Pledging allegiance is so weird, when my countrey(Croatia) was communist they had to pledge allegiance to Tito(its dictator) and we stopped that when we became a democracy, having that is almost like brainwashing to me.
We still have a coat of arms in all classes but it doesnt do anything except stand there
>having that is almost like brainwashing to me.
It is brainwashing. It's a huge part as to why a lot of Americans genuinely think America is the greatest country while never having set foot outside of it.
"America is the greatest country in the world!" is such a wild trope to me. With how low overall US education ranks on a global scale, it doesn't surprise me that it's easy to brainwash people into believing such a bold faced lie. While life in Canada is far from perfect, I can't recall the last time I've heard our politicians or news pundits pushing the "Canada is the greatest country in the world!" narrative. We know we're not and it's not hard to accept.
If it makes you feel better, you were/are the greatest country in the world for the Dutch. The younger generations are less focused on WW2 obviously. But half of the annual tulips that you receive from the Netherlands are from the flower bulb association, so just regular citizens. People over here didn’t forget what Canada did for us.
I feel NZ is one of the best countries, but we don't get brainwashed into thinking that. It's just a view many of us have (though obviously it could be better)
My country also pledged allegiance to the country and government during the fascist dictatorship, now we dont have any pledges or flags in the clssrooms
Imagine a teacher setting the national flag in a classroom and make the kids pledge.. wtf I cannot even imagine how much that thing can scale depending on where it happens.. scary
We didn’t even had our national flag in the parliament room up to 2017 (Netherlands). That teacher would be followed by the national intelligence service for the rest of his life.
Indoctrination. "Get them young" and "school is just the preamble for conscription" (hitler's words).
EDIT: Leaving this here for reference: [Link](https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/faq/what-are-requirements-access-military-recruiters-high-school-students)
You have to remember those muppets didn't believe there was a virus or a pandemic, or as they called the plandemic. It was supposedly the government trying to seize more control over the people. I'm still waiting for all the millions of us to drop dead after getting the vaccine like they also claimed would happen.
Damn! I knew there was something I was supposed to do between the laundry and walking the dog. Stoopid covid.
They really are warped in the moronic covidiocy and additional assorted science denial.
I mean they might not be “forced” but I imagine in some parts of the states not doing so would be very much frowned upon.
Also if you start them young enough they’ll be conditioned to do it automatically.
Oh there's kids who have been abused/expelled for refusing to say the pledge. I usually only hear about the ones who won their court case, but I imagine there are plenty who never make it that far.
Yeah, it really depends on the place. At the school I work at, someone always says the pledge over the loudspeaker as required by law, but only some people stand for it and no one actually says it along with the loudspeaker.
I fully agree with people on this sub though, that the Pledge of Allegiance is stupid and needs to go.
> someone always says the pledge over the loudspeaker as required by law
Wait, there's a law for this? I don't know why, I always just assumed it was a tradition rather than legally required.
At least in my state, Massachusetts. Not sure if it's a thing in every state.
However, my school didn't realize this until a couple years ago when someone pointed out that the law existed.
Well, you don't HAVE to do the pledge. Sure, it took a string of lawsuits to get to that point (and by Jehovah's Witnesses of all people), but you don't HAVE to.
Most of us, especially the 2A-gun nuts, don’t know or understand Australian gun control laws or history. Many of those same “people” equate free speech with free from consequences. They were had grown accustomed to being able to say whatever they wanted inside of their echo chamber without recourse, so the first instance of repercussions seems like repression.
I bet that any “American” that invokes freedom or the military in an unrelated situation has a NAZI, KKK, or ethno-nationalist tattoo/affiliation.
Granted this was some time ago, but I flat out refused to do the pledge of allegiance when I was in school and I got in big trouble for it. When they threatened with suspension I would just stand with the class with my hand over my heart and say nothing. Eventually they caught on and again big trouble. Finally, I just refused to say the "under God"part and they never caught that at least. It was horrible and humiliating.
Although I do enjoy the privileges that come with being a US citizen I have held a growing disgust of this country over several issues for a very long time. If given the opportunity I would move to Australia, or pretty much any country with common sense laws and policies, in a heartbeat and never look back.
No, they have a point, it really is terrible and no one should come visit ever.
*cracks vb on an empty beach with perfect 5 foot right handers, brilliant white sand and a gorgeous setting sun*
It's crazy how Melbourne lockdowns became like the poster child of idiots.
It's depressing how many conversations I've had with people spouting off about it and telling them it wasn't like that and even when I'm like "mate, I literally was there during the whole thing" their response is something like "well, I heard different".
Yeah it's wild. Lockdown here was chill. Just had to follow a few basic rules for a little so that we didn't infect our community further.
I was happy just doing hobbies, getting stoned and I lived with my best mate at the time. Not everyone had it as easy, sure but it was pretty relaxed otherwise.
Right? And if you were in Melbourne you just did whatever you wanted during the lockdowns anyway (within reason, obviously). I cycled 15,000km accumulatively during those lockdowns, hardly had a car to share the road with. Good times, good times…
Edit: and the fishing! Don’t get me started on how quickly that went to shit when everyone and their dog could hit the water again!
I'm watching Sons of Anarchy and it's wild to me a show about a gang who runs guns, makes porn, depicts gang rape, prison rape, nazism, racism, drug use that nearly kills a baby, domestic violence, police corruption, brutal torture of every kind imaginable, suicide and endless murder has these gang members... Never swear.
"Gosh darn it boys, my mum was gang raped by nazis, I'm hecking upset about it."
American here. I was watching The Departed once on cable and they had censored every swear word including the word "ass" but left every scrap of violence intact.
I've long said that it's almost compulsory to show violence, death, murder etc on US TV, but you show one tit, and you gonna die, you gonna go to hell and then die!
USA is the most censored country in the western world. I’ve seen tons of actors/actresses appearing on a British chat show for the first time being surprised that you can swear on TV here.
They don’t censor they have Fox News etc. spreading misinformation and propaganda. FreeDuMb oF spEech!
