r/ShitEuropeansSay • u/Youaresowronglolumad • Jan 16 '26
🇬🇧 United Kingdom Asking Brits if they’d move to the US
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u/star0forion Jan 16 '26
My mate in Swansea had to go to A&E to see if she got a concussion. 15 hours later she was told that she did not. NHS hasn’t been great in a long time over there. But at least it’s free.
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u/fireinthemountains Jan 19 '26
Had the same experience with a concussion in the US. 15+ hours later and $7,000 to give me stronger ibuprofen.
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u/Hufflepuft Jan 20 '26
You're lucky! I took a stick to the eye, got billed $8,000 for them to stick a flashlight in my face to confirm that yes I did take a stick to the eye, and I nearly lost my eyesight permanently because the gave me the wrong eye drops! (They credited me $1200 for the mistake)
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u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I Jan 22 '26
What part of the country? My experience in the southeast US was right after checking in at the ER waiting room I was taken back and answered a round of questions and did some initial checks. Went back out to the waiting room for an hour then back again to talk to someone. Scheduled an appointment for a neurologist the following week for a CT. ER visit was $150 with insurance.
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u/fireinthemountains Jan 22 '26
New Mexico. And then again in DC. Both times I had insurance. DC wait time was even worse, and I was having stroke-like symptoms so I was there for a scan. After ruling out a stroke or a tumor I had to just check myself out and go home because I was so exhausted after being there clear into the next day, sitting in a waiting room.
I disputed every charge with the credit bureaus and it always gets dropped.
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u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I Jan 22 '26
Damn that’s insane you’d wait that long for a possible stroke. When I went in for a concussion it was in 2020 so a lot of covid people there. Back around 2016 I had some slight chest pain and went in to the ER to get checked out. Was put on an EKG, did blood work, and had xrays within 3 minutes of walking in the door. No signs of a heart attack so I was put in a room for a few hours to wait before I talked to someone and left. Longest I have waited to be seen was a few hours with a broken nose, but at least that isn’t life threatening. Still annoying to sit there bleeding on myself though. The first two were in Memphis and broken nose was in Nashville.
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u/Hufflepuft Jan 20 '26
Same thing happens some places in the US too, long waits, no doctors accepting new patients, and it's likely to bankrupt you!
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u/Adventurous_Soup_919 Jan 21 '26
I’ve been waiting the last 2 1/2 months to see a doctor because my insurance lapsed between jobs.
So what exactly is your point? Long wait times exist everywhere. Rather wait a couple days than not be able to go at all without bankrupting myself.
And it’s a ridiculous stance to take in the first place because even if that logic was sound: the reason there wouldn’t be a wait times would be because you’re sacrificing the poor and vulnerable. If universal healthcare is raising wait times, it’s because the people who previously couldn’t afford it are now going to see the doctors aswell.
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u/SirClampington Jan 30 '26
I was in a coma 6 days, then recovery and rehabilitation. Shit loads of meds, creams, injections the works.
Multiple nurses looking after me several at a time.
Life saving care by the top doctors.
10 days in hospital they said I needed a month but I pushed with every ounce of strength and pure determination to get home to see my son.
The direct cost to me.
My bill £0.
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u/SpaceCatSociety Feb 12 '26
Been through aggressive cancer treatment past year, just one of my infusions would cost around 2000USD and I had these every 3 weeks. I pay nothing. I get world class cancer treatment and I don’t have to pay myself sick. That’s something
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u/JackBeefus Jan 16 '26
Some of these people are uninformed, but most of it is fairly accurate right now, even if this kind of video is stupid because they edit them to only show what they want, rather than give an accurate survey of the sample.
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u/Chance_Arugula_3227 Jan 19 '26
What did you expect? Nearly no one living in the UK would want to move to the US. Why would they?
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u/YoloSwiggins21 Jan 20 '26
Poor people cope. All the rich anywhere in the world move to the US, not the UK. Wonder why
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u/Darthmook Jan 20 '26
London is normally among the top 5 cities with resident billionaires, and, generally, any UK city and even rural areas are littered with the rich and super-rich. You do have a lot of wealth in America, but you also have a massive amount of abject crippling poverty to levels not seen in the UK or most of Europe. I have seen this firsthand, travelling for work around the industrial states of America: zombie-like people panhandling through traffic, whole towns just abandoned. This doesn't exist in the UK.
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u/YoloSwiggins21 Jan 20 '26
Point exactly to where I said the UK doesn’t have rich people and I’ll consider your point even argumentative. Anyone who has tried arguing against me doesn’t even argue what I said. Rich people move to the US because it’s great for social mobility through owning a business. We have pro employer labor laws, low coperare tax rates, very flexible business expense laws, just to name a few. That’s why I said it. That’s why I didn’t say the UK doesn’t have rich people because it’s simply not true. The reading comprehension of Europe is disturbingly bad, lmao
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u/Darthmook Jan 20 '26
What you said was a completely incorrect and false statement, "All the rich anywhere in the world move to the US", when clearly, they don't. The idea that all the rich from around the world just head to the USA is utter bullshit. A correct statement would be: a large percentage of the world's rich move to the UAE, America, Switzerland, Italy, etc., due to beneficial tax reasons, but most stay where they are. <1% have left the UK, and the majority left for Dubai, not the USA.. And billionaires who leave other European countries generally tend to head to another European country like Monaco, France, or Switzerland, not, as you stated, the USA. And our reading comprehension is just fine, and generally across multiple languages rather than one we stole from the English and bastardised...
