(inb4 “where u yesterday”: I made the mistake of not only watching a video at 11:55p but showing it to my husband at the same time and feeling rude if I stopped midway to post a middling comment about evil dads)
Never mind leaving the country, I’m struggling to remember the last time I ventured more than 50 miles from home.
… 2002? I don’t get out much.
Julez
I have been to Canada, but I haven’t left the country in about 20 years since I don’t have a passport. I should really get one.
Paradox
I can’t return to the US, since I lost my passport and birth certificate. Which is also going to make renewing my Permanent Residency here in Canada tricky…
I mean, you can either try and joke about it or curl up in a corner sobbing due to the realization that at the very least one political party will always stand in the way of even TRYING to solve that particular issue
Meh, I just know someone who was a victim of gun violence, (not at a school though) also I’m black, so gun violence based burns are just a sensitive issue in general.
Sandy Hook was the end of the Gun Control debate in America.
Once we decided that the deaths of elementary school children was acceptable, then everything else was on the table. There’s nothing that can happen that won’t be defended as the ‘price of freedom’.
Both political parties. One will pay lip service to coming up with a solution, the other won’t even bother to do that, because both parties are heavily owned by Gun Manufacturers, whose profits go up every time there is a mass shooting (as people buy more guns to defend themselves)…
Yeah, I think the “lol America thinks it’s so great then why do children die” joke Brits like to make (and yeah, it’s like, almost always Brits) has become really tasteless and obnoxious. I’m not really invested in getting mad at a drunk Jason for it, but I did want to come here and just, like, note that it’s not a good burn and I’ve literally ghosted one British sort-of-friend in particular for making it. Zero regrets. Europeans and ex-Europeans whose political personality is “lol at least we’re not Americans” are worse than Buttigieg voters.
I have so much sass as a trans girl I could make at British politics and I am withholding it because it’s a merry-go-round of dumb one-upmanship about things that aren’t really worth gloating about. Bleh. I know it’s my pet peeve so that’s why I’m getting my gripes out here.
brute
your gripes are valid and i support them
NotThatDrew
My go to is just cracking jokes about how certain countries seem to be in a competition with each other to see who can make the most atrocious, fuckwitted discriminatory policies possible
Europeans are every bit as ridiculous as Americans, and worse in some ways. “Lol at least we’re not Americans” Okay mate, but one country tried to leave Europe because they didn’t want to let brown people in, there was a major refugee crisis where all the European nations tried saddling the others with the refugees (not that the US responded well to that crisis either), and most of western Europe is AT LEAST as responsible for fucking up the world with colonialism as the US is with post colonial cold war fuckery. And that’s not even touching on how Brits think “lol your kids shoot each other” is an acceptable response to “lol Brits say Chewsday and YouChewb.”
I am Nothing
I think there’s just a gap between British and American ripping here.
Our humour tends to be cynical, pessimistic and hyperbolic, we exaggerate these things all the time, regardless of the country.
Hell, the majority of the people I’ve known think our entire political system of old farts yelling at each other is ridiculous. Just don’t take it too seriously.
Honestly, as a Brit a lot of people find the whole “chewsday and YouChewb” thing stupid for two reasons:
1) The UK has many different dialects
2) You couldn’t think of anything better?
Andy
Yeah, I don’t care. Go ahead and find the dialect thing a bit dumb, it’s literally a harmless joke with no stakes whatsoever. Meanwhile, the response is “Hey, isn’t it funny how Americans can’t manage to figure out their gun problem and stop their children from killing each other, despite the fact that about half the country really really wants to do just that and keeps getting stonewalled by the half that’s revealing itself to be fascists? Isn’t that hilarious?” You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t see those things as being remotely on the same level of okay.
I am Nothing
I can understand the disparity between the tone of the issues surrounding each subject, but I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to restrict what can and cannot be joked about simply because it’s a real-world issue.
Why should anyone get to choose the line which can’t be crossed here?
