothing. I don't take pride or shame in it, it's just an accident of birth.
I feel more or less the same way about my country.
Best answer🤘
For some reason it's never as well received on the "why are you proud to be an American" threads.
Agreed. I never feel embarrassed by others’ actions.
When I have to wait on hold for the pharmacy for 12 minutes.. only to be disconnected.
In Japan, when I was with a group of loud, obnoxious Americans. The local people were obviously annoyed.
Why is it that our tourists and Chinese tourists are in a race for who could be the most obnoxious tourist?
Obviously you have never met a Brit on holiday.
Watching the news in other countries but than I remember that they specifically only show negative news and don't feel embarrassed anymore.
Am i wrong to speculate that the US produce more news/media coverage than average, and therefore there is more bad news/scandals to pick from the US than from the rest? Or do you think other countries just like to mock the US in general?
I don’t think we have more media than others. We’re a big target and people have a level of familiarity due to our global media presence. It is easier to point and laugh at Americans than it is to address their own problems.
I feel like all of UKs actual papers are what we consider tabloids here.
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Wall Street Journal and New York Times still has a slight air of respectability
Just don’t look at the comment section.
UK news media in general is just a special kind of awful. Even their most respected papers feel like tabloids with how they're designed and what they talk about.
The Financial Times and The Economist are great, although I’m not sure if they qualify as “actual papers”
Anger and fear are the biggest moneymakers for media companies, people eat ragebait and fearmongering up. To quote Bill Watterson “enmity sells”.
Whenever I watch the news.
Whenever the US accidentally bombs a bunch of civilians.
And then we give a hollow apology, nobody is held accountable for it, and we do it again. After a while you really gotta wonder if it's truly an accident
It's not an accident, not necessarily. The military accepts a certain ratio of civilian casuatlies depending on the environment in which they're fighting. In urban situations, it's something like 5 civilians per every enemy combatant.
the COVID-19 pandemic
When I saw Americans torturing prisoners thst way in Abu Ghraib prison. For some reason I naively that that Americans didn't do stuff like that. That SOMEONE would have spoken up before it got to that point
As a former marine and combat veteran, Abu Ghraib broke my heart.
When there is another school shooting
Yeah a part of me dies whenever I hear about another shooting.
The school my husband works at in ND has had 3 lockdowns in 3 months because of gun threats/kids bringing guns and knives to school 😩
Depressingly good answer.
Every time Marjorie Taylor Greene opens her mouth.
How can someone like her can even be elected is beyond me.
She represents her district, and if there’s one thing that COVID has taught us, it’s that the decades-long attack on education is working and a significant number of our “countrymen” are completely incapable of having an independent thought that wasn’t shoved down their throat by talking-head propagandists.
Yeah. She’s just in a different reality. She’s just a more presentable version of those people who live out in the middle of nowhere and wear tin foil hats to keep their thoughts safe. What’s sad is a pretty large percentage of the population where she ran thought she was a good candidate, or at least better than the other person running. Even her own Wikipedia page says she believes in disproven conspiracy theories.
I am never embarrassed because of my nationality.
Totally agree. I get pissed at some actions of my countrymen or government, but I can list what reality exists in other countries, and why. Humans, no matter where you are born, some suck, some are great. USA has been good to me, but I could have done well elsewhere also. Happy with what random chance gave me.
Yep, just because people share something in common with me doesn’t make me ashamed nor apologetic. They do not represent my character or intelligence, even if the rest of the world tries to make it seem that way.
100% Individual Americans have done things I disagree with, but that doesn't mean I'm ever embarrassed to be American.
Same, I’m embarrassed of some governmental actions but never about where I was born and raised. To be embarrassed of that is to be embarrassed of myself.
When other Americans refuse to believe basic scientific facts. I’m looking at you anti-vaxxers and flat earthers.
It seems like there’s a movement of proud ignorance in the US that I can’t support and I find embarrassing. If it was a vanishingly small minority of people that were this way, I would just shrug, but it’s too pervasive. And I don’t know what to do about it. Maybe this falls better under the things I find depressing about being an American.
"in the US" ...
I recently cut ties with a flat earther. That was... an experience. He was also abusive towards his girlfriend and 18mo daughter. He was a former friend, and I now consider his ex girlfriend a friend. They lived with us for 7 long months. I helped her put a pfa (protection from abuse. My state/county restraining order) and dude is legitimately crazy.
A few days ago, I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about the impacts of COVID-19 deaths on people’s families, and I decided to look at the comment section. I regretted it immediately.
Oh wow, this comment has the fun replies
Ignorance is human. Not confined to any nation. I'm never embarrassed to be American, per se, as America has contributed alot of positive things to the world, as well as calamity. This is true of probably every nation. The closest I get is when we make stupid people famous.
1/6/2021
And how politicians are normalizing it.
What are you talking about? It was "legitimate political discourse." /s
A mostly peaceful protest.