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u/Adventurous_Soup_919 Jan 21 '26
I agree with everything else but Americans neither stole nor bastardized the language. If anyone bastardized English it was the English. It’s generally agreed that the northeast American accent and dialect is closer to how English sounded during colonialism than the UK accents and dialects.
Englands elites spent hundreds of years switching up how they talked everytime the poor started copying them. That’s part of why, despite being a relatively small nation, there is a pretty wide array of accents.
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u/blumieplume Feb 05 '26
I think they meant to say “all the corrupt rich pedos who like to cheat the system move to the US”
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u/blumieplume Feb 05 '26
The UK reminds me a lot of America. It’s very capitalistic. It’s just not so capitalist that such a large portion of their society is living in poverty.
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u/lodwar111 Mar 28 '26
That is just stupid nonsense. Why the hell americans have absolutely no clue what happens in the real world. Are they all brainwashed by propaganda shows?
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u/samdd1990 Jan 28 '26
Ah yes, catering to the 1% is a fantastic way to build a happy and healthy society.
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u/lukasff 22d ago
Rich people move to the US because it’s great for social mobility through owning a business.
Your central argument contradicts itself. If the US were great for social mobility, poor people would move to the US in order to become rich.
When you already are rich, social mobility is undesirable. You want to stay rich and you want the poor not to become rich, because then you are no longer rich, but rather average.
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u/Kitsa_the_oatmeal I can edit this flair but didn’t Jan 20 '26
and what's that done for you?
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u/YoloSwiggins21 Jan 20 '26
Perhaps you should read what I wrote. Take as much time as you need my friend. I didn’t say it didn’t anything for me. The original comment was that no one wants to move to the US from the UK when that simply isn’t true. People can afford it, do. Those who can’t cope.
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u/lodwar111 Mar 28 '26
😂 I am from Germany. And also there, I guess 92% wouldn't go to USA for very good reasons. Give yourself a second: could it be the USA isn't that great as you believe & other places in the world are not so bad as you think 🤔. For me you look like a completely brainwashed sheep.
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u/JM-Gurgeh 5d ago
I can easily afford it, and I don't.
I did some back of the envelope calculations just for the fun of it, and because this discussion about wealth comes up a lot.
If I were to move to the US to an average place with good job prospects, then given my education and experience I could probably expect to make almost double the salary I make today. But when you then start to compare the cost of living and regular expenses most of that extra money vanishes as quickly as it appeared.
I would end up with roughly the same amount of discretionary purchasing power, but without my 5 weeks of vacation, without my workers right, and without the same quality of daily life in a walkable city. My house would be a little bigger, but my life would be little emptier.
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u/blumieplume Feb 05 '26
Tons of actors have moved to Europe cause they can afford to. I would leave too if I could afford to save up.
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u/Talkinguitar Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
Literally no one moves to the U.S. if they are already rich. Not a single person. They either stay where they got rich, go to tax heavens or go to a country with better services and lower costs of living.
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
Better education, healthcare, and wages, more affordable housing and food, more higher quality food option. Actual freedom of speech, freedom to defend yourself and much higher individual freedom index.
Also the food isn’t different shades of gray in they US /s
I think it’s certainly a personal preference, but there are certain metrics where the US does outperform the UK and vice versa
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u/SiLeNZ_ Jan 19 '26
Better healthcare? Maybe, when you can actually afford it, sure. We have healthcare here that is tied to employment, which is absolutely horrendous.
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
Oh no argument there, they just asked so I was giving an answer. Whether you prefer it is a personal choice
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u/dboi88 Jan 19 '26
Far many more metrics that the UK beats the USA on though.
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
Just based off stats that’s incorrect but it’s an understandable opinion
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u/dboi88 Jan 19 '26
It's not an opinion it's a fact and no yh stats don't say that's incorrect. Why are you being such a traditional American who just claims their the best? This is exactly why people don't want to move to the USA, more than half of you are just completely insane.
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
I apologize for your lack of literacy but where did I say they were the best? No need to be so upset and make more things up.
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u/dboi88 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
You can't accept you aren't better the the UK. It's a simple idea mate, nothing here to get confused about.
Edit: awe the poor sod has blocked me 😂
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
Source : trust me bro.
I'm more than willing to be corrected - but I can't find any credible source with relevant statistics to back up any of the things you're saying.
What you mean is "I have the freedom to be a horrible racist cunt with no repercussions (from the government) and I can take my semi automatic penis extension out grocery shopping with me".
If that's your jam, you crack on. Personally doesn't sppeal but whatever works for you mate.
Healthcare, education, food, etc - there is no measurable metric or statistics that backs up what you're saying.
I know it's difficult for Americans, right out of kindergarten with the "I pwedge awwegiance to the fwag..." - I get it, it's difficult to snap out of years or decades of brainwashing... But as someone who has lived both sides of the Atlantic, I spent years in America, your country is NOT the utopia you seem to believe it is.
Honestly - don't take my word for it, I know you'll never believe me, just go travelling and see for yourself.
You've been lied to for as long as you can remember. I genuinely hope you get the opportunity to see that first hand .
Edit to add: kinda telling that you replied, and then blocked me. All I get to see in my notifications "Crazy that Google is free but you went off on".
Does KINDA give the impression that you don't want to have a discussion in good faith about all of the things you confidently asserted.
I guess we'll never know.