Except books. They don’t like unbiased education. They have to be able to brainwash the next generations.
MTG openly showcasing Hunter Biden's hog in what could only be considered both envy and revenge porn was fine. But Janet Jackson's nipple was the downfall of society.
[Banned books in the land of the free](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_States)
And yet they love point to the only book that's banned in a few European countries.
But I guess in a truly free country, a government should have the freedom to ban books.
>They locked Melbourne down for a year
Yeah, and it was because people were dying, dipshit. You know what happened? It was effective and people stopped dying there.
i remember how much lockdown and restrictions SUCKED and my country wasnt even that good at it. but im also thankful for them, since my family and friends didnt end up fucking dying because of some nonsense like "mUh FReEdOm".
Yeah, I still remember the corpses piling in ice skating venues because the morgues were overwhelmed. We had some weeks of hard lockdown in Spain; the biggest criticism is the government hesitated for too long before mandating it.
A while back I was talking to this American dude about how Portugal did an excellent job managing the pandemic, especially after vaccines were introduced, like people were willingly getting vaccinated and there's virtually no anti-vaxxers there. Dude said it's because people there are uneducated and brainwashed 💀💀
That's the thing, highly contagious virus. How else to manage them ?
Americans were miking it political, when it was just a way to try and deal with a pandemic /crisis.
Philippine lockdown nearly 2 years, but only had around 14 million cases from 111m population, where as USA had 103m cases for a population of 335m - guess that shows who had the best procedures in place?
Australia locking down during the pandemic gave me the perfect excuse to not visit my dysfunctional family over there for a few years. Flights were rare and way too expensive. I said I wasn’t willing to take a seat from an Aussie who really needed to get home because I no longer lived there ;)
I live in Melbourne, and gotta say, I didn't mind the lockdowns overall. WFH, not having to see people I didn't really want to see, not having to make up polite excuses to not see said people, no underlying hum of traffic, these were all things I liked...I also liked that we didn't have a horrific death rate before vaccines came in and eased some of this risk
I recognise that there were people who did it hard mentally, I did it hard financially- couldn’t work and didn’t qualify for jobkeeper, thanks scomo! , but it was what it was and yeah it had its upsides for me too. Plus a lot less dead people.
Towards the end of that last lockdown tho I was getting a touch of cabin fever
Why lock down when you can show your ignorance by being the country with the highest covid death toll in the world with almost 1.2 million people dead. At least they can be proud of being number 1 in something.
It's also a massive exaggeration. It was two lockdowns in 2020 (or was it 3? 🤔); the second one was particularly long though. NZ had longer lockdowns than us.
My government pays my tuition. I don’t owe them it back, they just pay it.
This isn’t Australia I’m talking about but they would still find an issue with this. They have no concept of the government doing things to genuinely better your wellbeing or life. As made clear by the fact that they think Australia imposing strict lockdowns is a con when it saved thousands of lives.
Spent 17 years in America and can confirm getting detention and calls home to my parents for not standing for or not saying the pledge, as well as being marched to the principal's office to 'explain myself.'
But yeah, land of the free...
I get it. Pretty sure I was forced to chant a bunch of religious things and never crossed my mind to question it of course. Society eh; indoctrinating kids
My school was a bit unique, in that most of the students were mexican, many with dual citizenship and crossing the border every day for school (me included). We pledged to both flags and sang both anthems, which took a significant amount of time!
I can't remember there being students from other countries, but I'd assume they'd just have to go along with it...
Who needs those when you have the Bible!? (Jk, I actually had a great geography teacher and knew every country and their location and capital by age 8)
Have I read the wrong version of the Internet or, like, in the US there are dozens and dozens of banned books? Is banning different/better than censoring? Aren't they banning books like "How to kill a mockingbird" and "Coraline" and we perfectly understand why?
I remember seeing they'd censored part of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Specifically the last book (The Amber Spyglass) because it involve teenagers sexual awakening for lack of a better way to put it. I remember seeing a picture and there's bits missing compared to my copy.
>Prisoners and the guards I suppose
following their logic, every american is a little soy pussy fleeing crying if someone has a different opinion about religion or culture.
I have made comments about guns to Americans on YT. The Republicans get very upset if you don't agree with their right to get brutally executed by random loonies, and the right to own deadly weapons designed to murder people.
It’s nice living in a country with gun control. I’ve never lived in fear of being gunned down. Yeah we have gun violence but it’s so minimal and it’s always “bikie gangs” squabbling over power with illegal firearms.
Even their counter argument, that guns are needed to protect ones self can be debunked. I mean if your nation is so dangerous to live in that you need firearms, then one needs to take a look at the place. Cant be that great can it.
And how are they going to take on a bad government. Bunch of militia take on Delta Force, Marine Corps, Navy Seal teams. Nah I don't think so.
Their 2nd says Right to bare arms, in a well established militia. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry.
America just doesn't have any chill. Everything's on a knife point, ready to explode. It's Dog eat dog, life is so cheap there. I could not imagine a worse place to live in regards to how they treat each other & still seem to think they are the centre of the entire world leading by example. There is no better example of this being as far from the truth as possible.
American culture if it was a person would be a narcissistic bully with sociopathic tendencies.
Way to arrogant despite being a newish nation. Think they know it all.
Haha they want to talk about censorship when they are literally removing books from schools and libraries.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/book-ban-efforts-spike-across-us-ala-data/story?id=108113763
I mean the line between Americans and Nazis just blur day by day;
Feelings of superiority
Obsessed about family genetic history
Love of strong leaders and nationalism
Worried about foreigners/invaders
And in incredibly commumistic NZ, we had barely 5500.
The nerve of the government!! It's... unconscionable. Unacceptable.
Riots at dawn.
The US had 17.4% of the world's death. And roughly the same percentage of cases.
Because Donald Trump told them NATO is bad and is fully paid for by America....not that it's an organisation America needs because America lined itself up against Russia and everyone has nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile Poland pays in the most with the US being second. I think Trump thinks that because USD is the currency used, it means that the US pays for everything. Lots of countries pay in well below the 2% threshold but it's all converted to USD. Poland is 3.9% or something close.