It’s a bit ironic too, with America’s core values of “freedom of speech”, don’t’cha think?
Andy
Freedom of speech means the government cannot restrict your speech outside of harmful or treasonous speech. Generally, I find that if someone is relying on the “freedom of speech” argument, they’re probably being an asshole.
Again, you are mocking children’s deaths in response to a harmless jibe at regional accents. Most people would agree accents are funny. I don’t think most people would agree that children’s deaths are funny or in good taste.
I mean, this is an issue that half of the US has decided should be handled by teaching kids to hide in classrooms, possibly arming teachers, and redesigning schools to make it harder for shooters to kill people. The easy solution, the one that requires less work and less loss of life, is to reduce access to the weapons, but that goes against people’s “freedoms” so it doesn’t happen. My son or daughter could die today or tomorrow because some kid decides they need to shoot the place up, but hey, at least you can dunk on me when that happens, amirite?
Man, just fuck off if you’re gonna keep saying that shit’s okay.
thejeff
I don’t know about whoever you’re responding to about accents, since nobody here did that, but in today’s comic Jason brings up shootings as a response to Americans claiming their country is the greatest in the world and isn’t actually mocking the dead children. Frankly, that’s how I see it far more commonly that whatever you’re on about.
Miri
As a Brit, I find the whole mass incidences of school shootings, “but we can’t restrict access to guns!” thing shocking and deplorable. It’s one excellent example of why lobbying is gross, and why political donations should be limited and made transparent. Jason’s comment to me reads like an angry “how can America/Americans think they’re superior to other countries when this is a routine happenstance?!” That’s not mocking. That’s not eacalation. That’s two foreigners in a strange land bonding over both routine mocking aimed in their direction and shocking, horrific differences between our countries and yours (I assume) that they refuse to let themselves mentally reclassify as normality.
Just like Godwin’s Law is a thing that actually happens, I’m sure SOME people use it as a shut-down for everything, but I sincerely hope the percentage of people who will pull up lists of incidences or victims’ names and LAUGH over the volume of dead children, or your politicians’ inability to get out of bed with the NRA and properly shut it down, is tiny.
I assure you, most of us are here hoping that public opinion tips over far enough to the “gun laws need to be tightened RIGHT up” side that your politicians HAVE to listen, and that your kids get to grow up in safety and have children who don’t need to have active shooter drills, and grandchildren who are stunned to learn that this was a thing, in their country, in living memory.
quixoticmaunster
…what?
Everyone gets to choose the line which can’t be crossed. That line is called a personal boundary and you’re being absolutely ridiculous by suggesting that someone saying “that’s not funny, it’s cruel” is tantamount to opressing freedom of speech.
Some jokes aren’t funny to some people. Some jokes are objectively in poor taste but might tickle you. Some jokes are aimed directly at oppressing and mocking people who are already minorities and victims of severe oppression. Jokes are not a monolithic thing where if you accept one you must accept them all.
TL;DR – People are allowed to have boundaries and think less of you for crossing them. You do not have a “right” to not get called out for being unfunny or cruel.
I am Nothing
I agree I jumped the gun (heheheh) on the whole “freedom of speech” thing, but my main point is that these jabs aren’t targeted towards any individual incident as much as the occurrence as a whole.
This is also why I brought the cultural difference between these two countries, as gallows humour regarding these incidents aren’t generally seen as targeting towards the victim of these incidents.
As a sidenote, if you never actually inform the person who’s overstepped your personal boundary, the behaviour won’t stop as they’re unaware that it was an issue in the first place.
Delicious Taffy
Freeze Peach send tweet
FrivYeti
You say that British people are happy with that kind of cynical humour, but I remember when Nish Kumar made a few relatively mild jokes about British colonialism and in response his TV show was cancelled.
zee
Btw can we please not pretend Americans don’t also escalate stupidly when you criticize their country? It’s always “We probably beat you in a war/saved you in war/have nukes” like oh thanks for being proud of your insane, over funded, over bloated, imperialist murder force that you like to whip out every time some 3rd world country discovers oil or democratically elects a socialist leader.
