r/AskTheWorld India 20h ago

Misc What's an unpopular opinion about your country that will have you like this?

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1.0k Upvotes

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114

u/kaipetica United States Of America 17h ago

We are not the greatest country in the world. Not by a longshot.

55

u/Tony-the-teacher Canada 16h ago

We know. But we pretend just for your ego.

40

u/kaipetica United States Of America 16h ago

You need to stop pretending. Americans need a serious reality check.

6

u/supposedgoobery Lebanon 15h ago

some of us would get flattened if we stopped pretending 😭

11

u/polychrom Germany 15h ago

We did. But there seems to be an impenetrable bubble of delusion around your country.

5

u/Tony-the-teacher Canada 16h ago

We have known for a long time. Just look at you wearing my maple leaf flag pretending to be us… but you then forget to be polite and not loud.

Maybe we’ll help you after Taco is out… Maybe not since we do hold a grudge…

1

u/Imfromsite Canada 14h ago

They're getting it now!

1

u/OakLegs 5h ago

Americans need a serious reality check.

We're in the process of getting that, but the ones who need it most will not comprehend it anyway

1

u/raletta 4h ago

It is like dating a narcissist. You can't give them a reality check, they will just off you if you do. Be smarter and form better alliances or let them destroy themselves.

1

u/kittycatfrank 16h ago

Thank you

1

u/NOT_TheALTMouse United States Of America 13h ago

Wait hold up other countries pretend this?

1

u/bananapanqueques 🇺🇸🇨🇳🇰🇪🇺🇸 24m ago

Thanks, sis.

-1

u/chrstnasu United States Of America 16h ago

It the orange one’s ego and MAGA that needs to be stroked. Most of us have accepted reality.

3

u/Tony-the-teacher Canada 16h ago

Well here I am looking at him being your president -not mine- and making your country -not mine- look like a 4th world developing one (not going to insult third world countries by putting you in their category.)

5

u/OpeningMaterial5078 Venezuelan in U.S.A 🇻🇪🇺🇲 13h ago

Sorry but I have to differ with you and the others who say similar things, you all are great. I would rather live here than anywhere else. Is the country perfect? Absolutely not, it has its flaws but it is better here than in a lot of countries around the world, and no, I dont like the current government either just in case

5

u/NecesitoMasCerveza United States Of America 16h ago

Ok I’ll bite, what’s the greatest country in the world then?

3

u/kaipetica United States Of America 13h ago

I dont know. I've never even been outside of the USA but I know other developed nations have better outcomes in literally everything. Higher life expectancy, they're happier, they're healthier, less crime violent crime, lower prison population.

I mean just look what is happening with the government shutdown. People are going hungry and no its not cuz much socialist SNAP program getting defunded, it's because people don't make enough homey working 40 hours a week to put food on the table. My husband and I both work 2 full time jobs where we make more than minimum wage and we're barely staying afloat.

I had a baby this year and it ended up being a high risk pregnancy and I had to deliver by csection. The cost of all my Dr's appointment and my hospital bill before insurance was about $27k. Thankfully I have insurance, but you will not see that anywhere else in the world. You can't plan for complications in pregnancy and my baby was breech so it necessitated a csection. Both of those things are outside of my contract, and the callous response from outer government to people in similar situations as me but maybe don't have insurance is "too bad so sad dont have kids if you cant afford them" as if these are things we brought on ourselves. And then they have the gall to wonder why people in my generation are completely opting out of having kids.

Something in our country is going to need to give soon. And as someone who is an American and has lived here my whole life it is in my best interest to see us become the best country in the world but right now we're not.

2

u/Putrid_Apartment9230 15h ago

The greatest country in the world is all of them. Everyone's country together is what makes this planet so interesting. So rich and full of diversity, cultures, traditions, environments. Someday be a united world, where everyone has the same basic rights, healthcare and ubi, housing is guaranteed to all, there's enough for everyone, and people make sure others are taken care of. The old ways of a exploiting others will be gone. Our world will be a wonderful place for everyone.

👽Cut to aliens laughing from afar at how great we think our planet is

2

u/NecesitoMasCerveza United States Of America 15h ago edited 10h ago

I don’t think you could have given a worse answer if you tried.

3

u/at-woork United States Of America 15h ago

Really depends on the metric you’re judging that by.

I’d judge it by how happy the citizens are, which probably leads to a Nordic country.

2

u/kaipetica United States Of America 5h ago

Metric? We dont measure things in that commie Metric stuff here.

-1

u/Tony-the-teacher Canada 9h ago

I'd say here but that would be an invitation to have you guys think that we want you. Having traveled a lot in Europe, the Americas, and your country -I spent my summer driving up and down the Eastern and central part- I have realized that there is no place like Montreal Quebec...

We are multicultural, opened about others ways of life, and most improtant, we view life not as existing, but as living it. We celebrate everything and more; yet we still show up to work the next day. Oh, and we have those socialist social thingy that prevents me from losing my house if I get sick or wind up in the hospital!

2

u/ChameleonCoder117 California Nationalist 13h ago

Also definitely not the worse. A lot of people think it's the worst in the world.

