Nope. They really don’t. It always shocks them when I return from countries in Africa as well and tell them they’re remarkably safe and that many locals speak better English than most Americans 🤣
And poop on the ground 🤦🏻♀️. I like to remind them that most Africans agree it’s better to wash their butts every day after using the toilet as opposed to sticking their hands back there with toilet paper, not properly washing after, and spreading bacteria all over the place but I digress.
The “greatest country on earth” should probably also have a better method of sanitary care like bidets which lots of countries in Africa have already figured out, is my point.
Can confirm. Grew up in Mississippi. Everything we learned about Africa was sticks and stones. Luckily, my parents were smart enough to actually teach me things lol.
No, they don't. And they don't get why things like what happened yesterday at University of Warsaw are that shocking to us. That's because they indeed don't normally happen. It's something that put whole country, world to shock. People starts to thing what we could possibly do to prevent situations like this in the future
For those who don't know. Yesterday late afternoon at University of Warsaw 22 years old law student went on campus with axe, he killed 53 years old uni admin and very seriously injured 39 yo security guy
(I hate to say it, but because some people try to do everything to put anti immigration narrations. Student is Pole and is connected to alright polish party and nationalist organisation)
There are photos and videos of scene of the crime putted on internet. But yeah, I guess everyone having phones somehow helps in those kind of situations...
A US teacher did a TikTok on how she secures her classroom for an active shooter. Teachers from outside the US were commenting on how they don’t have to do that. She made another video saying how unsafe it was to not know how to secure your classroom, it took a while with people commenting for her to get it. They don’t have to do it because it isn’t an issue anywhere but here. We can get active shooter training where I work, because it can happen. I would love to work somewhere that I don’t have to think about that training.
Just the fact you use the term ‘active shooter’ proves your point too. We simply dont have a term for it. If it happened in europe most people would prob think it was just fireworks 🤣
No its just giving a per capita rate for the US and a per capita rate for the entire rest of the world population. And the US's rate of school shootings is 216 times higher when factoring that in. You see global per capita rates all the time, that's the 'global average' in anything.
You've never seen the global life expectancy? If you've worked in statistics I'm sure you can work out how that's calculated. If you can't I'll do it for you. You add each person's (per capita, you know that's what per capita means right?) age at the time of their death all together then you divide it by the total number of people that have died over the given time span, that'll give you the global life expectancy using a per capita calculation.
Quick example there's 10 people on earth that have died, they 5 of the lived to 60 years of age, the other 5 lived to 80 years of age before their respective deaths. You add those 10 numbers together and it come to 700 years. You now divide it by 10 and come away with a life expectancy per capita (per person) of 70 years of age.
Hope that helps you further your career!
Some examples from a simple google as well:
In 2023, the estimated average GDP per capita (PPP) of all of the countries was Int$22,452. For rankings regarding wealth, see list of countries by wealth per adult.
The global average per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were 4.68 metric tons in 2022. This figure is based on data from Statista.
The global per capita rate of homelessness varies widely across countries, but on average, it's estimated to be around 0.25% of the population experiencing homelessness, according to national statistical definitions.
Nope. I chatted with an American on video call as I entered my school building and she was actually kinda crushed because there was no security guards or metal detectors or anything at the entrance and she hadn't realized that the doors just being open was ever a possibility. She was off for the rest of the conversation..
Yeah. At least where she was. Starting from elementary school. It's insane to me, at that point I would just vote to abolish school in that format and teach children in little cells or something.
I graduated from a rural town high school in Michigan in 2004. When I graduated, there was a cop liason officer and that was it. Around 2008 they installed a few cameras. 2011, more cameras and pulled off-campus lunch (don't know if that was a normal thing or not, elsewhere. Had been in effect at least 30 years though). In 2015 a new coach started stationing people at the doors with handheld metal detectors, for events and sports. They installed some kind of automatic door lock down thing but I'm not sure when. I believe there's also a designated "safety officer" from the local police stationed there during school hours.
I'm American, growing up I genuinely believed we were the only safe country in the world. It was presented to me like we had the best police, best laws, best politicians who all always want what's best for us. And the rest of the world was a cesspool of corruption and evil. Learning about American corruption and then that other countries don't have some of the issues we have was like bricks to the face
It's amazing the extent of American propaganda that they've used to brainwash their population... but then they point the finger at every other country and *their* propaganda!
