AIBU to want Americans to stop using the phrase "leader of the free world"?

[Mittens67]

The term originated during the cold war implying moral and symbolic leadership of democracy.
It has continued in common usage with America viewing itself as the centre of world.
I find this hugely arrogant at the best of times but given the current debacle with an orange megalomaniac in the white house, a person who has no morals at all and is intent on over turning democracy if he possibly can, it is utterly abhorrent.

YABU to be bothered about what other people do or say, you won't change it ergo you'll always be annoyed.

YANBU. There’s nowhere arguably less free than America in the free world.
They are now described as a ‘flawed democracy’ and rapidly heading south of that.
women no longer have equal rights and neither do LGBTQI individuals or different ethnicities. Revolting ‘leadership’ where one individual can single handedly revoke all checks and balances that promote fair treatment.

I agree, it's laughable

There's a reel on Instagram from a show called The Newsroom where Jeff Daniels tells a young woman how far down the rankings the USA is on the world stage. This was some years ago now and I think they may have sunk even further.

Americans are told this lie from when they are at school.

Yet JD Vance has the audacity to tell us where WE are going wrong.

America is not the greatest country in the world

Gaslighting on a global scale.
Free to what exactly?

You cannot consider yourself to have free elections when you can only vote for millionaires and billionaires or the puppets thereof.

America was instrumental in nurturing democracy in Western Europe, and for that gift I am grateful. But the values we adopted and upheld are not American. And the current administration represents the biggest threat to freedom that Europe has faced in a century. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/03/musk-tech-oligarch-european-election-influence/681453/

Completely agree, it’s jarring and ridiculous, and factually untrue that America is any more ‘free’ than European countries, which mostly have a much higher standard of living.

The maternity care and allowances for support and time off are almost non existent.. It's all about capitalism and work.
Personally I think it's awful that such a huge powerful country expects as a matter of course babies to go in nursery from 3 month.

That's not progressive or leading from a human not a capitalist point of view.

I'm extremely concerned about the level of church around trumps win, endless blessing and the strong evangelical theme is a great concern.

Yeah i agree, ‘land of the free’ has the same effect on me

to be fair i am mildly irritated by it

Whenever I hear that phrase I remember the Cunk mockumentary that says "America became known as the Land of the Free, which must have been a surprise to all the slaves"

Laughable. Absolutely laughable.
It’s done. America’s reputation is in tatters.

That's a bizzare thought process.

I’m American (thank god I haven’t lived there in a long time and will never return, it’s a shithole), but personally I don’t use this term nor does anyone I know. It’s very hangover from the 80s and I think only used by news media (not Americans generally) to be hyperbolic, overly dramatic, sort of like how they play dramatic music at the start of a broadcast.

Likewise 'land of the free', OP.

Coined at the height of allowing the exact opposite of freedom to the First Nations.

YANBU

Why?

Can I change what other people are calling something?

Can I think they are idiots - yes, but should I be annoyed?

Why be annoyed about something you cannot change or influence? It just means you are more stressed.

I follow the "Let them" theory, recognising what you can/cannot influence, and letting go of what is outside your ability to control.

Oh thats funny…yeah its never made sense to me

plus loads of other countries are as ‘free’ as america…in theory

YANBU. Americans are arrogant, look at how they think they won both world wars, but in fact as per normal had interest in helping, unless charging for loans we only relatively recently paid off until they were directly affected. Same with terrorism, couldn’t give a shit American money was going to the IRA to bomb us, but come 9/11 they were suddenly leading the way. In my opinion they are in fact quite an insular country and dint care about the rest of the world, only about how they are the best

Going by their working practices, "land of the fee, home of the slave" sums it up.

I do find it laughable. Some Americans (NOT ALL) do think America is the most important country in the world. (And Trump definitely does!)

Makes me LOL! 😆

There's a lot of things the world would like Americans to stop doing.

But Americans are going to continue to act like Americans.

The land of the free, where ever-more restrictions upon bodily autonomy are cheered on by half the population.

Land of the free to be racist and misogynist more like.

I actually prefer America being brash, confident and self-aggrandising. All the hand-wringing guilt and self-loathing they adopted in recent years was depressing to witness. Give me American content from those confident ‘can-do’ days.

I’ve lived there and I can honestly say I have never heard regular Americans use this phrase. Americans are not at all how they are portrayed in the press. American politicians are different to regular Americans.

But if everyone turned a blind eye and just thought well it's annoying but what can I do, where on earth would society be.

Yeah I mean you dont even need to ask this question do you

Americans will probably all die out in due course after they kill each other or die from medical needs they can afford to treat.

I’m starting to wonder if the Americans are turning into the baddies. Talk of taking Gaza, invading Greenland, Canada,Mexico etc. cutting the Ukrainians out of Ukraine peace talks, criticising the Europeans..

it’s like that Mitchell and Webb sketch