To be really emotional that tomorrow we will have a female Vice President?

[AngelicaElizaAndPeggy]

Everything has been so awful recently that I've kind of overlooked how momentous this is.

Go Kamala Harris and the Biden administration. 🇺🇸

I hope theirs is a force for change and renewal and decency and fairness.

@NiceGerbil

Thing is and I'm not being nasty or something.

This is a UK site. We have enough on our hands with 4 different countries, multiple languages, complicated history, cultural identities, Brexit, devolved government, NI and the whole trade thing and worries about, well. A lot of things.

I don't know why (maybe someone else knows?) why we have an every increasing number of posters from USA here. And I say, welcome! But although we share a language we are very different countries, thousands of miles apart.

The plight of girls in the USA... Poland just essentially banned abortion. Full stop.

French women are speaking out about incest. In the style of metoo on Twitter. Estimates are that 1 in 10 French (children? Girls? Not sure sorry) have experienced CSA. The stuff in Belarus. All sorts of stuff.

I don't understand why USA posters come here and expect posters to, I dunno. Be the same think the same know the same prioritise the same.

We have a shared language. That's it really.

I've seen threads where this UK site has had posters told to change their language because it means something else in USA. And even when told it means something else by loads of people, not backing down.

It's annoying. Stop it.

Yes yay America first black female vp. Yay for you. We're not American though.

Is there not an argument that with the US being the most powerful and well known country in the world that this sets the precedent for other countries/raises awareness.

No not really.

Death penalty. Anti abortion. Ask the religious stuff. Etc.

It's a totally different culture.

If USA people are going into sites around the world. Russian. Chinese. Asia. Etc. Then ok.

I suspect they aren't.

There are other powers in the world. Economically. Militarily. Etc.

I don't accept that at all.

China and India have bigger armies..

Loads of countries have nukes even though they aren't supposed to.

China and other Asian countries are massive economically.

The EU as a single bloc has massive military and trading power.

Etc.

It's a nope. Sorry.

@GodOfPhwoar sets the precedent?! It's America that has been extremely behind on this. I can't think of another country off the top of my head that has had such a lack of female representation at the top*. I can think of several developing countries that have been doing better on this front for decades.

*"Off the top of my head" isn't a great source, but Google has turned up the following short list of powerful nations without a female leader in modern times: China, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Saudi Arabia... And the US, which still hasn't had a female head of government, just VP.

I once read a great quote to the effect of, it would be easier to understand America if they spoke a different language. We would then more clearly see that it is a completely different country to ours.

(No, it wasn't "two countries separated by a common language", though that's good too)

Haven’t RTFT but she was chosen out of pure tokenism so YABVVU to be “emotional”. Also, Biden has just signed the death warrant for women’s sports so yeah.

I'm delighted Trump is gone but American politics is embarrassing with or without him.

Seeing the new president and VP address their nation in the manner of a spiritual resurrection with billion dollar Hollywood production values just turns the whole thing into an entertainment show.

They are public servants, not the effing new messiah. I feel so sorry that US citizens expect miraculous social change now because nice looking, articulate people are in office.

@bourbonne

I once read a great quote to the effect of, it would be easier to understand America if they spoke a different language. We would then more clearly see that it is a completely different country to ours.

(No, it wasn't "two countries separated by a common language", though that's good too)

It would immediately stop this ludicrous, dangerous and self-harming impression less critical Brits have that the US is in anyway a "friend".

Ally ? Sometimes. Friend ?

Intrigued to read that the Oval Office bust of Winston Churchill has gone into storage.

@MorrisZapp

I'm delighted Trump is gone but American politics is embarrassing with or without him.

Seeing the new president and VP address their nation in the manner of a spiritual resurrection with billion dollar Hollywood production values just turns the whole thing into an entertainment show.

They are public servants, not the effing new messiah. I feel so sorry that US citizens expect miraculous social change now because nice looking, articulate people are in office.

Nailed it.

I will admit to feeling momentary relief when Biden took the oath, but really, now that the "adults" are back in charge, it just takes the US back to being a more efficient killing machine.

I'm American, living in the UK since John Major's warm beer. Never thought of myself as "half American" as someone called themself upthread, but now that I think of it, yes, that fits.

As for me, I’m simply revealed that the attempted coup failed and democracy prevailed in the end. And also, I’m pleased that the new President is taking COVID more seriously and not encouraging conspiracy theories about it to spread.

I agree that it’s great that America has a woman of colour as VP, and I can understand why an American might be emotional about it, but it isn’t that much of a big deal for the rest of us.

Other than that, as a Brit, it doesn’t affect my life all that much.