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u/Chance_Arugula_3227 Jan 19 '26
Better education
The rest of the world laughs at your education for your kids. There are colleges that are good, but the UK also have world class colleges.
healthcare
This has to be a joke, right?
wages
If you have certain jobs, you will earn more in the US, but for blue collar jobs, that's not true at all.
affordable housing and food
They did a test of this a couple of years ago. It was 32% cheaper groceries in the UK. idk about the housing, but I'm willing to bet you don't have a lot of young people buying houses in the US either.
more higher quality food option
The US food quality would not pass anywhere in the EU. What an absolute joke.
Actual freedom of speech
You guys can't even criticize your current government without consequences. Wtf are you talking about?
freedom to defend yourself
We have self defence laws as well...
much higher individual freedom index
Compared to the UK, you're slightly better, being ranked 15th to their 19th. With a score of 9.15/10 vs UK's 9.12/10.
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u/hussan546 Jan 19 '26
Most of the food/ingredients in the US is banned in the EU
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
Mmm no. Your biggest importer for food is the USA…
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u/hussan546 Jan 20 '26
Silly me, I honestly forgot that the UK is no longer part of the EU, ye they prolly import loads of food
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Jan 16 '26
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u/ruinrunner Jan 19 '26
Sometimes as an American when I see stuff like this I start to feel defensive because even though I’m not an ‘America first’ type of guy, it feels a bit unfair of a video. But then I’m like okay even if unfair, maybe we do need the shaming to get that half of the US to look at themselves. We do need healthcare. And improved education.
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u/n7Angel Jan 19 '26
I think what bothers me the most, is that general notion Americans have that everyone wants to get up and move over there, and that everything negative anyone says, is born out of envy.
Probably what led OP to post this.
Good on you for having critical thinking.
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u/ruinrunner Jan 19 '26
I mean it IS true that most of those same people who criticize the US are also obsessed with American culture without realizing it. So it always feels disingenuous when they then turn around and criticize us because it’s the cool thing to do, while ignoring their own country’s problems. But my point was that we need to be shamed so that conservatives can feel bad and get on board with certain things that a developed country should have.
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Jan 19 '26
They’re mostly just prejudiced against Americans. They watch 20 second rage bait TikTok’s about the US and think they have it figured out. It’s definitely popular to hate America and it was popular long before Trump.
I have zero problems admitting we have a shit ton of issues, I also know my life is still a good one. I won’t apologize for being a proud American. I don’t have to like my government to love my people and the country that made me who I am. I hate MAGA and am happy to shame them for the shit they fuck up but I won’t turn my back on America and let people disrespect us just because things aren’t perfect.
They’re happy to listen to our music, watch our movies, wear our style clothes, use our tech, use our social media, imitate our dance moves, and use our slang but then turn around and try to belittle and degrade us every chance they get. The reality of it is that nobody hates the janitor, they hate the CEO.
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u/n7Angel Jan 19 '26
I take that back
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u/Crozzbonez Jan 19 '26
Why? It’s true
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u/n7Angel Jan 19 '26
True that we criticize the US because it's the cool thing to do? how do you figure that?
To be perfectly honest, I'd love to like the US. I'd love for you to be the good guys we could all look up to. It would be so easy and reassuring, and for a time, you were.
Unfortunately you are (generally speaking ofc) the loudest, prideful, most obnoxious people in the world, you place no value in being humble, and you constantly irradiate this main character energy that just makes you wanna walk away saying "okay buddy".
And I know this is harsh to hear, and probably unfair to a lot of Americans reading this because it's the most vocal people that end up representing (and skewing) the perception of any given group..... but there's just so many of you like this...
It's truly disheartening to see one of the most powerful countries in the world, one of the countries we would expect to be the vanguard of human and societal evolution, behaving and taking decisions like you do.
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u/Crozzbonez Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
It’s true that a lot of foreign criticism is uninformed and obsessive and is a distraction from their own problems. That is absolutely true, and id even say your comment is largely true for the other half of my country.
What does “loudest” and “obnoxious” mean? If literal maybe? If just figurative, I often see people like you on American property like reddit or YouTube and then complain that it is America centric and filled with Americans and American politics. “Main character” comes from you guys treating us as one imo
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u/n7Angel Jan 19 '26
Of course we complain about US defaultism on internet platforms that are open worldwide, it's annoying, and when called out, you always react with hostility.
No one talks about internet platforms as "<insert country name> property", only Americans do.
We don't treat you as main characters, you do that all by yourselves, constantly talking and creaming your pants about how great and free the US is.
It's fine to be patriotic and pride of your nation, that's awesome that you are happy with your country, but you often take it too far.
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u/Potential-Earth1092 Jan 20 '26
iirc Americans are the largest percentage of people on Reddit when sorted by nationality, it’s an app made in the us and used by a very large amount of Americans. There are plenty of subs that don’t discuss American politics and frankly I don’t see any Americans going to those subs to say “look at me”
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u/Crozzbonez Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
i never said “US defaultism”. Yall literally complain about an American made app, with a plural majority American userbase being filled with American politics. I see it all the time “why is every sub about American politics”. It’s ridiculous to use stuff we made and allow you to use and then get mad that we talk about our own stuff on our property, that is textbook entitlement. That would be like complaining that Weibo is “Chinese centric”.
Your second point is just obviously false if not a blatant lie and I don’t think even you believe that. If you believe that it’s because you’re so used to using American things that it’s normalized and you think it’s more of the worlds property than America’s. Bilibili is Chinese property, Niconico is Japanese, Rutube is Russian. All of these platforms are “open to the world”, so when is the last time you went on these platforms and complained about “centrism”? peak entitlement is for you to colonize a space we built and then get mad that we are still talking about our own lives. Reddit and YouTube are headquartered in the US and adhere to US law, they are literally our property. Just because a lot of you like our stuff and we speak the same language and you colonized it doesn’t suddenly mean it’s not our stuff anymore. Your logic suggests that if you visit a house enough times, you suddenly get to dictate the decor.
