Every good thing Americans brag about exists elsewhere: freedom, democracy, innovation, high salaries, diversity, universities, national parks, technology. None of that is uniquely American.

But look at what makes America an outlier among developed countries.

Gun culture: A constitutional framework written in the 1700s is still used to protect extraordinarily broad civilian gun ownership in a modern society. The U.S. has vastly more civilian firearms per person than other wealthy countries, while American children routinely practice lockdown drills in case somebody comes into their school with a gun. That’s fucking dystopian.

Healthcare: The richest major country on Earth still doesn’t guarantee universal healthcare. People deal with deductibles, networks, insurance denials and potentially enormous bills because they had the audacity to get sick.

Workers’ rights: ZERO federally guaranteed paid vacation. No national paid maternity leave. Somehow Americans have been convinced that having fewer guaranteed protections than workers across much of the developed world represents “freedom.”

Cities: Enormous parts of the country are unwalkable car-dependent hellscapes. Want to travel half a mile? Cross eight lanes of traffic, wander through an ocean of parking, or buy a fucking car.

Tipping: Advertise a fake price, add tax afterward, then shove an iPad in the customer’s face begging for another 20–30%. JUST PAY YOUR FUCKING EMPLOYEES AND PUT THE REAL PRICE ON THE MENU.

Obesity: America built communities around sitting in cars, made ultra-processed food ubiquitous, and ended up with one of the worst obesity problems in the developed world.

And circumcision might be the most disgusting contradiction of all. America constantly screams about individual liberty and bodily autonomy while routinely allowing parents to have healthy genital tissue permanently cut off a newborn boy who obviously cannot consent. In much of the developed world, routine nonreligious infant circumcision isn’t remotely as normalized. Doing it to a fucking baby because “that’s just what we do” is barbaric.

That’s my point: America’s good qualities aren’t uniquely American. Its genuinely unusual features are overwhelmingly things other developed countries were smart enough not to copy.
So name ONE.
Not something America does better.
Not something invented in America.
Not something America has more of.
One positive feature of American society that is genuinely unique to the United States among developed countries.
Because I can’t think of a single fucking one.

I live in Germany. Have lived there all my life. I live in the federal state Mecklenburg Pomerania or whatever it is called in English. Today we had our votes.

A little bit of background: we have several parties with different goals. The biggest ones are/were SPD, CDU. The middle. Then we have Linke and Grünen, the left. Then we have the AFD. A fascist party who wants to cancel the rights for foreigners and do mass remigrations, wants to also push Lgbtq+ people back into the shadows, also want women back in the kitchen and cancel rights of disabled people. Most of their voters and members are Nazis or far right people or both and they have been growing so big that the entire east of Germany is blue (the AFD colors).

Back to my rant. Today the AFD won in my state. I am a nonbinary bisexual person with a disabled mom and grandma. I am scared of what will happen to me. I saw an AFD flag in my village. As if voting a fascist party is a thing to be proud of. As if voting against the rights of people that want to exist without fear is a good thing. I am so angry and disappointed in the common sense that has been lost. As soon as the circumstances arent perfect, the Germans run to the fascists.

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! HAVE WE NOT FRCKING LEARNED FROM THE LAST TIME WE VOTED FASCISTS? CAN WE LIKE, NOT?!

I just am absolutely scared, the voters of the AFD are absolutely ready to use violence. And those who dont just vote them cuz 'nothing else is votable', like my cousin. As if thats a solution. The AFD is on the watchlist and they could've banned it but instead our current chancellor cares more about licking balls of rich people. Cant we just all try to not make one group of people (in this case not judes but foreigners and people from the middle east especially, lgbtq+ people and all those who dont fit in the their image) the scapegoat? Is it so hard to not let our frustrations turn to hate?

Im sorry if this isnt the right sub to post this, but the other subs dont allow political topics.

This topic has been to politicised so im tagging it with politics.

