Memes @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Low-hanging fruit 🥱

165 comments

It's a low hanging fruit, but I mean... The tree doesn't have a lot of higher fruits, and they're not as tasty anyway.
- Sure we have plenty of high-hanging fruit:
  antiquated voting laws
  asymmetrical representation
  oligarchy via political funding
  military industrial complex
  But we didn’t start a world war that killed millions of people, that we’re still digging up unexploded munitions from, and that gave us the ability to fix some of our governmental systems and implement social and societal change (at least for white European folks).
  
  Yet, but you can still elect Trump again.

But school shootings, obesity, healthcare, and oil, though.
Source: Am American.
- Same tbh

Don't forget police murdering people and doing highway robbery.
- And shit trains, and pointless poverty, and ridiculous town planning, and an absurd prison system, and shit voting and representation, and unlimited money in politics, and weak-sauce unions...

I prefer bringing up that in US "democracy" some votes count more than others. When trump won, more people voted for Clinton and for some reason yanks seem to be totally ok with this.
- We are not ok with this, but changing the way it works is a herculean task. The people that it currently works for are very invested in keeping it that way.
  
  But why is nobody even protesting it? Seems kind of a cornerstone of democracy, no? How could anything coming out of this system have any legitimacy?
- Isn’t that true for any representative democracy especially when gerrymandering is allowed? In Aus you can easily have a party win more than 50% of the vote but not get in because the votes were concentrated in vast-majority seats.
  
  It absolutely isn't. There is no inherent reason why votes can't be added up and tallied in a straight forward way in a representative democracy.
- In America politicians choose their voters
  
  Are those voters people with agency or just cattle? You realize your group is a lot bigger than the group that you watch exploiting you, right?
- It happens in Spain too. Huge difference in the number of votes needed in Barcelona to get a representative, compared to rural provinces.

Why Americans are suddenly so touchy about their school shootings, obesity and healthcare?
- Accepting it is a low hanging fruit is the saddest thing I've read today. It's so obvious our society is fucked! Don't you have something more creative to say, dumbass?
  
  7% of residential properties in the US are owned by a single corporation, America accounts for 20% of the world's prison population. The average salary of a college football coach in the US is $3,500,000, almost 60 times the average salary of a school teacher. Americas upcoming election will be fought between a barely coherent octogenarian and a proto-fascist serial fraudster & con artist.
- Imagine justifiably criticising a bad trait that someone has in the hopes of having them improve
  Most people are going to take that as a threat because they hold that trait deer to them and / or view it as a part of a themselves
  americans are likely viewing the criticism as a threat to themselves and their country and are responding with emotionally fueled responses instead of logic based responses
  americans should learn to meditate because it can help with the issue of wanting to respond to percived threats emotionally
  
  You're speaking pretty large for an American for not being a school shooter yourself
  But as an American who meditates, that is not the answer lol.
  We have a bigger issue with the media trying to make us feel like everything outside is scary first. A lot of fear mongering to keep the scared gun owners to buy and advocate for more until a mentally deranged one goes too far and ruins it for everyone else. The media can now sensationalize that shooting and you get either people buying more guns or people advocating for no guns and neither side wants to hear each other anymore. It's one big crazy chain reaction loop we're stuck in and the politicians got the crazies advocating for things that would just make the politicians more money. Sigh.
- Cause they just realized that they do have a problem, its not normal and they internally feel like there is nothing to do to change it.
  It's the Anger stage
  
  Sadly only the tiny part actually interacting with foreigners online realize this and even they react with anger.
- Because -- and this might be a hot take -- I don't think it should be socially acceptable to bring up a recent national tragedy as a fucking punchline
  We've been voting. We're trying to get the rules changed and we're getting stonewalled by people who only listen to media that makes up reasons for them to hate things that would be good for the masses because it would be bad for a few people at the top and I'm sick to fucking death of people making fun of us for it and treating actual dying children as some sort of own. For Christ's sake, have some fucking empathy. None of us, not even the furthest-right conservatives, think this is okay, and we're trying to do something about it, and it doesn't help when you're like "haha look at all the dead children, isn't it funny how stupid Americans are"
  
  None of us, not even the furthest-right conservatives, think this is okay
  Aguably, conservatives may not think it's ok but they're so scared of losing their guns (because their politicians say dems will take them so they can get elected) that conservatives consider dead kids an acceptable loss. If they didn't, more of them would vote for the party that wants to control who can obtain them.
  
  I wish I could say people were trying to stop school shootings in my area. I live in PERRY FUCKING IOWA, about a mile from the very school that was shot up, and all I fucking see from anyone around here is thoughts and prayers, wear a blue shirt, Perry Strong!!
  It's embarrassing.
  
  I do agree that we need more empathy. But that empathy can and should be used to have a better humour.
  Because i can't stress enough how humour is important in dealing with tragedy. It's one of the greatest tool to overcome it.
  That's why you also see American joking about it. Only their jokes might be funnier than European's because they know and emphasize better with the tragedy.
  On the other hand, one thing we do share is trying to change without any or not enough results. That's something most countries know about in this day and age. Media and corrupt system is something European's deals with too.
  So i get your anger, it's also good, it's a driving force for us to continue trying to change, however helpless we feel.
  
