Been seeing a lot about how the government passes shitty laws, lot of mass shootings and expensive asf health care. I come from a developing nation and we were always told how America is great and whatnot. Are all states is America bad ?

  • applejacks@lemmy.world
    1814·
    11 months ago

    Yes and no.

    We do have mass shootings, but we also live in a country of 330 million (humongous population size), but every mass shooting makes national news, so it seems far worse than it is. Also, most mass shootings are gang violence that get lumped in with what we normally consider “random mass shootings” to pump up the numbers and scare people.

    Healthcare could definitely be better, but 67% of Americans are satisfied with their insurance. I would still much prefer a universal healthcare system.

    Overall, America definitely has its ups and downs, but a lot of the “AMERICA BAD” rhetoric is just part of a reddit-style circlejerk where people get socially rewarded for trashing it.

    Expect this comment to be downvoted from the same crew.

    • joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      319·
      11 months ago

      You skipped over the whole 50% of the population lost the constitutional right to control their own body.

      You skipped over a lot of stuff.

      America is pretty bad, and we’ll never get better if everyone keeps insisting we’re not that bad.

        • joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          111·
          11 months ago

          I mean, case in point: someone replied to my comment apparently not knowing abortion is banned in places in America. I don’t even understand how that’s possible it was everywhere on the news for months.

      • yenahmik@lemmy.world
        74·
        11 months ago

        See, this just isn’t true. There are a number of states that have the right to abortion enshrined in their constitution. Others are voting to have it added to their constitutions. Just because it was removed nationally, doesn’t mean everyone lost that right.

        Granted, it is absolutely a tragedy what is going on in the more backwards states. But things like this make it sound worse than the situation is nationwide. This is the issue the OP has. If you only see the negatives that are reported in the news, it sounds like the US is an absolute hellhole, which is not most people’s lived experience.

        • joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          82·
          11 months ago

          It is true that 50% of the population lost this constitutional right.

            • joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
              41·
              11 months ago

              Dude you’re not going to get through this with shitty wordplay. They did in fact lose a US constitutional right. This isn’t a debatable statement, it is a fact.

              What is your end game here?

              • yenahmik@lemmy.world
                31·
                11 months ago

                The point is that people’s QOL is highly dependent on where in the US they live. Local laws have a much bigger impact to people’s quality of life than whatever happens in Washington. I did not lose my constitutional rights to an abortion because I live in a sane place. If I live somewhere like Texas, I would have.

                The reason the rest of the world thinks the US is so terrible is that we act like the whole country is impacted the same way by national decisions. Or that all idiotic local laws apply to everyone the same way.

                • joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  4·
                  11 months ago

                  The whole country is impacted when rights are stripped from anyone. Look at what you’re saying: If some people are living a good life then it can’t be all that bad. Well, Elon Musk is living a pretty swell life so it doesn’t matter how many homeless people die in the street from hunger tonight, right? I know it’s kind of jumping the shark, but your rationale would call America “not that bad” if slavery were still allowed nationally but forbidden, in some states, right?

                  We should be judged by what those that have allow to happen to those that have not. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

                  • yenahmik@lemmy.world
                    2·
                    11 months ago

                    I never said that we should let people suffer. You’re the one who needs to take a step back and stop raging.

                    OPs question is literally: “Are all states in the US that bad.” The answer is no, some states are obviously worse than others. It’s the shitty ones that get all the air time.

      • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@midwest.social
        11·
        11 months ago

        You can’t lose a human right. Their right to bodily autonomy is being infringed upon, but they still have it, no matter what the government says.

        • joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          11 months ago

          I appreciate what you mean but the idea that human rights aren’t granted is just a philosophy, not something that actually matches reality.

          That is to say, whether I agree with your premise or not doesn’t change reality at all.

      • applejacks@lemmy.world
        118·
        11 months ago

        Do you think we should switch to the abortion laws that most european countries have?

        Do you know they are typically stricter than what we have here?

    • STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz
      91·
      11 months ago

      Go outside dude. “America bad” is not based on reddit, there are millions of citizens out there who have real issues with the way our country is run, real activist groups doing protests and trying to spread awareness.

      All you have to do is open your mind to be able to see these problems (instead of downplaying issues like mass murder) and listen to the people who feel they’ve been disadvantaged

      • applejacks@lemmy.world
        14·
        11 months ago

        Yes, how dare I look at the actual statistics over listening to people that “feel” a certain way.

    • Muehe@kbin.social
      5·
      11 months ago

      Healthcare could definitely be better, but 67% of Americans are satisfied with their insurance.

      No offense, but this sounds a bit like asking the congenitally blind if they miss seeing.

    • TurboTurbo@feddit.nl
      83·
      11 months ago

      Trying to downplay the old gun violence again? There is still this though: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/21/us/school-shooting-us-versus-world-trnd/index.html

      And those numbers only go up to 2018. This year, we have already had as many school shootings by June as during the entire year of 2018: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2023/01

      But yeah, I guess some people consider that ‘scare tactics’. smh

      • applejacks@lemmy.world
        44·
        11 months ago

        Yes, this is exactly what I was talking about.

        But yes, don’t let silly facts get in the way of your narrative.

        https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent

        This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” The number is far higher than most other estimates.

        But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government’s Civil Rights Data Collection.

        We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.