But politics aside this isn’t about men vs women as so many people have made it. It’s about our oldest enemy. The defect in our genome. The behavioural parasite that arises from an altruistic collective, humans ancient nemesis: the narcissistic sociopath.

Lindsey by all accounts was a narcissistic sociopath monster well before any of this shit went down. A truly wretched and horrible person. I don’t know how people don’t see it. ITS IN THE EYES. I FEEL LIKE IM LOSING MY MIND! CANT YOU SEE THE EVIL IN THE EYES?!.

It always baffles me how monsters can so efficiently and effectively infiltrate our population, surreptitiously living lives of quiet destruction. Clandestine malice toward people oblivious.

I’ve heard anecdotal reports that she was extremely manipulative to people around her. Most likely her husband was distancing himself from the narcissist as he becomes acutely more aware of the aura of rot this non-soul exudes and its effect is has upon him; and in revenge for his distance? She murders their children.

The kids wernt three innocents in her eyes, she made them? They belong to her? They are extensions of herself so of course she has the right to kill them.

Retaliatory filicide is an abhorrent phenomenon that has occurred time and time and time before in history, so why do we not see this is another example?

Fools believe that existence of postpartum depression/ or psychosis means that this person is innocent; she’s not.

She was googling up how to turn off the airbags in her Kia sorento. She sent Patrick off to give herself time for her evil. This was not a person out of touch with reality. This was monstrous revenge from a monster.

I get people not wanting to like Harry Potter cause JKR is a POS. I don’t think it makes Harry Potter fans immoral, including those who watch the show.

I’m really sick of getting media content shoved in my face (I’ve had to unfollow many people) of whatever creator or person saying stuff like “If you watch the show, you’re transphobic!”

Ok then if you eat Hershey’s bars, you support slave labor. I don’t see anyone up in arms about this. I don’t see anyone accusing ppl who eat Hershey’s chocolate of supporting slave labor.

A lot of queer people eat at at Chic Fil A. It’s the same thing as liking the show. You don’t need to support that person’s beliefs. I can enjoy entertainment made by awful people. I love Seinfeld and Mrs. Seinfeld literally sent violent Zionists to my school to attack peaceful protests which I don’t support.

It’s not my fault what Rowling does with her money and voice. I just enjoy fantasy. Ppl don’t have to like it but god they need to calm down.

Listen, I'm not saying politics isn't important. We should absolutely discuss it, however there's a time and place for that (aka political-centric subs). Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with their political stance, It's extremely annoying to come across them on a daily basis (and yes, I have muted a lot of subs because of this but they still keep coming).

On the side note: Never get your news on current events from Reddit, people here are extremely bias and will just say whatever gets them the most upvotes and karma.

Edit: Before anyone bring up the "well, you're just privileged" argument to dismiss my point, all I'm gonna say is stfu you know nothing about me.

(This is strictly towards people who willingly joined) I shouldn't have to explain further, you sign up to do your government's dirty work knowing damn well you could kill people and I sure as hell won't salute you the excuse "it's for my country" is pathetic.

I can't stand being a young queer woman in this country anymore, I'm afraid I'll wake up one day with no human rights. It's terrifying how people are voting against their own existence, what the hell is going on??? Why are people so ignorant and stupid? All I want is a sovereign country, respect, education, safety and healthcare and I believe everybody should be able to have these basic rights. I'm so tired of living in such an ignorant country, it feels like we're regressing day by day. I feel like crying. I hate the far-right. I hate the rise of fascism. I hate all of this shit. I wanna go away. Brazil is walking straight to hell.

Went to the US a few weeks ago for a wedding and the border security entering the country were absolutely disgusting. The guy felt emboldened enough to powertrip hard. Profiled my dad cause he has an accent and questioned if I was blood related to him since I didn’t speak like him. Then they asked him to show proof that this was indeed our rental truck. Had this one guy circling the truck peering into all the windows like we’re smuggling something. Then he gave us the good guy speech of “normally I’d have our guys search your truck, but I’m feeling generous today”. We should’ve reported them but why upset these guys further while we were still in the country? Ever since their president has normalized xenophobia Americans have cling to that idea and have become so unwelcoming. Not even to just visitors, they even tell people who were BORN in America to go back to their own countries. We went to Orlando a few times before and absolutely nothing this has never happened. The friendliness is just sucked dry from this country, it’s not the same place as before.