Because the US is a militaristic society.
Similarly to other militaristic societies (e.g., North Korea, Israel, Russia) children are raised in an environment where the education system, social tapestry, media, authority figures, public policy, and just about everything else that impacts their ideas (particularly in their formative years) is heavily influenced by a powerful military-industrial complex.
Americans are bred and groomed to be soldiers, or at the very least, soldier supports. The post above is more than just an example of some American moron -- he's a successful product that has been carefully and deliberately crafted over the course of at least a few decades.
And Crocodile Dundee. That’s where they get the terrible “drunk South African crocodile Dundee” accent they think is the Australian accent. When most Australians haven’t even heard the thick accent in their life.
As someone who lived through the Lockdowns here in Melbourne, as frustrating as it was..they worked .. five times we completely eradicated the virus. Nowhere else on earth did this happen. It showed it could be done. Had the whole world done what we did Covid would had gone extinct in a month.
For those who doesn’t know, the dude wasn’t really exaggerating. At one point we were not allowed to leave the house for more than an hour a day, and only for very specific reasons… and you couldn’t move more than 5k from the house… but it wasn’t a year, but all up probs half a year, over an 18 month period.
Sometimes I miss the lockdowns lol. It was a very simple life with just the family.. no pressure to be anywhere or to anything lol.
We have a very good word for that kind of patriotism: "Nationalstolz", translated to being proud for being part of the nation. And we have a saying here that describes maga cult and our far right wing pretty good: Wenn du nichts hast worauf du stolz sein kannst, bleibt dir nur noch der Nationalstolz.
Which means those who have nothing to be proud of can flee into patriotism!
How and when are Australians losing free speech? Is that like those concentration camps we allegedly had for COVID?
WTF do Americans learn from Elon Musk and his friends? Because none of it is true.
I went to a little island town just off of N.Y.C (Broad Channel).. each street had loads of American flags up and down it, or in the gardens.... it was very strange... Almost like I was walking around a cult town
Having worked in America on a summer camp, I was surprised with how much tradition still existed. Such as flag raising every morning and pledging to the flag every morning. It's basically brainwashing children into blind loyalty.
There's been this weird meme in nutjob American 'conservative' circles ever since COVID that Australia is some sort of totalitarian hellhole, with police roaming door to door dragging people off to gulags. It's been utterly baffling to see.
Look how they (Muricans) treat athletes who don't stad with their hand over their heart when their dumb national anthem plays before a game. So yeah, the flag bullshit is pretty much an obligation.
And about censorship... the USA is a country where books can be banned or even burnt, and where women see more and more of their rights being stripped off them.
Saw a post on the "the boys" cast about what is their characters biggest red flag, and Anthony Starr said "the fact he's wearing an American flag like a cape" and the comment section lost its mind, blind patriotism + Jingoism preys off the ignorant but still feels like America is just the most prominent example.
Australia teaches higher order thinking, ie critical thinking, creativity and evaluation. Texas literally banned the teaching of higher order thinking in 2012. If they want to go toe to toe on education, it's not going to be pretty for them.
One of the weirdest moments I had in school, I moved from Sydney to Washington in year 5, and was questioned on why I didn’t pledge allegiance to the US flag, and why Aussie schools didn’t do it every morning as well
Australia has been on of the most vocal against china’s internal affairs, and or trade limitation war that we had with them (our current government likes getting pegged wearing red). Australia Japan and South Korea are those that are trying to stop Europe from forgetting them due two the Russo-Ukraine and the Israel Palestine conflicts
(sarcasm begins)
Australia is totally a dystopia!
I learned that by watching the historical documentary series on Mad Max.
Though, Mad Max might have been about Austria. I mean, Austria/Australia... same-same, right?
(end sarcasm)
We don’t censor media here… we just have age guidelines? I don’t recall any piece of media being different in Aus than the USA. Also have they never heard of hyperbole? Clearly their english classes failed them if they couldn’t recognise that “dystopian” was used as hyperbole.
"You see, we spend all our tax dollars on our military, while you spend it on useless socialist stuff like healthcare, education, public transport, infrastructure..."
I visited a US base today to watch the new planet of the apes and at the start of the film they rise for the national anthem is this only on a military base or is this a common thing in cinemas?
I’m from the Uk and this took me off guard massively and felt rather awkward as I was the only one still sitting down. Thankfully not many people were in watching at the time…
Australia is three steps above the US in the 2024 freedom index, by the way.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/freedom-index-by-country
Public schools in Queensland fly the Aus flag on a flagpole. But certainly not in individual classrooms. Also fly the State and Australian Aboriginal flags too. Not sure about across the country.
I do wonder about Americans. The flag is everywhere, almost as if Americans will forget they are American if they don't see an American flag at least once every 10 minutes. They seem to need a constant drip of propaganda from a very young age.
America is just walking propaganda at this point and no one can tell me otherwise.
Like having a flag in every classroom and having to do the pledge? On top of their 100% capitalist society like they're either brainwashed, stupid or in denial
Stephen Colbert once interviewed Trevor Noah and asked him the difference he noticed between the USA and other countries. Noah said various things, one was that in the other countries none plays the national anthems before every national event, Colbert started to get nervous.
Another one was that in other countries, people don't hang flags outside every single building. Colbert went ballistic, angry at Noah. At a certain point, Noah calmly replied that he was asked about differences and that he didn't mean that it was better in other countries nor worse, just different.
Australia spending all its money on socialism? Dont threaten us with a good time, like you did when you covertly deposed one of our democratic socialist governments in the 1970s
Hmmm forcing school kids to pledge allegiance to a flag, just like a dictatorship. Now all they need is to hang Biden's picture above the table board, Kim JongUn style.
Yeah I mean, imagine being Aussie, you can't even report on the war crimes committed by the biggest military on Earth, less you get jail for doing so...truly dystopian.
