To think that America wasn't that great in the first place?

Sorry, should read, South Park not "Southpark".

That's because he's watched too many hollywood movies

And he's a fucking moron

Love Southpark, reminds me of my youth and watching it after the pubs closed!

To listen to Trump, America won WW2 single handed.

What do you love about America? We’re north of you in Canada and no longer come over the border for lunch and shopping due to Trump.

Unfortunately the 'slavedriving' and exploiting the 'little people' mentality has never left America . They won't even let cashiers in supermarkets sit down FFS.
This is what happens when a übercapitalist society that doesn't care about social safety nets gets out of control.
Part of my company's group is based in the US - many of the bosses earn six figures and do essentially no work, while those earning under $60K work 50+ hours a week trying to catch up paperwork the bosses are supposed to be doing. It's a fecking joke and unlikely to change anytime soon.

The insane orange muppet in the Whitehouse has just made things worse 🤦

Absolutely brilliant.

Fear is the basis of it all.

to be fair, without American finances and manpower, the Nazis would have won WW2

Completely depends what you mean by “great”.

Given they went from a few tiny colonies to the richest and most powerful country in the world within around 300 years, that’s pretty impressive.

Whether the way they went about it was “great” is, of course, another matter.

I personally love the United States, despite its very obvious flaws.

I take it you've seen the South Park style version of American history, @malificent7 ?

Don't not "done".

Yes, good points but I suppose the difference is there is no political party who makes making the country 'great' again their whole identity. The Brits done really do over enthusiasm.

Along with the Spanish French and durtch settlers. New York was originally New Amsterdam

Not just awful to nature Americans but awful to other immigrants. Chinese and Mexicans were treated appallingly. And slavery.

Could not agree more. These posts are a bit rich when Brits colonised a lot of the world, committed a lot of these atrocities, had slaves and participated in the slave trade and weren’t always awesome.

I completely agree - I’m Canadian so not the same (hey neighbour to the south) but my rents lived in the US so have a bit more knowledge and we share a lot of the same history..

It’s this lovely British arrogance that tends to poke through everyone once in a while ….

Isn't it precisely because the 'Puritans' were exciled to the U.S. that Christianity is so, well, puritanical?

And the UK is different how?

Do you feel the same way about Canada op?

@ladybirdsanchez Professional people in the US might be doing ok but about 10% of Americans are living in poverty. 17% of American children live in poverty. 11% of people (29 million of them) have been unable to access or afford good healthcare in the last year.

Hispanics earn 70 cents and blacks earn 59 cents for every dollar of income that whites receive.

The suicide rate in the US is 50% higher than in the UK.

The situation for professionals does not represent the whole of America.

No free healthcare

Nowhere has "free" healthcare. Someone has to pay. However some places are willing to share the burden out.

Forget the history: their whole system now is awful and I have no idea why so many don't see it:
No free healthcare, and even those with insurance can easily end up bankrupted by the limitations if they dare to get ill.
Workers rights are virtually non-existent. No maternity rights; little holiday; can be fired at will
Food standards are shockingly bad and Americans are regularly eating substances banned in other countries. Many have very little access to affordable fresh food
And of course the guns. Why the guns?! Such an insane number mass shootings every day that they barely register any more. No one is even suggesting getting rid of them, but even the mention of tighter controls and checks on who has access to guns has half the country up in arms (literally!)

Ditch and French too…and then basically everyone from Europe!

It has aspects of greatness and also the potential to be great.

I have been many times, have more extended family in the USA than any other country and know it’s not a monolith.

Yes it has a dark history that it tries to whitewash and downplay but it has not even been a democracy for 100 years. So still working through its teething issues.

Yeah, I read that too @EmpressSisi and thought it was interesting and very relevant. I read it during Trump's first term, to try and understand why so many people felt so disaffected. Agree Vance seems to have morphed into some horrible caricature of his former self.

Well the whole ‘American Dream’ thing, where everyone is meant to come and build their own success, is and always has been a MASSIVE get-out clause.

Why would you need the states help? You help yourself! Sick, poor, out of work? That’s your problem for not chasing the dream hard enough.

American city streets are littered with people for whom there is no safety net. It’s fucking disgustingly inhumane.

I don’t admire very much about how American society is structured, although I like my American friends and colleagues very much; at a societal level it’s brutal and wrong to me.