Your cops are bad too
I can’t remember the last time I heard of some european police shooting someones spaniel or flashbanging a toddler tbh, not saying they’re flawless, just on a different level.
I imagine every cop being armed to the teeth is probably worse lol.
All cops are
I don’t understand the argument behind ACAB. How can anyone think that. I never have understood this.
I’ll bite. Do you want an actual answer, or do you just want the opportunity to publicly clutch your pearls?
Just give your answer anyways, you don’t need their permission. I believe that ACAB myself but I’m always eager to read why others agree with me
Just give your answer anyways, you don’t need their permission.
Very true. I wish they would’ve done that instead of immediately low-key insulting me.
I believe that ACAB
Okay, I’ll listen to your reasoning if you’re willing to share. 🙂
I believe that all cops are bad.
It doesn’t mean I think every cop is personally bad in their private life. It means that it doesn’t matter how good or bad a cop is as a private individual. As soon as they put on that uniform they become the enforcers of unjust laws, and the enforcers of persecution against minorities, journalists, workers taking collective action, environmental and climate activists, human rights activists…the list goes on.
All cops are bad because the very nature of being a cop overrides any personal merit the cop may otherwise have.
This video by Thought Slime explains quite well what is usually meant by ACAB, and explains what the alternatives are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk5xnEL8mYg
Very interesting, thank you for this input. This is the kind of insight I was looking for. I guess I was focused on this part:
It doesn’t mean I think every cop is personally bad in their
privateprofessional life.But as you say, merely participating in the system makes them bad. Not individually, but as a concept.
In that case, I think it’s important not to blame the cops, but the system. Because we all know there are many of them who are not trying to uphold the unjust laws, but the just laws. Sometimes in life you have to take the good with the bad, and surely that is what many officers are doing.
All those individuals are trying to do is make a positive impact on their community, and protect its members.
So in this type of reasoning, I think we’re putting the focus on the wrong thing, the cops. Whereas we should be putting the focus on regulators, law makers, etc.
Europe is not as different from the US as it likes to pretend, especially politically.
Racism is not a unique or exceptionally American phenomenon, and the things I’ve heard from otherwise progressive Europeans can fucking curdle milk equal or in excess to what people in my ultra-rural ultra-conservative home region of the US can say.
I’ve had good friends who were Europeans studying here, and they can definitely be very insensitive and racist. What makes the two flavors of racism different to me is American racism is typically very confrontational, tribalistic. White man calling a black man a slur, and there’s something cavalier about it, maybe even humorous on the part of the racist.
Europeans have a much more “it is the way it is” attitude. I’ve heard friends talk very disparagingly about interracial couples, or blacks in general, and the attitude is less “hate for hate’s sake” but instead “it is the wrong way to be and my way is correct”. Fascinatingly, when you point out the bigotry, my friends have typically refused to accept their bias (at best), and will deny they’re racist.
I’ve heard Europeans call Turks ‘filthy’ and ‘roaches’ and Africans ‘monkeys’. And don’t get me started on the things said about the Romani.
I don’t think there’s a difference in how tribalistic or vicious it is.
Weird. I haven’t.
And even then the European countries that feel they’re ahead of the rest tackling racism it’s usually only the urban university educated talking with their fingers in their ears ignoring the majority of the rest of their country.
Europeans are really fucking racist. Asians and Jews are cool and yet yall are really weird about them. and don’t get me started on how badly Islam is vilified…
You seriously never met a racist Asian?
are you stupid? what makes you think i said that
You called out one group for being racist and said another was cool as if they are not also really racist
Of course he has, fuck’s lying or stupid
try reading what i wrote again you fucking moron
Nobody is “weird” about Asians or Jews where I live, that I know of. I’m even half west-Asian myself. Nobody had been weird about it to me, ever. I was always met with positivity regarding my heritage. Surprised to see you say this, to be honest.
middle eastern person says on internet that they haven’t experienced racism, must mean there’s no racism
Not what I wrote at all if you pay close attention but okay.
