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ZurdoDev wrote: Did Trump ever say per capita?
First: I never suggested that he did, because he didn't.
That is the very problem. He is very concious about when to point out that USA is the huge 330 million population: Considering that, the figures are reasonable. He leaves it at that, knowing very well that 99,9% of his audience will never check up the figures, and compare them to other countries. At least 99,95% of the audience will conclude from what he says that even though figures are high, that is because of the population size, as pointed out by Our Great Leader.
Whenever he refers to population size, you know that a high figure is negative. Take Corona deaths: Everyone knows about Belgium, Spain, Italy, UK, France and Sweden, but USA actually ranks #13 on that list. Sweden has 28% more deaths per capita, but he does not want the audience to focus on that; he rather points to the size of the USA, so that they will believe that USA is at least as good as the avareage, even though death counts are high. He rather praises Norway for choosing the same strategy as USA, without pointing out that the death per capita is one sixth of the USA figure. He wants to leave an impression that USA and Norway follows the same strategy with very similar results (but please do not check the figures!).
When a high figure is something to be proud of, then he never refers to the size of the US population. The essential point is that these figures are huge. Please do not ask for the per capita values; then they are not as impressing anymore. Take number of corona tests made: USA ranks #40 (up from 43 a week ago). Norway's per capita is 26% higher, but ignore that: Norway has made only 205,239 tests while USA has made a whooping 9,935,720 - isn't that something to be proud of? Russia has made 37% more tests per capita, Italy 47%, Belgium 74%, Spain 76% more, Luxembourg 3 times as many, Iceland 5,3 times as many -but please keep this low (it ruins the image of USA being the world leader, rather than #40).
If a journalist would dare to point out such facts, Our Great Leader would most likely call it a "nasty question". Maybe he would leave the press conference. He probably would call the figures "false news" (aka "news that I don't like"). If he decided to step down and answer in a "polite" (for being him) way, he would most certainly not at all relate to Russia, Italy, Spain, but point out that Iceland is a very small country. Russia, Spain and Italy taken together have 77% the population of USA, but has in absolute numbers made 12% more tests that the USA, and you won't get far by treating those three as small and insignificant. Please look at Iceland instead: Less than 55,000 tests, compared to USA's 9,9 million!
You can listen to Our Great Leader to learn if a high figure gives a good or bad impression of the USA: If he refers to the size of the US population, it is bad. If he refers to absolute figures, it is good. That is more reliable than the specific figures he quotes!
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Member 7989122 wrote: I never suggested that he did, because he didn't.
Then why did you argue that point?
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ZurdoDev wrote: Then why did you argue that point?
Because I didn't. I pointed out that per capita figures may give a completely different impression, but I did not say that Our Great Leader said so.
Well, he might have, when I didn't hear it. But I haven't heard him refer to per capita figures in any of the press conferences I have listened to. As I wrote in my previous entry: If he wants to diminish an unpleasantly high figure, he refers to the size of the US population, and leaves it at that. If he wants to diminish some positive values from another country, he point out the smallness of the country's population, to make it appear as insignficant. So he does refer to population size, in ways that makes US appear as highly successful and other countries' sucesses insignificant. But he does not refer to per capita figures; they wouldn't serve his election campaign.
And I never did say that he refers to per capita figures.
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Member 7989122 wrote: And I never did say that he refers to per capita figures.
Never said you did.
However, here IS what you said. Quote: The leader tells them, so why should they care to check e.g. the worldometers.info survey showing that in tests per capita, the US was earlier today ranking #43 on the list when ordered by tests per capita? When their leader tells them the Truth, why doubt it? What is the use of checking false news resources?
You are accusing people of blindly believing what he says. He IS correct in that the US has done more tests, even your own link says so. So, then you went on to claim that per capita is a different story. You started out down one argument path and then jumped to another non-related one.
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Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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There's a not-so-fine line between "discussing politics" and "hating on another country".
There's no politics being discussed here.
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Member 7989122 wrote: Lots of web stores insist that there must be a "state" level between the nation and town level
Member 7989122 wrote: Lots of software take for granted that the full stop is a decimal separator and the comma is the thousands separator
This is so true! 
I agree with you though, Americans seem very ignorant of the rest of the world.
Not all, of course, but probably a good majority.
Anyway, you seem new here, so let me tell you this.
Don't bother "discussing" with ZurdoDev, he's a stereotype American (every non-American knows what that means) in all his (Christian) values and morals (of which he always has the high ground) and a troll if ever there was one.
In fact, he might well be the personification of all your points
He already concluded I'm a bad child killing maniac because I'm pro-abortion.
Those were pretty much his exact words, it wasn't flattering.
I've been ignoring him since then.
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The simplest example is news on television, whether or not they lean to the left or right side is not even relevant.
In the US they have one thing in common: whenever there is a news broadcast it is almost 100% local (USA) news. If anything important happens anywhere else it is barely mentioned and if so very briefly.
When you are used to news broadcasts in Europe which generally spend almost 50% of the time on reporting stuff happening somewhere outside of their own country or outside of Europe the difference is staggering.
The result is that the average European has a pretty good idea where the USA is, where, for example, Texas and California are within it and where a good number of countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia are.
I am sad to having to say it but personal experience tells me that that is rarely the case for the average US citizen.
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fd9750 wrote: it is almost 100% local (USA) news
It's a big country.
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Yeah, it has slightly below 5% of the world's population. Why would USA care about the other 95%?
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Member 7989122 wrote: . Why would USA care about the other 95%?
For starters, because you all have an incorrect view of the US.
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Oh, we fully understand that USA sees the entire world as a market for Coke and Levis and American movies and TV shows; we are not immaterial to USA in that sense.