I wish I could upvote this comment, so just pretend I can and did
jflb96
I’ve nearly never seen school shootings comments as jokes, more as ‘hey, USA, how about you deal with the sequoia forest in your eye before ragging on the speck in mine?’
I know that American and Canadian politics differ in Avery pivotal way.
When Canada resolves judicial disputes, the case is never really “closed”, so to speak. When a decision is reached there, the issue is settled for the moment but is still open to question.
In America, however, once a case is closed, it’s closed, and it’s very difficult to open back up again.
From here, you can see how the two countries politics can go in wildly different directions.
Can you give an example of this kind of “open to question” that differs from the American system?
Wagstaff
The example I had in mind regarded free speech in Canada, featured in Stanley Fish’s essay, “There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech…and it’s a good thing too”.
jason said it and he’s not drunk so personally i don’t think he gets a pass; brits just love being insufferable about the fact that their ancestors’ horrible actions turned out worse for everyone else than for them.
haha people are suffering and dying in nations that wouldn’t have existed if not for our nation going on a worldwide murder spree, fucking hilarious
Oof, yeah, good point. I think Europe, the UK and Canada developed this sort of mystique for American liberals where the latter enabled the former for years in feeling smugly superior about everything from gun violence to racism to political dignity to health care systems.
The one good thing about Brexit is it kind of finally laid bare that perhaps the only country with a dumber, more childish and utterly bigoted political system than America is the country that oversaw our founding. Add Britain being the world’s TERF capital and I’m just not on board for fetishizing British politics anymore.
drs
The USA tried to leave the WHO during a pandemic.
UK has universal health care at least, even if the Tories are chipping away at it.
Brexit is stupid. US gun and car deaths are still stupid too.
I’m not sure that’s exactly what Jason said. Also the US is one of those nations. Maybe it’s fair to say the Brit’s went on a murder spree, but it’s equally fair to note that the US wiped out entire Japanese cities filled with mostly civilians. And finally, when people make fun of the US they are generally punching up, so we can afford to be not so thinned skinned.
Sirksome
That’s fair. Not sure if it’s really punching up coming from Jason tho. It’s more like punching sideways or at a best a soft diagonal. Especially since Jason’s here on a Visa implying he chose to live here. Also not a great look for a privileged white dude to be making cracks about gun violence in America that statistically effects more minorities and people of low income, and is often perpetrated by dudes similar to him (At least superficially). But I’m like super nit picking now when I should probably have thicker skin myself.
milu
I don’t think you’re nitpicking, actually I hadn’t given that line much thought but you made me realize that it was fairly insensitive.
RowenMorland
Jason is choosing to live in the US because he wants to be away from his father.
Dad is rich, powerful super villain type guy.
Living in the US lets him live far away from father’s immediate gaze and influence.
Probably had to negotiate with his father over which foreign country he went to study in.
So it is a better choice than living in the UK, but maybe not his first choice.
Hazel
America isn’t a “bad” country. Just a very, very powerful one. And while the average American has very, very little influence on the country, the country they call theirs still has immense influence over the world.
The US has the world’s largest military and controls a huge portion of the world’s media, including the internet. Until the last couple years I knew more about America’s politics then my own country’s and it only changed because I put effort into it. I definitely still know more about American history and geography than my own. People outside the US know so much the US. Of course they will complain about America. Is what they complain about the fault of the average citizen? No. Is Australia’s terrible climate change policies my fault? No, but that doesn’t stop it affecting the various low lying island countries near us. Sometimes you belong to a powerful group and even if you have little power within it you still have more than others outside the group.
Imo any bad thing you can say about the US is punching up, given y’all have your gnarled claws deep in the entire western world in a way that rivals og colonialism. Ofc I also enjoy dunking on terf island for said colonialism and terfiness, though they’re at least marginally better than the gun sub continent for having the NHS.
