How the United States' allies saw us last night

Nah my dude, those two assholes are your highest ranking officials that you elected to be your representatives.

oh I did? I didn’t know that.

edit: /s I thought that was obvious idk.
- my friend (I am assuming you are also american), we either own this clusterfuck or we continue to spiral.
  
  I dont know if things can be salvaged (I will sure as hell try), but as someone alive in this moment, in this country, I cannot pull away from my own culpability. I own a part of this collective failure. and so do we all.
  
  edit: as an aside, I have now seen two trump stronghold houses (9 years worth of trump flags) in my area with no flags today. not sure when they got taken down, but it must have been pretty recent (within the last 3 days)
  
  edit edit: one of my highschool kids says there has been a marked turn in attitude in his school. the maga kids are actively saying they "hate" trump. just dropped him off at a sports event, but I am going to quizz him on pickup.
  
  update: so my kiddo says the trump supporters in his school now "hate talking about trump". he is not considered interesting or cool (my words). this started specifically after the oval office trump/musk session. musk is also not a topic of conversation. so perhaps the the bloom is off the rose for these two.
  
  Anecdotally, my fence-sitter friends have all been getting off against Trump since his inauguration. I admit that I don't think I had much to do with it, but it was a pleasant surprise.
  
  Woulda been a lot more pleasant in October
  
  They'll swing back for the next election, don't worry. Plenty of time for right-wing concern trolling to send them scurrying back to the fence.
  
  LOL, as if there will be another election
  
  They were OK as long as leopards ate only other people's faces. Anyone who isn't a straight white male deserved it.
- You either voted for him or didn't do enough to persuade other people not to vote for him.
  
  Take some collective responsibility for your country's actions.
  
  Hm let's see. The majority of the country didn't vote for him. Rich fucks are buying the election and the rest of the country, and destroying it in front of our eyes. Rub it in a little, why don't ya.

America has historically been more like Trump than not: Fat, racist, sexist, bullying, greedy, corrupt.

He’s the perfect president for this shithole

“Us”? we are not trump.

We are.

We let this happen.

We made this happen.

We voted away democracy to a senile, racist, rambling, rapist, treasonous, bootlicking, servile, incompetent, moronic, gullible, manipulable, greedy, gluttonous, slothful, cheeto-encrusted pig-eyed slug of an excuse of a human being.

We chose this.

Americans have shown their true colors.

Americans are not worth America.

“we we we”. Again I’m not sure who you’re thinking of but it isn’t me.
- You don't get to be an American when it makes you feel good, and then disavow the collective identity when it makes you feel bad. We, as Americans, have a collective responsibility, just as we have collective achievements, collective loss, collective memories. You either own up to it even when it's shit, or you give it up. Wearing your Americanism as a fashion statement, only when it's in season, is risible and pathetic.
  
  I disavow my American identity all the fucking time but I’m not gonna pretend I’m not stuck with these idiots even if I hate it.
  
  What I mean is, when you revel in Americanism, you must also accept shame in Americanism. There's no "I want all of the credit and none of the blame" option, except for shitwits like MAGA et co; and THAT is a strange and elaborate form of public self-humiliation that can only be perceived by those who read above a second-grade level, and I would not recommend it.
  
  Where exactly did he take credits about American Actions? 😮

You are, the rest of the world is done thinking otherwise. You're an enemy now and only one way to deal with you

Oooooo we found an angsty teen.
- I'm 30. I've spent most of my life on the left as an unusual patriot. Nationalism, even of the civic variety, is not always welcome on the left. Still, I wore my colors proudly - for all of America's faults, for all of our mistakes, for all of our crimes, we were always also capable of great good.
  
  Since last November, I've been putting the burial shroud over Uncle Sam. There's something more comforting about a funeral. Something that was, and then wasn't. Nostalgia and loss can poison the truth of the memory, what was bad, sometimes, hell, what was good - but something was there. And what passed is worth mourning. I prefer that to affording this any sliver of legacy of what we were - and make no mistake, what we were was always a very deeply flawed country. This grotesque charade doesn't even deserve that.
  
  We can't even refuse open, plainly stated fascism, when the only thing on offer is fascism, and the only punishment we would have recieved for refusing is 'not getting fascism'. We've sold out every ally we have. We've sold out most American minorities. And for what? For the worst cause imaginable, to one of the worst human beings (and I use the term lightly) imaginable. We weren't seduced by some charismatic, quick-thinking ubermensch. Some shitwit went up and shat incoherent racist babble out of his mouth for an hour at a time, and half the fucking country said not only "I want him to lead the nation", but "He is the greatest leader of my lifetime!"
  