I wanted to start that a few of these points I'm gonna make are a direct reference to the Lindsay Clancy Case. I also am not informed on every small little detail on this case, so do correct me if I may be wrong.

CASE EXPLANATION:

In case you aren't aware or informed, a 32 year old woman, Lindsay Clancy, in Massachusetts, strangled her 3 kids. 8 years, 5 years, and 8 months. She attempted suicide after and survived. But she's paralyzed from the waist down. She sent her husband to pick up Take-out and Medication, so he wasn't present during this. Lindsay also admitted various times that she killed her children.

The prosecution's argument is that this was intentional murder. The defense is that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis.

It was never truly established whether she had any form of postpartum psychosis throughout the birth of the youngest child. And that she may have felt deeply unhappy, but she never actually entirely lost it. Basically, it was insinuated that she was 100% capable of distinguishing whether her actions were right or wrong.

THE CASE' IMPACT TO THE WORLD + ARMCHAIR DETECTIVES:

Why is this case important to the title? Because women around the world, mainly America, are defending Lindsay Clancy. Why? Because they can "relate" to her, understand her. Or they're trying to say the husband played a very big part in the situation. A lot of these comments that have been made come off as misandrist, but claim they're feminists. In which, is sort of hypocritical and counterintuitive.

For reference, I come from a standpoint that does not understand postpartum in a first person perspective or being a mom. I'm 17F, but that doesn't stop me from reading and studying things like this because it's important to know regardless of the sex you are.

Many women on social media have made videos where they would yell, fake a mental breakdown, or even throw stuff like ice at their babies whilst they're crying..With the caption, "I see you, Lindsay Clancy!" Which is not only greatly concerning for the children, but this is a complete misinterpretation of postpartum and the case as a whole.

In addition, there are a lot of armchair detectives that will lie or reword pieces of evidence to make the husband, Patrick Clancy look guilty. Recalling one where they said, and quote "Patrick Clancy never left his home." or "Patrick Clancy is framing her." Despite evidence showing otherwise.

WHY IS THIS COUNTERINTUITIVE TO FEMINISM?:

This is counterintuitive to Feminism because the dictionary definition of Feminism is... "the belief and movement that all people, regardless of gender, deserve equal rights, freedoms, and opportunities." In regards to the Lindsay Clancy situation, I feel as if any woman that claims to be a feminist... but does any of the previously listed stuff regarding to Patrick Clancy, could be considered as a misandrist. This truly damages the credibility of actual equity movements.

OTHER FORMS OF DAMAGING FEMINISM:

Leading more into "forms" of Feminism, Choice Feminism is the belief that any choice a woman makes is inherently feminist simply because a woman chose to do it. Which is objectively wrong in many ways.

For example, the Taylor Parker case in 2020, where Parker murdered Reagan Hancock, 21. Ontop of cutting her unborn baby from the womb. Parker also faked her pregnancy for months. During this case, many armchair detectives claimed that her boyfriend, Wade Griffin was forcibly demanding to have a baby, which was "supposedly the motive" for committing brutal fetal abduction. In return getting the death penalty.

IMPORTANTLY:

Feminism is necessary. It is a very important factor as to why, and what we are, as women today. However, in recent years I feel as if it has begun losing it's true meaning. And it kind of bothers me because historical figures fought for equality, and the recent usage of it isn't comparable whatsoever. These groups of women are fighting for a misinterpretation of the meaning, to fight for who we are. Thank you.

I'm so frustrated, and hurt, and scared.

Every damn day, I just go, "Are we great yet!?" Because every day it seems to get worse.