Since there is not much you can do about it as a foreigner, I think making fun of it is the only option left. And it‘s not even a humorous exaggeration.
Making fun about things, even grim stuff, that is the result of people’s choices (a majority in fact) is fair game. The fact as such is not funny at all but sometimes laughing is all you can do.
It’s easier to digest when you realize it’s not the Gun Violence problem so much as the Violence problem period, the guns are just an aspect of a much deeper issue. Of course, actually acknowledging that isn’t as convenient, comfortable or handy.
Other than guns magnifying the problem by making it so much quicker and easier to kill people. Without them, you might have as much violence, but you’d definitely have a lot fewer dead bodies.
They could go to France. That would solve everything.
NotThatDrew
I honestly could probably do fairly well in France. Spent all of high school taking French classes, and ended up getting a minor in it just because I tested into 4th semester when I started college (figured it couldn’t hurt). So yeah, France could work. That or Australia, I’ve got some cousins out there.
CC
France has been getting a major Islamophobia problem the last, er … decade? Probably longer. Remember how they almost elected the National Front candidate as president a few years back?
Clif
And I’m given to understand that Australia is kind of picky about who’ll they’ll take.
He Who Abides
Not to mention that beer is arguably the only non-human thing in Australia that isn’t actively trying to kill everyone.
Formerly Glenn
Right, the beer just passively tries to kill you.
Miri
Quokkas. They give you babies to cuddle.
drs
US has an increasing white nationalism problem. Remember how we actually elected a white supremacist candidate 4 years ago?
Common sense
Funny thing, when people say “europe” they always thing of England,France,Germany, italy .
but never really consider the other countrys
Places like Sweden ,Norway, Finnland or Switzerland might be really good to live there too
now i am not really familiar with these countrys ,i am just saying that cause it seems people always seem to forget about them when talking europe
Julez
I had a friend making legitimate plans to move to Iceland before covid shut down everything.
zee
I’m escaping to the Netherlands as soon as I’m allowed
the Netherlands is actually one of the very few countries I’d actually consider moving to
drs
When Americans talk about how awesome Europe is they often do have the Nordic countries or the Netherlands in mind, to the point of needing reminding that not all of Europe is like Norway.
There is an English man and a Canadian woman in this comic, and having ruled out England you have no further ideas?
I mean, Canada for sure has issues…there is a big one in the news right now…but surely it at least deserves to be considered and dismissed first.
Clif
It’s true that everyone loves Canadians and they have no enemies, between Quebec and their friendly neighbors to the south, they don’t actually need enemies.
Clif
Pretend there was a ‘but’ before ‘between’.
quixoticmaunster
“And they have no enemies”
Other than the indigenous people they are literally still perpetuating a genocide against.
And all the enemies they super casually share with America due to being allies while simultaneously getting let off because they say “about” in a cute way.
Roborat
While there is still major racial discrimination problems associated with Canada’s indigenous people, I would say “literally still perpetuating a genocide against” is quite a bit of a stretch.
476 thoughts on “Slamdunk”
Ana Chronistic
ItsTrue.gif
Ana Chronistic
(inb4 “where u yesterday”: I made the mistake of not only watching a video at 11:55p but showing it to my husband at the same time and feeling rude if I stopped midway to post a middling comment about evil dads)
[the video was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv1mw4yjjl4 ]
WikiDreamer
I was JUST watching this with my hubby-to-be. No worries. I understand. Good to have you back! ^-^
RassilonTDavros
Ruth how much have you had
…this is very not good
Sirksome
I think that’s only her second shot. Maybe Ruth is a lightweight.
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
Best. Drug interaction. Ever.
RassilonTDavros
But yeah speaking as an American who has never once left the country I will readily admit they’re right
Needfuldoer
Never mind leaving the country, I’m struggling to remember the last time I ventured more than 50 miles from home.
