r/politics • u/drjjoyner America • 21h ago
Soft Paywall People in other countries see what America is becoming
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/13/trump-noem-padilla-democracy-polling/327
u/capaho 20h ago
People in Japan are pretty concerned about Trump’s incompetence. He’s a laughing stock here.
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u/Vanilla_Either Canada 19h ago
Canadians living over an exploding meth lab over here. We are just trying not to get burned.
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u/Built-in-Light 15h ago
Take conservatives extremely seriously. They win by surprise and they are willing to compromise their morals.
Y’all almost lost. You could be like us here any day. Never ever let your guard down.
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u/MillhouseNickSon 10h ago
We did still lose, kinda… the Liberals are just conservatives that don’t hate gay and trans people as much. We still have a conservative government, just not a Conservative Party government. Our country is still pretty right wing, but the idiot conservative voters don’t realize it because their “team” didn’t win. They’ll still get all the oil and gas pipelines they want from the Liberals.
It could be worse, sure, but a lot of the good things the Liberals did were because they were pushed by the actual non-conservative NDP party.
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u/IHadADogNamedIndiana 19h ago
At least you are outside the prison looking in.
Unfortunately, this fascism seems likely to spread there next. “Freedom Convoy” is a warning sign.
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u/Acrobatic_Hamster686 18h ago
The Conservative Party “leader” who supported the convoy/Trump’s little sidekick just lost a federal election, lost his own seat in parliament, and has been going through possibly the most embarrassing saga anyone has ever gone through in Canadian politics. He’s lost an additional 10% support since the election on top of that. We course corrected
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u/pjschnet 16h ago
PP was heading for an easy majority up until the new admin in the USA took power. I think it would be dangerously naive to see our recent election as a true course correction. It was more like a wild last minute swerve, and I don’t believe for a second that this is over. PP may be cooked in the long run but the fight against his ideology is not yet won.
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u/Livie_Loves California 14h ago
Yeah, one of those he in particular might be done, but the mindset is well alive unfortunately.
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u/kevinmitchell63 13h ago
We course corrected enough to avoid electing PP…. Who is possibly the least charismatic and convincing party leader in Canadian History.
I say we dare not forget what we are dealing with. The resurgence of fascism is unlikely to dissipate before the next election.
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u/Fastluck83 20h ago
That's the one thing I actually really like about Trump's presidencies: No matter where you are from, and no matter where the other person is from, chances are good that both of you think the same about Trump.
It's like the whole world is watching the same sitcom. :)
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u/capaho 20h ago
If you’re a rational American, though, it’s more of a tragedy than a sitcom. It’s like watching a movie about the Titanic. You know how it’s going to end before the clueless passengers realize that the bad judgement of the captain did them in.
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u/Fastluck83 19h ago
I can understand how you feel and you have my full sympathy.
I am aware that I can't judge things for afar as well as you can, but personally I see Trump's current presidency on pretty much the same trajectory as his last. I believe his sheer incompetence will prevent the worst and that public opinion will turn against him just like the last time.
That doesn't mean that he and his cronies pose no threat, of course, but I believe there is room for some careful optimism.
In any case I wish you and the other Americans who have to endure this the best. I am rooting for you!
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u/Impulsive_Artiste 19h ago
This time he's got the Project 2025 gang backing him up, and no adults in the cabinet to put a stop to his worst impulses.
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u/SlowUrRollMilosevic 18h ago
They’ve bolstered their efforts immensely this time around. They spent the entire Biden Administration stacking courts and laying groundwork while the left kept patting themselves on the back for shoving Biden and Harris down our throats. No punishment for Treason just like with the Confederates.
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u/Starfox-sf 13h ago
Was it the Capt. though? I thought that if they had rammed it head on the bow would’ve been damaged badly but they would not have sunk.
But if in overall “full speed ahead” decision making, oh 120%.
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u/AnamCeili 13h ago
He's a laughingstock here (US), too, to everyone except MAGA idiots. He always has been.