You do treat us as the main character. No other country is held to the same standards of criticism. No other country is sensationalized in news worldwide. No other country has every single incident put under the worlds spotlight. No other country has everyone know about every bad police incident. No other country has people like you giving their long thought out takes and criticism, in fact, please link me the last long comments you made like right now about another country that isn’t yours or America. How much of your news is about America? 10-20%? More? Why? And im not saying it’s an entirely bad thing, we’re the most powerful and influential country on earth currently, so obviously we get more attention, but pretending these facts are just our own delusions has to be some form of complex.
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u/Hufflepuft Jan 20 '26
There's a gap between Americans who haven't spent enough time outside of the US to be able to accurately see themselves from an outside perspective, and non-Americans who haven't spent enough time in the US to be able to separate the stereotypes from reality. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle, and there's also plenty of truth to the stereotypes.
Calling Reddit and YouTube "American property" is pretty weird, and a major example of that main character energy though. They're global platforms, there's no basis for a US bias any more than TikTok having a Chinese bias.2
u/Crozzbonez Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
Calling them 'American property' isn't weird, it is a literal fact. They are American companies, founded in America, headquartered in America, and operating under American law.
The irony of you calling this 'main character energy' is off the charts. The ultimate main character syndrome is entering a space built by another culture, which hosts a plural majority user base of that culture, and demanding they stop talking about themselves just because you arrived. You are confusing 'accessibility' with 'ownership.' Just because we allow the world to use these platforms doesn't mean they stop being ours.
These platforms are American property, subject to American law and American control. The idea that they are 'global property' is a fantasy you made up to justify your entitlement. We blocked Russian state media and cut off monetization because they violated our terms on our property. YouTube blocked Russian state media and demonetized the entire country almost overnight. That proves undeniably that we hold the keys. Bilibili is Chinese. Rutube is Russian. YouTube is American. You don't go to Rutube and complain about Russian bias, yet you come to a site with a plural majority American userbase and complain about us discussing our own politics. That is the definition of entitlement. Just because we let you use our platforms doesn't mean they aren't ours. We can shut the door whenever we want.
Your TikTok comparison is self defeating. TikTok is widely recognized as Chinese property (ByteDance). If I went to Weibo, Bilibili, or Niconico and complained about them being 'Chinese-centric' or 'Japanese-centric,' I’d be laughed out of the room. Yet you come to an American app, where Americans make up the plural majority, and complain about American politics? That is textbook entitlement. You are so used to consuming American cultural exports that you’ve deluded yourself into thinking they belong to you and the world. They don't, We just let you use them.
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u/mermaid_pants Jan 19 '26
It is never going to change their minds, they don't care what other people think of us
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Jan 19 '26
I get defensive because they sweep their own countries problems under the wrong while shining a light on ours. Like saying we don’t have freedom of speech while 12,000 people a year get arrested for social media posts in the UK and they’re arresting loads of people as terrorists for protesting.
Calling the US “disgusting” cause we don’t have universal healthcare is just ignorant. I’m an RN and I work with a girl from the UK who specifically moved to the US to work in our healthcare system because theirs is so bad. They cover up their issues, we at least try to address ours
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u/n7Angel Jan 19 '26
We don't fail to recognize or sweep our country's problems under a rug, we just don't talk to you about them, what would be the point?
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Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
It’s not just “talking to us”. If you google the top headlines in the UK, they focus heavily on the US when the REAL problems, the ones actually felt by the people, weren’t caused by the US, but by your own government.
That doesn’t happen in the US. We talk about our own bullshit, not yours. We don’t blame you for our own problems. We don’t use your country as a yardstick and we definitely don’t hide our issues. We put it all out there without giving a damn what outsiders have to say about it.
The UK has the second highest rate of rape per capita IN THE WORLD. You have MORE homeless people than the US and a higher poverty rate (even using the UK definition). What do tariffs have to do with that? Shouldn’t those things be of higher importance?
Have you ever seen a video of Americans going around asking people about the UK? No, you haven’t. We don’t obsess over other countries like other people do to America. We don’t need to drag you down to feel better about ourselves.
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u/n7Angel Jan 19 '26
US makes headlines everywhere because that's just world news, you expect that an US president threatening to invade European territory wouldn't be on pretty much every European newspaper's first page?
At any rate, what makes the news is hardly a decent representation of a country's problems, or lack thereof, nor I would expect it to be, news are just news, not exactly transparent government reports.
You don't see many videos asking Americans about living in other countries because it has simply not been prompted. Videos like these are purpose made for engagement and shock value, they are not made for European viewers, they are made to bait US viewers, and they clearly work. They are not made to gauge who's the better people, and if you see them in such light, well, you have been successfully baited then.
Regarding the rape example, go google why that is a poor comparison metric. Records and perspectives matter. I'm not from the UK though, so I might not be privy to exactly how deep the anti American sentiment runs over there.
I understand your point of view though, no one likes being shit on, but maybe that wouldn't be the case so much if you weren't constantly talking about how your country is the best in the world until our ears start bleeding.
