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Comment by no-dr-onboard | Hacker News Reader

> Both from outside USA seem insane.

I see this a lot on the internet and comments like this are not as relevant as you might think.

Saying place X is better off than place Y is often an incongruent comparison followed by similar fallacies. Y'all, each place is unique and faces a long and considerable history as to how they got there and the type of people that have and currently do live there. I can't even begin to recall the number of times I heard this type of comparison during the Obama administration. America is not similar to Sweden, Finland, Germany, Japan or Canada.

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> America is not similar to Sweden, Finland, Germany, Japan or Canada.

Except for, you know, they are each an organization of humans with access to technology and other cultures. Maybe there's something to be learned.

As long as what you learn complies with the regime idealogy. Europe is a nicer place to live for now, but that’s more in spite of Europeans’ politics than because of it. There’s no significant difference in thought between the typical American liberal progressive and his European counterpart. Now that Europeans have sufficiently Americanized they’ll soon discover that the problems america faces now are in fact universal to all diverse liberal democracies.

> As long as what you learn complies with the regime idealogy

This seems completely unconnected to the discussion, but ok.

> Now that Europeans have sufficiently Americanized they’ll soon discover that the problems america faces now are in fact universal to all liberal democracies.

I concede, this may be true.

My point is that you’re correct, there are in fact things to be learned, but many of those lessons violate the basic principles of modern progressive liberal society, and the moment one might even begin to consider those possibilities out loud, he’ll be immediately shut down as racist, misogynist, Christian, right wing extremist, etc.

Note: (neo)liberal != left. Just because the Democrats are called "the left" (or even "the far left" on Fox News), doesn't mean they are. Look at the policies they support; are they pro-worker, pro-single payer, anti-war, anti-imperialist? No. So not "the left".

Regardless of what they themselves or anybody else calls them, what matters is what policies they concretely support.

The modern atomized “far left” are the new Bible thumpers, except far more useful to the elite as their religious texts are fluid and ever-changing.

They serve as arbiters of morality to keep the “normal” liberals in line and make certain the window of discussion never again approaches heretical talk of “nationalization” or “the 1%”.

There’s still old school leftists around that strongly support the policies you described, but they’ve been essentially banished from the political sphere at even the metro level. Even the DSA has been nearly entirely co-opted by this quasi-religious garbage.

As Christopher Hitchens would say, "Religion poisons everything." That is why the separation of church and state is vitally important.

Want to have your mind blown? The systems Americans call single payer are not all the same. And it's not a silver bullet either. The rest of your talking points is a little out of date -- the country most openly diplaying its imperialist mindset and also the one currently engaged in an offensive war is Russia.

I'm talking about https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1976. I didn't say it would be a silver bullet, but it would be a large improvement over what we have now, and save money in the long run to boot.

Your words indicate your knowledge of the Ukraine conflict is lacking. But believe what you want. https://www.thepostil.com/conflict-in-ukraine-genesis/

> Look at the policies they support; are they pro-worker, pro-single payer, anti-war, anti-imperialist? No.

Neither was Stalin.

Contrary to what some Americans think, Europe is not culturally homogeneous. The countries themselves tend to be, with some exceptions, but they do differ from each other, sometimes in significant ways.

This is mostly true of the small European countries. The bigger ones like Germany, Spain or the UK have considerable internal tensions.

Maybe I should expand more because it seems like the intent was lost.

The cultural diversity in America compared to the countries above far exceeds what most people give credit for. First and second generation immigrants with different cultural ideologies amplify the differences that you would experience in somewhere like that set of countries. These cultural differences create multitudes of challenges that are not experienced anywhere else to this scale. Again, America is different.

Canadian urban centres generally pride themselves on their multiculturalism. What justifies describing SF's diversity as so much more extreme?

I've checked, and nowhere on earth has more immigrants than Toronto. So I agree.

By number or percentage? Because Vancouver and Montreal must be in the same ballpark.

Crime and health statistics are mostly depending on economic situation of a country (money per person). US is an outlier in both (especially health spending vs average life expectency)

Just want to note that US life expectancy is all over the place; much like with nearly every other national comparison statistic, the US average is largely a useless thing to compare to other countries.

For example: here in the Pacific Northwest, we’re neck and neck with chart-topping Japan for life expectancy - while most of the Deep South has a life expectancy roughly in-line with the average Iraqi.

Yes, America is an Odd Place.

Its exceptionally unexceptional.

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