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by drstewart 953 days ago
>As far as I can tell looking from the outside

Out of curiosity, how accurately do you feel are the opinions of outsiders with no experience living in your country who comment on your country's state of affairs?

3 comments

Well, on the one hand of course you could argue that outsiders are less experienced with living in your country.

But outsiders have no emotional stakes in convincing themselves that your country is the best on earth. Consequently, I feel the non-US media are freer than US mass media to discuss the true state of American healthcare. Outsiders are less susceptible to your country's patriotic propaganda.

This does go both (or all) ways. The US are an example here, not a singular special case. Every country tries to convince its citizens that it's better than everywhere else.

I have previously lived in the USA, I'm not sure why you assumed I have no experience of that.

In general I would expect someone who speaks the language of the country I live in now at roughly the same level I speak English to have a pretty accurate understanding of what is going on here. It would, frankly, be quite weird to speak the language and have no idea of what is happening here. Of course America is a special case because of how the internet is dominated by US media, commentary and content.

Sometimes their perspectives could be more accurate as they don't have the same biases. Or maybe its better to say understanding and including their perspectives contributes to a more accurate understanding.