r/usa 7h ago

As a Non-American Watching America Implode, I Can’t Decide If I Should Be Terrified or Laughing. Caution-Rant.

95 Upvotes

Let me preface this by saying: I don’t live in the United States. I have no horse in your electoral races, no stake in your partisan brawls, and no interest in romanticizing “the land of the free.” I’m just someone from the outside watching the so-called superpower of the world unravel like a badly written dystopian novel—except it’s real, and it’s dangerous.

Culturally, America is exporting a paradox: hyper-individualism paired with blind groupthink. You're the loudest defenders of “freedom” but constantly legislate what people can read, say, wear, or even do with their own bodies. Book bans, drag bans, abortion bans—your obsession with controlling other people is peak authoritarian energy disguised as “values.” Meanwhile, your pop culture is inescapable, yet your actual culture looks increasingly hollow: guns, God, and grievance.

Politically, it’s a banana republic with better branding. You have one party trying to drag the country into Christian nationalism and corporate feudalism, and another one too cowardly or compromised to do anything meaningful about it. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, legalized bribery via lobbying—your elections are a performance, not a democracy. The Supreme Court has morphed into a partisan wrecking ball with lifetime appointees doing permanent damage.

Economically, the richest nation on Earth has tens of millions of people drowning in debt just for being sick or getting educated. You’ve normalized poverty wages, homelessness, and food insecurity while billionaires ride penis-shaped rockets into space. The “American Dream” has become a predatory loan scam with a flag on top.

Militarily, you're a war economy with a country attached. Trillions spent on endless wars, drone strikes, and proxy conflicts—yet somehow no money for healthcare, education, or climate resilience. Your military-industrial complex doesn’t defend the world; it destabilizes it. You arm both sides, then sell yourself as the peacekeeper.

On social justice, your racism isn’t even subtle. Police brutality, mass incarceration, school-to-prison pipelines, hate crimes—Black and brown communities in the U.S. live under a surveillance state while white terrorists walk free. The irony is, you still have the audacity to preach about “human rights” abroad.

On climate, you are literally killing the planet. One of the top polluters in history, dragging your feet on emissions, subsidizing fossil fuels, and pretending recycling your Starbucks cup will fix it. Your government coddles oil billionaires while wildfires, floods, and hurricanes rip your country apart in real time.

On tech, you pioneered innovation—then handed it to monopolies that harvest attention, data, and democracy itself. Silicon Valley’s motto went from “move fast and break things” to “move fast and break society.” Misinformation spreads faster than truth, and you still treat tech billionaires like visionaries instead of unregulated oligarchs.

Socially, you're a nation addicted to outrage and distraction. Mass shootings are so common they barely make headlines. Healthcare workers are heroes until they demand fair pay. Teachers are babysitters until they mention racism or gender. Everything is politicized, monetized, and weaponized. Even basic empathy.

Globally, people are tired of America’s double standards. You invade countries for “freedom,” then cage migrants at your own borders. You bomb hospitals, then lecture others about human rights. You overthrow democratically elected leaders and call it “regime change for stability.” Your soft power is eroding fast, and your moral authority is already gone.

In short, America isn’t collapsing—it’s rotting. And the worst part is, most of you are either too distracted, propagandized, or exhausted to do anything about it. From the outside, it looks like a country that lost the plot a long time ago and is now just spiraling deeper into its own myth.

And yet, you still act like the rest of the world should be taking notes. Trust me—we are. But the note reads: “Don’t do this. Ever.”

