Life in the United States is simultaneously cake and impossible - but if you think things are a magical utopia in other countries, you should probably make more international friends.
'Cause the world is kind of a beautiful dumpster fire everywhere.
One Reddit user asked:
What makes you sad about the country you live in?
And yeah ... turns out the issue is probably not the place, but that humans need to just get it together.
Divided
It feels like the "Divided" States of America instead of United.
People have seemingly lost the ability to talk to one another in a civil, productive way to achieve a better result for everyone.
Online, yes, but in person I just don't see that. I live/work around, right, left, black, white, rich, poor, religious, non religious etc and we all get along fine in political discussions in person.
Social media makes it seem a lot worse, I think. Some people are unreasonable in person, but most of them didn't need social media to be unreasonable
A Brazilian Grandma
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I was walking down the street the other day on my way to a friends gathering, when this very ancient-looking lady, dressed like a Brazilian grandma, approached me at a street corner and kindly said something like this: "Oh dear young man, could you please help me cross the street? I am afraid a car can hit me because of my slow pace."
Normally I am very happy to lend a hand and help people out, especially elders, but it was a quiet and poorly illuminated street in a central district of Sao Paulo past 10 pm. That means a perfect place for street crime. I only needed to walk 3 blocks from the subway station to my friend's apartment, and as a local aware of our high crimes rates, I was planning to do it as quickly and unnoticeably as possible. But I said yes.- mavaremkj
The old lady holds my arm firmly and we start crossing at her very slow pace. All of a sudden it felt like something was terribly wrong. "It's a trap" I immediately thought. "She's an actress part of a gang whose members will come out of nowhere, attack me, rob me or do anything at any moment," I thought. It seemed like a really long crossing-the-street minute while I was so sure something bad was going to happen to me. "How could I be so naïve?" and "I'm screwed" were my last thoughts... before reaching to the opposite sidewalk safely.
That was it. She thanked me and went on her way, leaving me feeling COMPLETELY relieved for not being a victim of a gang or something like that, and TERRIBLY bad at the same time for having suspected about her attitude and, worse, her sincere need for help.
That made me realize that my fear of losing my life has largely blocked my sense of trust and empathy for others, and how much of a commonplace this is in Brazil's today society. Of course, we have a lot of problems, but this makes me really sad about my country.
Indigenous Canadians
As an Indigenous person in Canada, I'm extremely sad that my native language was almost wiped out during colonization. All of our remaining speakers are elders. We are doing our best to relearn.
It's not even during the colonization! So many traditions and language was lost during the f*cking residential schools that indigenous kids were forced into. Thousands of children died. Thousands more lost their roots and identity.
The f*cking craziest part was there were still residential schools in THE GODDAMN 1990's! We Canadians should feel immense shame when we think of how our country has completely f*cked an entire group of people, but if you ask the average person on the streets, they probably have some deeply racist opinions about the aboriginal people in the country.
Sh*t hadn't changed. We still treat the indigenous people of Canada like absolute sh*t.
Women have been forced to get hysterectomies, CAS has taken children from families without justification, they are targeted by police, they are targeted for murders because killers know there won't be a serious investigation into the disappearance of an indigenous person. Its nice to think that Canada is so much better than the US in regards to tolerance, but I think a lot of us just have our eyes closed
- 0ngar
Tolerating Intolerance
Netherlands. We've always told ourselves that we're a tolerant nation, to the point that now we've grow accustomed to tolerating intolerance.
I expect a lot of Western Europe is feeling the same.
German here. I understand you well.
We are at a point in history where we need to tolerate these QAnon people who endanger our democratic and relatively safe lives with their "Corona isn't real" and "wake up sheeps of the system" bull.
We recently got a young racist douchebag of a woman drawing parallels between herself and Sophie Scholl (a brave woman of the resistance against the Nazis, for those who don't know her) - and we have to tolerate sh*t like that, because otherwise we are hindering them in their right for free speech eye roll.
So Much Potential
Everything. (The Philippines.)
I mean, you could name a dozen other countries that are just politically, economically, even culturally f*cked we are.
But when I read through our history, we had such potential. Our agricultural and industrial sector was pretty good after recovering from WW2. We were either ahead or on par with the likes of Singapore, South Korea, and even Japan. We should be standing alongside those countries as equals today.