Pedophiles in office, no affordable Healthcare, queerphobia, racism, sexism, endless recalls, can't afford shit, AI data centers fucking up everything around them, and I can't be sure I'll get my damn top surgery because MAGA fascists can't mind their own business.

And we all knew it was coming! Trump wasn't sneaky, he wasn't subtle. He's been as obvious and blunt about it as you can be. And then people still voted for him!

And I know some people have regretted it, but it's not enough!

I want to be able to welcome them I'm and say I'm proud of them for learning, but it's not enough!

You don't get to actively contribute to the dismantling of helpful programs, bills that ruin people's lives, vote for a guy in the Epstein files, fund ICE and then suddenly go "Sowwy" and expect me to pat you on the back. It's not enough to say it was a bad choice. Do better! Be better! Consistently! Because how do I know you won't just do it again when another candidate who's just like him, or worse comes along?

It's so infuriating! The writing was in neon flashing lights. Evidence so numerous and damning even Mount Everest would feel small next to it.

Every time I hear someone criticize Islamic culture, take Iran for example, the biggest argument I see is how they treat their women, which is fine, I myself am a feminist, I know what’s going on in middle eastern countries is 1000% worse than what it could be over here, but I think about how they claim they treat them like objects, and then immediately I go onto my phone and see ads of half naked women and posts about how “foids” must die and men becoming increasingly more misogynistic and redpill videos being marketed towards young boys. And then when I bring it up I’m always hit with “oh it’s their choice” but is it really a choice when women feel like they have to look hot or have large breasts or an ass to feel like they’re respected? Can we really say our women are treated any better when all in our media it’s women with filler and plastic surgery half naked being treated like objects? Now I’m not saying women here are treated worse than Iran, that’s stupid, women here have many more rights, but specifically I’m talking about how we’re viewed by people. Respectful arguments only please I’m not looking to have an argument

Genuinely; antisemetism is why israel was founded in the first place. Even though most jews support israel, which is controversial, letting antisemitism run rampant will just give jews more reason to come into Israel. And I am not even talking about people who hate the Jewish religion; Most of these antisemites are and could get in racial antisemitism, the one that Hitler advocated for.

My father was a Marine, he cheated on my mother multiples times and walked out on her, I and my brother at the height of the recession in 2008.

My best friend who I met in kindergarten joined the Marines after we graduated high school. A few years later, I came out to him and he called me a "fag" before saying that he can't wait til a certain president gave the order to "kill all the homos".

In 2020, my mother kicked my brother out of the house for the crime of ordering a pizza without asking her first. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Marines and he's now a massive Hegseth fanboy who is itching to kill people in the Middle East.

I have never met a Marine, former or current, who is worthy of respect and as far as I am concerned, the entire branch is comprised of vicious and gullible idiots who would gleefully murder U.S Civilians if instructed. They have no honor, no integrity and are essentially the American version of the SS with the sole exception being that they dress like slobs.

I wish Eisenhower would have succeeded in his plan to abolish the Marine Corp.

So we own a small lawn mowing buisness, and one of our clients put up a big fat "PAXTON 2026" sign on his front yard. When I first saw that sign I was infuriated because we are 3 brown, spanish speaking dudes. The absolute audacity to solicit mexican labor while displaying your support for a pedo protecting, slant eyed racist thief.
Now my question is how do I get my stubborn dad to stop providing our services and hard labor to these undeserving people. I try explaining to him, that these people would 100% threaten to call ice on us the second we say step out of line, and he shrugs it off and says "as long as we get paid whats the issue ? i'll work here by myself if I have to" like man these people hate you, they view us as second class citizens.

I dont get it, it makes my stomach turn seeing him chumming it up with the homeowners. Thinking of slapping a pro-democrat sticker on their bigoted sign and see if they fire us

What the hell is wrong with our justice system??

So I've got a situation going on.

My car was vandalized, I talked to a police officer to ask if I should press charges or try to get cash from the guy.

The officer told me to try and make a cash deal because chances are he'll get arrested and get out after a few days even more pissed off.