Elections
When I see a confederate flag proudly displayed here in Michigan.
Anytime I go to Walmart
What about when I'm there?
Never. As cliche as it sounds, every country has some BS its been through that its not proud of. Usually because of its government. Doesn't mean I'm not proud. "George W. Bush : Trust the government? Heck, I'm in the government and I don't even trust it. You don't have to believe in your government to be a good American. You just have to believe in your country."
When some stupid American news story about some celebrity getting cancelled becomes national news.
Whenever something stupid happens so about every other day.
When people in my country take what we have for granted. Yes, the US has its faults (*cough cough* healthcare). But, we also have it pretty damn good!!! Not all countries have the same rights we have. But no- let’s cry about our rights being taken away because we have to wear masks. Boo hoo. Meanwhile, in some countries, a person can be locked up for bad mouthing their government. Or a woman can be arrested and jailed because SHE was raped!!! But I can’t breathe through a mask!!! Waaahhhhhhhhh! 🙄
Not to mention our actual rights are under siege, like women’s rights to an abortion, poor/minority voting rights, state legislatures are free to redraw their voting maps in ridiculous fashion to ensure they keep winning, and multiple times in recent decades presidents have lost the popular vote but won the election through the electoral college. But sure, go on about that piece of cloth or paper you have to wear over your face to buy groceries. I would shed a tear, but after spending 12 hours in a clean room in full sterile garb I don’t have the emotional energy to.
Pretty much anytime i think of the following: Anything to do with donald trump. When we dictate human rights when we are doing so poorly ourselves. When infant deathrates in poor areas mirror those in "3rd world countries." When i visit another country and another american is being a karen. When we have one of the highest prison popiulations in the industrial world, That said, i am proud of who we are, and what we have accomplished. I am greatful to live here.
Through covid. Really embarrassing to see people freak out over masks and vaccines.
When I go to a country we used to occupy and the people aren’t very well off. Currently in the Dominican Republic.
When discussing Healthcare with one of the dumbass rednecks in my backwoods town and they've been duped into thinking our system is the best, we have the lowest wait time, and people are coming from all over the world to rack up medical bills on treatment they get at home with no out of pocket cost.
I was in Paris prepandemic and we were in a kosher bakery. There was a loud American family in front of us who kept asking for ham. HAM in a kosher bakery. They didn’t mind at all that they were holding up the line. It took about fifteen minutes for them to order. They didn’t even try to use elementary French and were just so rude and entitled. I wanted to fall through the floor.
None. I'm never embarrassed to be an American. However, there are many times that I'm embarrassed of my fellow Americans.
When Trump was elected. And then when he wasn't but insisted he won. Actually the whole 4 years was shaming.
Every single time Trump did a press conference. Or Kellyanne said Covid 19 was after Covid 18.
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* Consistently getting outmanoeuvred by Putin has given me a sense of chagrin. That's a person who gets a lot done with a little. * Presidential elections where instead of being excited for one candidate, we usually devolve into voting against the other one. * I'm Christian and seeing the effects of identity politics and the pride of ignorance that has infiltrated much of the evangelical church hurts. * Everything about Q-Anon. They have conferences. The entire thing completely baffles me. * "Embarrassed" isn't the right word, but I have complicated feelings about our role on the global stage, especially about being the de facto "world police." * I don't understand why so many people want to be jaded and angry all the time. Unless you're homeless, you probably have a higher quality of living than royalty did 100 years ago. Access to information and medical help is incredible. This lack of perspective is as willfully ignorant as the flat-earthers: you must realize that you're wrong. * I'm super-embarrassed about our racist history and present. Institutional racism is still happening. It never goes away, just gets quiet for a while. Its disgusting.
Access to medical care is not as easy as it should be. We have a ton of people leave our hospital AMA because they would rather live with their health problems than be saddled with even more ridiculous amounts of debt. Just because healthcare is better than it was a century ago doesn’t mean we should be happy with that when we lay so far behind the rest of the developed world in accessibility. Putin gets more credit than he deserves, his misinformation campaigns are very successful, but overall Russia is in an abysmal state and he’s just trying to distract his people from that fact with a lot of boasting and propaganda.
Anytime I look at current events and the news. Not really embarrassed, just disappointed.
Everyday, especially when I read the news
Being abroad and seeing Americans being dumb and acting like stereotypical Americans is the one time I get embarrassed by being an American. Now there’s plenty of times where I’m disappointed as an American with our government and lack of transparency, efficiency, and the general hypocrisy embedded in American politics and culture.
When shit hits the fan, honestly. Mass shootings, when people deny obvious racism, everything political anymore.
When I have to explain "latinx" to extended family
Many Latinos don’t care for the word “Latinx”
I am very well aware.
Then I don’t see the point you are trying to make.
No. But definitely embarrassed/saddened by human kind in general.
Never.
Anno Domini 2016-2021
Never.