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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When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.