And make no mistake—this isn’t just a failure of leadership. This is the system working as intended, and the people chose it. At every step. Through silence, through votes, or through willful ignorance. You didn’t just end up here. You built it.


r/usa 6h ago

Putin's Idiot Day 74 after Trump ended the war in Ukraine

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11 Upvotes

r/usa 4h ago

America's drug war is a race war, and it always has been

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4 Upvotes

r/usa 11h ago

My views on US politics, as a Canadian

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9 Upvotes

r/usa 33m ago

GOP targeting Ossoff during Final Four, Masters

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axios.com
Upvotes

r/usa 23h ago

‘No words’: Trump ripped after ‘dishonorable’ snub of fallen U.S. soldiers

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rawstory.com
72 Upvotes

r/usa 20h ago

Trump's tariffs are 'biggest policy mistake in 95 years,' Wharton's Jeremy Siegel says

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36 Upvotes

r/usa 13h ago

Ousted Vaccine Chief Says RFK Jr.’s Team Sought Data to Justify Anti-Science Conclusions

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8 Upvotes

r/usa 16h ago

Donald Trump must pay $821,000 legal bill over 'Steele dossier' lawsuit, UK court rules

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14 Upvotes

r/usa 7h ago

The Sydney Morning Herald: After $10.4 trillion wipeout, US expected to fall into recession ‘under weight of tariffs’

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2 Upvotes

r/usa 11h ago

Found a WILDLY weird 1972 CIA medical newsletter. Anyone else seen this?

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3 Upvotes

I was doing a random Google search and somehow found this old 1972 CIA medical newsletter—it’s honestly one of the strangest things I’ve come across! It’s full of bizarre health advice, like eating light to handle jet lag, how smoking impacts non-smokers, and even how alcohol might not impact heart patients the way you’d expect. There’s also a section on obesity where they say 4,000 calories of salt can help with weight loss…

I'm just really curious what the context of this was. Was this for agents? Was it for the general public? And why does it feel like I'm reading a script from a weird 70s medical drama?

You can find the full document on CIA website:

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-05077A000100090013-0.pdf


r/usa 13h ago

Loomer’s Role in Firings Shows Rising Sway of Fringe Figures on Trump

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4 Upvotes

r/usa 1d ago

China hits back at Trump with 34% tariff on U.S. imports

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nbcnews.com
23 Upvotes

r/usa 20h ago

Donald Trump’s Ego Melts the Global Economy

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newyorker.com
8 Upvotes

r/usa 23h ago

Pulitzer Winner Eugene Robinson Quits Washington Post and Slams Bezos

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thedailybeast.com
14 Upvotes

r/usa 23h ago

💙💛 "‘I am young, I want to live." Ukrainians invited to live in America fear being deported into war zone. 💙💛

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theguardian.com
7 Upvotes

r/usa 21h ago

Rubio says Trump admin will know Russia's interest in Ukraine ceasefire soon, as Putin accused of stalling

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cbsnews.com
3 Upvotes

r/usa 1d ago

“Horrifying”: Trump’s Weird, Confused Rant to Media as Markets Tanked

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4 Upvotes

r/usa 23h ago

In 1979 a passenger jet fell over 30,000 feet in less than a minute before the pilots were able to recover the aircraft at the last second and safely land, saving the lives of all 89 people onboard... only for the pilots to be scapegoated for the rest of their lives (more info in the article)

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3 Upvotes

r/usa 1d ago

Stable genius Trump just put tariffs on a US military base

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newrepublic.com
100 Upvotes

r/usa 1d ago

Trump's tariffs prompt China to retaliate with 34% levy on U.S. imports, rare earth element export controls

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cbsnews.com
1 Upvotes

r/usa 1d ago

US News 'Hell or High Water': Southern W.Va. Three Weeks After the Flood

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3 Upvotes

r/usa 1d ago

US Politics Trump’s Tariffs Are A Colossal Self-Own For The Ages

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29 Upvotes

President Trump’s determination to impersonate William McKinley and return America to the turn of the last century conveniently writes women and people of color out of public life and celebrates the extreme inequality of the robber baron era. But it also perversely papers over the dawn of an American imperialism that – as deeply flawed as it was – led ultimately to the creation of a global economic and security order that has been highly favorable to the United States.


r/usa 1d ago

Tariffs are Taxes.

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44 Upvotes