[bitwize]

"Far left" in America is "center right" in a sane country.

Card-carrying communists sit in the parliaments of some Western democracies. Yet they somehow still get on as democracies, without many of the problems that plague the USA like wars of resource appropriation, rampant racism, and school shootings.

[mardifoufs]

Since you are talking about western democracies, I assume you are referring to Europe? In which case, I'm sorry but what? Racism is as much of a problem in europe, if not more. The difference is that it's not really seen as an issue in Europe, and is swept under the rug.

The mainstream rhetoric around North Africans, Africans and Roma people in europe would be totally unacceptable in the US and make the American right look downright tolerant in comparison. Remember, "blood and soil" political parties such as the FN in france that literally advocated for kicking back north Africans and openly calls for discrimination against Muslims can get up to 40% of the vote. Prejudice against the Roma people is so insanely prevalent and violent too that it's just disturbing. So much so that it would be worthy of an entire thread on its own.

The difference is that American issues get worldwide coverage and tons of internal debates. That's not the case in europe, especially on the internet where there's a weird complex of inferiority that pushes people to reflexively downplay or deny local issues whenever they get brought up.

As for resource appropriation, I guess the Libyan war never happened? And maybe you should look up what Francafrique is. Neocolonialism is still a very European hobby.

[Karrot_Kream]

Yes exactly. The US is also at the forefront of Western discussion about colonial repartitions (yes the British Crown still owns the biggest diamond in the world, the Kohinoor, from India) and discussions on sexual minorities.

The only context where GP's sentiment makes sense is a purely economic one. Left economic parties, like social democrats and communists, do a lot worse in the US than in Europe. But this Europe good, US bad meme by folks who identify as progressive is an incredibly shallow reading of politics and history.

[vlunkr]

Sorry to slow down the AMERICA BAD train, but this seems pretty naive. These are incredibly complex, long running issues, and comparing the US with much smaller and less diverse countries is pretty pointless.

Every country falls somewhere on the political spectrum, implying that they are all insane because the aren't Sweden or something is revealing some heavy bias.

[Dma54rhs]

Definitely not on social issues, the vast majority of Europe consider American left wing identity politics batshit insane just like your christian fundamentalists.

From economic side probably yes, but that's not straightforward either. Conservatives in Eastern Europe often hold power by generous social programs and benefits while liberals want to cut it down.