  Americans: USA is the greatest country in the world. Behold our God given rights and freedoms! We're number 1! We're exceptional! U! S! A! U! S! A!
  Europeans: Actually it's pretty arrogant to think your country is so much better than all the other. All countries have flaws and strengths. For example USA have problems with gun violence and healthcare.
  Americans: How dare you make fun of our national tragedies! Can't you see we're suffering here? You're making fun of dead children! You MONSTERS!!
  Not that's a meme. Which template should I use?
- Idk wtf is wrong with all of my countrymen, those are three things we NEED to change.
  It's so fucking funny to me because they're probably the same type of Americans that are like "oH aMeRiCa iS sO tOuGh nOt lIkE tHoSe SiSsY cOuNtRiEs iN tHe EU" but here they are all butt hurt when other countries make VERY VALID CRITICISMS about us
- Imagine every time you see a person, he tells you you stink; but every time, also mildly suggests you take a shower.
  What can you possibly do to make him happy?…………….

When they stop being huge fucking problems, we'll stop making fun of you for them :P

Well ya, it's absolutely pathetic for Americans to strut around acting like they're an authority on how society should operate when theirs is an absolute dumpster fire unless you're making 500k/yr+.
Does it hurt when this is pointed out or something? If you're tired of it, maybe stop trying to swing your tiny little dick around and people won't have to constantly tell you to put it back in your pants.
- Says the continent that can't go more than a few generations without degenerating into authoritarian states and widespread war.
  
  You mean like the US installed puppet regimes all over the world 24/7 since ww2? Or the constant wars you are involved in? Or do you just mean the civil war n? Or perhaps it's easier to controll the land after the genocide perhaps? Really? USAian talking about authoritan States and widespread war... Not like Europe got a good track record but it's kind of lacking on the imperialism front compared.
  
  Don't you feel that's a bit rich coming from the country who started or been at the centre of most of the wars for the last 80?
  
  Oh forgot to mention the utterly retarded arrogance of Americans. You don't have a clue where I live, or whether I'm on the same continent as you.

Americans when European leaders start making the same choices that got America to this point.
- Happening in Canada too. For the last decade, virtually every province has been led by Conservative governments (except BC and that was just half a decade ago). Healthcare and housing has been slowly falling apart.
  Looking at the polls, what’s amazing is that most Canadian voters seem to think the problem is insufficient conservatism!
- It's the worst thing about being an American expatriate is watching shit happen again.
  
  It's bewildering to me that, after decades of getting (deservedly) dunked on by Europeans for our shitty systems, not only are American leaders still giving the whole flaming garbage heap the five finger salute, but European leaders are now saying "well, yes, the American system is awful, but we swear it'll work for us." And people are believing them. Unreal. I can't even imagine the frustration you must feel.
  We've talked about moving to Denmark or NL, but we're just not there yet, and with NL getting their own dollar store (there's a Dutch joke in there somewhere) Trump, I'm not so sure if we ever will be.
  
  What's the difference between an expat and an immigrant?

don't forget the lack of the metric system!
- Which ruined looking for recipes online and using Google search operators to filter put american recipes is irritating because you have to fine tune and repeat based on the google results until all american recipes are filtered out
  
  My tip is to search for it in another language.
- That one is fun because you concede most of it but then win an argument that fahrenheit is better (Celsius and fahrenheit are both arbitrary but at least fahrenheit scales itself so the range most people use daily, weather, is 0-100)
  
  while you're correct they're both arbitrary scales and I've heard this argument before but still think it's a dumb argument.
  Water freezes 0 water boils 100, i guess it fits the base 10 thing.
  I think you feel the human 0 to 100 idea works because it's what you're used to. 0 to 40 works fine for me to intuitively know how hot or cold it is becuase it's what i grew up with too. Neither can be argued that one is more right.
  although it really makes sense for the USA to just finally switch because it's long been decided by the rest of the planet this is the better way to measure things. https://media.tenor.com/SD-5sdtUX8QAAAAM/simpsons-homer.gif
  
  0 is very cold, 100 is very hot. So 50 is perfect room temperature, right?
  Nope, you still have to adjust to an arbitary selection of numbers within that range, so it's not really any more helpful than celcius if you don't have experience with the scale.
  
  Wrong.
  A middle eastern dude would tell you a 100 is fine and a northern canadian will probably tell you to stop bothering them because they are turning into a puddle.

It's low hanging because it's overweight.

Americans when they don't shut the fuck up about their politics and everyone starts mocking them(we don't mock them enough)

Not "America', USA only 😄

In England the lawyers still wear wigs. You're welcome, Lemmy. It's just as fucking stupid as you picture in your mind.
- The Civil Rights era is so entrenched in American History, I can't imagine a Black person being forced (by society) to wear one. And yet that's the header image from this article.

