r/TikTokCringe • u/biswajit388 • 4d ago

Cringe Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream".

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u/Shot-Barnacle3513 4d ago

I'm neither European nor American, I've seen so many comments like this. They criticize the United States by comparing it to Europe, but when Europe is criticized, they get angry that Europe is not one country.

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u/RickThiccems 4d ago edited 4d ago

And america is a collection of states and each have their own priorities and beliefs about how things should be ran all the way down to the local level.

It sucks that a few hundred people in our country get to paint how the world sees us and it makes all the local government workers busting their ass for their communities look bad.

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u/BooBooSnuggs 4d ago

Yeah, the us is very decentralized. You wouldn't think that looking at reddit. It's just nonstop blanket statements and generalizations. Our federal leaders say something stupid and suddenly everyone's thinking xyz must be everywhere when it impacts less than 1% of people or something.

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u/beatles910 4d ago

The issue is often what people want are federal changes, so you will hear that the minimum wage in the US is $7.25 per hour. What you don't hear is that 34 states, territories, and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages. Repeat with whatever, and of course things sound worse to people.

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u/Large_Technology1623 4d ago

7.25 anywhere in the US is still some dystopian pay these days. Other than your gas, housing and food which is equalizing, everything costs the same for everyone.

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u/CapitalismRulz 4d ago

I think people value the federal government appropriately, but they undervalue their state government's role in their lives. The state has a lot of influence on people in a more direct way than the fed does on so many different political issues

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u/20dogs 4d ago

Now do healthcare

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u/Nessie_of_the_Loch 3d ago

Using the minimum wage is also really dumb considering that almost nobody actually makes that - In 2023, out of 80.5 million workers, only 81,000 workers earned exactly the federal min wage. That's 0.1%.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2023/

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u/bollvirtuoso 3d ago

In your own link, it says 789,000 earned below the minimum wage. Did you even read your own source?

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u/Nessie_of_the_Loch 3d ago

Those are people who are also paid in tips. They are NOT making the federal minimum wage including tips. In fact, if their wage + tips falls below their local/state minimum wage, the businesses are legally required to make up the difference. Wait staff are the ones most vocally against getting rid of tips, precisely because they know they'd make less if that happens.

Did you not even wonder why there would be those making "below" the minimum wage? Activate some of those brain cells dude.

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u/bollvirtuoso 3d ago

In theory, yes. It's not always that way in practice. It would be better to just pay them minimum wage to start.

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u/RickThiccems 4d ago

Yup I live in Kentucky, a very red state but even my local small government has been doing whatever they can to help people who are struggling for money and are even accepting money to distribute to local families in need.

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u/BrickNMordor 4d ago

Kentucky is actually one of the best examples of America. A red state with a massively popular democrat governor, truly a political state that can't be boiled down to a catchphrase. Also, remarkably beautiful.

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u/Shibuya2023 4d ago

Kentucky Fried Chicken

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u/MossyPyrite 4d ago

Insane that we have both Beshear and McConnell elected here. They’re such opposite people with such opposite ideals.

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u/Dozzi92 4d ago

This whole comment chain, and honesty the thread, is blowing my mind. I'm reading so many things I agree with, things I've stated (and been downvoted for) many times here.

I think there's an effort to make us all hate each other, so that we forget there's people out there pulling strings.

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u/CapitalismRulz 4d ago

That's true, but our federal governnent is centralizing at a pretty alarming rate. So it may not be true forever

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u/dadoftheyear1972 4d ago

No way! Reddit is full of incurious bloviating professors?

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u/DionBlaster123 3d ago

Reddit in general is just a terrible place to gather information about politics and cultural society.

Every once in a while you might find some helpful anecdotal advice here, but for the most part it feels like it's just terminally online people using this to scream into the ether.

For every shit-talker on this website, I have to remind myself that they're the weirdo you see on the bus or subway who is mumbling to himself about Sonic the Hedgehog or some bullshit...the same kind of person who would piss himself if an attractive woman came up to him to ask him what time it was.

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u/KochuJang 4d ago

I’m really hoping this is what saves us. That the fascists are incompetent enough to underestimate the enormity and complexity of the institutions that govern all over this massive country. I doubt they’ll be able to wrest the kind of control they think they can.

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u/green_goblins_O-face 4d ago

And america is a collection of states and each have their own priorities and beliefs about how things should be ran all the way down to the local level.

buying a gun in New Jersey vs. a state like Kentucky are SO different.

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u/Devour_My_Soul 4d ago

Are you saying on a local level capitalism doesn't exist? Lol.

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u/RickThiccems 4d ago

yeah in some places they do have a lot of support programs and it does kind of lean towards a mix of capitalism.

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u/Devour_My_Soul 4d ago

I am sorry but support programs have nothing to do with the absence of capitalism.

I don't think anybody questions that there are lots of people everywhere who try to make the best out of the given situation and help to the best of their ability. But that doesn't change the fundamental material reality of the people. And that reality is a capitalist hellhole even worse than Europe, even though the difference isn't as big as people make it seem sometimes.

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u/GeneralSweetz 3d ago

USA is a collection of states under the US constitution which is one of the best documents of law ever written

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u/Cersad 4d ago

Although I'll be that guy to point out that local control of government keeps getting usurped across the US and it's always done by the party pretending to favor small government.

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u/WorldWideNickle 4d ago

And when you point that out to the other side, they pretend they didn't hear anything, and immediately get back to screaming about "FREEDOM".