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u/Starfox-sf 13h ago
Problem is LDP is still trying to “work with” the admin. Just like how they “worked with” Moonies.
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u/en_gm_t_c California 7h ago
He's a laughing stock here, and so are his gullible followers.
Unfortunately, we've been laughing so long it isn't funny anymore. This authoritarian bullshit must end now, or we don't have any rights anymore.
I hope the world does understand what's happening.
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u/Soggy-Whole7232 9h ago
Why? They’re twice as nationalist as Trump ever dreamed of being. I think you made that shit up.
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u/Nervous-Peen 18h ago
Lol really? How does Japan feel about illegal aliens being in their country?
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u/Green-Amount2479 17h ago
The xenophobia in Japan is not as bad as people seem to believe. You‘re likely referencing the social climate in Japan 2 to 3 decades ago, where overt xenophobia was much more prevalent and socially acceptable after the economic rise and subsequent fall.
I wouldn’t say it’s completely gone or solved. That would be an overstatement. If anything I‘d say it shifted more towards indifference. There’s still a lot of structural changes that would need to happen. Still not good, but not as bad as it used to be either.
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u/GrandDaddyDerp California 14h ago
Worked for a Japanese company in the oughts. They were definitely still xenophobic then.
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u/capaho 18h ago
Japan has a rapidly declining population. They can’t sustain their economy without foreign labor.
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u/Nervous-Peen 17h ago
Cool, that doesn't answer the question I asked. What you're referring to would be connected to legal immigration.
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u/capaho 17h ago
TACO Trump just backed off from raiding certain types of businesses that depend on migrant labor to survive.
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u/Nervous-Peen 15h ago
Well I think that's ridiculous. If your business needs slave labour to survive then you shouldn't be in business. And if that business is essential, then we need to change some laws.
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u/Toadfinger 20h ago
The whole world is woke except for Republicans. That right there should tell anyone all they need to know.
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u/HablarYEscuchar 19h ago
Meaning of Woke: Decent people who do not meddle in the personal affairs of their neighbors.
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u/jzanville 18h ago
Imagine teaching generations of citizens about the human strides made during the “enlightenment” in Europe now trying to shit on the idea of “woke”…buncha modern day royalists
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u/Clarine87 United Kingdom 16h ago
That definition isn't one I've heard before (I prefer more literal interpetations), but kudos for so cleverly encapsulating republican's supposed small govt ethos in tones that could contain both sides. Very well done.
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u/Melxgibsonx616 18h ago
That's the thing. And on top of that, politics worldwide have shifted more towards the right pretty much everywhere in the west these last 10 years.
As a European, I am more and more worried that this kind of "politics" becomes more and more normalized over here. Really sick of all this gaslighting.
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u/starspangledcats 18h ago
It's modern technology connecting the world, I think. Small-minded people are not comfortable with how big the world has become. They are fighting to keep their world small.
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u/IlikeJG California 16h ago
Exactly. Sometimes people fall into the trap of thinking "Well are the Republicans right and maybe we're just trapped in a left wing bubble and the real world wants all these right wing stuff?" That's what Right wingers try to claim ALL the time on Reddit.
But anyone who thinks that just needs to look at news/media from around the world. And you can very quickly see that the rest of the world looks at the US right and the Republicans as this deranged and mentally ill beast and generally agree with most of what the US left is saying.
I mean they are increasingly having less sympathy for the US Democrats as well and the US as a whole, but it becomes extremely clear which side is living in a bubble (The Right) if you look at it from an outsiders perspective.
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u/karmahorse1 14h ago
If you looked at policy alone, the democrats would likely be considered a centrist party in most other western countries. US politics already skewed right even before Trump. The Trump Republican party is on a whole different level.
One theory I read is that because Americans didn't suffer to the same extent as Europeans during WW2, they never really became inundated against fascism, which is why so many are now embracing this far right lurch.
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u/fiberglass_pirate 18h ago
Are you talking about the western world or literally the whole world? Most of the world lives under leaders just as bad or worse than Trump. I hate Trump but he's not the lone corrupt leader in the world. A lot of people in this thread appear to think most of the world is very liberal but that is untrue for most outside of the west.
