I don’t think I’ve heard a genuine complaint from a Japenese person about Japan, or a Spanish person about Spain, or any other country from a native.
Every country has problems. America is so big that its problems become everyone else’s problems too. If America sneezes the world catches a cold.
It’s not about the physical size, it’s about its oversized influence especially in online spaces. Plus we’re all writing/reading English at this moment so there’s an anglosphere bias.
Yes. I meant “big” as in influential. Lazy typing on phone.
Most people, Americans included, prefer to speak well of their country to foreigners and complain to countrymen. My hypothesis is that Americans perceive online spaces as uniquely American spaces where we complain to our ingroup, and folks of other nationalities tend to think of online spaces as “international waters” and are more guarded as a result, which leads to this perception.
It’s shite being English. We’re the lowest of the low, The scum of the fucking Earth. The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash, that was shat into civilisation!
Then what are the french? (/s)
deleted by creator
Agreed.
Interesting theory. Personally, I’m from the US and fuck this place, I won’t hype it up to anyone. But that’s anecdotal, of course…
if you haven’t heard people from other places complain about those places, you haven’t been listening much. everyone complains!
Happy cake day! Glad to have you here.
Try a space that’s in their native language. Feddit.org is primarily a German-language instance and its users are complaining about Germany all the time.
But don’t YOU dare come complain to us about Germany, how rude everyone is and the bureaucracy and the weather and how nobody bags your groceries at the shop. That’s way out of line and NOT cool and you’re wrong and a poopyhead.
There IS a difference between cultural differences and things that are objectively bad.
Germans don’t know how good they have it and should stop voting for politicians who are destroying the country.
Pretty much, yeah.
No, it’s an international thing to complain about the US nowadays. 🙂
People always complain about their countries in some form or other. Maybe Americans are just the loudest lol?
Spanish people complain about Spain all the time. Very low wages. Japanese people not as much.
Why would the japanese complain about the low wages of Spain?
Because it makes it harder to sell Japanese products in Spain.
working class solidarity?
Everyone had complaints about their own country. It might not be all conveniently on one platform or online at all. Or it might even be forbidden or negatively impact your social score.
Anyhow. Still it’s highly important to see on which level the complaints are. Currently comparing the US with the EU for example, I’m sorry, but the US is in some deep shit. Yes, over here we also have some (some even related) issues but your pre-trump situation was not all that hot to begin with (as a citizen) and went downhill fast now. It’s highly likely the US will turn into some once-important but then irrelevant country.
deleted by creator
Everyone complains about their own country. The Japanese complain about Japan all the time too - the whole “salaryman running off to start a ramen shop” dream is a complaint about th country. Just because you can’t see it means you’re not understanding subtext.
It’s not “subtext” when you straight-up can’t read the text (i.e. don’t understand the language) :D
You don’t need to read the language to understand what they’re meaning by it (I don’t speak Japanese) and there’s examples in other countries of this too, including English (in the UK it used to be the dream to run a pub). Anyone who “has a dream” where they escape the rat race and/or becomes their own boss and/or moves to “the country” or even out of the country is making a political statement with every one of those thoughts/dreams.
THAT is the subtext, not the actual text. It requires no deep understanding of verbal/written language, just an understanding of human communication which is more nuanced than simply what we say or write.
How are you even going to know about that if you don’t understand a word of it? Machine translation is too inaccurate to read forums and I’ve never encountered this specific dream of opening a ramen shop in manga or anime. Come to think of it, I’ve never even seen a UK person who dreams of opening a pub, either; I think you need to seek out very specific online spaces to see that kind of thing or talk to the people face to face.
Everyone is whining about the USA.
What language do you think Japanese or Spanish people complain about their country in? How often do you visit communities (online or wherever) where these languages are spoken? What nationality do you think I am?
You are obviously a white cis male American, just like everyone else on the internet is, don’t you know?
/s
People outside of a few countries don’t speak or read English all that much and hence would not be on primarily English speaking communities like lemmy, they have their own locally popular websites
I have plenty of complaints about Australia (and plenty more about the US). This quote from The Lucky Country (1964) still perfectly sums up so much of the country:
Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.
Australian houses are glorified tents that are too hot in summer and too cold in winter because It DoEsN’t GeT cOlD iN aUsTrAlIa. Our economy is entirely built around digging shit out of the ground and selling it overseas, and selling houses back and forth between slumlord investors. Our federal government is paralysed into inaction by fear of the blatantly partisan and hostile media, who are currently deliberately trying to stir up panic about fuel shortages. Our government is still too scared to criticise or stand up to Trump, and completely caved in to the zionist lobby after the Bondi shooting attack. I could go on.
That said, I would much rather have our current Labor government in charge at the moment than any realistic alternative, because despite my complaints I do think they’re generally competent and they are generally trying to make things better (I just wish they would be more bold, they have a huge majority for a reason). I certainly wouldn’t want to live anywhere else either.
I don’t think I’ve heard a genuine complaint from a Japenese person about Japan
I have and plenty. It depends on the person, the setting, and how well you know them.