  There was no secret deal. No complex backroom politiking. No elaborate concoction of carefully constructed lies and half-truths laid bare to the public only long after the fact. We were shown, full well, in our faces, undeniably, what was being offered. And we still chose it, or, nearly worse, chose not to care. A supermajority of the country.
  
  This is a sickened people. What remains of the US is only the husk, a grotesque puppet of the shapes and forms we've battered together over the years to keep the grand experiment together, with none of the innards which made it worthwhile. Nothing left for guts but a writhing, verminous mass of stupidity and malice, contained by the vague, half-washed out outline of the ink of the Constitution.
  
  Many of the Americans who are going to suffer do not deserve it. Many of the Americans who are going to suffer deserve America, as the dream, the ideal. But all of them - all of us - have been betrayed by consensus of the American people. And any of our international allies would be monumentally stupid to think they'll retain more loyalty from this homunculus than the nation's own sons and daughters.
  
  My angsty teen comment was in response to the comment from the user with a name along the lines of nemean lion.
  
  I may have interneted incorrectly. Ill respond to your full comment if it seems needed, but you mentioned your age and then I just skimmed the rest of your comment, I think we might have miscommunicated. We prolly on a very similar page.
  
  My point is that our former allies seeing the US as an enemy, with only one way to deal with it, going forward, is not inherently the realm of angsty teens.
  
  We're monumentally and fundamentally fucked, and can't be trusted.
  
  Ah, well you are not wrong. It should be everyones realm. Teens, 30, 40s etc yea all of us. Angsty or otherwise. Using age as an insult is maybe problematic huh? But angsty teen conjures such good imagery.
  
  But coming at a commenter online with vague no exception threats is weird. Also exactly what the people making these problems want to see. I dont like that and will try to reply better but with similar disdain in the future.
  
  Half of it is just me venting.
  
  Christ. Seeing people day-to-day pretending everything is fine when the topic of politics comes up? Just some mild annoyance?
  
  I wish I was as blinkered as them some days.

You need to read up on the concept of political representative. In fact the ignorance of the average American about their own political system is one of the many reasons you are in the situation you are in right now.

I’m with you! Every country has awesome people and assholes..

Rest of the world: prove it.

Call us back when we hear about the United Russia invasion of Ukraine or the Likud genocide.

Or when there are tanks at the Capitol, because that’s where you’ve all let it get to while abandoning your freedom, allies, neighbours, science, climate, religious freedom, and health. While you continue to allow Hitler to run an Economic and Anti-Spanish Inquisition that everyone expected.

I live in a big city in a blue state. I do not take any responsibility for trump nor am I “allowing” anything. But whatever makes you feel better.

Who is?

Who made Trump happen?

I'm sorry you feel powerless to affect your country, but there is no one else to. Abdicating that responsibility neither removes the consequences, nor exculpates you.

In a rioting mob, even the people not setting fire to things are in part responsible for the riots.

In your survival, head-in-the-sand, mode you are normalising the situation, you are providing legitimacy, you are enforcing the current order.

The other side can say "look, this dude's not protesting, they have a great life under Great Leader", they can ignore you and put those resources to oppress others instead (women, trans, homosexuals, foreigners, allies), they can march right past your house to take the capital.

Your inaction is also a choice, a choice that emboldens and enables the fascists.

If you don't act, who should? If you don't act now, will there be another time?

I’m not sure how you got all that from my comment but again, way off. There are in fact people in the U.S. that don’t support trump or what he’s doing. Believe it or not. And I’m really not sure how you got the impression that I choose to bury my head in the sand or whatever.

Who is?

well for starters;

the people who actually voted for him

the foreign financiers

special interest groups

the billionaire class donors

foreign influence campaigns,

elected officials who enabled voter suppression and disenfranchisement

the heritage foundation

and,(in my opinion), vote manipulation.

I stand by my statement, “we” are not trump. There is a maniac with unlimited funding consolidating power. And it’s only been a little over one month. some people voted for him because they didn’t think he would.

But not me.

You can’t blame the actions of this administration on me. My inbox is full of rants like this but you have the wrong person. I’m sure that person you want to blame is on here somewhere but it isn’t me.
- "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"