Asians are racist af even against other Asians
And that justifies anything?
Asians are cool
and racist
damn you got upset at me saying Asians are cool? what a clown
I’m not surprised, they have to live with them!
Although in fairness a lot of it is anti Japanese hate, and that was some heinous shit that went down in the 40s, even by WWII standards.
Some of the most racist people I’ve met are Asian. My neighbor is a Filipino Trump supporter who was patrolling the property with a concealed gun during the BLM protests
I hear the FDA actually controls American food in a much healthier way than European even though the opposite is commonly thought.
Europeans can definitely be much louder and annoying than Americans.
Europeans can be more racist, mention muslims or Romani people.
European democracy is just as bad.
FDA
What are you smoking? We don’t even have corn syrup in our soda or chlorine in our chickens, no putrasene for chocolate, in Europe we don’t even know what tums are which seems to be a common thing to take in the US. We have chemical food dyes but just because they’re chemicals - as is everything - doesn’t mean they’re bad.
I do agree the politics are shit though.
I hear the FDA actually controls American food in a much healthier way than European even though the opposite is commonly thought.
What do you mean by this? Because when I look at lists of banned substances and why, or pesticide limits, the EC seems much stricter than the FDA.
I was thinking of food additives and giving animals antibiotics
Where are you getting your information on that? Last time I checked there’s a whole lot of meats the EU won’t allow to be imported from the U.S., due to the additives and antibiotics used. This is particularly relevant to pork.
You are badly misinformed on this point.
Which one he made 4 points
Yes.
European democracy is just as bad.
Have you got a particular country in mind or are you referring to EU elections?
I’m referring to the general trend in voting for far right candidates
The first and the last one are simply not true, the second and third, sure, sometimes
More chemical food dyes are allowed by the EU.
Which fascist did whatever EU country vote for this term?
More chemical food dyes are allowed by the EU.
But their regulations are more strict overall. There are a lot of US foods can’t be imported without reformulating the product.
Which fascist did whatever EU country vote for this term?
Bruh, we literally just elected a fascist felon who tried to overthrow the government when he lost the last time who openly surrounded himself with fascists pushing project 2025. It’s not even a close challenge…
Cognitive dissonance at its finest
I’m not saying the US didn’t vote for one of two fascists, but the EU is as well.
People voting for fascists ≠ bad democracy.
The democracy in the USA is bad because you have a two-party system, meaning that there’s barely any choice. In the Netherlands, we have a whole bunch of political parties that share space in Parliament, so that representation is proportional to the votes.
As a result, we have both the PVV and GL-PvdA in Parliament; one is very right on most subjects, the other is pretty leftist.
If war breaks out between NATO and Russia, Europe hasn’t kept up enough military power to hold the Russians back while waiting for America to come bail them out. Their countries are gonna get hardcore trashed in the process.
You do realize EU countries have nukes too, right?
I dont think you know what ur talking about. Russia couldnt even invade a single country on their own, proven by them trying exactly that and failing miserably.
Russia couldn’t even invade one small sovereign nation properly, let alone NATO.
People in the replies not realizing how much support the us has given to Ukraine or how much military capability Ukraine has on its own.
Sometimes, while seeing discourse about the US, I think our region should try to better align itself with Europe, that stronger connections and cooperation could benefit us both.
Then I see how Europeans get when our name comes up and it’s no wonder we’re calling China instead. Sure, they don’t care about us either, but at least they put on an act and we might get something out of it rather than just racism and neocolonialism.
Really, I’m steadily approaching the point where I wouldn’t mind much if you all nuked each other out of existence, much like you wouldn’t care if we disappeared either. In the absence of names, no such thing as friends beyond borders.
“Why do you call it ‘football’ when they use their hands?” is the least original, least funny joke you could possibly make to an American. Also, there are more kicks in an average American football game than there are in an average rugby game, and you guys call rugby “football”
Absolutely not. Rugby averages 35 - 40 kicks per game, way more than the NFL’s number of kicks per game. And while it has football in the official name, you either call it rugby, or its rule variant: union, league or sevens.
