America: The Grim Truth

Being passed around by lefty friends on FB.

50% nutty, 50% depressingly OTM

http://americathegrimtruth.wordpress.com/

anonymous dude ranting can fuck right off imo

Just another WordPress.com weblog

Posted in Truth

would throw a mug of hot coffee at the author

i only read the last couple paragraphs but why does this paranoid weirdo think it would be cool if everyone with the means to do so left the country? because that would totally suck for the rest of us in my opinion

I am cut to the quick by this grim truth. You might even say the author's opinions challenge me.

Why does he go to so many hospitals?

i found another great piece of writing linked on dude's site
http://blog.grantczerepak.com/2009/02/22/the-world-doesnt-need-the-united-states/

http://i.nuseek.com/images/template/360x318/ist2_746781_female_student.jpg

^^^ hasn't heard grim truth yet

lol velko

"the doctors just as good" in Europe as those pumping American kids full of ritalin/prozac/viagra, hooray!

http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/svn/tags/1.5b4/tests/images/very-cute-puppy.jpg

Couldn't comprehend the grim truth even if it wanted to.

I smell meme blog

solution: teach english abroad!!

this reads like a dude who's teaching english in korea or something

And really enjoying being away from his family for the first time.

I guarantee this guy smokes American Spirits.

Well, this article taught me one thing: jackal is not, in fact, spelled with a Y.

In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila

goddamn ghetto dweller in manilla, those guys get all the luck

This guy has put a lot of my worst fears into words.

Judging from his comments, he has spent a lot of time in major cities in some of these countries, and none in ghettos or slums. (Or, in the case of Australia, the Outback.)

stopped reading when he started telling me about "my" lifestyle

to play devil's advocate a second here, can anyone actually directly refute what this guy is saying? because if so, please do.

america's not really that bad

i love it here, i'm never leaving

n.b. I say this as someone who'd like to try living in America at some point

basically OTM about vacation/work, healthcare, crushing household debt, the usual leftist criticisms of the US
off-TM about the pending black helicopter surveillance state

This is kind of what I imagine would happen if an Alex Jones or Glenn Beck fan became a Marxist.

america's not really that bad

― harbl, Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:05 PM (7 minutes ago)

ringing endorsement

this reads like a dude who's teaching english in korea or something

― iatee, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:47 (Yesterday) Permalink

And really enjoying being away from his family for the first time.

― Il suffit de ne pas l'envier (Michael White), Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:51 (Yesterday)

^^^^

kinda OTM abt healthcare prior to HCR passing, which is gonna change the landscape. didn't get to the parts about vacation/work or crushing household debt, neither of which are really an issue for me (I work for a great company!)

He's wrong because sanctimoniousness is never attractive.

That makes him unpleasant, not wrong.

"Dear Benighted Americans,

so glad to be alive and well in europe, where there is no god and where my numerous and unexplained hospital visits are free..."

neither of which are really an issue for me

^^^^
future Republican voter

I'm not sure how HCR makes him OffTM about healthcare. Last I checked, I was still going to have to pay an insurance company and hope they do something for me. I don't think Obama snuck in a single-payer plan.

just joined a manila street gang fyi

I think we can probably all agree that the, umm, "problematic" leap comes somewhere between

(a) "lots of other developed nations provide some better quality-of-life stuff in terms of healthcare, education, income equality, vacations, public amenities, social protections, etc., maternity leave, etc., this list can go on forever really"

and

(b) "THE US IS THEREFORE SPIRALING TOWARD CATACLYSMIC SOCIAL COLLAPSE, AUTHORITARIAN/TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENT, AND MASS INTERNAL VIOLENCE"

one of my least favorite tropes is "you would be better off in [x horrible situation] because at least you wouldn't have this one problem that you have"

I would also definitely agree that this reads like the writing of someone whose knowledge of other places is not exactly comparative-government deep, and is possibly overinformed by, I dunno, personal-lifestyle experience, and talking to European travelers bumming around southeast Asia, as opposed to, say, lengthy study of social-mobility dynamics among Algerians in Paris suburbs or anything

I mean, it's true, Europeans really do seem to have it great when you meet them on beach vacations, no argument there

reads to me like someone who grew up without any real privilege in the us and is just being real

His description of what my life is like doesn't sound very much like my life.

more like kam u mad

http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2009/10/21/633917065496422535-tldr-t2.jpg

i dunno, the paragraph after the days of vacation list is pretty much otm for most people i know. but maybe we're losers comparatively speaking

reads to me like someone who grew up without any real privilege in the us

Except for white privilege, which is what allows you to not notice other countries' minorities and poor, and how bad they have it; and to say stupid things like "In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila."

it's true but i don't get the feeling he knows from experience or anything

that too

it's not stupid to point out the average indebtedness of muricans, which is his point there, pancakes

no i am way more in debt than the poorest ghetto dweller in manila but i'm not poorer because i had the opportunity to borrow money to get degrees, and i live in a real building and have enough food to eat, that's why it's retarded. "real terms" doesn't mean anything.

Maybe not, but "poor" is a matter of a lot more than just your personal balance sheet. It's also matter of "do I have a place to sleep tonight?" and "where is my next meal coming from?" We have a word in America for people who, "if they want to pack up and leave, they can" -- we call them "homeless." And nobody aspires to be them, nor do we think they're better off, "in real terms," than a middle class family carrying a mortgage and a debt load.

haha xp

average filipino in manila is not homeless bros

it doesn't say average it says "poorest"

In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can’t, because you’ve got debts to pay.
but you're right, quality of life is subjective after all

Dude read "Into the Wild" too many times.

it's an interesting polemic. strikes a nerve

Starving Somali children have no debt. How lucky they are.

They can just pick up and go whenever they want.

it is weird how few americans you meet when travelling. Like compared to people from way smaller countries like sweden and australia.

That's because we can just visit other parts of our gigantic, awesome country.

it is weird how few americans you meet when travelling. Like compared to people from way smaller countries like sweden and australia.

this really depends where you're travelling.

The Manila analogy is stupid, but I think he's got a point if you think in terms of mobility for working-class young Americans.

ha lil dude just took his first college class

social mobility for working-class young Europeans isn't so great these days either. they might not have to worry about their basic needs in the same way that americans do, but youth unemployment #s in europe are pretty mind-boggling.

xp

I was thinking more along the lines of geographic mobility, though, which is what makes the basic needs an even bigger issue.

oh gotcha

it seems a little hypocritical for someone with such a dislike for the American economy and way-of-life to advocate teaching English abroad. for consistency's sake, shouldn't a person like that push for English to lose its status as the int'l language of business and politics, so that the US would wield less and less global influence over time? teaching English to Indian kids is likely to do the opposite. eh, maybe this mysterious blogger just wants to use the position as a front to spread their Michael Moore-ish gospel more easily.

Healthcare was the one thing really deterring me from moving to the US, and I've found the same with my European friends that came here. We still came, though.

Dear American dude: leave all you want but please don't come to Melbourne, we are already crushed under an unsustainable weight of massive population influx and our shitty infrastructure (housing, trains) is crumbling under the strain.

Also, what taxi drivers did you speak to, ours are mostly foreign students who barely know how to drive and they're paid $8 an hour and get bashed and robbed frequently.

But hey, free healthcare right.

ok brace yourselves now

phew this is the one thats gonna get jjj out of banning retirement

belushi

was

never

funny

never once, never for a second.

any cultural differences you have perceived, tipping, guns, what ye get up to on twitter, it all pales into insignificance alongsids this basic truth

chase and martin are the low fat version of this phenomenon btw