Do You Agree ?

[The Arab]

with the below statements ? I do, wholeheartedly. These were from Yahoo Answers.

Why are people in our American society so screwed up? Society is a huge mess!!?

No more "good neighbor" syndrome, at least not widespread as it used to be. People nowadays are fearful/cautious/distrustful of one another, very passive agressive, and act fake. When you go out and about people just treat each other like they don't even exist or "why are you looking at me" or "what do you want," but at the SAME EXACT TIME, if they ever need help with something or THEY want/require something, they EXPECT humanity to roll out the red carpet.

So basically it's a double standard, and the way people behave is ridiculous and very competitive.

People act like it's ALL about them, hate on you if you have any edge over them, suburbia IS all about competing with the joneses, to SUCH a sick degree that I even the other day saw a desperate looking mother in a store with her baby in a carriage....with like 4 purses attached to it, and then when she took the baby out, the weight of the purses toppled the carriage over.

I was shocked and helped her lift it up since I was right behind her, but she basically gave me the look of "WHO are you, what are you doing to my carriage." She said thanks, in a very dismissive manner too.

Once I also didn't have a cellphone on me and needed to make a call, and these girls past me noticed me going "Ugh where's my cellphone," and one was like "i'll let u use mine for $20."

It's unbelievable how people act, yet, at the SAME time, these SAME people, join groups like "donate to haiti," and let's heal the world, and act all holier than thou.

People use each other, are all fake, pretend, and it's all just to me "screwed up." Not sure if this is an american phenomenon or just a global phenomenon, generally speaking but, our society sure seems to be greatly dysfunctional.

That and people are also extremely vain. I mean, like it's this huge competition. Who cares what a stranger you don't know looks like and drives? Americans do! They view it as something to compete against, and if you by any means, looks wise, money wise, car wise, have it better than them or edge them out, they somehow pick that up on their paranoid 6th sense, and get hostile/angry/dissatisfied.

America and American people from my experience (i'm actually european) seem to be living in their own bubbles, but they all seem to be very mentally unhealthy.

I mean, daily interraction with these people, whether it's at the movies, mall, etc, will make you mentally unhealthy, and I don't see how it can't.

I mean you have to deal with ALL sorts of aberrations to normal behavior. The screwed up chain smoking teens, the clique-o-paths, who gather up in groups of 4-5, excluding everyone else, the troublemakers going out there looking for trouble, the sue-happy types who want to get you for anything and blow it out of proportion, the malibu barbie/ken types that are self-absorbed and won't talk to you unless you are "hot" and think they're better than you, the celebrity-dream chasing crowd, the perfects, the materialistic types, the social climber types, the narcissists, the do-gooders-only-because-it-looks-good-on… types, the passive-aggressive angry types, the smarty-pants-I'm-more-clever-than-you types, ...

I'm sure it's not just America, but at least here by our large metro cities, these personality types seem to be out there in full swing and

how's a person to stay sane? All of that affects us to a degree, and "not letting it" would literally mean, a DAILY effort to ignore. Daily. That's crazy to have to do every day for the rest of your life.

lol. Anyways, I forgot to add to the list, the anorexic/eating disorder/bulemics, the criminals/con-artists, the players, the power hungry types, the business only success-at-all-costs types, the religious-extremist warring with everyone types, the I'm -going-to-be-a-martyr types, ...

there are just so many "wrong" types of people out there.....that I notice DAILY, that it gets insane. Add to that, all the weather patterns that are a pain (which is a global thing i must say), and the cops who can also be extremely unfair, and all these new illnesses popping up, etc....

living in America feels like we're tasting a small slice of hell. (and I'm afraid its not just here)

Any reason as to how or WHY all of this came to be this way? Society is a MESS!!!

[The Arab]

Americans annoy me, am I the only one?

It's like they lack personality, the ones I've come across act as if they follow like these roles created by Hollywood where they get to be either the soccer mom, the psycho *****, the high maintenance hoe, the golf obsessed white suburbia man, the liberal yeah gay rights now, the redneck with a gun, the ghetto black gangstah, the depressed emo, the liberal american that thinks he/she's cosmopolitan and artistic, the surfing ashton kutcher looking dude etc. etc. IT'S VERY ANNOYING, I have yet to meet an American that doesn't act like one of the characters depicted above.

and then they have like this TV culture where they take the trashiest, most ignorant, loudest, meanest, most disgusting individual and obsess with him/her and turn them into celebrities and so.... agghh it's so irritating (kim kardashian, paris hilton, new york tifanny pollard something etc. etc.)

