>> ^Skeeve:

You hear the same thing from us Canadians all the time.
We just shake our heads in wonder when Americans are completely losing their minds about getting government provided health care when every industrialized nation has it and it is undeniably cheaper and better for the average person. Further, the person chosen (by vote) as the greatest Canadian ever was Tommy Douglas, the creator of Canada's universal health care system. Yet Americans freak out about it.



It's simple. For some reason America has to be different than the rest of the world(and some think, superior.) Even if different means worse.


I see the right-wing look down on people who don't answer 'Don't you believe in American exceptionalism?' with an absolute yes. I like to answer 'No.. I don't think America is exceptional. I think we 'used' to be. But we've fallen so far into dogma and backwards thinking that the rest of the civilized world has literally left us in their dust!'

You hear the same thing from us Canadians all the time.

We just shake our heads in wonder when Americans are completely losing their minds about getting government provided health care when every industrialized nation has it and it is undeniably cheaper and better for the average person. Further, the person chosen (by vote) as the greatest Canadian ever was Tommy Douglas, the creator of Canada's universal health care system. Yet Americans freak out about it.

The same goes for many other hot topics and I have two theories for why we outsiders find things so messed up (which are a little more precise than just "religion" which is a huge part).

Firstly the US is, overall, more conservative than every other western nation. In Canada, our two most powerful political parties are, rather imaginatively, called the Liberals and the Conservatives. The funny thing is, our Conservative party (which should be analogous to the Republicans) has been shown to be more liberal than the Democrats. Our Liberal party is somewhat more liberal than the Conservatives, but the difference between the two is less than the difference between the Democrats and Republicans. This plays a huge role in American politics which makes it difficult for outsiders to understand why things are happening.

That is why, in America, Republicans will rage about abortion and Democrats will debate about it , while in Canada the Liberals made it into law easily and the Conservatives bitched a little but let it slide. The same goes for gay marriage: Republicans throw a fit, Democrats debate (with some for, some against) while Liberals passed easily and Conservatives bitched a little but let it go. This conservativism of the two American parties can be confusing to outsiders who assume one is conservative and the other is liberal.

The other theory I have is McCarthyism. I fully believe that the fear of communism has been forcefully imprinted on the public consciousness. As we know, some wariness of communism is/was warranted. Unfortunately the American people were forced to fear communism to such an extent that it has become ingrained into the American people. This extends to anything even remotely resembling socialism.

Unfortunately while being taught to fear socialism/communism the American people as a whole were never given any true knowledge or understanding of that which they feared (as they would then stop being afraid, as it is with all fears). This means that most Americans will lash out, attack and revile any (new) socialist idea even though their law enforcement, schools, fire departments and many other government departments and organizations are socialist in nature. Ironically enough, the lack of complete socialization of the education system means many schools are underfunded and the fear of socialism continues unchecked.

These together make the American people as a whole seem neurotic at best and completely irrational and insane at other times to us outsiders. Fortunately, participating in VideoSift has proven to me that there are many Americans who break this mold and are amazing, smart, caring, happy individuals who have no interest in killing abortion doctors, who understand that America isn't always #1 in every category and who have intelligent, positive political opinions. I just hope they spread their views to their fellow Americans.

>> ^Ajkiwi:

As an outsider looking in... like... wow.
...
Australia, NZ, Austria, Germany, Norway, most of Asia, and even Canada have more social justice policies than the USA, and get on just fine, thankyou very much.
...
I speak for the world when we look in, see shit like this, and say: "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

>> ^Kreegath:
Maybe the Canadians are taking after the example set by the US-Mexican border patrols?


Sometimes you really piss me off.

I don't think that you really undersand

What the fuck is going on.

"Tommy Douglas" was a champion of the common man.

Hear that!