Who calls rugby “football”? That’s the first time I hear about that.
You all need to just start making English an official language across the EU. Yeah I know that’s very American imperialist of me to say, but most of you speak it already anyway and it would make travel and communication so much easier. It feels like you all are insisting on speaking different languages just to pretend you have unique cultures when let’s be real, once you welcome McDonalds that ship has sailed.
My dude, the US doesn’t even have English as the official language and it doesn’t operate entirely in English either.
It’s not even the official language in the US - we don’t actually have one.
How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear? As someone who lives in the U.S. I know only a couple of people IRL who live in Europe.
The thing my European friend was not ready to hear was that all his complaining about the social programs in his home country and the high taxes and so on comes across as entitled and spoiled. Because he’s never lived without the benefits of a state that will provide healthcare and so on, he is free to complain about his privileges and glorify the U.S. as a place where individual citizens fill in the responsibilities that the government should fulfill. He sees this as an unmitigated good, because he thinks it means more civic engagement.
What he doesn’t understand is that this results in most people falling through the cracks, and until he falls through one of those cracks himself it won’t be real to him how bad it is to not be able to afford losing wages because you are sick or injured, or what it’s like when you can’t afford to see a doctor when you break a bone or get so sick you can’t leave your house.
That said, I’m not sure every European needs to hear this, or that they’re not ready to hear it - just this one person seemed to be a little delusional and to have idealized the U.S. as some kind of right-wing libertarian utopia.
How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear?
-Goes on to do exactly that
Bröther
You take your lööps for granted, Eurøpeans. Your Sïster grows weary.
A Møøse once bit my sister…
Just ignore he was talking about one specific european he knows, that was making out the states to be superior
European and UK universal healthcare is able to exist in it’s current form and at it’s current cost because the US has private healthcare.
Healthcare Companies give heavy discounts to UK/EU to make extra money, they are fully funded by US payors and thus patients. If US healthcare went public and it ate into profits, and other countries run low on healthcare funds (the NHS, right now), private insurance or more likely, increased taxes, in those countries may be required. The NHS is already considering pay-to-play models.
Note: This is a simplification of lots of details around the international transactions and legislation.
Note 2: Before disagreeing, pick a pharma company and look at their annual report.
Note 3: Clarified form and cost based on an astute commenter below.
Medical goods is around ~12% of healthcare expenditures. Even if US (richest country in the world) pays more they would have to pay insanely much more to subsidize single payer healthcare in the rest of the world.
And why would pharma reduce prices in other parts of the world just because Americans pay more? It’s not a charity. They charge what the market will bear. Hepatitis C drugs were incredibly expensive because they prevented much more expensive liver transplants down the road. The market would bear a high price then.
I have never heard this before. What would be some good things to look up for more info?
How Ukraine started the war, maybe. Perhaps practicing some reading of links that are informative on geopolitics and not the usual propaganda from Globalists.
The state of Western Australia is bigger than all of Europe.
Factually incorrect.
That’s like saying “no u” Of course it’s incorrect (I think) but now the burden of proof is on you
Commas are for separating thousands, periods are decimal points. Stop trying to be unique, you’re not.
Stop trying to be unique, you’re not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#Conventions_worldwide
I see China, India, and NZ that’s over half the worlds population.
as soon as you stop measuring things with body parts
Many of us I the US want to come there, and we’re willing to contribute, but the barriers of entry are too high. I likely won’t be able to until after retirement and that probably won’t be until I’m too old to move. And I have a lot to contribute if I could find a way to get on my feet. The US doesn’t allow for building enough wealth to start a business right out of the gate, unless you’re already born wealthy or get lucky and are willing to be exploitative, and in that case I could use a different visa to get in. Immigration isn’t all welfare cases and even with those who do need that help having a system in place to allow then to contribute while they get on their feet would benefit everyone. Dump the idea that you need to be extreme capitalists like the US and start embracing the people who need help to get started and most of them will contribute significantly as they will be so prideful of the place that took them in.