I mean is there an American who is not a total annoying irritating jerk? I live in Europe and know mostly europeans and south americans and both groups seem more natural, more open, more original, more refreshing.... Americans always have like these issues where they take their personality and beliefs and pushed them to the max reaching levels of annoyingness and irritatingness!

does any one else feels like me when dealing with Americans?

[The Arab]

Yeah, I completely know how irritating some Americans are...I lived there for 10 years. What really annoyed me about most Americans is that they were so FAKE!!! Do they not realize that you can see right through them?
I have to agree with you 100%. Europeans are real.
And that would be the exact reason why I ended up coming back to Europe.
Don't see how people live in the US without going insane...haha

[E_Irizarry]

Don't see how people live in the US without going insane...haha

I talk aloud with myself in public and private. However, I do not "talk to myself" i.e. have a two-or-more-way convo with myself with an answer-and-reply.

Talking out loud helps me to get through this turmoil of a society called America because I invest in myself as my own best friend. If you cannot confide in yourself, then who can???

[Think Different]

I agree with you Arab, and have personally never felt "at home" in the US, even though I was born and raised here. I think most Americans feel this vanity - this obsession with the self and all things narcissistic - at some level, but might not be able to put their finger on the problem. America was not always like this. It has become this way only since the 60s and mainly in the last 20 years. Life can be brutally hard, cruel and unfair in the US, so most people feel trapped and have learned to step on each other in order to survive. We have no social benefit system as you do in Europe that allows everyone to be a little more comfortable. American society has no safety net, so everyone has learned to self-promote in hopes of being the next "star" in whatever endeavor they engage in. In Europe, there is a social safety net that everyone gets to partake of, and so everyone can take it a little easier, enjoy life more and not be so cruel to each other. Now, some would argue that Africa and South America don't have a safety net either (varies by country), so why aren't they so cruel. I think they may be to some degree, but America is always front and center in the news, so we hear about it all the time.

I am leaving America two weeks from today and moving to Italy, where I hope to rebuild my life. I will watch America's slow decline from the other side of the pond, and mourn her passing from there. Life's too short for the bullshit here in the US.

[odbo]

America was always a sick, sick place. Maybe somewhere between 1920 and 1940 it had some hope.. But it changed forever after WWII. It might have not been a particularly happy or healthy environment (mentally) compared to the rest of the world (outside of Communism), but up to 1960s the American was a creature that resembled a human. People were wild, or "free and independent" as JFK said. The media began to dominate people's lives in the 70s, social engineering hit them like a ton of bricks and they became domesticated, humanoids. That's what the film Network was about. Fear is what destroyed America. It's inherently a nation of pussies.

[Adama]

I agree with you Arab, and have personally never felt "at home" in the US, even though I was born and raised here. I think most Americans feel this vanity - this obsession with the self and all things narcissistic - at some level, but might not be able to put their finger on the problem. America was not always like this. It has become this way only since the 60s and mainly in the last 20 years. Life can be brutally hard, cruel and unfair in the US, so most people feel trapped and have learned to step on each other in order to survive. We have no social benefit system as you do in Europe that allows everyone to be a little more comfortable. American society has no safety net, so everyone has learned to self-promote in hopes of being the next "star" in whatever endeavor they engage in. In Europe, there is a social safety net that everyone gets to partake of, and so everyone can take it a little easier, enjoy life more and not be so cruel to each other. Now, some would argue that Africa and South America don't have a safety net either (varies by country), so why aren't they so cruel. I think they may be to some degree, but America is always front and center in the news, so we hear about it all the time.

Except for the Germans and Dutch, I agree with this.

[well-informed]

What do you mean by Europe having a safety social net?

[ladislav]

Now, some would argue that Africa and South America don't have a safety net either (varies by country), so why aren't they so cruel.

They have strong family support and friendship networks that serve like a welfare net to help people.

[Repatriate]

I find it funny how when you mention social welfare or healthcare or progressive funding in education most Americans automatically get all suspicious about it and treat it like it's some insidious plot to take away their freedoms and force benefits on them. The current system is no sustainable in anyway this is especially true with the way the import/export economy is structured and the competition for resources.

