America: Establishes military bases, missile silos, CIA blacksites, international espionage agreements to violate the rights of the citizens in dozens of countries, has invaded and overturned governments because they disagree with what the president wants, calls itself the world police.
Americans: "Why are so many non-Americans invested in what goes on in our country? I know we're a big deal, but why would anyone be interested? Must be paid actors and bots! I don't care about French elections, why would they care about American?"
Americans: Why don't foreigners care about every aspect of America every second of every day?
The picture is an exaggeration. India DOES NOT allow foreign military bases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_black_sites
Sri Lanka participated in the US redition process. This image is also rather old. Very likely the Modi government has opened the back door to this shit in the last ten years.
Neither does Pakistan, those are actually super top secret CIA outposts lol
The US doesn't have any military bases in Alaska? Not even one?
Huh. 🤔 . They do of course. https://militarybases.com/alaska I also see 9. :T well that’s annoying. Now that I look closer I do see Closed military bases on this list and the scale is absolutely horrendous. Decidedly not effective for communicating information specifically, but great for reaffirming the general you know like the US has a bunch of them and it operates troops and such out of them
take note canadians
Certainly does. My father-in-law served up there, which he thought was a much better assignment than Vietnam. It was pretty important for early ICBM detection from Russia, since the shortest path to the continental US is through the arctic circle. Still is, so yes, there's bases up there.
and in hindsight, it turned out to have been much better than going to Vietnam
This site says there are 9. 3 Army, 3 Air Force, 3 Coast Guard.
And where's the one in antarctica they're always threatening to send people to?
American exceptionalism is ingrained so deep in most people here that they would never even consider or doubt why the world pays attention to them, just: "Duh of course they do, because we're America!"
Correct. I think the entire premise that an American would question this idea is an indication that the meme was made by somebody from a country with one of these pins in it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending this mindset. I am myself an American making this observation with a sense of shame and mild horror.
Yeah, I abolutely agree. In American culture, this is treated more like a natural law, like the Sun rising each day or objects falling down when dropped. It is just something self-evident and isn't even a thought that occurs in most American's heads.
Going by experience here, the American WILL question this idea the very seconds the foreign has a diverging opinion or calls them out on something.
👋 yep... Tbh, I just never thought through the "their shit is next door" part.. just the "they have a lot of shit" part
Or they could realize the reality of the situation without making it about taking credit for being "the best". As an American I know our country sucks, especially now, and also that it's important for global stability.
Nah, it's probably what you said. I just truly think the US is way better than any other country. /s
Edit: I missed that they wrote "most". In my defense though a lot of users are currently cruelly shitting on Americans unconditionally. A lot of us didn't want this bullshit
Imagine if China had bases like that
If you do a search for "are there secret chinese police stations in canada", would that count?
Not to be a china apologist, but overt military presence in the form of missiles and boots on the ground is very different from clandestine operations abroad. Basically all major powers have the latter. What do you think the CIA is?
If you mean https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_police_overseas_service_stations, then yes, but imagine they have soldiers and illegal weapons and claim to be ensuring stability of the region
My first thought was to wonder if we'll try to buy Greenland again.
Apparently, some have been pushing that last week already...
Sorry, World. 😑
If the US bought Denmark, they'd probably get Greenland with it. Just saying.
(now some idiot is probably going to try this)
In 3 months we're going to have a Secretary of Defense that's on the Fox and Friends B-Team, and a panel of MAGA generals purging the ranks. I am not ruling anything out of the future timeline we're on....
These are some of the same people who don't know who the president of Puerto Rico is, so they might just move in thinking the place is abandoned.
I’ve never once wondered this.
To be fair the red balloons shown are much less deadly than American military bases.
Seems like they just hate industrious hard working war mongers. Can't a warlord catch a break?
Comparisons here on Wikipedia, sometimes on the linked page.
Iirc the way these bases work is with the agreement from the host country.
Tell that to Cuba.
More like an "agreement"
Having a US military base (that wasn't forcibly installed by the US military) in your country is usually great for a country's security at a fantasic price. Especially if you're a country that's not likely to have an adversarial relationship with the US.
The US isn't likely going to invade or go to war with Romania anytime soon, so having US military thousands of US troops, aircraft, and the world's most advanced missile defense systems placed there offers great security that they're paying for just by being located in a strategically useful position.
You got down voted because some folks are either ignorant of wider geopolitics, or of certain inclination and don't want to hear the inconvenient truth.
I am originally from Philippines which hosted a major US military base. Despite the protests, the Americans did not leave until a major volcanic eruption nearby prompted them to do so in the early 90s. I am anti-imperialists as much as the next guy and the overseas American military presence is an on-the-face sign of imperialism, but the fact of the matter is that many countries literally "free ride" under American protective umbrella. It saves the country money and deter rivals. That being said, in hindsight the Americans should not have left, as China has now started claiming an entire sea region and bullying Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen. China has also literally set up a military base within 200 nautical miles of Philippine exclusive economic zone without permission, which the international court deemed to be illegal.
Many Filipinos changed their tune from "go home Yankees" to "Yankees come back! You should have stayed" because hindsight is 20/20. Right now, American soldiers are dripping back slowly to the Philippines since the Chinese military is still squatting.
Iirc the way these bases work is with the agreement from the host
countrycountry's government and most definitely NOT the people of said country.FTFY.
to be fair, most of these countries allow usa bases because of the countries that explicitly dont have usa bases. see map.
they use expensive infrastructure and most countries would rather fund their own bases.
oooo cake 🎂
