Do Americans understand how far they have fallen in world's eyes?

Agreed. The same, of course, goes for "the worst."

And yet I don't think we'd have much trouble convincing this board to regard their nation as a morally-decrepit, stupid trash heap of a nation.

Again: One of the United States' chief exports is the kind of self-loathing that comes from having it pretty good.

 

Wasn't this the exact premise of "Make America Great Again"?

 

Meh. I don't think there anything wrong in seeing the shortcomings in the US. In fact, traveling makes some of them evident. We are morally decrepit, full of 'isms and age old hatreds. But the ideals are worth fighting for especially in the face of rising fascism.

Frankly, if don't see *any* of the problems in this country you're not looking.

 

Yes. Didn’t you find Trump’s nightmarish view peculiar?

 

I see plenty of problems, some as old as humankind itself.

The conversation has never been about whether or not the US has problems but whether we Americans grasp has awful we are in the world’s eyes.

 

I worked in Singapore, Japan and China enough to have experience in the health system. I spent enough time in France to know people who have experience in both systems. This all within the last twenty year.

I was admitted to the best private hospital in Beijing. I assure that you should stay away from doctors in China.

I wound up having surgery in Singapore and once went there from China for consolations. The doctors in Singapore seemed to me to be fine and the medical care excellent. I don't know anyone else who had experience with both the American and Singaporean models.

I have afib. In Japan I went to a cardiologist who had done internships in New York and Houston. He seemed fine. He practiced at a teaching hospital. People complain about waits in the Japanese medical system but I don't ever remember waiting more than a half hour. The Japanese cardiologist had Saturday appointments and charged me the equivalent of $30 a visit.

I knew Americans living in Japan covered by the Japanese health care system which I was not. They complained about long waits but on the whole they preferred the Japanese system because of the lower costs and not having to deal with the American insurance companies, networks, et.al. and the Japanese doctors seemed fine.

I do not have direct experience with the French medical system but I know French residents who have lived in the States. They prefer the French system because the care seems at least as good as in the USA. They did complain about waits. But they did not have to deal with the American private insurance system. I have never met anyone who likes dealing with American medical insurance system.

And I can assure you, that from my experience in Singapore, Japan and France that American surgeons really, really like to cut. I had one unnecessary surgery in the United States that Japanese doctors basically believed violated the Hippocratic oath.

Also, my wife is a native of Mexico. She has numerous relatives living in the States. She has had dual citizen relatives who are not eligible Medicare return to Mexico when they are diagnosed with cancer to be treated in the Mexican public health system. They did not seem to believe Mexican is better but they want to protect their families from financial distress.

 

And all this time I thought American doctors just really, really wanted to push drugs.

 

Well, what I find peculiar is asserting both hyperconservative Trump voters and the hyperliberal media share the same apocalyptic point of view on American Carnage™ and US self-loathing.

Interesting too how sooper dooper important to Republicans 'American Influence and Global Reputation' were during the Obama administration. But no longer.

And while I agree that it doesn't much matter what some French dentist or Croatian furniture mover thinks of the United States, to the extent that those opinions are expressed and acted upon politically around the world, they are important.

 

Don’t forget that Donnie wipes his ass with global warming.

 

They don’t share the *same* view. They’re on different sides of ideas about the burden of America to be uniquely something, the extremes of which are worth rejecting.

As for Republicans...I have no idea what some of them want as it relates to Trump on global influence, who has either no particular foreign policy whatsoever or an isolationist one borne of “the fuck do I care?” leanings and contrarian approaches.

At any rate Americans voted that guy out, which is about all we can do to improve the world’s opinion of us in any significant way.

 

Both sides articulate a failure of the American promise.

But you only take one side seriously.

The other you dismiss as elitism.

 

I want universal health care.

I want a very different kind of policing system, starting with the end of using police departments and nickel and dime laws as funding vehicles for the city government.

I think the wealth gap is real and a serious problem.

But I tend to reject more globalism than most, yes. COVID is a compelling argument against the dangers of it, as is global warming brought about by a global economy where goods can’t be shipped by zero emissions boats. I reject the decadence we’ve settled into through our reliance on the cheap wages of other nations.

Powerful, wealthy, culturally urbane or whatever people tend to love globalism, because the world is a canvas on which they can write a commentary that fits nicely in their wondrous life portfolio. We have a class of Americans so divorced from being impacted by...really anything practical...that rank and file struggles either become a rounding error on a data sheet or some faceless, amoral opposition to idealized life.