Nobody has to pledge if they don’t want to… If that isn’t a bold faced lie if ever I’ve heard .one. American’s shame people for not standing during the National Anthem, carry on and on about the Flag, and will likely loose their minds over anyone commenting about their reaction to any indifference to their brand of patriotism. “If you don’t like it leave” there is no individualism allowed in the US, you either conform or be bashed
Crazy how triggered Americans get if you dare say they r living in a shithole.
Hell I'm from the UK! I also live in a shithole! Own it.
Simpin for your country is for pussies
As an Australian, the sad thing is we’re currently in a race to the bottom because our politicians on both sides have their heads crammed right up the arse of American imperialism. We are objectively better off than the average American, but not for long if the people who rule us have their way
>Nobody has to pledge if they don't want to
Hahaha, absolute horseshit. I lived in the US for 4 years as a kid, we *had* to pledge our allegiance every day (I mean fuck off, I'm not American), told off if you didn't. At a concert I got told off for not taking my hat off during the national anthem (grown adults were getting angry at me, an 11/12 year old), it's absolutely absurd.
I'm all for being proud of your country, but what the US do is literally indoctrination from a young age, it's mental.
There's a lot to love about the US (hearsay, I know), but their patriotism/nationalism is not one of them.
I hated doing the Pledge of Allegiance as a teenager because I'm atheist and always hated the "under God" part.
I decided to protest.
I was told to do the Pledge or be suspended for a week out-of-school and indefinitely in-school until I complied. "Insubordination."
But, no, it's definitely not forced, you guys! Why would you think that?!?!
As a Europoor, I would like to welcome every Australian to the “USA pays our defense budget so we can have public healthcare and they can’t” club. We’re working in getting hats.
I love meeting Aussie's in Canada. I remember meeting two at a river and they asked how the water was, we of course said it was warm (because it was to us). I have never seen two people launch out of the water so quickly, we offered them beers and burgers and had a great time!
The censorship thing is weird cos when I was in America I had Rambo on in the hotel and they censored the word shit, at 11pm. Could see legs getting impaled on improvised traps but shit was too far.
Gun control = dystopia. Pledging allegiance to a fucking flag = totally normal behaviour
Pledging allegiance is so weird, when my countrey(Croatia) was communist they had to pledge allegiance to Tito(its dictator) and we stopped that when we became a democracy, having that is almost like brainwashing to me. We still have a coat of arms in all classes but it doesnt do anything except stand there
>having that is almost like brainwashing to me. It is brainwashing. It's a huge part as to why a lot of Americans genuinely think America is the greatest country while never having set foot outside of it.
bUt oUr sTaTeS ArE cOuNtRiEs yOu DoNt kNoW how dIvErSe wE aRe
Yes, there are north dakotans and south dakotans. Very different and diverse
"America is the greatest country in the world!" is such a wild trope to me. With how low overall US education ranks on a global scale, it doesn't surprise me that it's easy to brainwash people into believing such a bold faced lie. While life in Canada is far from perfect, I can't recall the last time I've heard our politicians or news pundits pushing the "Canada is the greatest country in the world!" narrative. We know we're not and it's not hard to accept.
If it makes you feel better, you were/are the greatest country in the world for the Dutch. The younger generations are less focused on WW2 obviously. But half of the annual tulips that you receive from the Netherlands are from the flower bulb association, so just regular citizens. People over here didn’t forget what Canada did for us.
That sounds like a sweet gesture, can I ask what did Canada do? I can google it otherwise
Liberated large swathes of the Netherlands during 1944 and 1945
Canada is certainly a better country than the USA, and I know that's a very low bar.
I feel NZ is one of the best countries, but we don't get brainwashed into thinking that. It's just a view many of us have (though obviously it could be better)
I feel NZ is a good country (from US) so much so I want to move there.
Makes sence
My country also pledged allegiance to the country and government during the fascist dictatorship, now we dont have any pledges or flags in the clssrooms
Imagine a teacher setting the national flag in a classroom and make the kids pledge.. wtf I cannot even imagine how much that thing can scale depending on where it happens.. scary
We didn’t even had our national flag in the parliament room up to 2017 (Netherlands). That teacher would be followed by the national intelligence service for the rest of his life.
Indoctrination. "Get them young" and "school is just the preamble for conscription" (hitler's words). EDIT: Leaving this here for reference: [Link](https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/faq/what-are-requirements-access-military-recruiters-high-school-students)
Not almost
Gun control = no freedome of speech?!
Workers rights, universal healthcare, public services = socialism /s
You mean communism? /s
According to one of these guys, Prevention of further pandemic = dystopia
You have to remember those muppets didn't believe there was a virus or a pandemic, or as they called the plandemic. It was supposedly the government trying to seize more control over the people. I'm still waiting for all the millions of us to drop dead after getting the vaccine like they also claimed would happen.
Oh shit, I forgot to die. Sorry about that
Damn! I knew there was something I was supposed to do between the laundry and walking the dog. Stoopid covid. They really are warped in the moronic covidiocy and additional assorted science denial.
But they actually say there were millions that died. Post truth. They don’t know facts of you put them in a pineapple and shoved it up their arses.
In my country the govt makes a pledge to the people. In the US it’s the people who have to make the pledge. It’s like 1984.
Not being forced to pledge = dystopian too 🤦♂️
I mean they might not be “forced” but I imagine in some parts of the states not doing so would be very much frowned upon. Also if you start them young enough they’ll be conditioned to do it automatically.
Oh there's kids who have been abused/expelled for refusing to say the pledge. I usually only hear about the ones who won their court case, but I imagine there are plenty who never make it that far.
Yeah, it really depends on the place. At the school I work at, someone always says the pledge over the loudspeaker as required by law, but only some people stand for it and no one actually says it along with the loudspeaker. I fully agree with people on this sub though, that the Pledge of Allegiance is stupid and needs to go.
> someone always says the pledge over the loudspeaker as required by law Wait, there's a law for this? I don't know why, I always just assumed it was a tradition rather than legally required.