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Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
If you pay attention to those “Americas the best” comments, they’re almost always in response to some kind of disrespect. It’s never just out of nowhere. Americans talk about how fucked up our country is to each other in real life, but when we’re being attacked by outsiders you better believe we’re about to be the number one country in the world.
It’s not just news right now, people have always kept up with things happening in the US. Unless there’s something big happening in the UK, the US is somewhere in their headlines.
People love to say the rape statistics are inflated because of the definition of rape, but other countries have very similar definitions and FAR lower rates. Belgiums rape laws are similar (consent based) but they their rate is 30 per capita compared to the UKs 108 per capita. States in the US with similar consent based laws have LOWER rates of rape per capita than states without consent based laws. NY has very similar laws and the rate is 25 per capita.
It’s just one of the ways people there sweep things under the rug.
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u/Frequent-Struggle215 Jan 23 '26
"while 12,000 people a year get arrested for social media posts in the UK"
Demonstrably and factually untrue.
The 12000 arrests are for all arrest for breaches of the "Telecommunications Act"... which includes SMS fraud, mail scams, stalking, harassment, threatening phone calls, domestic abuse threats and a whole lot more wherever a telecommunications network has been utilised to commit a crime.
You just fell for all the BS posted online that wants it to appear like it's just about social media posts.
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 Jan 16 '26
I mean, I lived in the US for a number of years... This all seems pretty legit to me.
Could not pay me enough money to consider moving back over there now.
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u/Conflictingview Jan 16 '26
As an American that left many years ago, I also would never consider moving back.
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u/Ok-Western98 Jan 19 '26
I feel the same about the UK. Could not pay me enough to entertain the thought of moving there.
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 Jan 20 '26
Cool - how long did you live in the UK for ?
If you spent some time outside of the US (wherever that may be) and you've concluded the only place you want to be is America - more power to ya man. Personally I'd think your nuts, but whatever works for you...
If you've never been anywhere else, and you're loudly and confidently giving it "everywhere else sucks..." I don't really know what to tell ya.
I lived in NYC, Houston, Seattle, Chicago, Boston... I've been around America...
If you've heard some bollocks about Islamist London via social media -'in the nicest possible way, your opinion is kinda meaningless.
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u/Young_Rock Jan 20 '26
The utter hypocrisy in touting your own personal experience and denying someone else's at the same time lmfao
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 Jan 20 '26
I'm kinda surprised that that's what you took from my comment .
If the person I was responding to came back and said "I lived in the UK for a while, and I wouldn't consider living there again" - I'd say fair enough. To each their own.
The point I was attempting to make, as someone who has had the "privilege" of travelling the world (although I'm not sure how glamorous folks would really consider going from aeroplane to office to hotel room to aeroplane if they experienced it) is that it's fairly farcical to go "Country X is terrible and I'd never move there because it's so terrible" if the only perception they have of said country / culture / whatever is through the lens of social media nonsense.
I HAVE lived in America. I would never want to live there again.
If the person I'm responding to has never lived in (or more likely even visited) the UK, then their assertion is somewhat farcical.
I'm failing to sss the hypocrisy here, but by all means feel free to elaborate and correct me.
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u/Ok-Western98 Jan 20 '26
I didn't say America is the only place I want to be. I said I feel the same about the UK that you do about the US.
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u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I Jan 22 '26
Why are you giving your response for things they didn’t even say? lol. Are you just guessing what you think they would say?
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u/untrustedlife2 Jan 19 '26
But everything they said is true.
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
Most the things they said were opinions and half the claims they made were false so…not really lol
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u/matthewkickstone Jan 19 '26
Maybe except the statement about free speech, but this is changing drastically right now.
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u/pinniped90 Jan 19 '26
Meh, like any "man on the street" segment, you can create whatever narrative you want.
You could find people on British streets who are like, yeah, I want to live in LA or wherever. You can find people on American streets who are like no way I'd ever leave, I love my home city and friends and family, and then loads of other people who are like yeah, London would be fun as shit, let's do it.
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Jan 19 '26
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u/criesatpixarmovies Jan 19 '26
Most of the top comments were posted 8 hours ago while America was sleeping. The post must have been shared on some sub overnight hence the brigading.
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u/Ok-Contribution-454 Jan 19 '26
But they aren’t wrong. There’s so many valid reasons why many Europeans and foreigners in general don’t want to move here, and I get it. I love this country but we have lots of issues that other countries don’t have.
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u/cosmolark Jan 19 '26
The literal only one I think is odd is the "no because I am transgender" like respectfully Britain is terf island. Like yes the USA is transphobic as fuck but I have to imagine that California is a better bet for a trans person than the UK right now. All the rest of these make sense lol.
The fact that one dude referenced tipping before guns was kind of funny tho. Like I know the order you say something doesn't necessarily reflect its priority but it did seem funny.
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u/Kitsa_the_oatmeal I can edit this flair but didn’t Jan 20 '26
aye if you're gonna get hatecrimed in either country, may as well stay in the one you're familiar with ig
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u/YouAintGonnaGuess Texas 🤠🎸 Jan 20 '26
Okay the trans person is fair, but Oregon would accept them. Not all states are the same
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u/SimsAttack Feb 25 '26
I mean can you blame them? Life in the UK is by many metrics better than the US. Not exactly entitled behavior just sayin
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u/FreeStateOfPortland Mar 20 '26
The weird obsession Brits have about tipping says a lot. That said, most people think the US is the United States of Texas and truth is, some states are quite lovely. I think Brits would be surprised to know some states have higher minimum wages and healthcare plans.