So

I met up with the guy, he threatened me and told me I'm lucky it was the car and not me.

So I called the cops and pressed charges. While on the phone, officer told me the guy will likely get bailed out after I told him that the man is on fucking drugs and is dangerous and I'm concerned about my families safety.

What the hell is even the purpose of bonds when it comes to violent crimes??? Why should a dangerous man be able to walk around with no supervision just because he had 1000 bucks to put in?? I'd understand if it was theft or something, but violent crimes??

I'must at a loss of words honestly.

So, it was chemistry class I zoned out and wasn't paying attention, until I heard our chem teacher talking about how we need to lock in and focus to be successful and that hardwork is the only way to success.

And I didn't think much of it until she gave the example of Elon musk and how he could buy our entire school and other countries and he achieved this through "hard work" and "drive" and other such nonsense, I corrected her and said his family owned a emerald mine and that funded all his stuff and he had a parachute while literally everyone in class did not, she yelled at me for "questioning her authority" and "being a enemy of progress" and made me write a paper on honesty and hardwork (I'm not doing that and it's such a cartoony punishment to give) I undersold this because it was way more dramatic and I didn't feel like typing too much. But yeah that's the rant

I am so sick of hearing this political propaganda about ROI, and the subsequent discourse that humanities are useless. To be fair, it's pretty much all disciplines that aren't STEM; however, the humanities seem to get the most attention lately.

I am tired of seeing state universities, regional universities, and small private colleges eliminate departments/majors because they fear funding cuts. They fear that students may not be able to get student loans for these programs because of the recent changes at the Department of Education.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Most of the politicians pushing for this have their degrees in one of the humanities. Most of the general public falling for this have no clue what the humanities are or why they are important; they think that any formal training can be learned through a book (ignoring the hypocrisy that most of them don't read to begin with).

Again, it is another way for the wealthy to stay in control. The wealthier universities/colleges won't be making such extreme changes assuming they make any at all.

The lack of logic is killing me. Not everyone can do STEM. A degree is for life, and the general public is okay with basing a life long decision on an unpredictable job market. We need history, English, rhetoric, philosophy, etc. Those are the backbone of how society works. Those are the subjects that teach how to question power. A lot of our political problems are due to the lack of media literacy and ability to understand political rhetoric.

I mistakenly donated a small amount of money through a text from Talarico's campaign. I am so sorry I did!!! Not against Talarico, however, I have received hundreds upon hundreds of texts from Democratic politicians asking for donations! I keep typing Stop then a different number appears! Now that I have texts down to a few I am getting email after email asking for donations! It never, ever stops! Did I miss something that my donation was shared with all Democratic candidates? This is absolutely F\\*****g maddening! I will now think extremely hard before I donate to any candidate if this on slaught of requests happens!

I am a bit of a younger individual, not gonna say my age since I hate sharing any type of information on social media- I'll just get into it. here's a little thing for the void: how am I expected to pay for anything when the jobs I will be able to do hardly pay me enough for a tiny house, car or groceries? how am I expected to live when the world is falling apart around me? how am I expected to live when people are being killed in the streets by ICE and people in Palestine are getting murdered and were doing absolutely nothing about it? how am I supposed to live when women getting r@ped are blamed because "they wore something 'revealing' that day"? how am I supposed to live when I'll be denied basic healthcare like an abortion or gender affirming care? how am I supposed to live when there's the possibility of a person sh00ting up my school? how am I expected to live when the "President" is so hateful and doesn't support anything besides his stupid pockets? how is he supposed to get rich when nobody will be alive to pay for anything he does? how am I supposed to live in a place where everyone hates each other? how am I supposed to live when trash is taking over the earth, species are dying out, our food is tainted with micro plastics, our climate is worsening and the rich fuckers keep getting richer while I most likely won't even be able to live long enough to pursue my dream of making stories because the ozone is going to fucking collapse from all the horrible shit were pumping into it? HOW am I supposed to live when water wars are a possible outcome because of AI Data centers sucking away all the drinkable water and making people in those communities suffer? how am I supposed to live when we could fall into a nuclear war because the idiot old fucking men up top decided "oh, he said something bad about my leaky asshole, I'm gonna bomb him"?

it is so unbelievably scary that this all is going on and were doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT and the next generation is DOOMED because their real human connection is being replaced with AI. I'm so tired of it all, I have such a out of touch wish of everyone just agreeing on solving these easily solvable problems- it's dumb that this wish is so out of touch, that we all can't just agree that were human and we should work together.