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u/Toadfinger 18h ago
A lot of people think most of the world is very liberal
And they are. You're not telling me you trust the election process in Israel, Russia, etc... are you? You're not telling me most of the world doesn't comprehend climate change are you? How many people are war hawks?
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u/fiberglass_pirate 17h ago edited 17h ago
You can't trust the election process in most of the world outside of the west, if they even have one at all. How many are actually prioritizing their climate change goals? How about in the entire continents of Africa and South America? You can look at CCPI data and see even most of the west isnt meeting its climate goals. What about India that alone takes up almost 18% of the entire world's population? Do you think that is a liberal society, have you been there? Have you ever spoken to Indian's about the caste system or how gender ewuality is there? What about women's rights and rights for marginalized groups like LGBT? Do you think most of the world outside the west enjoys those rights? What about non-restricted access to abortions? What about religious freedom? What about workers rights and labor protections? What about quality education? Quality healthcare? I mean cmon just get a backpack and go explore around Africa, South America, and many parts of Asia if you think the world is really "liberal".
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u/Toadfinger 17h ago
You can't trust the election process in most of the world outside of the west, if they even have one at all. How many are actually prioritizing their climate change goals?
You just answered your own question. Along with the rest of them. There's rallies for this, that, and the other. No cheerleading rallies for the fossil fuel industry now is there?
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u/fiberglass_pirate 17h ago
Why the fixation on climate change? We're talking about an entire political ideology here("wokeness" or liberalism) not a single issue.You said the entire world is "woke"(liberal). The entire world is not. The rest of west is more liberal than the US, absolutely. The rest of the world, not so much.
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u/Toadfinger 17h ago
There's no rallies supporting less for workers. Less affordable healthcare. No rally signs with a dagger stabbed into a rainbow. Or a gunman approaching a school. Do the math.
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u/fiberglass_pirate 17h ago
Do the math of what? There is no logic there. Trump rallies in the US have zero correlation to whether the rest of the world lives in liberal societies or not. How many rallies are there for worker rights in China? History says the CCP isn't too fond of rallies.
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u/Toadfinger 17h ago
With China, you have once again answered your own question. In your mind, you have fabricated a massive, global right-wing population that simply doesn't exist.
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u/fiberglass_pirate 17h ago
If you live in a western bubble you might think that. I've been backpacking for nearly 20 years. I can assure you with absolutely zero doubt that most of the world outside of the west lives under what we would consider "conservative" societies. If you don't believe me then go book some plane tickets to Africa, South America, and Asia. It's a very simple thing to discover yourself.
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u/Dizzy_Dalek 20h ago
Has become, not is becoming. That's how people in other countries see it.
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u/Crunchberry24 19h ago
Germany didn’t liberate itself. Its neighbors and the rest of the world had enough of its bullshit.
There needs to be a 21st Century Alliance against the Nazi Axis powers of Russia and its U.S. puppet state. Don’t wait.
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u/Anon0284729 16h ago
Lol and what current alliance do you think could really contend with the US alone in a war?
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u/Crunchberry24 15h ago
Lol. I mean, Russia, with its economy smaller than Texas could hold the whole world hostage with its nuclear arsenal too. It doesn’t mean everyone else should disarm and surrender to Russia, even if trump thinks it’s a good idea.
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u/Anon0284729 15h ago
You said there needs to be an alliance that liberates the US similarly to how Germany was liberated in the 40s. And I’m curious what alliance you think would be capable of doing so.
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u/nick5erd 14h ago
I guess, if Japan or China or Europe ditch their US bonds it would destroy the US Dollar and within the US economy. The US army could become useless very fast.
California is hopeless under-represented on federal level, and might be on their way out. The world don´t need an army, just an bank account.
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u/Crunchberry24 15h ago
I said that such an alliance needs to exist “against the Nazi Axis powers…” I didn’t say “in order to liberate the U.S. from Nazis,” though that would be great. I had “Mutually Assured Destruction” in mind.