… 2002? I don’t get out much.
Julez
I have been to Canada, but I haven’t left the country in about 20 years since I don’t have a passport. I should really get one.
Paradox
I can’t return to the US, since I lost my passport and birth certificate. Which is also going to make renewing my Permanent Residency here in Canada tricky…
Michael Lanting
I went to a wedding in the US once, and I met some people there who never met a foreigner before, let alone a European.
Of course, our countries tend to be a lot smaller so you’re never that far away from a border.
Bicycle Bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Y_Q_RvPa8
Keulen
Enough to have drunk bubbles floating above her head, apparently.
Colineo
In the last panel she had officially hit the tipsy bubbles phase
Sirksome
I don’t really think America’s gun violence problem is really that fun a burn but one’s drunk so I guess I’ll let it pass.
NotThatDrew
I mean, you can either try and joke about it or curl up in a corner sobbing due to the realization that at the very least one political party will always stand in the way of even TRYING to solve that particular issue
Sirksome
Meh, I just know someone who was a victim of gun violence, (not at a school though) also I’m black, so gun violence based burns are just a sensitive issue in general.
Lumino
Sandy Hook was the end of the Gun Control debate in America.
Once we decided that the deaths of elementary school children was acceptable, then everything else was on the table. There’s nothing that can happen that won’t be defended as the ‘price of freedom’.
Paradox
Both political parties. One will pay lip service to coming up with a solution, the other won’t even bother to do that, because both parties are heavily owned by Gun Manufacturers, whose profits go up every time there is a mass shooting (as people buy more guns to defend themselves)…
Imogen
Yeah, I think the “lol America thinks it’s so great then why do children die” joke Brits like to make (and yeah, it’s like, almost always Brits) has become really tasteless and obnoxious. I’m not really invested in getting mad at a drunk Jason for it, but I did want to come here and just, like, note that it’s not a good burn and I’ve literally ghosted one British sort-of-friend in particular for making it. Zero regrets. Europeans and ex-Europeans whose political personality is “lol at least we’re not Americans” are worse than Buttigieg voters.
Imogen
I have so much sass as a trans girl I could make at British politics and I am withholding it because it’s a merry-go-round of dumb one-upmanship about things that aren’t really worth gloating about. Bleh. I know it’s my pet peeve so that’s why I’m getting my gripes out here.
brute
your gripes are valid and i support them
NotThatDrew
My go to is just cracking jokes about how certain countries seem to be in a competition with each other to see who can make the most atrocious, fuckwitted discriminatory policies possible
Andy
Europeans are every bit as ridiculous as Americans, and worse in some ways. “Lol at least we’re not Americans” Okay mate, but one country tried to leave Europe because they didn’t want to let brown people in, there was a major refugee crisis where all the European nations tried saddling the others with the refugees (not that the US responded well to that crisis either), and most of western Europe is AT LEAST as responsible for fucking up the world with colonialism as the US is with post colonial cold war fuckery. And that’s not even touching on how Brits think “lol your kids shoot each other” is an acceptable response to “lol Brits say Chewsday and YouChewb.”
I am Nothing
I think there’s just a gap between British and American ripping here.
Our humour tends to be cynical, pessimistic and hyperbolic, we exaggerate these things all the time, regardless of the country.
Hell, the majority of the people I’ve known think our entire political system of old farts yelling at each other is ridiculous. Just don’t take it too seriously.
Honestly, as a Brit a lot of people find the whole “chewsday and YouChewb” thing stupid for two reasons:
1) The UK has many different dialects
2) You couldn’t think of anything better?
Andy
Yeah, I don’t care. Go ahead and find the dialect thing a bit dumb, it’s literally a harmless joke with no stakes whatsoever. Meanwhile, the response is “Hey, isn’t it funny how Americans can’t manage to figure out their gun problem and stop their children from killing each other, despite the fact that about half the country really really wants to do just that and keeps getting stonewalled by the half that’s revealing itself to be fascists? Isn’t that hilarious?” You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t see those things as being remotely on the same level of okay.