But the 70s and 80s were wasted under a brutal dictatorship that embezzled the equivalent of billions of dollars worth of our national capital and left us heavily in debt. The political climate never quite recovered from the cronyism of that era. Our government continues to be extremely corrupt and dismissive of the public's needs.
Our job market is so terrible, a significant portion of our workforce has to migrate overseas for work. The "Overseas Filipino Worker" is like a labor class onto itself, with connotations of people being exported like cattle to prop up a dysfunctional domestic economy. It's also led to the rather negative stereotype that there are Filipinos all over the goddamn place, cos there's hardly a corner of the world where you won't find our people.
Just when things were starting to climb in the early 2010s, we elected the "Trump of the East" in 2016, an authoritarian who has spent the last 4 years dismantling our democratic institutions, persecuting critics, allowing China to infringe on our sovereignty, and waging a brutal war on drugs that has accomplished nothing more than an indiscriminate massacre of the poor. And he's not due to leave office until 2022.
So here we are, a poor, backward, shadow of what we could have been, surrounded by neighboring countries who have long since surpassed us.
Greek "Superiority"
I live in Greece and incase you didn't know, Greece is heading to hell financially.
I don't mind patriotism but at school they teach you about achievements we accomplished thousands of years ago as if they were yesterday and speak of us as if if we are superior to other countries because some took reference of our ancient vocabulary, and honestly I don't like that.
I Want To Live In People's Imaginations
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The way people think of it.
People are all: "BEAUTIFUL NATURE!! Freedom in the forest! The graceful mountains. The north-sea..."
Me: Normal county... ???
The way people think of Norway makes me want to live in their imagination... but I can't. The nature and environment people think of - that was before.
I'm never gonna know that. I'm never gonna be in it. It makes me think of people destroying the earth, something that makes me sad.
The Police Do Nothing To Stop It
Mexico
Every day there's 10 women who are murdered and our police system does nothing to stop this. There was a case of a CEO who murdered his wife and nobody did anything. The victims even report their abusers many, many times but the police does sh*t and then it's too late.
I live in a pretty calm city but now it's almost regular to hear about a woman being murdered or abducted.
It is horrifying. The fear is real. Even when we weren't in quarantine, we thought twice about even going out with friends or even at night.
In school it was risky to be alone. There were many stories of students who were almost abducted and this is just in my city but there's worse cities that deal with this every day.
"Outraged"
How tax evasion and small corruption in general is considered normal, despite being one of the causes of our high national debt. Obviously when a major case of corruption is discovered they're all "outraged."
Plus the growing intolerance toward immigration, due to some parties propaganda. I live in Italy
Unimproved Since The Fall Of The Soviet Union
Bulgaria
Corruption is everywhere. Our wages are laughable and it is even worse when it is time to retire.
Our educational system is mediocre, students are intentionally flunked so they can pay their retake sessions of which associate professors and professors take a chunk out of.
Our healthcare system is pretty much unimproved since the fall of the soviet union. Emergency medicine is late most of the times. Our doctors lie to the patients in order to perform operations that are not needed so they can take money from the state, which is financing some of those procedures.
We Used To Be
Germany.
We used to be a country in which everyone pulled in the same direction. Focus on education, expand the great healthcare system, get an balanced economic growth and reduce the number of poor people every year. Everything changed in the last 6-10 years.
Now we are a country filled with hate against those we don't really know and don't even try to understand. Instead of fighting real world problems we fight against right winged politicians who think it's smart to shoot people trying to enter our country or let them drown in the ocean instead of letting them enter the European Union.
We have to fight people who describe German history and it's actual representation as mostly fictional instead of learning from the past. The saddest part in all of this is: these people represent a decent number of people and their political views.
We should have learned from the last years but it looks like we did not. We drown in politeness and political correctness instead of fighting those who "fight the democracy" as they call it themselves.
Our democratic system seems to fail to protect itself against those who are determined to destroy it.
- El_Com
Something Bad Is Always Coming
Cuba is a country where we can't enjoy good stuff for too long because there is always something bad coming. For example, last year we got a salary increment - but then started a scarcity of food, hygiene supplies and fuel. We had a little bit of money, but almost no public transportation or diversity of food to buy.
This year, due to Covid and lack of tourism, the government decided to get dollars by switching our stores payment method from national money to US dollars.