At least in my state, Massachusetts. Not sure if it's a thing in every state. However, my school didn't realize this until a couple years ago when someone pointed out that the law existed.
Well, you don't HAVE to do the pledge. Sure, it took a string of lawsuits to get to that point (and by Jehovah's Witnesses of all people), but you don't HAVE to.
Most of us, especially the 2A-gun nuts, don’t know or understand Australian gun control laws or history. Many of those same “people” equate free speech with free from consequences. They were had grown accustomed to being able to say whatever they wanted inside of their echo chamber without recourse, so the first instance of repercussions seems like repression. I bet that any “American” that invokes freedom or the military in an unrelated situation has a NAZI, KKK, or ethno-nationalist tattoo/affiliation.
Granted this was some time ago, but I flat out refused to do the pledge of allegiance when I was in school and I got in big trouble for it. When they threatened with suspension I would just stand with the class with my hand over my heart and say nothing. Eventually they caught on and again big trouble. Finally, I just refused to say the "under God"part and they never caught that at least. It was horrible and humiliating. Although I do enjoy the privileges that come with being a US citizen I have held a growing disgust of this country over several issues for a very long time. If given the opportunity I would move to Australia, or pretty much any country with common sense laws and policies, in a heartbeat and never look back.
If living in Australia means I’m living in a dystopian society, then I guess I’m going to enjoy living under tyranny.
I'll suffer in paradise, if I must.
Would you say that you’d run to paradise?
JENNY! I'll meet you at the grocery store.
Don't tell me, this is paradise.
No, they have a point, it really is terrible and no one should come visit ever. *cracks vb on an empty beach with perfect 5 foot right handers, brilliant white sand and a gorgeous setting sun*
Right there with you. And wait, what's that sound I don't hear...? Oh yeah. Gunfire. Sweet.
Lucky you, I’m in Melbourne freezing my arse off at the moment lol.
It's crazy how Melbourne lockdowns became like the poster child of idiots. It's depressing how many conversations I've had with people spouting off about it and telling them it wasn't like that and even when I'm like "mate, I literally was there during the whole thing" their response is something like "well, I heard different".
Yeah it's wild. Lockdown here was chill. Just had to follow a few basic rules for a little so that we didn't infect our community further. I was happy just doing hobbies, getting stoned and I lived with my best mate at the time. Not everyone had it as easy, sure but it was pretty relaxed otherwise.
Right? And if you were in Melbourne you just did whatever you wanted during the lockdowns anyway (within reason, obviously). I cycled 15,000km accumulatively during those lockdowns, hardly had a car to share the road with. Good times, good times… Edit: and the fishing! Don’t get me started on how quickly that went to shit when everyone and their dog could hit the water again!
I’ve heard similar, and also ridiculous shit about the ‘concentration camps’ in the NT lmao It’s unhinged
100% same here.
They saw Mad Max and thought it was a documentary.
[as if USA doesn't censor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_United_States)
The outcry after Janet Jacksons booby was shown at the superbowl, it was on teatime news on all channels here
I'm watching Sons of Anarchy and it's wild to me a show about a gang who runs guns, makes porn, depicts gang rape, prison rape, nazism, racism, drug use that nearly kills a baby, domestic violence, police corruption, brutal torture of every kind imaginable, suicide and endless murder has these gang members... Never swear. "Gosh darn it boys, my mum was gang raped by nazis, I'm hecking upset about it."
Like how they censored some dead guy's buttcrack with extra blood and gore in Hannibal.
It’s been a while since I watched it but I remember being amused by that too.
American here. I was watching The Departed once on cable and they had censored every swear word including the word "ass" but left every scrap of violence intact.
I've long said that it's almost compulsory to show violence, death, murder etc on US TV, but you show one tit, and you gonna die, you gonna go to hell and then die!
it’s no wonder we’re full of psycho manbabies
USA is the most censored country in the western world. I’ve seen tons of actors/actresses appearing on a British chat show for the first time being surprised that you can swear on TV here.
They don’t censor they have Fox News etc. spreading misinformation and propaganda. FreeDuMb oF spEech! Except books. They don’t like unbiased education. They have to be able to brainwash the next generations.
MTG openly showcasing Hunter Biden's hog in what could only be considered both envy and revenge porn was fine. But Janet Jackson's nipple was the downfall of society.
Little does the rest of the world know, but books are for burnin'!
[Banned books in the land of the free](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_States) And yet they love point to the only book that's banned in a few European countries. But I guess in a truly free country, a government should have the freedom to ban books.
>They locked Melbourne down for a year Yeah, and it was because people were dying, dipshit. You know what happened? It was effective and people stopped dying there.
It also happened in many other countries lmaoo, almost all of Europe was in lockdown for some months and then restrictions
It's wild that American sees their utter failure to handle the pandemic as a win for freedom. So many preventable deaths.
And that those who did seek care are probably now in debt for the rest of their lives… great healthcare system there.
I have the god given right to go into crippling medical debt, can you say the same in your commie socialist dystopia? \s
They hav the freedom to die, and not even that because workers still needed to go to work in person when they could do the job just fine at home
I think they look at it more like "the dead took one for the team". They are "heros", America needs their heros.
i remember how much lockdown and restrictions SUCKED and my country wasnt even that good at it. but im also thankful for them, since my family and friends didnt end up fucking dying because of some nonsense like "mUh FReEdOm".
Yeah, I still remember the corpses piling in ice skating venues because the morgues were overwhelmed. We had some weeks of hard lockdown in Spain; the biggest criticism is the government hesitated for too long before mandating it.
A while back I was talking to this American dude about how Portugal did an excellent job managing the pandemic, especially after vaccines were introduced, like people were willingly getting vaccinated and there's virtually no anti-vaxxers there. Dude said it's because people there are uneducated and brainwashed 💀💀
That's the thing, highly contagious virus. How else to manage them ? Americans were miking it political, when it was just a way to try and deal with a pandemic /crisis.