I see two memes right next to each other of Americans crying about being meme'd on...... This is why you guys are so fun to bully.

yeah, true.
-Most Americans.

And at the same time, we europeans who have been in the USA (so we just don’t follow what media wants us to think) love so many things in the USA. Are the States flawed? Yes. Are Europeans country flawed too? Absolutely. I don’t like the bullying the world thing, but I’m happy I’m on ‘tesm bullying’ and not ‘team Russia’ or middle east.
- What things do you love the most in America?
  
  Niagara Falls from the Canadian side.
  
  The avocado toast is fan-fuckin-tastic here.
  
  Many things. Great things like general kindness of the people, the way the States handle national parks, the mentality of taking responsibility about your own live. And just mundane things like those awesome bbqs!
  
  Wasnt there but I'd love to visit the nationalparks.
  The pictures I have seen are just gorgeous.
  
  The gorgeous natural splendor, that has been turned into a coast to coast shopping mall.

Americans are so soft. You throw shade at the Europeans by making fun of their food or wine or streets or whatever. They take a shot back and you guys whine.
Take a shot back instead of flipping the table.
- You say that as if Americans aren’t prepared to take your invitation literally
  
  I wheezed
- I believe this meme qualifies as taking a shot back
- As an American I don't know what you're talking about, aside from the UK most of Europe has amazing food, and the wine there is so much better and cheaper
  
  And the streets are better too?? IDK what OP is on. Like everyone talks about how European streets are more walkable, bikable and whatnot
  
  Fight me and my bad dentistry you overweight, stetson wearing, language butchering, gun touting redneck.
  The UK has a Michelin star restaurant for every 360k people, the US has one for every 1.5million people.
- Americans: "Your accent is funny and your food is bland."
  Europeans: "Well at least children aren't dying in our schools. At least we don't see street memorials on television every other week. Haha, owned."
  Americans: "..."
  Europeans: "See it's funny because people are dying and voters are powerless to stop it"
  Americans: "What the hell man"
  Europeans: "Wow, you guys should seriously get some thicker skin"
  
  You are not powerless to stop it. Who is telling you this and why do you believe it? Your group is much, much bigger than the one who fucks everything up. Go out and show them! Nobody is telling you to get thicker skin, they're telling you to get off your ass and get angry about it.
- You can’t even prove that’s true about a majority of Americans yet you talk about it like it’s fact
  Also I like how you equate memes on bad food/wine/infrastructure to the memes of school shootings and mass death. Totally tit for tat right?

I have a solution for the gun violence problem in schools. Print simple steps on common causes and solutions to the underlying social and mental contributors. Put these up in every door, hallway and classroom in every schools. Then these poor misguided kids would have troubleshooting.
- Ow. That hurt.
- Go on. What would be the first one?

every society in the world is falling apart So it takes the edge off by mocking other countries.
except for those more civilized people up in the Nordic regions. they're doing good with the whole Utopian human rights thing.
- By what metrics because a lot of that sentiment is not really supported by data afaik.

We don't do that when America is mentioned.
We do that when America is yet again too full of itself, to keep them down a notch.
We can't help it if that is the only thing Americans do.
- And then the random citizens who defend or justify ignoring it either take offense instead of agreeing it’s fucked up, or grasp at straws with whataboutism to shift the issue.

Public transport, and bike lanes
- I'm.. legit confused at what this comment is directed to ngl

Europe is doing their best to catch up on some fronts. Keep at it, you'll get there. We'll continue sending fast food chains your way to help.
- What's the best Maltian food, lol? Maybe it's worth it.

It’s weird seeing this meme without the tits
- The what
  
  Here you go.
  
  HE SAID ITS WEIRD SEEING THIS MEME WITHOUT THE TITS
  
  The tits

Europeans talk a lot of smack for a continent that is rapidly approaching fascism at more or less the same rate as America, if a little slightly behind. Maybe y'all could fix it if you got over yourselves.
P.S. I'm not American.

As an American, I do the exact same thing 😂

And conveniently forget about all of the problems they have.
- still not worse than yours
  
  laughs in brexit
  Although I guess Britain doesn't count as Europe anymore

And my opioid addiction!

Stop, I can only get so hard.

I'm from Asia and honestly it's really tiring to hear people keep making fun of Americans.
It was never funny to bring up shit like children fucking dying from school shootings in a snarky comment, and I think any reasonable person with actual, genuine concern for the world's problems understands that if all we had to do was give, everyone would well have fucking received already.
- As an American, we can laugh at tragedy sometimes.
  For example, that my 7yos phone was probably made by people younger than him. And one of those kids probably killed themselves jumping off a factory building so my kid could be safe from a school shooting.
  See? Absolutely hysterical.

Gets Nonna's stick with the little hook on it, Child beauty pageants, Oxycontin, MM/DD/YYYY

Also slavery and coups

Americans mentioning Europeans seem to want to blow themselves up at the drop of a hat.
- Wut?

It's only a problem if you identify with America and its mental culture. Which country doesn't have some unsavoury aspect, past or present? Americans have an incredibly fragile and insecure self conception.

165 comments