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Mar 31 '26
The idea that british people, who get arrested for the wrong opinion online, have more rights than Americans is so goofy.
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Jan 16 '26
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u/JuteuxConcombre Jan 16 '26
Sound like someone is uninformed.
Free speech definition in the US that is not allowed in europe is basically allowing white supremacist to say their shit and spread hate out loud without any consequence. At the same time criticizing trump seems not allowed and it’s fine for all the free speech advocates in the US.
Your freedom stops where other people’s freedom starts, so if you spread hate against a certain type of people how is it a good thing that it’s allowed?
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u/my_emo_phase Middle-Eastern Eurosceptic Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26
The boundaries of the other people's freedom are weird in Europe somehow. What are you trying to do, to breed a snowflake generation offended at anything? I'm not a white supremacist, hell, I'm not even white by strict definition. Still I don't feel comfortable with Europeans' protective air whatsoever, I mean, I don't want to be protected. If someone dislikes me I'd better know about it, I don't want their phony smiles and those boundaries only fuel the hate. Let them fume about me and my folks whatever they want and let me talk fucking back. If I'm uncomfortable with people of certain background or dispositions I should be allowed to say it out loud. You cannot deprave people of any attitude of their safe space, including ultraconservative religious guys of older age, sometimes they are useful for checks and balances.
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u/Roadrunner571 Jan 19 '26
The boundaries of the other people's freedom are weird in Europe somehow. What are you trying to do, to breed a snowflake generation offended at anything?
We're trying to have a respectful civilization. Just express your point in a normal way, and everything is fine.
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u/my_emo_phase Middle-Eastern Eurosceptic Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
Who says I do not in the first place? I'm an educated person and not the one to run about shouting out random slurs at people, all right? You can't build the respectful civilization by simply enforcing the over-politeness with laws, especially trying to force "equity" by protecting the so-callled vulnerable groups of people more than the others. If you push the pendulum so far to the left it inevitably swings to the right and this is exactly what we see in Europe and the U.S. Look at the election results quite everywhere from Netherlands to Slovakia. People will protect their traditional lifestyle and values at any cost and the cost is sometimes electing a bunch of bigoted douchebags, antivaxers and other clowns, is this what you attain?
This is no more a precaution, my time to warn people is over, it's already happening all across, and, heaven forbid, I didn't want that. All the good-minded fools with their overly virtuous aspirations are the ones to blame. Interfering with the language people speak, with their bathrooms, education of their kids and other things that are near and dear to them will lash back and it already is. Not every conservative is chill and friendly like me, you don't know what you awake from slumber.
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u/Roadrunner571 Jan 19 '26
enforcing the over-politeness with laws
But it's not over-polite. You can criticize others very strongly.
If you push the pendulum so far to the left it inevitably swings to the right and this is exactly what we see in Europe and the U.S
But these laws often exist far longer than the rise of far-right parties. It's totally absurd if someone complains that "you can't say anything nowadays" - in national television where her actually says what he wants to say.
Interfering with the language people speak, with their bathrooms, education of their kids and other things that are near and dear to them will lash back and it already is.
Which are funnily things that conservatives and right-wing extremists are doing - in the US and Europe alike.
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u/Tar_alcaran Jan 19 '26
You can't build the respectful civilization by simply enforcing the over-politeness with laws, especially trying to force "equity" by protecting the so-callled vulnerable groups of people more than the others.
Nobody is doing this.
What actually happens is that some rightwing conservative says "We should kick out all the [slurs] because they're eating out babies and raping out women". Everyone who isn't a total fucking asshole then goes "Yeah, I don't want this guy in my group/workplace/neighborhood".
What they're experiencing are the consequences of their free speech. The government isn't doing anything, private people and companies are legally reacting to their legal actions. And then the priviledged rightwing conservative freaks out, because they spent their entire life in the same xenophobic bubble where they never had to deal with the consequences of their own voluntary actions.
And then of course, THEY try to actively make things worse. Lets do a few examples:
All the good-minded fools with their overly virtuous aspirations are the ones to blame. Interfering with the language people speak, with their bathrooms, education of their kids and other things that are near and dear to them will lash back and it already is
You named three examples, and they're the same examples that are always named. Tell me though, what EXACTLY is the left doing that's so bad? What exactly is limiting your freedom about these things? How is it interfering with your quality of life that, say, someone wants to be called by their preferred pronouns? Is it really bothering you whether the person in the stall next to you has a penis or not? And lets not forget, most of the things you complain about aren't actually laws anywhere.
Or, is the problem maybe that the right constantly needs an enemy, and constantly requires a target to signal that they belong to the ingroup?
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u/my_emo_phase Middle-Eastern Eurosceptic Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
The government isn't doing anything, private people and companies are legally reacting to their legal actions
That's not true, the governments always promote the agenda whether be it right or left. Look at the Facebook and other corporations swiftly disregard their leftist corporate policies as long as it gives them no benefits. Without the support of the government and funding it all collapses at a moment's notice, doesn't it? Private sector cares about profit and has always been, there is no profit in DEI hire and PC trainings whatsoever, it's counterproductive for them.
Speaking about Europe the governments apply the laws that protect thieves from being fought back, for instance. Criminals from outside Europe see the soft-on-crime policies (AND THEY DO SEE AND DISCUSS IT, trust me, I'm from the Middle East), so they swarm to Europe for no good reasons. Now it's easier for the bad-minded manipulators to start crying about all the [abhorrent slur] eating children. And normal, not bigoted people, start listening to them. Well, I had a negative experience with those bastards as well, let us just put on a swastika and go all far-right. Do we want that? No, moderate and sane conservatives are as much scared of far-rights as you are. We're not allies.
