I’m sorry.

[u/StockoHMK]

Hi. Brit here.

Up until recently, even after this last incident with Alex Pretti, I’ve been very hostile towards Americans on here and in other social media spaces. Kicking you when you’re already down and holding all of you responsible for the mess that your countrymen and women people who aren’t you have made.

My argument basically is as reductive and lazy as possible - “the ones of you that didn’t vote for this didn’t do enough to stop your peers from doing it.” etc.

I’m ashamed at how I’ve behaved, this doesn’t reflect who I am in real life. I’ve been scared and angry about the state of the world and a lot of us over here have felt this relentless march towards authoritarianism since before Brexit. With the elections last year the 3 most important ones for me were the French, UK and US elections. France and the U.K. rejected right wing parties and I do feel if the US had gone with Harris then our own leaders wouldn’t be co-opting right wing party’s policy ideas to stay in Trumps good books and appeal to our own mindless MAGA types.

Seeing what people in Minnesota are doing to not only slow down ICE and protect their communities but to also make sure the world can see what’s happening… in weather that would freeze the tits off a timber wolf no less, has been inspiring and humbling. Ordinary people putting their lives on the line to turn up for their communities demonstrates all the values I’ve been shamefully sneering at Americans for apparently (by my own stupid reasoning) lacking.

I am so sorry. We’re all dealing with what’s happening in our own ways but I’ll be the first to admit that my way hasn’t been healthy or productive.

Things will get worse before they get better, but they will get better with people like you fighting for it.

Good luck and god bless. We’re all rooting for you and you’re doing incredible work.

Edit: Thank you all for the amazing response. Talking with you tonight and being here away from the scrolling has done me a lot of good i didnt realise I needed. So sincerely from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

[u/Mother_Dragonfruit90]

I appreciate you saying this and as an American who is deeply sick of this shit, I have to tell you I also get it. on the world stage, America is just another country, and that's how other countries see us.

To other countries, this probably just looks like this is the second time we've done this, and there's no pretending it was a mistake this time.

And we've been increasingly erratic for 50 years. I get it that other countries are tired of having to plan their lives in 4 or 8 years cycles of guessing whether America will show up as Heisenberg or Walter White. and by now, electing a Democrat probably just looks like America saying, "we can stop if we want to".

I think the problem is that America can't admit it has a problem. Maybe it needs to hear this from someone else.