America: Love it or leave it again!

There's a certain unnamed subreddit that not surprisingly has decided that American citizens should leave if they want to criticize America. After all, everyone wants to be in America. Sort of like how everyone saw London as a beacon of liberty in the 19th Century or Rome in the 2nd Century.

So I decided to look at international polls.

2007:
A survey carried out in June by Harris Research for the Financial Times shows that 32 per cent of respondents in five European countries regard the US as a bigger threat than any other state. In the US itself, North Korea and Iran are seen as the biggest risks. However, the youngest US respondents share the Europeans’ view that theirs is the biggest threat, with 35 per cent of American 16- to 24-year-olds identifying it as the chief danger to stability.

2014:
The United States is the greatest threat to world peace. That’s the finding of an end-of-the- year, WIN/Gallup International survey of people in 65 countries.

Of the 66,000 people polled, just under a quarter named Uncle Sam as the greatest threat to world peace.

Other menaces didn’t even come close: 8 percent named Pakistan, putting that country in second place, while 6 percent named China. A mere 4 percent found Iran threatening — which tied it with Israel.

2017-2018:
According to a 2017 Pew survey, 39% of respondents across 38 countries consider U.S. influence and power a major threat to their countries, compared to 31% for both Russia and China. That’s up from 25% in 2013, when the survey was conducted previously.

Approval of U.S. global leadership fell to 30% worldwide, per a January Gallup poll. That’s narrowly behind China (31%) and ahead of Russia (27%). It’s also the lowest score in the 10 years the survey has been conducted, and down from 48% in Barack Obama’s last year.

Meanwhile, some NATO allies like Germany apparently see the threat to the west as larger than the one to the east. 35% of Germans view the U.S. as a major threat, compared to 33% for Russia. Meanwhile, as relations with Trump have soured,

However, every liberal will tell you that everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine. Sort of like how conservatives will tell you how everything changed with 9-11. But did it really?

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usefewersyllables's picture

of course, my mid- to long-term plan is to have this country receding in my rearview mirrors as soon as humanly possible.

Don't know if I'll actually live long enough to make it happen. But if I can, I sure as hell will.

Happy to oblige 'em.

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18 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

snoopydawg's picture

don’t have free speech after we just found out how much Biden and the intelligence agencies have been removing it from social media and more.

And to deny what America really is takes some mind boggling thinking. Apparently America is just a misunderstood country that means to protect people from dictators and to spread freedom and democracy everywhere whilst accidentally killing close to 30 million people in 80 years not to mention the millions before then. I’ve said numerous times that Americans are very ignorant of their country’s history. They seriously believe that Putin just woke up one day and decided to invade Ukraine on his way to conquering all of Europe and they have no idea what their own country has done there for decades, but especially since 2014.

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22 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

usefewersyllables's picture

@snoopydawg

Joe and Mary Sixpack have a staggering lack of curiosity and imagination, and an equally staggering willingness to believe whoever is shouting the loudest.

And the shouting has always been "USA! USA! We're exceptional! We set the standard! We're the best!"

Yes. Why yes, we are. Our last remaining export product is "wholesale death", and by Gawd there's never been anybody better at it.

The shit we create hasn't really come to *our* shores, yet. Yet. I do not believe that that pleasant state of affairs will last much longer.

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18 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@snoopydawg ...many of these are now people WHO OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER, AND DID.

It doesn't even make sense.

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6 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Pluto's Republic's picture

... that has decided that American citizens should leave if they want to criticize America.

When you are constantly aware that the place you live is socially and morally bankrupt — and nothing you do in your lifetime will change that — it harms the soul to remain there.

Life is short. You deserve better. It is in the evolutionary DNA of humans to migrate to seek good fortune and a happier life. Even if you think it is too late, it is better to be following the path toward an extraordinary life than suspended in a place that you reject. That's how I see it.

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12 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Pluto's Republic You ever moved? It's hard.

Moving to a new place in the city you already live in is hard.
Moving to a new city in the same general region? Harder.
Moving to a different state in the same empire? Much harder.

Imagine moving to a new COUNTRY.

Sure, most of my great-grandparents did it, but that was...different; somehow, they could do things that it seems can no longer be done.

And for what? What'll they have? What's to be gained? How is one supposed to start a life there? You're in deep shit if you don't have housing and income arranged beforehand.

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6 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat You get a job and a place to live. Same everywhere. It's a lot easier in other countries than it is here. Get good with your visas though, overstaying your visa can get you deported quick, some places cost hundreds per day for overstays. Working on a tourist visa can get you in jail too but mostly they ignore it or fire you.

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1 user has voted.

@ban nock I

t's a lot easier in other countries than it is here.

Some countries are easier than others.

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2 users have voted.

@gjohnsit N/t

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2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@ban nock It can land you in jail, freeze your bank accounts. I do not advise that at all.

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3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

janis b's picture

There’s almost 20 years difference between the highs of 2002 and 2021.
In my recollection the highs of 2002 represented the false allegiance generated by the weapons of mass destruction attributed to Iraq and the Osama Bin Laden hysteria. Interestingly, according to the graph the next high was during covid hysteria.

I really don’t know what to make of this.

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8 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@janis b

hope everything is working out in your woods. When it comes to woods, I can't see the forest for the trees anymore.

I just try to fight my depressive mood, these days.

Be well and have a good one, Janis.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Boy did he have people snowed into believing that he was who he said he was.

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/10/01/a-company-family-the-untold-...

I think many already knew some of his history which I had heard about for years, but not to what extent his background with the CIA was and especially his mother. Of course the ford foundation is a CIA front. I doubt that Obama has ever had democratic leanings or ideals. Just convent to use

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11 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

mimi's picture

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5 users have voted.

Being a threat to whirled peas or whatever is great, but do most people want to live here?

I would think most people everywhere would like to stay where they are.It's human nature not to be uprooted from family and friends. Just google it. The US is the top desired destination by 2 to 1. Coming in second is that place N of us where they live in igloos. 750 million wanted to move back ten years ago, that's not too many considering the world's population.

I moved back to America by choice. Not perfect, lots to complain about, but overall the best I've seen.

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@ban nock
Honduras and guatemala are two of the primary countries for refugees coming to Ameirca, despite (or because) our foreign policy destroying those countries.

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5 users have voted.

@gjohnsit Refugees? Everyone I've talked to had to come up with a lot of cash to get here, family and friends contributing. People don't come here because they are destitute, or because of a war, they come here because they can make a lot of money. From Mexico the going rate is somewhere over $10,000. Refugees stop at the first safe place, like the Kareni pouring over the Thai border today.

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1 user has voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@gjohnsit ...How long before enough such individuals coagulate in the US to realize they could and ought to be launching some sort of vengeful conspiracy?

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1 user has voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!