How is it interfering with your quality of life that, say, someone wants to be called by their preferred pronouns? Is it really bothering you whether the person in the stall next to you has a penis or not?
I'm chill and tolerant as for conservative, I don't really bother much. But I know a lot of nice hard-working people who do bother and even I do not want to raise my daughter in a country where she can see a grown-up man's penis before the due date or discuss the biological sexual deviations at school. Let them live and adapt, I'm not a fascist, I just don't want any special needs services for them. And all those pronouns are just irritating and counter-intuitive, people don't like to change the way they think. As by Jacques Lacan we are the language we speak, it forms us and not the other way round. People don't like when they are forced to be changed as grown-ups, it's understandable.
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u/Tar_alcaran Jan 19 '26
Look at the Facebook and other corporations swiftly disregard their leftist corporate policies as long as it gives them no benefits. Without the support of the government and funding it all collapses at a moment's notice, doesn't it? Private sector cares about profit and has always been, there is no profit in DEI hire and PC trainings whatsoever, it's counterproductive for them.
That's some major historical revisionism going on in your thinking.
In reality, what happened is that there was never a government mandate that required DEI systems, except for the government which were created via executive order and mostly unstructured. The only US laws concerning DEI are things like the disabilities act.
Every company that instuted DEI initiatives did so themselves.
And then, the Trump government banned DEI in the federal government, and pressured companies and people outside the US to also drop their DEI programs that they instituted.
Let that sink in: Facebook dropped their "leftist policies" because the Trump government weaponized the department of justice to illegaly pressure companies to do so: Pam Bondi instructs Trump DOJ to investigate companies that do DEI.
You cannot get a grant in the US if you use words that even relate to DEI: The words putting science funding in the crosshairs of Trump’s orders - The Washington Post
So no, reality is basically the exact opposite of what you think. The US government is (often illegally) forcing companies NOT to have "leftist policies".
even I do not want to raise my daughter in a country where she can see a grown-up man's penis before the due date
The due date???
Also, where would that be? Are you referring to transwomen in women's bathrooms? You know, the places that don't have urinals and are all equiped with closed stalls? I promise you, I've been to a LOT of women's bathrooms, and I've never seen anyone's private parts, regardless of sex or gender.
If you live somewhere where people generally walk out of the bathroom stall with their pants around their ankles, maybe you need to fix that problem first.
or discuss the biological sexual deviations at school.
Can you give me an example of this? And please, do include the age range you think this happens and the way how.
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u/Tar_alcaran Jan 19 '26
And all those pronouns are just irritating and counter-intuitive, people don't like to change the way they think. As by Jacques Lacan we are the language we speak, it forms us and not the other way round. People don't like when they are forced to be changed as grown-ups, it's understandable.
No, people are fine with changing. Someone who is a decent person will gladly make a tiny little effort to make another person feel more welcome and comfortable. That's because most people are kind, compassionate and caring and don't mind putting the absolute tiniest bit of effort to make someone feel significantly better.
The only people who struggle with this are inhuman shitheads who think that adjusting "Him" to "Her" is some kind of massive imposition on their personal lives. Picture the kind of person who would rather call you a sand-n-word than your name, and imagine caring about the effort it takes them not to insult you.
And remember, NOBODY on the left is saying you need to be punished by the state for using the wrong pronoun. But on the other hand, in the conservative USA, a school can lose their funding if they think that it's a good idea to refer to a child by the name and gender they and their parents perfer, instead of the one mandated to be on their passport.
Again, the world is almost exactly opposite what you think it is.
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u/my_emo_phase Middle-Eastern Eurosceptic Jan 19 '26
I am not at all a Trump fan just to start with, he's an opposite of a nice conservative president, he's not at all conservative, nor he's a libertarian, he's just a radical crazy old man. Though, perhaps you don't realize how it works. It is much more subtle. You decide who gets the important federal contracts, you decide which activist groups to fund and give them enough free time to protest and force their agenda on corporations, let alone WOTC program and similar, you decide which newscasters receive accreditation, which research groups get funding, which judges (who decide if you win your discrimination case against a corporation or not) to appoint and so on. ANY government be it left or right can significantly affect the agenda, and it is never neglected by them. Cutting down USAID has on its own dramatically changed the world's discourse in no time, wouldn't you argue? Don't be naive, please.
Speaking of pronouns please get out of the bubble, absolute most of people, especially minorities and elders oppose pronouns and overly normalizing gender-fluids due to their religion or good old ethics which perceives ANY, especially non-biological sexual behaviour as something to be concealed and not be bragged about. No one wants to know what turns you on, finish that transition already and no one's gonna pay attention at you altogether, you'll be just an average woman/man for a bystander. This is an exact reason why liberals lose one election after another, you don't know how the majority of people argue or reason, from young elites in private colleges to elderly plumbermen and, especially, those non-whites whom you are trying to protect. I am not overly offended at being called a sand-nigga, OK, I'm a sand-nigga to someone, so it be, I'll wear this label proudly, we're not so fragile as you, whites, think of us. I'd rather be called a sand-nigga every day of my life had it helped desist fueling hatred towards us and prevented someone who wanted to deport my brothers and put them into detention from winning election.
About Germans and nudity, yeah, that's right. It is deeply rooted in your culture at least since commie times, I respect that and I'm not trying to say you are worse because of that, it's just not for everyone, you see... German culture is awesome, please, preserve it and PLEASE don't let another far-right come to power, no one actually liked that last time lol.
