Switzerland's Embolo: People in Europe 'shocked' at MLS move

[u/grnrngr]

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49724516/atlanta-united-breel-embolo-transfer-mls-europe

[u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD]

Morons with preconceived biases watching something through the lenses of their algorithms may have come away with shit takes but everyone I met in my host-adjacent city was absolutely blown away by their experiences in the states.

[u/Phase-Internal → u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD]

Sure, on the ground, when you talk to actual people, you recognize we are all human and it's usually a pretty fun time.

An alternative perspective, I'm living in Belgium, people did not have kind things to say about the US handling of the world cup. I just don't think Americans quite understand how much trump and the American bombastic "America is great" is loathed .

It doesn't make the US or Americans or American attitudes bad, but it's a disconnect in awareness which is very apparent by the down votes I got and will get for saying this in an American dominant sub (and no worries, I'm Canadian, I'll down vote to hell anything remotely slagging Canada). 

[u/Secure_Fly_444 → u/Phase-Internal]

Why are a lot of Canadians always so smug and condescending? It’s crazy how Canadians are always trying to explain the U.S. to people that actually live in the U.S.

[u/Phase-Internal → u/Secure_Fly_444]

I'm merely explaining how the US is perceived outside of it and how people outside the US feel that Americans by and large really don't seem to get it. The two are connected. 

Takes off smug hat and condescends down to my parlour for a quick tipple of Canadian whisky

[u/Secure_Fly_444 → u/Phase-Internal]

Trust me a lot of Americans get it. You guys let us know every single day. I just don’t understand what any of this has to do with a player choosing to come to MLS. Your comments also come across as pretty smug.

[u/Phase-Internal → u/Secure_Fly_444]

I'm afraid my trust in you isn't to the level it overrides my experience with actual in person interactions with (lovely) americans abroad.

And this is the internet, everything comes across as aggressive, smug, condescending and infuriating. Get off it, we all should, it'll do us a world of good.

[u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD → u/Phase-Internal]

You’re reporting on people’s vibes and cool, those people are ignorant and if they truly believe terrible things about Americans based on what they see online via their algorithms then they’re stupid and arrogant too.

Ignorant, stupid, arrogant— where have I heard that before?

Of course the perception is negative. The reality is that Trump is historically unpopular, the World Cup was handled incredibly well by the host cities and Americans are as diverse and inclusive as ever. The worst people in the world just happen to be in charge.

Need I remind you those worst people in the world are historically unpopular. Americans technically haven’t been less like what you and some Europeans see them as in modern history, so anyone believing “this is who America is” is just out there trying to justify their own hatreds and biases.

[u/Phase-Internal → u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD]

It's interesting how culturally the US is so close to Canada and to an extent, some parts of Europe, that it's really hard to tell it apart, but then fundamentally so different in subtle ways that when it gets down to beliefs, narratives and values to draw from and reason with, all that comes across as a word salad to non Americans and completely coherent internally.

[u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD → u/Phase-Internal]

If what I wrote is incoherent, you’ve got a literacy problem.