Ah, another insecure American post
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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I mean... tbf the USA is a lot more homogenized than Europe. e.g. Spain vs. Catalonia, and both vs. France, and all of those vs. the UK, and so on.
But even if that were not the case, you can see how it would be perceived that way - Television portrays this homogeneity as being fairly uniform, regardless of the fact that it is not.
That is always something that I appreciated with sci-fi, like Star Trek Deep Space Nine revealed that despite how Starfleet members were very similar, there were quite a few willing to break out of the mold and behave VERY differently - like becoming terrorists / criminals or whatever. Or like Battlestar Galactica where lets just say that people on some ships behaved VERY differently than people on other ships... or like Star Wars where culture ranged from humans and aliens being slaves on Hutt-controlled poverty-stricken planets (where those in power had everything and the common man could barely survive), all the way over to aliens and humans being slaves on human-controlled planets (where those in power had everything and the common being could barely survive)... oh wait, bad example there maybe:-P.
What bothers me, and this seems more Eternal September than anything else, is how people treat what is happening in the USA as a uniquely USA-only problem... as if the literal exact same thing is not also happening in MANY other places around the globe, plus also slightly different things are happening yet geared towards the same end-point. After all, literally every mystery I have ever read or watched says to follow the money trail... who benefits from what is going on? Exactly.
It's actually somewhat funny in a way: whereas on Reddit it was legitimately true, here on Lemmy the ~~American Exceptionalism~~ USA-centeredness effect seems mainly some Europeans being mad at other Europeans, as some want to share e.g. news about the USA (as if somehow that counts as "news" and "relevant" to "what's happening around the globe"), whereas others do not.
Also, I think you know more than most here just how many bad actors there are across the Threadiverse, spinning up bot accounts or even human ones to amplify some things and decry others. So I am ignoring that here and just focusing on what seems a genuine disagreement.
Funny enough, PieFed provides so very many tools that could help with that - post flairs (e.g. posts in a "politics" community could be forced to be labelled as "USA", to allow people to filter those out?), hashtags (likewise), keyword filters, multi-community Topic Feeds (so you can combine "usa politics" with "world politics" into a single combined "meta community") plus combining comments across crost-postings, all of which help combat the fragmentation effect that Lemmy has no solutions for (currently). But as with all of the above concerns, and again remember Eternal September, it is far easier to complain than to work to actually solve any problem.
I mean... tbf the USA is a lot more homogenized than Europe
Eh, agree to a point. While our federal structure is more unifying than, say, the EU, we're still pretty diverse at a region, state, city, and often even small-town scale. Even in my podunk shithole of a state.
I'm likening Europe or even just the EU to the US with each country/member country analogous to a US state. I feel like that's a pretty fair comparison even though it's not perfect.
What bothers me, and this seems more Eternal September than anything else, is how people treat what is happening in the USA as a uniquely USA-only problem
That too. I didn't want to go on a rant, lol, so I stuck to my main gripe.
Television portrays this homogeneity as being fairly uniform, regardless of the fact that it is not.
Yeah. Believing everything you see on TV is a whole other can of worms. I don't judge other countries by their trashy reality TV, so I often hope that's a two way street.
It's actually somewhat funny in a way: whereas on Reddit it was legitimately true, here on Lemmy the USA-centeredness effect seems mainly some Europeans being mad at other Europeans, as some want to share e.g. news about the USA
Yep. Noticed that, too. People complaining about "All 'Muricans think everyone everywhere has to care about their news all the time and flood everything with it" while ignoring the fact that a very large chunk of those are posted by non-Americans for whatever reason (often just to shit on us).
how many bad actors there are across the Threadiverse, spinning up bot accounts or even human ones to amplify some things and decry others. So I am ignoring that here and just focusing on what seems a genuine disagreement.
Yeah, I have tools to filter some of that out and am focusing on established accounts.
it is far easier to complain than to work to actually solve any problem.
Can I get that on a throw pillow or cross-stitch?
we’re still pretty diverse at a region, state, city, and often even small-town scale
I suspect it is mere laziness. Either in writing or far more likely, in the (lack of) thinking behind that. In the same way in which you cannot extract blood from a stone, so too conversations in e.g. memes@lemmmy.ml are not going to reflect deep philosophical insights.
Likewise believing everything you see on TV, or even bothering to watch more than a couple shows before making snap-judgements. I believe the word you are thinking of is stereotype - "A conventional, formulaic, and often oversimplified or exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of (a person or a group of people)". Again, some may not even believe what they are saying, just using short-cuts in their language, although sadly many seem to have drunk the kool aid there. But, the USA is not the only target there - nearly all forms of argumentation happening across the entire Threadiverse seems biased to me so I've given up nearly all hope of truly rational dialog, on any social media platform (it's possible, it's just so frustratingly rare that I cannot extend my hopes for it forever, it is simply too draining for me to do so).
Can I get that on a throw pillow or cross-stitch?
If you are an oligarch then you can get whatever you want!!! Otherwise, we can get fucked, it would seem. 😰
Don't forget also: people are mad, and disappointed. And that is understandable, as we are as well (highly ironically, virtually everyone across the entire USA seems to feel that right now, making it like the ONE THING that we all have in common? both among ourselves and with our European and Global South and Asian and other brethren and sistren and other). It is emotionally a protective measure to "blame someone else", rather than take even the slightest responsibility for oneself, e.g. for placing too high hopes in the status quo, despite literally all of history, recorded & otherwise. An example could be the mantra "number must go up", which is literally (not figuratively!!) ridiculous even on its face, and yet almost everyone that I've ever met seems to have gone all-in into believing that it would hold out pretty much forever...
(censuring myself here b/c I typed out a political-themed paragraph but according to rule 2 decided against sending it)
It is not just some European users of Lemmy that are stupid - it's me too, all of us! :-P We all have biases in our thinking, sometimes. It is simply easier to see such in someone else than it is in ourselves.
Anyone anywhere who believes government approved tellevising to be remotely representative of truth.
Not a european problem specifically though. More of a unsurprising human Voight Kampff test failure. (Turtle island is upside down in the sun. wyd?)
Nothing. I work and or know people from the following European Countries :
- England
- Ireland
- France
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Serbia
- Germany
- Italy
"The Americans are so loud about freedoms and guns but they can't even put down this fascist regime"
That's because the loud ones are the fascists y'all
And since there’s lots of potshot posts going around just to shit on Americans for the crime of existing, I feel turnabout’s fair play.
I'm american and I don't feel that way. If you're offended by any of the posts calling out the way some americans act then you should examine yourself, not complain about europeans.
I'm not offended by posts shitting on americans who act a certain way because I don't act like that.
calling out the way SOME americans act
Emphases clearly mine. Stereotyping 350 million people based off the behavior of a minority isn't exactly productive. They're not saying "some Americans" in these potshot posts; they're stereotyping all of us, and I definitely have a right to be offended by ugly stereotypes.