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Comment by calmoo | Hacker News Reader

Having no gun violence and having a higher life expectancy than America is not something to be proud of and not a useful benchmark. This comment is a prime example of Germany's inability to take external criticism - it nearly always devolves into comparison with America. You know many non-americans also criticise the state of Germany currently?

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Having lived here for a bit over 5 years, I can say that Germans too often like to speak from the moral high ground. There are things that are sacred and indisputable, like opposition to nuclear energy. Try to complain about a strike in public services causing you inconvenience, and you will invariably get lectured on solidarity. I've seen people interrupting speakers at public events to "provide important context" that was nothing more than self-flattery from the interrupting person. I do believe in this country and think that it has way more upsides than downsides, but the people here could sure use a bit of humility.

> You know many non-americans also criticise the state of Germany currently

Germans are also masters at criticising Germany. You just read more defence online than what happens in real life.

I've often wished for /pol/ style flags on HN. I think a lot of people get offended when their country is criticized online because they feel that the criticism comes from a foreigner.

/s?

Not sure what could be interpreted as sarcasm in my comment. It is pretty direct and on the nose.

> Having no gun violence and having a higher life expectancy than America is not something to be proud of and not a useful benchmark

/s ?

What I mean by this is - is that this is such a low bar - of not having rampant gun violence and short life expectancy, especially when correlating them with GDP. This should not be a point of pride or comparison to beat this bar. Most developed countries in the world achieve more than America on these metrics, therefore it's a useless benchmark.

if America has gun violence, then Germany has car ramming into crowds violence, and both problems have similar roots

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