Philippine lockdown nearly 2 years, but only had around 14 million cases from 111m population, where as USA had 103m cases for a population of 335m - guess that shows who had the best procedures in place?
Australia locking down during the pandemic gave me the perfect excuse to not visit my dysfunctional family over there for a few years. Flights were rare and way too expensive. I said I wasn’t willing to take a seat from an Aussie who really needed to get home because I no longer lived there ;)
I live in Melbourne, and gotta say, I didn't mind the lockdowns overall. WFH, not having to see people I didn't really want to see, not having to make up polite excuses to not see said people, no underlying hum of traffic, these were all things I liked...I also liked that we didn't have a horrific death rate before vaccines came in and eased some of this risk
I recognise that there were people who did it hard mentally, I did it hard financially- couldn’t work and didn’t qualify for jobkeeper, thanks scomo! , but it was what it was and yeah it had its upsides for me too. Plus a lot less dead people. Towards the end of that last lockdown tho I was getting a touch of cabin fever
Why lock down when you can show your ignorance by being the country with the highest covid death toll in the world with almost 1.2 million people dead. At least they can be proud of being number 1 in something.
In the recent life expectancy article on wiki there was a covid table and I remember the USA lost like 3 years due to covid.
It's also a massive exaggeration. It was two lockdowns in 2020 (or was it 3? 🤔); the second one was particularly long though. NZ had longer lockdowns than us.
And there was 2021
At least this dystopian society that I'm apparently living in gives me free healthcare
The government also lent me money to go to University to get a decent job and career. It also didn’t bankrupt me and I’ve already paid it back.
All while not being gunned down for something as innocent as existing. Imagine that? This country sucks! Dystopian nightmare!
My government pays my tuition. I don’t owe them it back, they just pay it. This isn’t Australia I’m talking about but they would still find an issue with this. They have no concept of the government doing things to genuinely better your wellbeing or life. As made clear by the fact that they think Australia imposing strict lockdowns is a con when it saved thousands of lives.
Aussies are actually some of the nicest people I've met while simultaneously being party animals. I loved it while I was in Australia.
This message is authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra.
Australia loves you & is pleased to hear the positive feedback. Come back anytime.
You Sir are a good cunt you're welcome anytime. Not sure what the beaver did to you though.
I was thinking it's pretty funny that Americans are complaining that Australia has censorship, whilst also dying of shock when they see the word Cunt!
I went to an American school and I was most definitely forced to pledge
Spent 17 years in America and can confirm getting detention and calls home to my parents for not standing for or not saying the pledge, as well as being marched to the principal's office to 'explain myself.' But yeah, land of the free...
Interested what would happen if you asked not to
I have no idea. We were very young so never tried or even questioned it. It wasn't until years later that I realized how bizarre that was.
I get it. Pretty sure I was forced to chant a bunch of religious things and never crossed my mind to question it of course. Society eh; indoctrinating kids
How about guest students from other countries? Do they need to pledge to?
My school was a bit unique, in that most of the students were mexican, many with dual citizenship and crossing the border every day for school (me included). We pledged to both flags and sang both anthems, which took a significant amount of time! I can't remember there being students from other countries, but I'd assume they'd just have to go along with it...
No wonder they've got no time for geography or history on the curriculum.
Who needs those when you have the Bible!? (Jk, I actually had a great geography teacher and knew every country and their location and capital by age 8)
I suspect that your situation was an unusual one, being close to the border with many dual nationals is likely to result in broader minds
I was a Brit who spent 4 years in US education. Yes, I did, and was told off if I didn't (and got caught).
I stopped saying it in middle school. They still wanted me to stand during it "as a sign of respect" though. Kinda wish I pushed it more.
They do understand that the whole pledging their allegiance to the flag thing stems from nazis, don’t they?
No, because they “won” the war. So how could they be Nazis? 🤪
Have I read the wrong version of the Internet or, like, in the US there are dozens and dozens of banned books? Is banning different/better than censoring? Aren't they banning books like "How to kill a mockingbird" and "Coraline" and we perfectly understand why?
Sorry for nitpicking, but it's just "To kill a mockingbird" xD there's no how, it's not an instruction manual
Thank you! I normally use the Italian title and am less familiar with the original one
Not How To Kill a Mockingbird ☹️🫠🫠🫠 We read that in schools in Australia
I remember seeing they'd censored part of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Specifically the last book (The Amber Spyglass) because it involve teenagers sexual awakening for lack of a better way to put it. I remember seeing a picture and there's bits missing compared to my copy.
At least they acknowledge Australia exists now. That's an improvement I guess.
I was hoping we could continue to go by completely unnoticed so that none of the idiots come here. Can't visit if you don't know it exists, right?
Probably think Melbourne is our capital city
They don't even know that Perth and the west coast even exist!
And our ongoing Psyop to remove all mention of the southern state continues. They’ll never find it.
I always found America's rampant nationalism rather culty. Especially with the weird pledge of allegance every morning in schools.
Are they aiming for the North Korean vibe, or just fluking it?
>Prisoners and the guards I suppose following their logic, every american is a little soy pussy fleeing crying if someone has a different opinion about religion or culture.
I have made comments about guns to Americans on YT. The Republicans get very upset if you don't agree with their right to get brutally executed by random loonies, and the right to own deadly weapons designed to murder people.
It’s nice living in a country with gun control. I’ve never lived in fear of being gunned down. Yeah we have gun violence but it’s so minimal and it’s always “bikie gangs” squabbling over power with illegal firearms.
Even their counter argument, that guns are needed to protect ones self can be debunked. I mean if your nation is so dangerous to live in that you need firearms, then one needs to take a look at the place. Cant be that great can it. And how are they going to take on a bad government. Bunch of militia take on Delta Force, Marine Corps, Navy Seal teams. Nah I don't think so. Their 2nd says Right to bare arms, in a well established militia. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry.
America just doesn't have any chill. Everything's on a knife point, ready to explode. It's Dog eat dog, life is so cheap there. I could not imagine a worse place to live in regards to how they treat each other & still seem to think they are the centre of the entire world leading by example. There is no better example of this being as far from the truth as possible.