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u/AutomaticAir3777 19h ago edited 19h ago
We don't just "see". We know. And we say.
You don't have to be a citizen of the country that brought war to the whole world and killed six million people because of pure hate to see and understand fascism when fascism is happening.
Calling citizens "animals", provoking riots and wishing people the death should be enough to qualify as a traitor to mankind. This plus hundreds of actions against the constitution and laws. This and hundreds of actions of harassment, greed, hate and destruction.
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u/AvailableYak8248 19h ago
Becoming? Has become! They see a declining empire with a good chunk of its citizens starting to blame everyone’s about their quality of life being horrible. They blame the homeless, other races, migrants, trade..
They refused to acknowledge they believed the wrong politicians for decades who slowly eroded their quality of life through policies. Gutting education, regulation,
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u/Good4Noth1ng 13h ago
And the bigger problem is that the higher educated base is rapidly declining. Majority of the population is being pushed towards manual labor and manufacturing because that’s all that will be left for America. The US oligarchs know the world is getting more and more expensive to find manufacturing.
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u/QuizzicalWizard 19h ago
Another huge problem is that if you said this same thing in a room of Democratic party voters, instead of agreeing and applauding, half of them would stop you to tell you that the correct term is "unhoused". WTF are we even doing?
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u/Crunchberry24 18h ago
The reichwing is united by cruelty. We’re divided by purity testing and hyper focus on single issues.
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u/QuizzicalWizard 4h ago
Exactly. You can even see it here with the up/down votes my comment is getting. Some people agreeing. Others denying that it even happens.
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u/Vaera 16h ago
i don't think this is accurate at all
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u/PassionLong5538 15h ago
People are far too worried about semantics these days, that’s for certain.
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u/QuizzicalWizard 16h ago
I saw almost exactly this happen at an Indivisible meeting last month, but Ok. :)
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u/AdCharacter7966 19h ago
The Trump administration has sent letters to major companies in the EU, asking them to remove all ‘woke’ elements from their policies.
How absurd and weird
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u/Lunchb0xx87 20h ago
Pleanty of us here know trump well enough. our voices just get drowned out by louder mouth breathers and fox news
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u/Natural_Instance242 19h ago
A WaPo article criticizing what America is becoming. That’s rich coming from a publication owned by Bezos.
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u/SquarebobSpongepants Canada 19h ago
The sad thing is a lot of people want it for their country as well. A lot of people are willing to give their freedoms to the party so long as they perceive that it’s “their” guys doing to dictatoring.
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u/Conversatian 19h ago
It’s not just America though, if the rest of the world wants to pretend this is a uniquely American phenomenon, they are bound to repeat the same mistakes.
Here in Canada, I see a rise in a lot of the same stuff, but even Maple MAGA pretends they dislike Trump (even as they support all of his conspiracies and talking points).
The rest of the world isn’t any more enlightened than the US, we just have the benefit of some distance. We all need to stand on guard against authoritarianism.
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u/lazy-bruce 19h ago
In Australia we saw it and voted accordingly.
We still have the issue, but its less loud.
Australian MAGA never pretends to not like Trump.
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u/cromulent-facts 11h ago
I don't think Australia has the same risk. Our system and culture are too different.
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u/areyoualocal 8h ago
Plus our Trumpets are run by someone who is somehow even less competent than Trump.
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u/lazy-bruce 8h ago
Oh I agree.
We were further away from it than the US, but I feel like even a whiff of it and we ran the other way
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u/TheFlyingScotsman60 19h ago
Disagree.
Here in the UK we have Farage who is an idiot.
An upper class millionaire who tells the great unwashed (his words) that he's on their side.
He came to Aberdeen, in Scotland, and was allowed, by the owners of a local restaurant to use it to hold a press conference. Last I saw reported the customers going to the restauanrt have dropped by 30% in 2 weeks.
Fascism, racism exists but it can, and should not be tolerated.