We cannot purchase those dollars or buy in stores with them, you must own a magnetic card and you must get the money from outside the country. Guess what?
Trump said he had enough of us and forbid banks from send us dollars.
There are many examples, but living in Cuba is like that: something good happens and few weeks or months later something bad comes and F*CKS US, VERY HARD. VEEEERY HARD.
We Cubans are strong, happy people. We have faced adversity and survived troublesome times but F*CK! We just want to live simple, regular, happy lives without worrying about so many f*cking issues all the time.
We Already Went Through This
People saying Refugees (mostly Muslims) should live in separate places designed for themBasically camps. I live in Austria. We already f*cking went through this sh*t and people still support history repeating itself.The Most Blessed And Most Cursed
I live in Pakistan, it is the most blessed and the most cursed country.
Pakistan consists of forests, jungles, precious mines, deserts, sea, mountains and godly windy terrains along with multiple agricultural fertile land.
If utilized properly, Pakistan's economy could've massacred the other top ranked countries. But the only curse is that we have the most corrupted and the scummiest leaders, causing it to just slowly fail.
Even with nuclear power, Pakistan is heavily in debt with the US and other countries. Moreover, Pakistan's founding fathers and later on Prime ministers made some poor decisions to which residents are still suffering from.
Science
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I don't usually like to post comments like these, but I feel really strongly about this topic.
America.
Simply too many people don't understand or believe in basic science and health principles that should be common sense. Simply too many people fight tooth and nail against wearing masks.
It's so depressing that in the same country with a good amount of the world's leading scientists/doctors you have so many people that don't understand that we can eradicate this damn virus by putting a freaking face covering over out face and by staying 6 feet away from each other.
That in the same country we have so many people that swear up and down that climate change is false yet we're seeing undeniable evidence of climate change wearing away our planet.
That in the same country there are so many people who make their life revolve around politics, even things that were never meant to be politicized in the first place.
I haven't even mentioned the disgustingly expensive healthcare situation
Beautiful - But Ugly
Serbia is a really pretty country - like the nature and everything it's so cool.
But the people who live here are stuck with a mindset of people from the 15th century or something. They are all blaming AmEriCA for everything. I see so much ingrained ugly; like just a lot of homophobes , transphobes and racists.
Then they sit around wondering why nobody likes us.
I don't hate it here, actually. It's Beautiful. I hate the people here. Ugly.
- Nanat1me
Lesson Not Learned
We allowed a fascist to run and ruin our country. For the second time!
Like we didn't have enough in 2012 when his party collectively stole more money than the country makes in a year. And they tripled the number since February!
Slovenia
It's Not That Much Fun
Everything is small and there is no variety.
For a country only a few spots down the leaderboard from 1st place, life is surprisingly dull and bleak - unless you're into the same looking old buildings everywhere.
It's nothing like America, the country it's most compared to. In America, if you have something you want to do there is probably a store/place not too far that does it.
Here, if there's something you wanna do it means you need to either go on holiday or expect to drive across the whole country.
England isn't as fun as people make out.
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Real life contains the scariest horrors you could ask for. So aren't we all living in a horror movie, in a way? At least, these people sure freakin' were.
MisterSnowman69 asked: What was a moment in your life that felt like a horror movie scene?
In the words of the legendary Mary Vivian Pierce in the film Pink Flamingos, “Murder merely relieves tension”. I’m sure the following Redditors felt differently.
Nothing scarier than the woods at night.
Went into a real deep woods hike for only the second time in my life.
My gps broke and had to rely on my compass. Got turned around a few times because I couldn't remember the direction I came from, and it was getting dark. Lost the trail way.
But the woods are weirdly silent in the dark and alone.
It was around 2am by the time I found the trailhead.
Darn foxes.
the simpsons react GIFGiphyMy friend and I got lost late on one foggy night in the Italian countryside. There were rats all over and every once in a while we heard someone scream.
I've never been more sure I was about to get murdered than I was that night.
It was probably a red fox that was screaming.
Could've also been a lynx, but they are much rarer in Italy.
At least she wasn’t speaking in tongues.
My mom is quite the sleep talker, but it's usually pretty short and incoherent when it happens. One night as a teenager, I woke up to her scream-yelling the Hail Mary prayer (my bedroom was across the house and upstairs).