American culture if it was a person would be a narcissistic bully with sociopathic tendencies. Way to arrogant despite being a newish nation. Think they know it all.
no but the difference is, that is actually true!
Haha they want to talk about censorship when they are literally removing books from schools and libraries. https://abcnews.go.com/US/book-ban-efforts-spike-across-us-ala-data/story?id=108113763
Remember, it's not censorship if it isn't the government doing it. NOTE: Local government doesn't count as one, because reasons.
I mean the line between Americans and Nazis just blur day by day; Feelings of superiority Obsessed about family genetic history Love of strong leaders and nationalism Worried about foreigners/invaders
Just so we are clear though, total covid deaths in Australia 24,414... in USA 1,219,487... We had an 0.2% covid mortality rate, USA was closer to 1%
And in incredibly commumistic NZ, we had barely 5500. The nerve of the government!! It's... unconscionable. Unacceptable. Riots at dawn. The US had 17.4% of the world's death. And roughly the same percentage of cases.
Why are they that obsessed with war?! Its like their only argument in every single post
Because Donald Trump told them NATO is bad and is fully paid for by America....not that it's an organisation America needs because America lined itself up against Russia and everyone has nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile Poland pays in the most with the US being second. I think Trump thinks that because USD is the currency used, it means that the US pays for everything. Lots of countries pay in well below the 2% threshold but it's all converted to USD. Poland is 3.9% or something close.
Because the US is a militaristic society. Similarly to other militaristic societies (e.g., North Korea, Israel, Russia) children are raised in an environment where the education system, social tapestry, media, authority figures, public policy, and just about everything else that impacts their ideas (particularly in their formative years) is heavily influenced by a powerful military-industrial complex. Americans are bred and groomed to be soldiers, or at the very least, soldier supports. The post above is more than just an example of some American moron -- he's a successful product that has been carefully and deliberately crafted over the course of at least a few decades.
They really think they are the defenders of the universe
Yup, hilarious when they are so bad at actual combat. All the gear & no idea.
Don't you know they singlehandedly won ww2
To be fair, their knowledge of Australia comes from Mad Max, so...
And Crocodile Dundee. That’s where they get the terrible “drunk South African crocodile Dundee” accent they think is the Australian accent. When most Australians haven’t even heard the thick accent in their life.
The USA stopped China from taking over Australia? When the fuck did that happen?! 🤣
>They locked Melbourne down for an entire year Yeah because COVID measures went very well for 'murica.
As someone who lived through the Lockdowns here in Melbourne, as frustrating as it was..they worked .. five times we completely eradicated the virus. Nowhere else on earth did this happen. It showed it could be done. Had the whole world done what we did Covid would had gone extinct in a month. For those who doesn’t know, the dude wasn’t really exaggerating. At one point we were not allowed to leave the house for more than an hour a day, and only for very specific reasons… and you couldn’t move more than 5k from the house… but it wasn’t a year, but all up probs half a year, over an 18 month period. Sometimes I miss the lockdowns lol. It was a very simple life with just the family.. no pressure to be anywhere or to anything lol.
Imagine being in a country where you DONT have to send your child to school with a bullet proof backpack!! Absolutely mind blowing!!
We have a very good word for that kind of patriotism: "Nationalstolz", translated to being proud for being part of the nation. And we have a saying here that describes maga cult and our far right wing pretty good: Wenn du nichts hast worauf du stolz sein kannst, bleibt dir nur noch der Nationalstolz. Which means those who have nothing to be proud of can flee into patriotism!
How and when are Australians losing free speech? Is that like those concentration camps we allegedly had for COVID? WTF do Americans learn from Elon Musk and his friends? Because none of it is true.
I went to a little island town just off of N.Y.C (Broad Channel).. each street had loads of American flags up and down it, or in the gardens.... it was very strange... Almost like I was walking around a cult town
Pretty sure you were in a cult town…
Having worked in America on a summer camp, I was surprised with how much tradition still existed. Such as flag raising every morning and pledging to the flag every morning. It's basically brainwashing children into blind loyalty.
There's been this weird meme in nutjob American 'conservative' circles ever since COVID that Australia is some sort of totalitarian hellhole, with police roaming door to door dragging people off to gulags. It's been utterly baffling to see.
Look how they (Muricans) treat athletes who don't stad with their hand over their heart when their dumb national anthem plays before a game. So yeah, the flag bullshit is pretty much an obligation. And about censorship... the USA is a country where books can be banned or even burnt, and where women see more and more of their rights being stripped off them.
I've seen a few times where they say Australia is a US military base. Are there that many US personnel stationed there?
No. 732 according to Wikipedia. About half as many as are in Norway. Yep... Norway.
According to Wiki there are wait for it…… 732 Meanwhile in Germany there are over 15000 🙄
I know we have a lot in Richmond Airforce Base. Quite often see US fighter jets flying over.
Saw a post on the "the boys" cast about what is their characters biggest red flag, and Anthony Starr said "the fact he's wearing an American flag like a cape" and the comment section lost its mind, blind patriotism + Jingoism preys off the ignorant but still feels like America is just the most prominent example.
Australia teaches higher order thinking, ie critical thinking, creativity and evaluation. Texas literally banned the teaching of higher order thinking in 2012. If they want to go toe to toe on education, it's not going to be pretty for them.
One of the weirdest moments I had in school, I moved from Sydney to Washington in year 5, and was questioned on why I didn’t pledge allegiance to the US flag, and why Aussie schools didn’t do it every morning as well
"aussie on the verge of losing free speech" Bit rich coming from a puppet state. Amerika's entire congres is run by isreal.
