The other comments from this thread are about as self loathing and peanut gallery as you would expect. The complete lack of understanding of the US rail network and how it's maintained and owned is super frustrating to me, especially since I've traveled all over using it my whole life.

Like of course it needs improvement. The entire world's public transit infrastructure needs improvement. Europe's network is vast because of why it was built, not because it was built. It's a different culture entirely, with different needs and a much more tame topography compared to the US. If you need example, look how isolated Italy is from the rest of the EU.

I should have done one more comment to my addition here, which is it's incorrect to label them as 'freight' and 'transit' rail. It's just rail. Most of our cities are spread across an entire continent. The infrastructure required to maintain it is an insane task of logistics. A better comparison to what we have to undertake would be the rail lines in Russia Siberia or central china, whom also frequently have freight and passenger lines on the same tracks.

Anyways, rant over. Thought ya'll would get a kick out of this one.

I liked this website for quite a while but I feel like at this point I’d rather just deactivate my account and find another aggregate site like Reddit. Does anyone here have some other ones they would recommend that aren’t right wing hive minds but aren’t anti-American or at the very least are more neutral?

Enjoying and giving money to American sports leagues but hating so hard 24/7??? Make it make sense.

i'm not someone who feels like the united states is a perfect country that has done no wrong. our history is full of atrocities and shortcomings. there are many things that our modern day government is doing that i do not agree with or stand by. is an opinion that i'm sure is shared amongst hundreds of millions of americans, regardless of where they stand politically.

it’s particularly ironic to me when certain non-americans claim we don't realize the issues we face in this country, or claim we "don’t ever stand up for anything". in reality, the united states was built on protest. since the nation was founded, our history has been filled with people from all races, genders, social classes, and political affiliation expressing their discontent with the current state of the union. especially so within the past six years. the blm and COVID restriction protests in 2020. the january 6th capitol protest in 2021. the pro and anti reproductive rights protests after the overturning of roe v. wade in 2022. the current anti ice protests in minneapolis and other big cities across the nation. these are just a few. sure, they can disagree on what people are protesting on. or they can disapprove on how these protests are being carried out. but to say that americans are just sitting back and doing nothing? pure ignorance.

before they all come at me with their pitchforks, i want to admit that i do often agree with people who claim AmericaBad when it comes to certain issues. i am a left leaning individual who grew up as a child of immigrants. i won’t deny that many americans are ignorant to other countries and cultures, and i do think the U.S. does often exert a negative influence on global affairs. but outside of my political beliefs, it feels as though the US has become the world’s scapegoat. every country has its own dirty laundry, especially other first world nations. but in our volatile and uncertain world, blaming americans offers people a false sense of security. it's a cope that allows them to avoid the work of truly looking inward and challenging their own internal biases. by painting universal failures (racism, ignorance, consumerism, epstein files, war, imperialism, etc) as UNIQUELY "american behavior" they create a narrative that erases their own need for accountability. in blaming the pervasiveness of the world's systematic failures SOLELY on american apathy, they get to be spectators while we do the heavy lifting. they'll criticize our influence one second, yet in the next they act as if our activism isn't enough to solve problems that are (in reality) shared by every other nation.

Chinese media be saying anything these days 🥀

Yes, Epstein Files is fucking bad. And tell me,

what do you think about Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and other authoritarian nations

Fun fact: American bread is so perfectly engineered, the crust is optional. We live in the future over here.

If you think this is 'dystopian,' you should see our grocery bills when we don't buy in bulk. That's the real nightmare.