Difficult to get back to sleep after that one.
Sometimes scary sh*t ends up just being funny coincidences. Super funny. Right?
Don’t give them any ideas.
I was exploring an abandoned mental asylum and then got the scare of my life when a scary looking person inside one of the rooms was just staring at me without moving. Turns out some joker had left a cardboard cutout there.
And now I have plans this weekend... Just need to find a couple of cardboard cutouts and to break into the local abandoned asylum.
Don’t you hate when that happens?
Evil Dead Horror GIF by Coolidge Corner TheatreGiphyI was driving home on backcountry roads at midnight in heavy fog. Like can't see 10 feet in front of you thick. Suddenly I see an all-white silhouette running in front of the car. Every hair on my body stood up. I immediately think "oh god, oh f*ck, it's a f*cking woman in white, I'm gonna f*cking die"
Nope just a drunk who dove into the ditch.
Gotta love paranoia.
When I was about 12, my parents went out for dinner leaving me home alone. We lived out in the country, on a private road with only three other houses, surrounded by cow fields and wooded areas.
I went into the the kitchen and glanced out the window towards the trees and there in the fading light I could see a person walking slowly through the woods. They were wearing all black, moving slowly and appeared to pause behind trees. My heart started pounding so hard in my ears I couldn't hear anything else and I was weak and shaky from fear. I froze and just watched them. Would they come to the house? Where were they going?
This was before cell phones but I suddenly remembered my mom had left the number of the restaurant by the living room phone. Slowly, I made my way towards the living room, trying to watch this stranger in the woods.
Just as I entered the living room, all the lights in the entire house went out. By this time it was nearly dark outside. I started openly sobbing and in the dark I heard a weird boom like noise. That was it, I ran to my parents room, hid under their bed and sobbed. That's where my mom found me hours later (it felt like).
Well, turns out the stranger in the woods was a stupid cow that had busted through a fence, the lights going out was from an accident a few miles away (hit the power line) and the boom was the pilot light in the gas stove. Man, I have never been that scared in my life though!
I have a lot of questions.
A naked man who was covered in blood chased me across a park at 2 in the morning. I was totally alone. He just wanted money for a bus (????) and luckily nothing bad happened but I thought I was going to die.
But of course, the genuine horrors do exist. And they aren’t scary in a fun horror movie way, they’re actually terrifying because they can happen to anyone.
A scary few seconds.
car chase GIF by Mayans M.C.GiphyI am a "baby" in a car seat in between cousins in backseat. Dad is driving. This is in the 80s and it is my aunt's insistence that I am in this seat even though I am like 5.
A sleeping semi driver is coming over into our lane and there is a cliff on other side. Basically my dad did some amazing driving but semi blew us up. I am uninjured sitting in the seat swinging my legs while everyone is unconscious. They all wake groaning. Dad doesnt wake up.
Long story short just minor scrapes and dad has broken leg. But the crunch of metal and those few seconds/minute of being the only "alive" person was quite fear inducing.
Glad they’re all ok now.
Two days after my now boyfriend told me he liked me he fell from a zip line and broke his back. Almost died. 6 months later he got into a car wreck from a drunk driver - almost died. 6 months after that, he passed out and had to have emergency brain surgery, again, almost died. I now have severe anxiety/separation anxiety/and ptsd. That whole year was a f*cking nightmare
Edit: we're both okay now, the brain injury was almost a year ago. But TBIs take a while to heal so he still has side effects. Thankfully our relationship is still strong; he's physically getting better and I'm healing emotionally too. Lucky for him, the trauma of the injuries has caused him to forget the majority of the pain and memories of those incidents.
ALWAYS wear a helmet.
Driving home from work at 23, listening to my favorite song.
I pull up to a red light, and see this guy on a motorcycle coming up next to me in the other lane. I rolled down my window to compliment his bike when he stops. He doesn't, and runs the red light. He hits a car going at least 55mph. His motorcycle shatters apart, he goes flying, hits the hood of another car, and lands on the ground and rolls into the curb (no helmet). The car he hit with his motorcycle was totaled. I had to step over his body to talk to the police. He was still alive when they got there. I regret not holding his hand. It was just a normal day, and all of a sudden it felt like the rug was pulled from out beneath me. He was only 18.
