If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Why We Should Not Compare Our Country To America
Former Member
Posts: 242 Trailblazer
Hey Guys!
This is something that gets me a lot and I feel i need to write up something about it.
Our country is constantly getting compared to America politically, domestically, criminally, and moralistically. One thing we need to remember is that we have a COMPLETELY different way of handling social issues then America does, and whilst radical shows of force, riots, and making moves in massive groups over there work, the same might not work here. And it is something that a lot of people lash out on and are quick to judge.
Example; Boris Johnson is not Donald Trump. Whilst you can compare the two's political movement more or less the same, Johnson does not have power of executive descion and he cannot command the army by himself. Therefore, most of what Johnson is doing, is governed in the House of Commons.
That is not a point I wish to discuss in further detail, because I am not familiar with the American system of politics. But I will go over each of the points I listed above in detail.
Politically
This point I am gonna keep brief. America runs on a two party system; The Democrats, which is a more liberal iteration of Labour, and the Republicans, which are a more traditional and stoic version of the Conservatives. There ARE third parties, but the chances of them ever reaching the Oval Office are extremely slim.
Meanwhile, we have over 50 different parties in the House of Commons, and anybody with backing can put themselves up for election in their local constituency;
TL;DR, there are more choices then Labour and Conservatives here - in America, there is not, so policies matter much, much more to them then they do here.
Domestically
In America, Tax is king. You can pay your taxes and get massive tax returns after each quarter, and you can also not pay your taxes and get away for months at a time. But the IRS are always there to monitor these people. This is why the rich can loophole the IRS and get into bankruptcy a lot more then usual, because the IRS is an independent funded organisation.
Furthermore, the national working wage is decided by state, not country. The senates devolved powers to states because the country is so large. So when we compare ourselves to America, we are only poorer then them because for the most part, they are a vast country with loads of people in it.
Criminally
OK I am gonna be brutally hones with you. Black Lives Matter as an organisation is racist. They follow something called 'Critical Race Theory' and 'Marxism' and I want to save those topics for discussion for another time as they are...unhealthy.
The message Black Lives Matter is important, however and cops should not be mowing down black men and women, but again, is allowed to due to police devolutions from the senate.
And no, ACAB (All Cops are Bastards) does not exist. These state ran police forces have their own code of conduct, and again, I don't know American politics, but it is down to the DPA to govern the force. Whereas in our country, the Police answer to the Commissioners, who are all under the Government directly.
Moralistically
This is a super hard one to explain, but remember that America allows a lot of laws in their country, that we do not allow. Guns, illegal same-sex marriges, and even trade laws. This has all become part of modern day American life. We can't change that. We can only better our own country, by learning how it works and trying to iron the flaws we have here.
Comparing our country to America is one that will never fit, and I could go on about it...
But it is time we started shaping the United Kingdom as it's own thing, and not just 'Little Trumpland'.
Because, it is not.
This is something that gets me a lot and I feel i need to write up something about it.
Our country is constantly getting compared to America politically, domestically, criminally, and moralistically. One thing we need to remember is that we have a COMPLETELY different way of handling social issues then America does, and whilst radical shows of force, riots, and making moves in massive groups over there work, the same might not work here. And it is something that a lot of people lash out on and are quick to judge.
Example; Boris Johnson is not Donald Trump. Whilst you can compare the two's political movement more or less the same, Johnson does not have power of executive descion and he cannot command the army by himself. Therefore, most of what Johnson is doing, is governed in the House of Commons.
That is not a point I wish to discuss in further detail, because I am not familiar with the American system of politics. But I will go over each of the points I listed above in detail.
Politically
This point I am gonna keep brief. America runs on a two party system; The Democrats, which is a more liberal iteration of Labour, and the Republicans, which are a more traditional and stoic version of the Conservatives. There ARE third parties, but the chances of them ever reaching the Oval Office are extremely slim.
Meanwhile, we have over 50 different parties in the House of Commons, and anybody with backing can put themselves up for election in their local constituency;
TL;DR, there are more choices then Labour and Conservatives here - in America, there is not, so policies matter much, much more to them then they do here.
Domestically
In America, Tax is king. You can pay your taxes and get massive tax returns after each quarter, and you can also not pay your taxes and get away for months at a time. But the IRS are always there to monitor these people. This is why the rich can loophole the IRS and get into bankruptcy a lot more then usual, because the IRS is an independent funded organisation.