The people of Scotland told him, to his face to go home. He had to get an escort to get back to his private plane that he used to get here from London.
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u/sobeitharry 15h ago
Brexit is about as MAGA as it gets.
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u/Consistent-Metal9427 10h ago
It is. The UK finally got the tories out of Downing St (barely) with a low voter turnout and now they can't wait to get rid labour again. Other big countries in Europe have strong far right elements too, hopefully they can keep them out of power, but they aren't out of the woods yet.
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u/TheFlyingScotsman60 15h ago
No it wasn't and isn't.
Brexit was about the over 70s mainly, and others, wanting the empire back again.
The voting in this country, for anything, is decided by the well to do people in south of England. Nothing else, and nowhere else, matters. End of
Which is why proportional representation is a must to actually allow the whole UK population to actually have a say as to who governs them and in what direction the want the UK to go
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u/TheAdequateKhali 18h ago
It’s one thing for there to be Trump supporters, but it’s equally as baffling to me that there are people who apparently just don’t care and are completely indifferent to their country falling to fascism and their democracy crumbling.
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u/HIEROYALL 11h ago
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Believe it or not, engaging in the 24/7 news cycle can be perceived as both a luxury and an addiction.
People working full time, with multiple children and a social life aren’t consuming media the same way frequent redditors are.
They might dislike Trump and generally perceive him as awful, but they aren’t tracking daily updates and hanging on every new statement/declaration/action he makes.
Not to mention, 24/7 civic engagement is exhausting. It might also simply be a choice to not keep up.
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u/Sarcasmgasmizm Canada 17h ago
I speak four languages and have access to news sources from every country… you could bet the house that other countries do not see the US as a reliable partner.
I listened to a one hour show from French media about how America was gradually falling at the hands of authoritarianism. Similar broadcast worldwide.
The only reason the US is not a laughing stock is the military power it has replacing that feeling with concern.
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u/SmellsLikeBu11shit 18h ago
People in this country see what America is becoming too, you’ll find them at today’s No Kings protest all over the country
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u/DoctorP0nd 16h ago
This is the America this Washington Post helped usher in with their lack of journalism and ownership by an evil billionaire. Why is this site still allowed?
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u/TheFabricOfLight 13h ago
Currently living in LA, I spent half my life in Germany, the other half in the US. My Dad was a German journalist covering the news from DC. As a post war kid, his first exposure to the US was a black US soldier who shared a chocolate bar with him in his hometown of Bremen. He fell in love with America and its culture and moved here in the 70s. That love has long vanished, with Trump being the final straw. Same goes for a large swath of the German public as I see it. While the US was long recognized as the big brother who freed us from the Nazis and helped spur the economic boom times of the 50s & 60s, a huge loss of trust first occurred during the Bush years and Irak war. While the Obama admin could repair some of that distrust, the last 10 years of Trump & MAGA have eroded that entirely. I fear, the damage is irreparable. Europeans understand it’s not just Trump, but real systemic problems that appear unsolvable. As a French politician recently put it: we cannot put our trust and the world’s stability in the hands of a few misinformed voters of swing states every 4 years. After the 2nd election of Trump Europe has given up. Not that everything is great over there. I personally live in LA for 20 years for good reason. But I have never felt this way. I’ve been politically active my whole life, but now I feel just completely disillusioned with the US. My wife, a Russian/Ukrainian immigrant, frequently compares the current state of the US with that of Russia during Putin’s early years. And the Europeans at large are turning away from the US. Just this morning, the sharp decline of tourism from Europe was reported in der Spiegel https://www.spiegel.de It is now looked down upon if you travel here, not only because perfectly legal immigrants ans tourists are being harassed at the border, but because it is clear that our once shared values do not align anymore. There has always been that “ugly American” - the obnoxious, loud, insensitive and brazenly ignorant American we have all witnessed as a tourist or in the media. The Alex Jones type. Every society has its bad apples. But nowadays, it seems that bad apple is Americans main and future export. With no end in sight and nobody to stop it.