I am Nothing
I can understand the disparity between the tone of the issues surrounding each subject, but I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to restrict what can and cannot be joked about simply because it’s a real-world issue.
Why should anyone get to choose the line which can’t be crossed here?
It’s a bit ironic too, with America’s core values of “freedom of speech”, don’t’cha think?
Andy
Freedom of speech means the government cannot restrict your speech outside of harmful or treasonous speech. Generally, I find that if someone is relying on the “freedom of speech” argument, they’re probably being an asshole.
Again, you are mocking children’s deaths in response to a harmless jibe at regional accents. Most people would agree accents are funny. I don’t think most people would agree that children’s deaths are funny or in good taste.
I mean, this is an issue that half of the US has decided should be handled by teaching kids to hide in classrooms, possibly arming teachers, and redesigning schools to make it harder for shooters to kill people. The easy solution, the one that requires less work and less loss of life, is to reduce access to the weapons, but that goes against people’s “freedoms” so it doesn’t happen. My son or daughter could die today or tomorrow because some kid decides they need to shoot the place up, but hey, at least you can dunk on me when that happens, amirite?
Man, just fuck off if you’re gonna keep saying that shit’s okay.
thejeff
I don’t know about whoever you’re responding to about accents, since nobody here did that, but in today’s comic Jason brings up shootings as a response to Americans claiming their country is the greatest in the world and isn’t actually mocking the dead children. Frankly, that’s how I see it far more commonly that whatever you’re on about.
Miri
As a Brit, I find the whole mass incidences of school shootings, “but we can’t restrict access to guns!” thing shocking and deplorable. It’s one excellent example of why lobbying is gross, and why political donations should be limited and made transparent. Jason’s comment to me reads like an angry “how can America/Americans think they’re superior to other countries when this is a routine happenstance?!” That’s not mocking. That’s not eacalation. That’s two foreigners in a strange land bonding over both routine mocking aimed in their direction and shocking, horrific differences between our countries and yours (I assume) that they refuse to let themselves mentally reclassify as normality.
Just like Godwin’s Law is a thing that actually happens, I’m sure SOME people use it as a shut-down for everything, but I sincerely hope the percentage of people who will pull up lists of incidences or victims’ names and LAUGH over the volume of dead children, or your politicians’ inability to get out of bed with the NRA and properly shut it down, is tiny.
I assure you, most of us are here hoping that public opinion tips over far enough to the “gun laws need to be tightened RIGHT up” side that your politicians HAVE to listen, and that your kids get to grow up in safety and have children who don’t need to have active shooter drills, and grandchildren who are stunned to learn that this was a thing, in their country, in living memory.
quixoticmaunster
…what?
Everyone gets to choose the line which can’t be crossed. That line is called a personal boundary and you’re being absolutely ridiculous by suggesting that someone saying “that’s not funny, it’s cruel” is tantamount to opressing freedom of speech.
Some jokes aren’t funny to some people. Some jokes are objectively in poor taste but might tickle you. Some jokes are aimed directly at oppressing and mocking people who are already minorities and victims of severe oppression. Jokes are not a monolithic thing where if you accept one you must accept them all.
TL;DR – People are allowed to have boundaries and think less of you for crossing them. You do not have a “right” to not get called out for being unfunny or cruel.
I am Nothing
I agree I jumped the gun (heheheh) on the whole “freedom of speech” thing, but my main point is that these jabs aren’t targeted towards any individual incident as much as the occurrence as a whole.
This is also why I brought the cultural difference between these two countries, as gallows humour regarding these incidents aren’t generally seen as targeting towards the victim of these incidents.
As a sidenote, if you never actually inform the person who’s overstepped your personal boundary, the behaviour won’t stop as they’re unaware that it was an issue in the first place.