Edit: The song was Sunny by Boney M., for those curious
What did we learn today, kids? Foxes scream like humans, shadowy figures are usually cows or drunken rednecks, and once again, PLEASE WEAR A HELMET WHEN YOU RIDE ANY KIND OF BIKE.
Scary sh*t surrounds us. But where there is horror, there are heroes. So next time you think you see a scary figure in the woods, know that Bruce Campbell is probably right around the corner
Hypocrisy is everywhere; it's like a disease. And sadly everyone does it. Some of us indulge in smaller doses than others. But some people live their life by it. Like how can you support civil servants, like police, firefighters, etc... yet try to find ways to hide money in order to not pay taxes? Tell me... I'll wait.
Manga...
Hungry Night Court GIF by LaffGiphyItalian moms that say you're too fat then say I'm making grandma cry by not finishing my pasta.
Asian moms too! Not only that if you try to not eat, they make to go containers for you. Oh, sorry I have to leave, RUNS AT LEAST HAVE SOME FRUIT.
Phonies...
Celebrities positioning themselves as champions for social justice while launching a clothing line with no comment on the labor conditions their garments are made in.
Sexy Times...
The Porn Industry
Why is prostitution considered a crime, but it becomes perfectly legal once a camera is put beside them?
I think the first amendment helps with that one. There's been many a supreme-court case about whether porn is protected speech.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...
You can get away with WAY more crap, in general, when you're attractive.
But we all kind of aspire to attractiveness and it's not like it's attractive people's fault, exactly. So what is there to be done?
So true. Money and beauty are treated like virtues and they aren't. They're luck of the draw. It probably helps you to be a better person if people assume that you are gentle and clever just by looking at your face or wallet.
KIDS
GIF by MOODMANGiphyPeople screaming at you if you don't want Kids and Kids are the greatest thing in the World and then turn around and whine how expensive they are and how annoying yadda yadda.
Yeah see... humans are a mess. And too often then not, personal conviction and dignity are just a myth, or a punchline. Double standards have always been a way of life. And many of us have begrudgingly learned to navigate.
Fashion
Fashion Model GIF by NYFW: The ShowsGiphyIf a skinny person wears something out of the ordinary, it's a fashion statement and awesome. It can even just be something like a crop top or overalls.
But God forbid a fat person wear the same thing.
Distractions
The hypocrisy hypocrisy. People love to call it out but rarely notice it on themselves and if they notice it then it's something completely different or a distraction.
That's the worst. I hate that I have to hate that. But if I don't hate it, then the hate will just continue. So, really, my hate comes from my love of an end to hate. So anyone who hates my hate hates love. And we must hate anyone who hates love!
My Morality
My own personal hypocrisy; When I was a lot less well off financially, delivering pizzas trying to get through college, I kept a cup of coins in my car. When a homeless person would approach me for spare change, I gave them the cup. Most of the time it was nearly full, so there was probably 20-30 dollars in there.
Now that I have a good salaried job, even if I've got a few bucks in my wallet, I tend to not even make eye contact anymore. I know it's awful, I know it makes me crappy, but the last 4-5 years have made me a jaded craphead towards people in general. I used to be so hopeful and I wanted to help everyone, and tried to live a life that reflected that.
Now, while my general and political morality is pretty much the same, my personal morality has gotten more grey. I'd jaded, I hate people, I assume the worst of people I used to assume the best of. I don't really care about the strangers around me like I used to, but I still expect everyone else to.
Placing Blame
Victim mentality.
It's so freaking frustrating when it becomes entrenched. "You did this, it's your fault" "you should've known to do x, its your fault" Yeah bro your problems aren't my problems and if all you do is make excuses and blame me for them, it's not going to be my fault when you don't develop as a person and accomplish your dreams. I'm sure they'll find someone to blame though.
In D.C.
Donald Trump Reaction GIF by Election 2016GiphyPoliticians work part time, are given free housing, education, and health care, and exempt from the everyday violence we experience, but refuse to lift a finger to help us.
At this points most people running for a position in the government are only in it for the benefits of being a politician and the amount of money they can embezzle. Well in my country at least.
Just speak a truth and live it. Yes, it maybe hard. But what part of life isn't? Hypocrisy is just lying. Plain and simple. And it's a sin to lie.
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