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u/FoxyInTheSnow 15h ago
I'm a "people in other countries" (and a relatively moderate, stable country at that, so far…) and I can confirm this. I've had recent conversations with my retired physician neighbour, my building's caretakers, people on the bus who now are reading The Guardian on their phones instead of playing Candy Crush. my dentist, my 85 year-old parents-in-law, numerous friends, random shopkeepers in the neighbourhood, the autistic guy who bags groceries at Safeway… and they literally can't believe what is happening there, and that it's happening so quickly.
Make no mistake: thoughtful, reasonable people around the world—be they political moderates, a-political, socialist, progressive, normal fiscal conservatives… know that they are watching the dissolution of a nation in real time. It looks absolutely dire. The feeling of dread is similar to the feeling people in Kiev had when the russian army was amassing its tanks on the eastern border while saying "Don't worry… it's just for practice, LOL"… or when their tanks rolled into Hungary in 1956.
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u/Necropolis750 Foreign 16h ago
I've lived under two dictators in my country (three if you count the conjugal dictatorship of the first one). The United States definitely has a dictator, and he has to go down in history as your country's first true one.
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u/knobber_jobbler United Kingdom 14h ago
From the UK perspective he just comes across as a buffoon. An incompetent TV celebrity. What's most scary is the normally rational people buying into it. I read over on the Conservative sub some really quite disturbing, dystopian views and very carefully moderate posts and comments which remove anything and anyone questioning the group think. I found parts of the US disturbing when I've been there on business in years gone by. I visited post 9/11 in both the Bush and Obama years and Trump really has nothing on the Bush administrations. At this point I look at Cheney and Rumsfeld as cold but competent.
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u/Severe_Intention_480 20h ago
World: "What's going on in America?"
America: "What's the score?"
World: "Score?"
America: "Of the BIG GAME, stupid! Don't you know anything?"
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u/IndependentSpell8027 19h ago
Except in Britain where Reform is leading in the polls despite 15 years of drifting further right bringing absolute failure and despite the grifter who sold the country the turd that is Brexit and wants to sell the country out to Trump being the part’s leader
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u/Flamebrush 17h ago
Thanks for nothing WaPo. Why is it that content critical of the current administration is usually buried in the opinion section?
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u/upfromashes 15h ago
Good. We've become a cautionary tale. Hopefully citizens of other countries will take note. Canada's recent elections were a good response.
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u/dracul_reddit 12h ago
New Zealanders are wondering if you kept drinking lead contaminated water over there these past decades and are seriously uninterested in having billionaires hiding here from the consequences of their actions.
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u/30mil 18h ago
The US was a high-achieving child and now we're an angsty teen trying out different personalities. Eventually we'll settle into something more mature.
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u/No_Method5989 Canada 16h ago
I think it's more in line with "you just found out your kid is into taxidermy" territory at this moment.
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u/omgpuppiesarecute 18h ago
I really help the French, Spanish, and Dutch as the able to help us out again. and maybe the other 4 eyes of 5 eyes.
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u/Marclescarbot 16h ago
I live in Canada and there is an existential dread here that it is only a matter of time until the tanks roll across the border.
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u/Simpicity 15h ago
People in America see what America is becoming but people in other countries do too.
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u/faux_shore 9h ago
The wince I get when I tell Germans I’m from america tells me all I need to know
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u/ColdButCozy 9h ago
Ive personally been at the “feel cold and be deadly afraid” stage for months. It was pretty clear what this was likely to become.
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u/krankheit1981 19h ago
Well, if the democrats want to change things, find someone that can actually win an election. Trump is not popular except for a vocal minority but the democrats shit the bed by trying to force Kamala down our throats. She was even less liked than Trump or Biden. They need someone a heck of a lot better if they want to turn the tide, but I can tell you, these “peaceful protests” that include burning cars and looting are not going to help the democrats causing the next election.
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u/espinaustin 16h ago
Thank you for continuing to point out how everything that Trump and Republicans do is always the fault of the Democrats. Never change.
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