I’m not sure what you mean is hard? Besides uprooting and establishing a new life in a different culture ofc.
To my country a travel visa of three months is automatic/not needed from the US.
A work visa requires proof of employment at a more than minimum wage job, something like a skilled chef, contractor or entry level college grad job qualifies. After two years you can job hop, four years you get a permanent visa, after five you can apply for citizenship.
Requirements at each of these steps is that you can show you have a valid passport, the means to support yourself (and family) financially, are following laws and regulations, and remember to file the paperwork. No tests, no language requirements, just bureaucracy, patience and making a new life.
If you’re in a high demand profession, a work visa takes 90 days to get and is valid for at least two years.
This is for my country, you can typically check with the consulate for whatever country you’re interested in and they will happily inform you.
Getting a sponsorship to get a work visa in the first place is quite difficult in most EU countries; companies don’t want to be on the hook for a foreign worker that doesn’t work out for them. In many cases, you need to be able to demonstrate that you can support yourself entirely for a certain number of years before you can even attempt to get some form of permanent residency.
I’d happily sign up for active duty service in Finland–despite my age–if it meant I could move there permanently.
Is it though?
We have tons of workers in hospitality on work visas (hotels, tourism, restaurants), we have care staff, doctors, IT professionals, project managers, process managers, engineers, management, PhD students (which is an employment here), finance bros, even life coaches on work visa.
In my specific country they also take no extra risk other than having to culturally and institutionally train you.
It’s definitely harder than doing things at home, and scarier, but it’s entirely doable. In four years we’ll see if there’s gonna be another US election, regardless you’re gonna be 4 years older. Either you stay and hope to weather the US, or you go try building something you’ve chosen for yourself.
It’s not for everyone, and it’s a lot more comfortable being with devil you know. But don’t pretend it’s because the process is impossible.
I wouldn’t want my ability to keep my home to depend on the fleeting whim of a service industry job. And I am a software architect/engineer with nearly 20 years of technical experience. No service industry is going to want me and no company wants to sponsor short term employees.
The other issue is that in order to get a lot of the visas you can’t be in the country, but you have to have a lease or purchased property. Without knowing anyone, that’s difficult. I can’t afford two homes even temporarily. And I can’t afford to break a lease if the visa is denied. If I could go, stay in a long-term hotel for a couple of months, get basic help finding a job just to understand the differences in employment culture, and then get permanent housing and move all my stuff, I know I could thrive. I just can’t afford the $4,000/month mortgage for the tiny house I have plus a lease on an apartment in another country.
Then there’s the language barrier. It’s not like the US teaches languages to kids, and although I could probably survive with Spanish because I have been studying it on my own for a long time and can communicate basically, it might take me some time to get better at communicating in Spain Spanish vs Latin American Spanish not to mention to pick up the tech jargon.
There are just a lot of barriers that governments could easily make fairly simple to overcome, but the policies are instead designed to make it difficult.
fleeting whim of a service industry job in Europe means 3 months notice though
I thought America was racist until I saw a member of UK Parliament tweeting about a boat of migrants sinking with “Good riddance”.
There is still a lot of racism in America. I would not be surprised if I saw that from an American politician.
I definitely don’t agree with the sentiment and sinking of boats, but they basically are people coming from another first world country for economic reasons. The type of people willing to cheat the system and pay people smugglers tend to overlap closely with bad people. It’s not just simply coming from a place of “racism”. I’m more pissed though that people are putting their kids on these dangerous boats and killing them, or overexaggerating the legality and safety of said boats.
A safe and legal option into the UK is the best solution imo
Nobody wants to leave their country without good reason.
And people who come with little boats are not from first world countries. They have much better options. Including legal ones.
You guys should start bulking up your militaries. At best, the US will completely abandon you, and I really don’t want to think about worst-case scenario as I live in the US.
Already happening, keep up