Delicious Taffy
Freeze Peach send tweet
FrivYeti
You say that British people are happy with that kind of cynical humour, but I remember when Nish Kumar made a few relatively mild jokes about British colonialism and in response his TV show was cancelled.
zee
Btw can we please not pretend Americans don’t also escalate stupidly when you criticize their country? It’s always “We probably beat you in a war/saved you in war/have nukes” like oh thanks for being proud of your insane, over funded, over bloated, imperialist murder force that you like to whip out every time some 3rd world country discovers oil or democratically elects a socialist leader.
dragon_nataku
I wish I could upvote this comment, so just pretend I can and did
jflb96
I’ve nearly never seen school shootings comments as jokes, more as ‘hey, USA, how about you deal with the sequoia forest in your eye before ragging on the speck in mine?’
Wagstaff
I know that American and Canadian politics differ in Avery pivotal way.
When Canada resolves judicial disputes, the case is never really “closed”, so to speak. When a decision is reached there, the issue is settled for the moment but is still open to question.
In America, however, once a case is closed, it’s closed, and it’s very difficult to open back up again.
From here, you can see how the two countries politics can go in wildly different directions.
Jamie
Can you give an example of this kind of “open to question” that differs from the American system?
Wagstaff
The example I had in mind regarded free speech in Canada, featured in Stanley Fish’s essay, “There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech…and it’s a good thing too”.
brute
jason said it and he’s not drunk so personally i don’t think he gets a pass; brits just love being insufferable about the fact that their ancestors’ horrible actions turned out worse for everyone else than for them.
haha people are suffering and dying in nations that wouldn’t have existed if not for our nation going on a worldwide murder spree, fucking hilarious
Imogen
Oof, yeah, good point. I think Europe, the UK and Canada developed this sort of mystique for American liberals where the latter enabled the former for years in feeling smugly superior about everything from gun violence to racism to political dignity to health care systems.
The one good thing about Brexit is it kind of finally laid bare that perhaps the only country with a dumber, more childish and utterly bigoted political system than America is the country that oversaw our founding. Add Britain being the world’s TERF capital and I’m just not on board for fetishizing British politics anymore.
drs
The USA tried to leave the WHO during a pandemic.
UK has universal health care at least, even if the Tories are chipping away at it.
Brexit is stupid. US gun and car deaths are still stupid too.
Clif
I’m not sure that’s exactly what Jason said. Also the US is one of those nations. Maybe it’s fair to say the Brit’s went on a murder spree, but it’s equally fair to note that the US wiped out entire Japanese cities filled with mostly civilians. And finally, when people make fun of the US they are generally punching up, so we can afford to be not so thinned skinned.
Sirksome
That’s fair. Not sure if it’s really punching up coming from Jason tho. It’s more like punching sideways or at a best a soft diagonal. Especially since Jason’s here on a Visa implying he chose to live here. Also not a great look for a privileged white dude to be making cracks about gun violence in America that statistically effects more minorities and people of low income, and is often perpetrated by dudes similar to him (At least superficially). But I’m like super nit picking now when I should probably have thicker skin myself.
milu
I don’t think you’re nitpicking, actually I hadn’t given that line much thought but you made me realize that it was fairly insensitive.
RowenMorland
Jason is choosing to live in the US because he wants to be away from his father.
Dad is rich, powerful super villain type guy.
Living in the US lets him live far away from father’s immediate gaze and influence.
Probably had to negotiate with his father over which foreign country he went to study in.
So it is a better choice than living in the UK, but maybe not his first choice.
Hazel
America isn’t a “bad” country. Just a very, very powerful one. And while the average American has very, very little influence on the country, the country they call theirs still has immense influence over the world.