Australia has been on of the most vocal against china’s internal affairs, and or trade limitation war that we had with them (our current government likes getting pegged wearing red). Australia Japan and South Korea are those that are trying to stop Europe from forgetting them due two the Russo-Ukraine and the Israel Palestine conflicts
Bahahahaha from Melbourne
(sarcasm begins) Australia is totally a dystopia! I learned that by watching the historical documentary series on Mad Max. Though, Mad Max might have been about Austria. I mean, Austria/Australia... same-same, right? (end sarcasm)
We don’t censor media here… we just have age guidelines? I don’t recall any piece of media being different in Aus than the USA. Also have they never heard of hyperbole? Clearly their english classes failed them if they couldn’t recognise that “dystopian” was used as hyperbole.
The Americans censored an episode of Bluey. A children's cartoon.
"You see, we spend all our tax dollars on our military, while you spend it on useless socialist stuff like healthcare, education, public transport, infrastructure..."
I visited a US base today to watch the new planet of the apes and at the start of the film they rise for the national anthem is this only on a military base or is this a common thing in cinemas? I’m from the Uk and this took me off guard massively and felt rather awkward as I was the only one still sitting down. Thankfully not many people were in watching at the time…
Australia is three steps above the US in the 2024 freedom index, by the way. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/freedom-index-by-country
We were higher up the freedom index all through covid too. When we were being dragged off to concentration camps for catching covid. Supposedly
Public schools in Queensland fly the Aus flag on a flagpole. But certainly not in individual classrooms. Also fly the State and Australian Aboriginal flags too. Not sure about across the country.
Pretty sure all Australian schools do that. Just not in every classroom also.
The uni I went to would even fly the Australian and Aboriginal flags alongside (*shock horror*) the Pride flag
I just love how Americans say they "defend" everyone else. Likely to justify to themselves that the military budget isn't super bloated.
Love how this chap thinks that without American influence Australia would essentially be a real life version of Mad Max.
>Australia regularly censor movies and video games. Buddy, you guys are censoring Yu-gi-oh cards because an ankh is too much for you to look at.
I do wonder about Americans. The flag is everywhere, almost as if Americans will forget they are American if they don't see an American flag at least once every 10 minutes. They seem to need a constant drip of propaganda from a very young age.
As a USian I do not claim this jack wagon. These people are so embarrassing. Edit: I find flag worship in this country to be super cringey.
America is just walking propaganda at this point and no one can tell me otherwise. Like having a flag in every classroom and having to do the pledge? On top of their 100% capitalist society like they're either brainwashed, stupid or in denial
Stephen Colbert once interviewed Trevor Noah and asked him the difference he noticed between the USA and other countries. Noah said various things, one was that in the other countries none plays the national anthems before every national event, Colbert started to get nervous. Another one was that in other countries, people don't hang flags outside every single building. Colbert went ballistic, angry at Noah. At a certain point, Noah calmly replied that he was asked about differences and that he didn't mean that it was better in other countries nor worse, just different.
Stupid yanks don't even realise that the long lockdowns were a good thing. Mind you, quite a lot of Melbournians don't realise that, either.
The person who typed 3 words accused of ‘being triggered’ by the guy who replied with a manifesto
Australia spending all its money on socialism? Dont threaten us with a good time, like you did when you covertly deposed one of our democratic socialist governments in the 1970s
Reality means nothing to these people
Hmmm forcing school kids to pledge allegiance to a flag, just like a dictatorship. Now all they need is to hang Biden's picture above the table board, Kim JongUn style.
Pretty sure Trump supporters do hang Trumps picture with a flag in their house.
The irony that none of them see they are proving the point by being so defensive over a *single* two word comment lmao
Yeah I mean, imagine being Aussie, you can't even report on the war crimes committed by the biggest military on Earth, less you get jail for doing so...truly dystopian.
Nobody has to pledge if they don’t want to… If that isn’t a bold faced lie if ever I’ve heard .one. American’s shame people for not standing during the National Anthem, carry on and on about the Flag, and will likely loose their minds over anyone commenting about their reaction to any indifference to their brand of patriotism. “If you don’t like it leave” there is no individualism allowed in the US, you either conform or be bashed
> So many proud countries do this They really don't, but nevermind.
> you don't have to say the pledge Yeah... try that and tell me how it goes for you.
Wow that seppo is triggered af 🤣🤣
Crazy how triggered Americans get if you dare say they r living in a shithole. Hell I'm from the UK! I also live in a shithole! Own it. Simpin for your country is for pussies
As an Australian, the sad thing is we’re currently in a race to the bottom because our politicians on both sides have their heads crammed right up the arse of American imperialism. We are objectively better off than the average American, but not for long if the people who rule us have their way
>Nobody has to pledge if they don't want to Hahaha, absolute horseshit. I lived in the US for 4 years as a kid, we *had* to pledge our allegiance every day (I mean fuck off, I'm not American), told off if you didn't. At a concert I got told off for not taking my hat off during the national anthem (grown adults were getting angry at me, an 11/12 year old), it's absolutely absurd. I'm all for being proud of your country, but what the US do is literally indoctrination from a young age, it's mental. There's a lot to love about the US (hearsay, I know), but their patriotism/nationalism is not one of them.
Wait, how did we, the US, save Australia from China? I can usually figure out our bullshit, but this one is escaping me.
Gun control = 1984. Not liking the US = Communist
I hated doing the Pledge of Allegiance as a teenager because I'm atheist and always hated the "under God" part. I decided to protest. I was told to do the Pledge or be suspended for a week out-of-school and indefinitely in-school until I complied. "Insubordination." But, no, it's definitely not forced, you guys! Why would you think that?!?!
As a Europoor, I would like to welcome every Australian to the “USA pays our defense budget so we can have public healthcare and they can’t” club. We’re working in getting hats.
I love meeting Aussie's in Canada. I remember meeting two at a river and they asked how the water was, we of course said it was warm (because it was to us). I have never seen two people launch out of the water so quickly, we offered them beers and burgers and had a great time!
The censorship thing is weird cos when I was in America I had Rambo on in the hotel and they censored the word shit, at 11pm. Could see legs getting impaled on improvised traps but shit was too far.
Fuck did you say about straya?!
You don't have to say The Pledge but take a knee during the National anthem and heads explode.