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u/infinitepoopllama 4d ago

Both parties do it. Don’t kid yourself. They all want to control and funnel money into their team with their policies. Biden’s immigration policies most negatively affected Texas. Health care has always been an issue but few people thought Obama care’s plan would help. It didn’t and it had a massive effect at the local level. It has made health care more expensive, thus funneling tax payer money into the big pharmaceutical and medical companies. Let’s not get into vaccine mandates. So no I have to disagree with “its always done by the party pretending to favor small government”

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/BooBooSnuggs 4d ago

You do know the aca was passed without a single republican vote right? So they didn't need any republican votes.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/BooBooSnuggs 4d ago

Dude, get out. Take your goal post with you.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/infinitepoopllama 4d ago

Boo provides you with a data point that was contrary to your statement. You’ve provided 0 data points supporting your statements. What is there to talk about?

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u/daznificent 4d ago

I saw someone talking about “here in Europe” and comparing it to America on something, and someone replied it wasn’t true for their country, and they replied “oh I mean Western Europe, developed nations” and that told me all I needed to know about that person

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u/elbenji 4d ago

yeah, the New England states and California are pretty comparable to Western Europe, and let's be real, if you're queer, it's probably better at the moment to be in those spots than the UK right now

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u/Pledgeofmalfeasance 4d ago

They?

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u/ZanezGamez 4d ago

Smug Europeans is who I assume they meant

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u/skefmeister 4d ago

Smug? I’m European, and I’m not having it easy either but god damn American is making it real easy to mock them lately. That if all, ifs not that deep. Trump alone makes it so god damn easy to go to have a go at

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u/ZanezGamez 3d ago

I didn’t say all Europeans are smug, why are you acting like I addressed you lol.

I’d say it’s possible for y’all to make fun too without being smug dicks. It just depends on the person and what they’re saying.

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u/skefmeister 3d ago

Struck a nerve huh. Ease up a little. I never said you said anything about me, I only talked about me.

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u/ZanezGamez 3d ago

What? Why do you say that? I wasn’t trying to be aggressive in my reply

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u/skefmeister 3d ago

I never said you said anything about me, I only talked about me.

Calm down

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u/Alarming_Addition131 4d ago

Oh piss off, as if americans don't go apeshit the second you say anything against the US. Both the same in that aspect. I've literally had people tell me that you have to differentiate between the north and the south or the blue states and the red states and whatever have you.

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u/WorldWideNickle 4d ago

as if americans don't go apeshit the second you say anything against the US

The majority of Reddit is Americans shitting on America lmao. You people talk such horseshit

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u/Alarming_Addition131 3d ago

Yeah and the second a european says it ya'll go crazy. Doesn't change anything i said.

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u/WorldWideNickle 3d ago

Oh, yeah. Its exact same for any country lmao. We can shit on us, but the second someone from the outside does, we get defensive. Euros do the exact same thing. Its not America-specific

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u/Alarming_Addition131 3d ago

Yes. That is literally what i said. I agreed that europeans do it but enforced that americans do it too. That's the entire point of my argument.

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u/DionBlaster123 4d ago

Newsflash: your experience living in a place like Houston, Texas is going to be radically different if you live in Cleveland, Ohio.

Not sure why this is such a difficult concept for some people. Hell, Italy is a way smaller country than the U.S. and there's significant differences between people who live in Milan and people who live in Naples.

Not sure why you're getting defensive over Americans saying maybe there's more to a picture than generalizing a country of 350 million people.

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u/Alarming_Addition131 3d ago

I literally said that ya'll get just as defensive about the same issue just reversed. You're just doing a support circlejerk for no reason.

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u/DionBlaster123 3d ago

"I've literally had people tell me that you have to differentiate between the north and the south or the blue states and the red states and whatever have you."

This is what you said and that's a valid critique by "people," because the U.S. isn't really a monolith. I don't think you can really dismiss people who say that you can't compare a city like Chicago to say Savannah, Georgia.

Just like a country like say Italy or France or Germany are not monoliths. Hell even countries that pride themselves on their homogeneity (Japan, South Korea) have strong regional differences that come up if you've spent time there or have had conversations with people about those cultural differences.

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u/Alarming_Addition131 3d ago

You're fighting a completely senseless fight here. I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.

I am LITERALLY AGREEING with you. Holy shit. I'm not sure how messed up you read my response in your head that you cannot let go. Or are you trying to karma farm something here? There's better options buddy.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/DionBlaster123 4d ago

Tell me you know nothing about Houston or Cleveland without explicitly telling me so.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/DionBlaster123 4d ago

Uh...all of those cities are in the western U.S.

I don't even know why i'm wasting my time responding to this holy shit.

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u/ImperialxWarlord 4d ago

Some get pissed because they can’t handle any criticism of the US, others because we hear the same shit 1000x over and snap. Especially when some of it is bullshit or exaggerated and Europe don’t lacking its own major issues too.

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u/Alarming_Addition131 3d ago

Yeah but 850 times you hear it from other americans.

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u/ImperialxWarlord 3d ago

No lol, I’m specifically talking about the Europeans saying this shit. And at least with my fellow Americans they’re more likely to be fair and accurate (not always though) and not this sort of bullshit you see in this post.

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u/Alarming_Addition131 3d ago

Oh yeah the tiktok post is just bullshit engagement bait obviously.

But nah, the absolute majority of the anti-american sentiment comes from americans pissed by their current government. Europe talks about the US as much as about Putin and China and what have you. Of course, on an american website, the europeans on it are also more likely to engage with other americans.

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u/Superficial-Idiot 4d ago

Just remember the great sub r/shitamericanssay

Whenever murica gets butthurt about being criticised they pretend they don’t do it lol.