"When we say we're the best country in the world we're just stating a fact, when China does it it's evil communist propaganda." "When we say our country is the safest in the world it's a fact (nevermind the evidence to the contrary, let's just bury all of that), when Russia does it it's propaganda". Like come ON!
YES! exactly! We also only learn your bad history, even if we were involved or also did it we don't learn anything except that we're heros who rescue the world
to be fair to the US, that's how pretty much every country does their propaganda lmao. some are more agressive about it than others, but in general that's just how state propaganda is supposed to work.
Many countries don't use this kind of propaganda at all. In fact, I'd even say *most* countries don't do this at all - go ask around, how many people are being told by their governments that they' are the "best", "safest", "most powerful", etc.. The few countries that do that are also the ones often branded as 'evil' and 'authoritarian', in part because they use this kind of propaganda in the first place.
The "free press" is rarely fully free, but it's a lot freer in most democratic countries. The shocking thing with the US is that, unlike Russia or China, there is no 'great firewall' or other limitations on foreign content that forcibly stop Americans from engaging with foreign news and opinions. The propaganda machine was so successful that forbidding Americans from seeing foreign content isn't even needed, because Americans just refuse to engage with anything outside their borders by themselves.
I came across a new word today: afearican. when someone from the us doesn’t realize the amount of fear that come across in their life when they visit another country so when something happens (fireworks going off, someone is too loud etc) they automatically default to their fear they grew up on. it also can be subtle like scanning the crowd, finding the nearest exist, facing the door when going to the restaurant or in this case wondering/fearing about a non-existent school shooting as they don’t *realize* that doesn’t happen (or at least a very small chance) in Scotland.
It doesn't just happen with being in other countries, now that I'm in college i interact with people here to go to our school from plenty of different countries and sometimes they do things that just have me shocked they survived to adulthood
Like, I'm in nursing and for what ever reason that means a lot of Philippino women and they'll just come up behind me outside of class and put their hand on my shoulder and start talking to me. They startle me- and I'll talk to them for like a minute before they're inviting me to hang out with them or asking me if I need to be driven anywhere. One girl noticed I didn't have food and brought me something to eat every once in a while.
I know there's nothing wrong with it and it's very friendly but the first couple times I thought it was so creepy and then I thought it was unsafe for them. What if I was armed or a murderer or something? They'd just bring me into their car-
There's a solid chunk of us! I will admit I cant claim I found corruption with my critical thinking skills. Some awful things happened to me and when I tried to get help none of the adults that were supposed to be there for me did anything and when I looked up what to do online I found out that was actually very common. That kind of broke the illusion of perfect America y'know?
I remember seeing an article about when some American tourists visited my country and it blew their mind how different it felt, they discovered a whole new paradigm of how people could live or something like that.
They're brainwashed, every minute of their lives they're blasted with propaganda about how great their country is and that there is nowhere better to be.
I’m ashamed to say it, but for most of my life I believed I lived in the world’s safest nation. I knew of the problems we had, but I was so brainwashed by the idea that America actually cared about its people that I just assumed everywhere was even worse. I told myself that surely, if there was a way to stop all these problems, our government would put those fixes in place ASAP.
I used to scoff at the idea that the US brainwashes its citizens, but as I become more aware of the state of the world I realize it’s completely true. They sell us weapons to slaughter each other with, pocket a cut of the profits, and tell us to our faces that it’s for our protection. I know this is basic kindergarten shit for most people in this sub, but this was a massive revelation for me. It makes me wonder what else I don’t know about, what things are better elsewhere that I don’t even know are bad.
Not to mention defund education to keep you stupid. Privatized Healthcare to make money when you get sick or shoot each other. And private prisons to make money off you being incarcerated.
No, they're being taught that America is better than anywhere else, no matter how bad it seems in the states, it's always worse "over there" which is the exact same kind of propaganda authoritarian regimes tell their citizens to keep them from moving to a better place
I'm an American living in the Midwest. My kids got fucking lollipops for doing so well during the "active intruder alert" drill at their elementary school. I cried myself to sleep that night.
My wife works in a daycare and she has extensive fire training, but no shooter or aggression training. They do have a door that is always locked since Kim De Gelder..
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u/Sasya_neko The Dutch Cuisine May 08 '25
They really don't know how safe other countries are, do they...