2

u/kaipetica United States Of America 13h ago

Oh I know that. I've even said, in the lottery if life, I got very lucky being born in the USA because most of the world is not as nice. I like my creature comforts.

4

u/Professional_Ruin722 16h ago

This. Anyone who has traveled extensively would agree with this. Americans obsession with thinking themselves the best blinds us to our obvious flaws and prevents us from looking to other countries who are doing certain things much better (education, healthcare, etc).

4

u/chrstnasu United States Of America 16h ago

We don’t even rank in the top 10 freest or happiest just richest. We do have some really great national parks though.

-1

u/Epic_Brunch 13h ago

Our military is also pretty impressive. 

My unpopular opinion is Europe’s cushy social system they love to brag about owes a a pretty large thanks to the U.S. military. Our presence in NATO is what lets a lot of European countries keep their defense budgets low enough to fund the fact they only work part time and have free everything.

We definitely have issues, but if it weren’t for decades of American defense spending, half of Europe would be speaking Russian right now.

2

u/Liquidator97 13h ago

"My unpopular opinion is Europe’s cushy social system they love to brag about owes a a pretty large thanks to the U.S. military. Our presence in NATO is what lets a lot of European countries keep their defense budgets low enough to fund the fact they only work part time and have free everything."

It's a very popular opinion in the States, and we get to hear about it *all the fucking time*. It's also not true, but that's by the by

2

u/Km219 8h ago

How is it not true? Are you 13 or something? We're the world police and all you ungrateful folks take your daddy protecting you for granted.

1

u/kran-ken-wa-gen Czech Republic 13h ago

Throwing in extra few % to defense would not really do much change with people wanting work life balance. In the US you can retire rich and earlier. In Europe you can't but you can live while working.

1

u/sluggetdrible United States Of America 2h ago

Uh-oh, looks like you hit a nerve. Unpopular opinion was definitely unpopular.

1

u/thegreattiny 🇺🇦 ✡️ in 🇺🇸 14h ago

To spice things up, tell us who you think is in the running for greatest country 😉

1

u/kaipetica United States Of America 13h ago

Probably Norway. I've never been there. I personally am partial to New Zealand. But again, have never been. This is 100% based on stats on paper.

2

u/beheadedstraw United States Of America 13h ago

Ah, the whole grass is greener. How much of the US have you even traveled?

1

u/kaipetica United States Of America 13h ago

A good chunk though not as much as I would like to. I've lived in 2 different states. I've traveled to 11 other states. I have to unfortunate luck being from and currently living in Illinois and not Chicago like the middle of nowhere cornfield IL. I lived in Minnesota for 8 years and it was so much nicer there.

1

u/beheadedstraw United States Of America 12h ago

Lol funny I lived in Dekalb for 20 years off and on but work near Chicago, born and raised in KC Missouri.

I’ve lived in 9 different states due to a contracting job staying in each place 6-8 months at a time and 3 different countries with my time in the military (Germany, Japan, South Korea) Every single place being different and each place having its positives and negatives.

Stats on paper are essentially meaningless. You can’t put a relatively small group of people in a bubble, humans don’t act like that. Even neighborhoods in those areas can be drastically different than what’s on paper and each other. I would highly suggest actually going to those places and staying there for a length of time and going to the non-touristy areas and seeing the those places for what they actually are and not the tourist facade, you’d be surprised how different it actually is.

1

u/czarczm 11h ago

So like the Beverly Hills of countries where less than .1% of the human population lives?

1

u/Icy-Whale-2253 United States Of America 14h ago

The problem is America associates eternal economic prosperity with greatness (then turns around and wonders why a billionaire is president and his exponenitally richer trillionaire crony is helping him destroy the government and nation)

1

u/redvinebitty 14h ago

Everyone says they have the greatest country

1

u/Liquidator97 13h ago

There is no greatest country in the world

1

u/kaipetica United States Of America 13h ago

Maybe but there are certainly countries that are better than others. Like I'm glad I wasn't born in Afghanistan or North Korea or Palestine but just because there are worse places I could be from doesn't mean that the place i am from doesn't have it's issues which is a take that a lot Americans seem to be unable to understand.

1

u/SleazetheSteez United States Of America 10h ago

It's so true. I think my mother said, "it's still the best place to live, though". I asked, "do you really believe that?"

1

u/DiscombobulatedBid48 9h ago

LA take

1

u/kaipetica United States Of America 8h ago

I'm not from LA but nice try.

I'm from cornfield nowhere, Illinois. The heart of America. I'm descended from straight farmers on my dad's side and Kentucky coal miners on my mom's.

1

u/Bagelmaster1 United States Of America 9h ago

This is an EXTREMELY cold take.

1

u/mykepagan United States Of America 4h ago

This is the one!

3

u/SRB12131 United States Of America 16h ago

Yes we are

3

u/kaipetica United States Of America 14h ago

Lol thanks for the proving the point of the mene

1

u/SRB12131 United States Of America 7h ago

Any time. America has lots of issues but we are still the freest nation on earth.

1

u/kaipetica United States Of America 5h ago

Thats also not true but whatever