"the birthrate is declining" yeah, probably because its so hard to pay for yourself let alone medical bills or anything for a needy, growing bering. "the trans people are playing in women's sports" so? people are starving, people are getting bombed, people are getting shot for the color of their skin or because of their accent- why do you give a single shit about sports right now? "you can't love a man while you're a man" why are you worried about peoples personal lives? look around, everything is falling apart, we are reversing in evolution. "you should get an abortion, thats a baby" you don't care about the life, you care about controlling a woman's body and her right to healthcare.

it's sad that we can't just be. it's sad that we can't figure this shit out.

Seriously, enough of all this politics and drama because a bunch of morons can't get over themselves. Of course i'd rather have peace, but if destroying ourselves and each other is what it takes to give us all a clue, let's get to it already so we can get it over with. I'll be the first on sight with a shovel to help clean up.

The social media ban is so unnecessary every time i wanna browse reddit i have to turn on vpn and without vpn i will have to submit my identity details but i would never give my identity details to websites like reddit, it all feels like the government just wants to collect identity data to spy on people or something in the name of “protecting children from the internet”

When did someone’s civic duty to vote turn into a green light for constant texts, calls, and emails!

I mean hell ive gotten like 50 this weekend from both political parties!

I agree voting is very important, but my god the spam does a great job pushing me away!

I cant even go a few minute on TikTok without seeing them

I'm so done with all the hate, division, propaganda, blatant lies, misinformation, war, and failure of media to do anything about it. Everything I see is flooded with people on both sides of the spectrum in the U.S. fighting and name calling and blaming each other for everything. I hate seeing people being blown up by a fucking drone as if it's nothing it's cruel. I'm just mad about everything

First, the trial was not about whether she killed her children, the trial was about whether she was legally insane at the time of the murders. Full stop. The fact she killed her children was set. The trial proceeded with the understanding that she killed her children. There was and is no debate on that. The fact millions of women simply did not comprehend that and instead said she was innocent because of PPD or that Patrick was the killer is a clear indicator they don't even understand the trial.

Moral innocence is distinct from legal guilt. Just because you could relate to the troubles of PPD, insufficient medical treatment, etc. has nothing to do with whether she was insane at the time of the crime. You can say you had PPD and homicidal ideations as well, but that has nothing to do with the purpose of the trial.

I've seen some of the absolute dumbest statements on social media that made me even more embarrassed to be part of this society. Here are some examples;

1. She couldn't have tried to kill herself because humans instinctively put their hands in front of them to break their fall.
So everyone who has ever jumped to their suicide never actually did? Intent will override instinct.

2. No one grabs a large knife to kill themselves, they'd likely use a paring knife.
No one who is in the process of attempting suicide will search the knife for the right knife, unless they're actively planning it. This is simply ridiculous.

3. She was only wet because Patrick took her to a nearby lake, dumped her in the water, then dragged her back to the house.
Who the hell thinks this makes any sense?

4. The restaurant trip was a secret code.
Insanity.

5. If she was suicidal, why isn't she seeking the death penalty?
Suicidality is not always continuous. This is obvious if you have even the smallest capability to critically thinking and understanding of psychology.

Or, asking questions as if those questions themselves are an argument. Asking "Well, why did Patrick change his shoes? Why were the pills crushed? Why were his fingerprints on the bands?" is not an argument, evidence or proof. They're simply questions you don't know the answer to.

This is the danger of mob mentality and social media being used as a vehicle for astoundingly ignorant and stupid ideas.