The US has the world’s largest military and controls a huge portion of the world’s media, including the internet. Until the last couple years I knew more about America’s politics then my own country’s and it only changed because I put effort into it. I definitely still know more about American history and geography than my own. People outside the US know so much the US. Of course they will complain about America. Is what they complain about the fault of the average citizen? No. Is Australia’s terrible climate change policies my fault? No, but that doesn’t stop it affecting the various low lying island countries near us. Sometimes you belong to a powerful group and even if you have little power within it you still have more than others outside the group.
zee
Imo any bad thing you can say about the US is punching up, given y’all have your gnarled claws deep in the entire western world in a way that rivals og colonialism. Ofc I also enjoy dunking on terf island for said colonialism and terfiness, though they’re at least marginally better than the gun sub continent for having the NHS.
*Dabs in third world country*
dragon_nataku
I don’t think it was a burn. He’s literally just countering the idea of “lol Murica best country” with a legit criticism
Orange Lantern
Since there is not much you can do about it as a foreigner, I think making fun of it is the only option left. And it‘s not even a humorous exaggeration.
Making fun about things, even grim stuff, that is the result of people’s choices (a majority in fact) is fair game. The fact as such is not funny at all but sometimes laughing is all you can do.
Daniel M Ball
It’s easier to digest when you realize it’s not the Gun Violence problem so much as the Violence problem period, the guns are just an aspect of a much deeper issue. Of course, actually acknowledging that isn’t as convenient, comfortable or handy.
thejeff
Other than guns magnifying the problem by making it so much quicker and easier to kill people. Without them, you might have as much violence, but you’d definitely have a lot fewer dead bodies.
NotThatDrew
All of these are incredibly valid points. If I had the money I’d probably leave the US and never look back
Rose by Any Other Name
And go where?
England is looking rather less than ideal lately.
Clif
They could go to France. That would solve everything.
NotThatDrew
I honestly could probably do fairly well in France. Spent all of high school taking French classes, and ended up getting a minor in it just because I tested into 4th semester when I started college (figured it couldn’t hurt). So yeah, France could work. That or Australia, I’ve got some cousins out there.
CC
France has been getting a major Islamophobia problem the last, er … decade? Probably longer. Remember how they almost elected the National Front candidate as president a few years back?
Clif
And I’m given to understand that Australia is kind of picky about who’ll they’ll take.
He Who Abides
Not to mention that beer is arguably the only non-human thing in Australia that isn’t actively trying to kill everyone.
Formerly Glenn
Right, the beer just passively tries to kill you.
Miri
Quokkas. They give you babies to cuddle.
drs
US has an increasing white nationalism problem. Remember how we actually elected a white supremacist candidate 4 years ago?
Common sense
Funny thing, when people say “europe” they always thing of England,France,Germany, italy .
but never really consider the other countrys
Places like Sweden ,Norway, Finnland or Switzerland might be really good to live there too
now i am not really familiar with these countrys ,i am just saying that cause it seems people always seem to forget about them when talking europe
Julez
I had a friend making legitimate plans to move to Iceland before covid shut down everything.
zee
I’m escaping to the Netherlands as soon as I’m allowed
dragon_nataku
the Netherlands is actually one of the very few countries I’d actually consider moving to
drs
When Americans talk about how awesome Europe is they often do have the Nordic countries or the Netherlands in mind, to the point of needing reminding that not all of Europe is like Norway.
3oranges
There is an English man and a Canadian woman in this comic, and having ruled out England you have no further ideas?
I mean, Canada for sure has issues…there is a big one in the news right now…but surely it at least deserves to be considered and dismissed first.
Clif
It’s true that everyone loves Canadians and they have no enemies, between Quebec and their friendly neighbors to the south, they don’t actually need enemies.
Clif
Pretend there was a ‘but’ before ‘between’.
quixoticmaunster
“And they have no enemies”
Other than the indigenous people they are literally still perpetuating a genocide against.
And all the enemies they super casually share with America due to being allies while simultaneously getting let off because they say “about” in a cute way.
Roborat
While there is still major racial discrimination problems associated with Canada’s indigenous people, I would say “literally still perpetuating a genocide against” is quite a bit of a stretch.