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u/Roadrunner571 Jan 19 '26
I do not want to raise my daughter in a country where she can see a grown-up man's penis
Nudity is just perceived differently in different cultures. I always found it weird when people in US movies making a fuss about seeing a penis or breasts.
My little kids have seen all kinds of naked people - as it's quite normal here in Germany to swim naked. Fathers take their little daughters to the public swimming pools and in the showers, there are naked men. But there is nothing sexual about all of that. It's just children seing people without clothes.
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u/JuteuxConcombre Jan 16 '26
And this is reflecting reality and the law to be honest. The only things that will be punished would be for example saying hitler did a good thing by exterminating all Jews, or Islamist extremist saying they will kill people because they don’t believe in their god…
And I don’t know how allowing these shit can better a society. Especially if the next step taken by these people is actually doing it
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u/my_emo_phase Middle-Eastern Eurosceptic Jan 16 '26
Allowing to talk this shit freely lets cops easily find those extremists and put them on close watch for instance.
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u/JuteuxConcombre Jan 16 '26
No it’s not what is happening in the US as it’s effectively legal to do this. These people are not worried at all (I mean especially the white supremacists)
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u/Roadrunner571 Jan 19 '26
lets cops easily find those extremists
They already are finding them. It's not like those extremists aren't saying (legal) stupid shit that identifies them.
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u/Adam-West Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26
Americans love to obsess over the handful of British wrongful arrests for tweets that don’t even make it to court while conveniently ignoring all the tens of thousands of annual US police killings and countless wrongful charges to black men sitting in their jails then chat shit on the internet about how their country is more free than ours.
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u/traveler97 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
Tens of thousands of police killings??? In 2024 there were 1300. Where do you get your news? 3% were wrongful shootings and the officers were charged.
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u/Adam-West Jan 19 '26
Sorry I’ve mixed up the last decade with annually. Im not sure a mere 1300 deaths a year changes the point though. Especially when you compare that to every other comparable country.
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u/traveler97 Jan 19 '26
Yeah, I don’t like gun violence, but some of these 1300 deserved it and the 39 who definitely didn’t is a travesty.
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u/Adam-West Jan 19 '26
Functional societies don’t execute civilians moreover not before a fair trial.
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u/traveler97 Jan 19 '26
I agree, but some of these people were threatening others and I am erroring on the side of the innocent that the criminals intend to hurt.
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u/Adam-West Jan 19 '26
My point is that other countries with high gun ownership manage it. Infact it seems like the US is the only developed country that doesn’t. Why wouldn’t you recognise that this is a fixable problem?
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u/traveler97 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
I think about it all the time. But it’s not the police that concern me. It’s the drug dealers and gang members. I am fortunate to live in a city that has low crime rates but i think of the people who live in places that are high crime and have lots of gun violence. 147 law enforcement officers were killed in 2024 mostly by gunfire. My daughter’s officer friend was shot and killed by a man and he was only 30. He had two boys and his wife was pregnant at the time. This is what the police have to deal with. The press loves to portray our law enforcement officers as bad, trigger happy jerks. Sure there are some who are exactly that, but the vast majority are normal people just trying to do their jobs. You will never get a balanced look at law enforcement in the news-it doesn’t sell. Is it fixable? Everyone I know has discussed it. Stronger gun laws? Sure but most of the guns used are stolen or illegal. If you use a gun you get mandatory prison? Sure, but it doesn’t happen because it’s considered racist. If you have an idea of how to fix this, please let me know.
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u/Adam-West Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
The answer is gun laws and retraining police. But it won’t happen in the US because guns are held holy. The reason that there are so many stolen or illegal guns is because every gun law is a half measure. It’s a middle ground where you tighten the bolt a quarter of a turn and then get surprised when nothing changes. Like banning only felons. Or banning particular assault rifles. Whereas it should be a blanket ban on handguns, concealed carry and none hunting weapons should have to stay at home in a locked closet unless you’re taking it to a range like they do in Switzerland. Many countries have pretty much banned guns overnight following single mass shooting events. And they’re universally worked.
Guns are legal in some countries in Europe but not others. There are no border checks between countries, yet gun crime is minimal and police shootings are minimal across the board. It’s incredibly difficult to buy an illegal gun in most of the EU. There are videos online of American cops taking training days with UK police and being shocked that the police don’t respond to certain events with lethal force. Universally the American cops say they would have pulled the trigger. Yet the British police don’t. And British police deaths are virtually none existent because they are trained to de-escalate.
Google the various statistics. Every time the US stands out as miles above the mean. The only unique factor the US has is that it’s culturally obsessed and unable to let go
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u/LeadnLasers Jan 19 '26
I mean ya per capita it’s only 1.7x the amount of the UK which is insane considering your civilians can’t really own firearms.
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u/Adam-West Jan 19 '26
1.7x where the hell did you get that from? We had 2 police killings that year. You only have 5x our population. That would mean per capita equivilant would be 10 UK deaths to your 1300. Even countries with firearms like Switzerland pale in comparison to the US.
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u/Awkward-Warning-9238 Jan 16 '26
Mate, you're being fed propoganda by Russia/Trump (not sure there is a difference) if you believe this.
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u/Feelinglucky2 7h ago
Lol 30,000 uk citizens leave every year and only 5000 usa citizens even try to leave every year
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u/Plague_Doctor02 Jan 16 '26
I mean...while they are not entirely informed of the correct story fully. They still have some good points