And the US navy, army and air force certainly care for the rest of the world as a playground.
We could list several other areas where the US certainly knows how to make use of other parts of the world. The problem is the way it is done.
When a country experiences US actions as an exploitation, you may of course say that they "have an incorrect view of the US"; they haven't understood that the Americans are really nice guys who comes to free up the country for the country's benefit. They just want to give the population what the population is craving for, such as coke, hamburers and American TV shows. If only those people could understand what benefit it would be themselves if they only adapt The American Way (*), they would wish the B52s and army soldiers welcome, and bow to their demands.
(*) I've got the first Superman movie in my DVD shelf for one single line: When Superman declares that "I am going to figth for peace, justice and The American Way". Way back in my student days I was at the Norwegian premiere, in a packed 2500 seat movie theather. When this line was said, the entire audience broke out in a roar of laughter, followed by a intense and lengthy applause and heavy foot stomping, so noone could hear the following three or four lines.
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Member 7989122 wrote: And the US navy, army and air force certainly care for the rest of the world as a playground.
Protecting other countries is having a playground? 
I agree, we should get out of the world babysitting business. See how many countries do fine without us. My taxes could go way down.
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Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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ZurdoDev wrote: I agree, we should get out of the world babysitting business.
Please do work for this! There are so many countries around the world that would be grateful!
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Member 7989122 wrote: There are so many countries around the world that would be grateful!
such as?
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Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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ZurdoDev wrote: For starters, because you all have an incorrect view of the US
Well, we certainly seem to have a different view of the US. But that's the thing; the view of pretty much anything is different from inside when compared to the view from outside. But that does not make either view "incorrect"; just "different".
ZurdoDev wrote: And you say that you have higher values than the US but are OK with kids running around naked
I don't think he did say he had "higher" values. Again, the values are different, not higher or lower. When it comes to morals, there is no such thing as absolutes; you can only ever judge by comparing to your own morals, and virtually by definition no-one is going to have higher morals than oneself.
But this is a common (in my experience) thing with Americans; whereas pretty much everyone else can acknowledge that whilst there may be differences between cultures, they are just that; Americans tend to judge those differences and/or discard different views as being inconsequential. There is an absolute self-centredness that marginalises or dismisses as inferior everything non-American. (Oh, and if you read "self-centredness" and thought I'd made a spelling mistake, that is proof of my assertion! )
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Ya'll need to get educated and culturized more.
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Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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"Culturized" - are you using that as a synonym to "Americanized"?
Someone (I don't remember who) referred to USA as the only society that went directly from barbarism to decadence without passing through the culture stage. I am not one who fully support that statement, yet I can easily recognize the grounds for making it.
We might respect the US of A for many different reasons. "Culture" is not prominent among those. Maybe in a few very narrow, restricted areas, but not in the general sense. In some areas, the US of A has commercialized a lot of culture that originated outside the US of A.
There is some original American culture, but a major part of that is definitely not in any way WASP-based. Historically, it is the culture of e.g. the slaves, the "afro-american" culture. Or the Latin culture from the south that will now the stopped by a 1000+ miles long wall. One major music style is genuinely American: CW (that is, both of them, both Country and Western), but USAnians would probably be surprised by how inessential original American CW is in the rest of the world. It may have given inspiration to artist all over, but they have often created their own style that might be far away from the sources of inspiration.
It is not that the WASP USA is completely void of culture. But the outside world never considers WASP USA to be any sort of "cultural beacon" - except in the sense of the culture of commercialism. If marketing of coke and McDonalds hamburgers is culture: Sure enough. It makes the world adopt "The American Way". Anthropologists may refer to it as a cultural artifact, but few cultural workers consider coke and hamburgers to be Culture, in the capital C way.
Artist from outside the US of A come to the US of A to make money. And to meet other artists from all over the world, and pick up inspiration from them. Not because they represent any sort of US WASP culture, but because of their original, non-US culture, and to some degree their US but non-WASP culture.
Culturally speaking, WASP USA is just another country, and a rather significant one. If you look at WASP culture, keeping afroamerican and latin culture to the side, the result is really not very impressing, considering that the nation has 330 million inhabitants. In terms of dollars: Of course. In terms of real cultural value: Not quite that much.
Honestly: Even if I strive for education and culturization, it is not in the Superman sense of "Peace, Justice and The American Way".
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fd9750 wrote:
Having been to the USA umpteen times that does not surprise me at all.
Most of the population there is hardly aware that there is something like a world outside of the USA.
Examples?
Like getting utterly confused when they are told "no, nobody outside of the USA is celebrating the 4th of July", or Thanksgiving Day. Or that "Cinco De Mayo" is not the Mexican independence day.
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There are ignorant people everywhere. Unfortunately, the US does not have a monopoly on ignorant people.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Read the junk posted in Facebook from the Americans
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James Lonero wrote: the junk posted in Facebook f
Not if my life depended on it.
But you prove my point. You're basing your opinion of America based on what you see in social media. Not a smart move.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Your're right. Some years ago a colleague and I were in a cab from JFK to downtown New York.
After some time the driver says, "Where you guys from?", to which my colleague answers, "We're from Australia".
After a long pause... "Is that down south somewhere?"
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"...What do you expect when even their own president hardly knows any other country than Mexico, Russia and China. One of them being more or less OK, the other two ones obvious enemies."
And which one that is OK is subject to change (and does) at any time and only with notice from Twitter. Lol
I have found parts of europe like Belgium, Netherlands, even Denmark sometimes use English better than many Americans. Though I suppose that is more due to the proximity to the UK than any US influence.
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And also better than a lot of British people. The quality of diction and knowledge of word meanings is getting worse here (I mean in the UK, not CodeProject).
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