Furthermore, the national working wage is decided by state, not country. The senates devolved powers to states because the country is so large. So when we compare ourselves to America, we are only poorer then them because for the most part, they are a vast country with loads of people in it.
Criminally
OK I am gonna be brutally hones with you. Black Lives Matter as an organisation is racist. They follow something called 'Critical Race Theory' and 'Marxism' and I want to save those topics for discussion for another time as they are...unhealthy.
The message Black Lives Matter is important, however and cops should not be mowing down black men and women, but again, is allowed to due to police devolutions from the senate.
And no, ACAB (All Cops are Bastards) does not exist. These state ran police forces have their own code of conduct, and again, I don't know American politics, but it is down to the DPA to govern the force. Whereas in our country, the Police answer to the Commissioners, who are all under the Government directly.
Moralistically
This is a super hard one to explain, but remember that America allows a lot of laws in their country, that we do not allow. Guns, illegal same-sex marriges, and even trade laws. This has all become part of modern day American life. We can't change that. We can only better our own country, by learning how it works and trying to iron the flaws we have here.
Comparing our country to America is one that will never fit, and I could go on about it...
But it is time we started shaping the United Kingdom as it's own thing, and not just 'Little Trumpland'.
Because, it is not.
2
Comments
It could be argued that we’re also in a two party system over here in the UK. Have we ever, for example, had a prime minister from the Green party, or any other small party for that matter? Let’s face it the UK is either ruled by the tories or by Labour, and it has been for many years.
The way that the political system for general elections works means that it is very difficult for parties other than Labour and the Conservatives to ever form a government. Proportional representation would help to improve this.
I don't think it's completely different. In fact it arguable that UK society is more closely related to US society than the vast majority of societies in around the world.
Both are Western democracies heavilly influenced by Christain values. The US justice system is based upon the Uk justice system. Both historically imperialist.
"and whilst radical shows of force, riots, and making moves in massive groups over there work, the same might not work here."
I don't think the UK population protests enough personally. We could probably do with a bit more civil unrest in the country, and a bit more trade union action. It worked for the poll tax in the 80's and contributed to removing Thatcher.
"America runs on a two party system"
It doesn't run a two party system, there are simply two dominent parties which share the majority of the political power, which is not too dissimilar to here. You can still vote for other smaller parties in the US.
"The Democrats, which is a more liberal iteration of Labour,"
The Democrats are not more liberal than Labour, possibly not even as liberal as the Tory's.
"Black Lives Matter as an organisation is racist. They follow something called 'Critical Race Theory' and 'Marxism' and I want to save those topics for discussion for another time as they are...unhealthy."
Black Lives Matter is grassroots decentralised movement that spans many different nations, and it is not one single political organisation. With that in mind I find it difficult to understand how you can assert it is inherintly racist.
People supporting the movement come from all sorts of political persuassions. I'm sure there are some Marxists that support the movement, but that doesn't make it a Marxist movement.
USA is weird with their healthcare, their food seems a little um suspicious and generally religion still seems to have more hold there than the UK. Id say they are generally more conservative even though identity politics has a hold there, and slowly edging a bit more left.
I think people feel closer to USA then we actually are because think about it, it's a far away place. Its through media (which affects the globalised world generally), language and perhaps the shared past.
I realise ppl will upset but yea I don't agree with BLM, that's just my view.
I think it just made racial tensions worse.
I think the whole blm movement was very violent and destructive with looting and such.
Like I don't agree with defunding police.
Especially if u apply that to uk the police are already struggling.
Ofc yea obvs there are problems in society. But like people went and protested during covid which was not a great move when people's lives were at stake.
The biggest problem I think though is BLM is something started in America and is a reaction to the cultures and standards there not the UK (similarities aside). They imported it without the nuances taken into account, there are plenty of siginifcant differences with UK culture and American as well as historical differences to do with Race (so yea tru US history is really quite shocking).
Also I see that officially the BLM organisation of UK (which is different to the US one) doesn't support the suffragettes calling it racist, it also they want to get rid of prisons. None of it really makes sense tbh. They consider climate change a race issue even. Those may not represent the whole movement but it's worrying to hear such views as a face for BLM.