[ladislav]

What do you mean by Europe having a safety social net?

Guaranteed unemployment benefits one can live on, free or very cheap medical/dental care, welfare one can live on, pensions for the elderly that one can live on, free or very cheap education.

[Adama]

I find it funny how when you mention social welfare or healthcare or progressive funding in education most Americans automatically get all suspicious about it and treat it like it's some insidious plot to take away their freedoms and force benefits on them. The current system is no sustainable in anyway this is especially true with the way the import/export economy is structured and the competition for resources.

That's because it is an insidious plot to take away your freedoms. This gov is f'd up to the core and completely evil. Under the guise of universal healthcare, they will really bring you slavery.

[jamesbond]

No more "good neighbor" syndrome, at least not widespread as it used to be. People nowadays are fearful/cautious/distrustful of one another, very passive agressive, and act fake. When you go out and about people just treat each other like they don't even exist or "why are you looking at me" or "what do you want," but at the SAME EXACT TIME, if they ever need help with something or THEY want/require something, they EXPECT humanity to roll out the red carpet.

So basically it's a double standard, and the way people behave is ridiculous and very competitive.

Once I also didn't have a cellphone on me and needed to make a call, and these girls past me noticed me going "Ugh where's my cellphone," and one was like "i'll let u use mine for $20."

It's unbelievable how people act, yet, at the SAME time, these SAME people, join groups like "donate to haiti," and let's heal the world, and act all holier than thou.

People use each other, are all fake, pretend, and it's all just to me "screwed up." Not sure if this is an american phenomenon or just a global phenomenon, generally speaking but, our society sure seems to be greatly dysfunctional.

That and people are also extremely vain. I mean, like it's this huge competition. Who cares what a stranger you don't know looks like and drives? Americans do! They view it as something to compete against, and if you by any means, looks wise, money wise, car wise, have it better than them or edge them out, they somehow pick that up on their paranoid 6th sense, and get hostile/angry/dissatisfied.

I mean you have to deal with ALL sorts of aberrations to normal behavior. The screwed up chain smoking teens, the clique-o-paths, who gather up in groups of 4-5, excluding everyone else, the troublemakers going out there looking for trouble, the sue-happy types who want to get you for anything and blow it out of proportion, the malibu barbie/ken types that are self-absorbed and won't talk to you unless you are "hot" and think they're better than you, the celebrity-dream chasing crowd, the perfects, the materialistic types, the social climber types, the narcissists, the do-gooders-only-because-it-looks-good-on… types, the passive-aggressive angry types, the smarty-pants-I'm-more-clever-than-you types, ...

I especially liked this quote, "the clique-o-paths, who gather up in groups of 4-5, excluding everyone else." How true this is in America. The cliquishness of Americans is appalling. Winston has talked about this many times and so have other people on this board.

[The_Hero_of_Men]

I find it funny how when you mention social welfare or healthcare or progressive funding in education most Americans automatically get all suspicious about it and treat it like it's some insidious plot to take away their freedoms and force benefits on them. The current system is no sustainable in anyway this is especially true with the way the import/export economy is structured and the competition for resources.

That's because it is an insidious plot to take away your freedoms. This gov is f'd up to the core and completely evil. Under the guise of universal healthcare, they will really bring you slavery.

You are so right on this end! Think of how it is in Canada

[Grunt]

The root cause of all societal decay is feminism. All society is based on the family unit. The family unit is father, mother, and children.

Once you weaken the core building block, anything and everything up beyond that point will be completely unstable. That is fact, not opinion.

Case in point, all the strange stories of mother drowning their kids 5 at a time, mother stabbing toddlers to death, mothers shooting their kids in the head a firing range, on and on and on.

People in America assume that if their own mother would throw them under the bus for a new cell phone, everything else will do likewise. And rightfully so, I might add.

Children instinctively know that their mothers care little for them and only had them as a means to secure a better financial position via welfare or child support. My own mother told me she would have aborted me but she didn't have the money. She also told me she actively neglected me when I was a baby as a means to make my father angry.

In other more functional cultures, these types of females are hung from the nearest tree. In America, they are richly rewarded. We live in a sociopathic culture, and nothing will change until the entire system breaks down. But, if the rule of law every does cease to exist, females will immediately fall prey to the very insanity they thrive on.

Bring it on, I say.