20 People On What Embarrasses Them Most About Their Country
By Bobby Viner
pretendroid
Lack of Toilets and Politicians with toilets for brains – INDIA
carrie_cody
I’m in Brisbane, Australia. And the things that embarrass me the most is the high cost of everything. And the racist twats who abuse people on public transport.
sixfootfree
Britain. The Daily Mail.
SarcasticCynicist
China. Our government and loud tourists. There is a reason why less than 1/5 of us Hongkongers associate ourselves with China.
Arty6060
July 12th has become my countries national riot day. Catholics and Protestants can’t keep to their damn selves. Catholics call out protestants with sectarian remarks towards ‘the hun’, Protestants play religiously offensive songs in front of Catholic churches, Catholics throw bricks and bottles at Protestants, Protestants start throwing back and making their own remarks against ‘the taig’, and eventually police decide to step in and break it up.
There is no place for this shit. The troubles were 40 years ago people, get your fucking act together. You both believe in God, you both believe in Jesus, so why the fuck do you try so hard to find difference in each other and end up killing each other in the process?
This is why I want out of Northern Ireland, and don’t even get me started on how bloody pointless the flag protests where.
Edril
In France, the far right party (Front National) got to the second round of presidential elections in 2002. In the second round of the election, that candidate got 17.79% of votes, which means that more than 1/6 french people actually wanted at the head of the country a president who: 1) Absolutely hates all minorities and would have kicked them out of the country without a second thought 2) Would have closed all the borders and gotten us out of the EU. 3) Is a Holocaust denier 4) Has no idea how to run the country, since all the measures the party proposes every time would cost the country billions of Euros. 1 in fucking 6 people. Every time I think about that when walking down the street it makes me want to throw up.
Teoplepooo
The amount of obese people here in the USA.
UCFirefly
USA. The corruption, the double speak, the written law and hidden dictated law, the complete lack of democracy, the ability for corporate power to abuse individuals almost endlessly in the name of profit, the scam that is healthcare here, the utter lawlessness of most lawmakers take part in, the election fraud without justice, abuses of federal agencies, the warping of the IRS tax code from an external trading taxing entity to taxing almost exclusively individuals, the milking that the Fed partakes of on the entire system, the lack of accountability in government. I could go on.
What_DoWe_HaveHere
South Africa, we have incredibly high crime and unemployment rates. There are currently probably less than 20 non corrupt politicians, an ineffective, corrupt, police force that are frequently convinced of excessive violence. The fact that a woman in this country is more lightly to have been raped than know how to read.
orderfromcha0s
The widespread belief that if you’re poor it’s because you’re a bad person, and that people adore the Royal Family. Also that we have never properly acknowledged the true evils committed by our Empire.
The UK can be horrible. It’s not all tea and castles (although they are some of the good bits).
HotBrownie
American—-Our healthcare system
troutyoghurt
Japan: chikan. the widespread molestation of women on crowded trains and the fact that we need to have “women only” train cars.
papadop
America: our crazy stubborn pride for gun laws and our 3rd world murder rates
Dutch_Nasty
USA: The number of people who are completely apathetic about politics/government. On the flip side, the number of people who blindly accept anything the TV tells them.
Also, fat people. Come on, guys.
scopelessj
Ireland. I think its embarrassing that our entire culture is centred around drinking, that depression is so stigmatised, that we have crooks for politicians and most of all, the banking fiasco is a fucking disgrace. Also the fact that everyone my generation pretty much wants to get out of the country and live somewhere else.
auto-didact
The South embarrasses me. Southern culture is the seat of old racism that won’t die. Southerners are the fattest and most obese in the world. Southernerns care the least about education, and have the worst literacy rates, test scores, etc etc etc. Consequently, the South has some of the most poverty-stricken places with rampant drugs, crime, and crazy crazy incarceration rates for non-whites. Southerners also tend to lean heavily conservative, muct to the detriment of the rest of the nation. It is a shameful, fucked up place that essentially exists 70 years in the past. If you want to get real honest about it, I don’t see what the South is bringing to the table. They’re holding us back.
abarr1234
The internet. Australia’s internet (compared to others) is trash. Get a move on AUSTRALIA.
sentenseifrel
Corruption… from the highest leader in the government… to the lowest corruptible position ever. I love the Philippines but wtf is wrong with the leaders here?
omimcd
Belfast, northern Ireland…. I’d say the most embarrassing thing is the sheer stupidity of the sectarianism, failure to move forward and the government constantly focusing on old feuds rather than anything important. the church have too much say in what goes on, no pubs or clubs are allowed an alcohol licence past 1 am, abortion is illegal, and it’s still a nightmare trying to do anything on a Sunday. Some People care about a flag far more than they do about other actual serious issues because they are that idiotic.. Stubborn goons stuck in the 70s.
jcooli09
USA: I’m embarrassed by what we’ve allowed to become of our nation. We allow monied special interests, including some individuals, to purchase our elections and a large portion of us support this. We watch dozens of children get gunned down in their school and we clamor for more guns. We don’t care about the least of us after they leave the womb, and far too many of us believe Jesus rode a dinosaur. Too many of us believe in American Exceptionalism, and fail to see that this is why we’re in decline.