[nradov]

It's so weird for an EU citizen to claim that the US has a violent culture. Since 1776, Europeans have killed each other at a much higher rate than Americans. The US is far from perfect but let's have a sense of proportion.

Supposedly Hiram Maxim was prompted to invent the machine gun when an acquaintance told him:

"Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility."

[holyra]

From my perspective, US culture is more violent in the current era because of several factors:

- A large portion of the population is incarcerated

- The population is weaponized

- Many people are dying because they don't have proper access to health care

- The economy leave a lot of people on the side of the road producing highly anxious people

- School shoot / police violence

- ...

[nine_k]

It's autism that is said that it can be weaponized; the population is armed. But arming population does not necessarily increase violence within it: compare with highly armed populations of Switzerland and Israel.

The problem of the US is indeed with high incarceration rates, long sentences, bad prisons where more hardened criminals educate the newcomers to be more efficient criminals; this whole system is screwed, and needs to be replaced.

Lack of access to health care, while increasing mortality and decreasing morale, is not violence; rather, it's a lack of mercy, and lack of resources. That same lack of resources limits access to (quality) health care in EU, but in different ways: long wait times, limited prescription of expensive but efficacious drugs, etc.

[LoganDark]

> It's autism that is said that it can be weaponized

is this a typo? I'm autistic and can't see how autism has anything to do with weapons or being weaponized. in fact, I usually see the opposite (sheer numbers being weaponized against autism), but I'm probably the most biased possible source for that.

[boppo1]

"Weaponized autism" is a meme about passionate internet communities working together (and succeeding) to pursue goals "average" non-internet-overusing people would not think about much.

A good example is Paramount's decision to delay the first Sonic movie in response to internet backlash about Sonic's design. (Google old sonic movie design vs new).

Many people who participate in these things clearly do not have autism, but are spending a lot of time and attention on something broadly considered frivolous by society.

[nine_k]

Please don't take offense. It's merely a meme reference, not some slighting of autistic people.

I'm saying this as a father of a girl diagnosed with autism; she's lovely, brilliant in some aspects, and... difficult in some other aspects. Life is harder for her.

[blibble]

that's because the US wiped out the previous inhabitants of North America

if that hadn't happened you'd likely be facing the same situation, i.e. having 30 neighbours instead of 2

[nradov]

The US? I'm pretty sure it was the British, Spanish, and other European colonizers who killed off most indigenous New World inhabitants long before the USA even existed. And although that genocide involved a significant amount of violence (some perpetrated by the US government in the later stages), most of the deaths were caused by the inadvertent spread of infectious diseases.

[blibble]

I suggest you look at a map of the US in 1776 and compare it to today

it's quite significantly larger

now, imagine if today that 80% wasn't part of the US, and was instead controlled by the indigenous population (likely tens of sovereign states)

would there have been large scale wars in the 19th and 20th century? it's quite obvious the answer would have been "yes"

[alimw]

Haha lucky you've decided those guys couldn't yet be called American

[dc396]

I suspect you may have an overly sanitized view of the US impact on indigenous populations, at least in North America. You might want to read about the "Indian Wars" post US revolution and efforts by the US government such as those to eradicate bison as a means to wipe out the Plains Indian tribes, the Trail of Tears, the California Genocide, etc., etc.

[nradov]

Not at all. I am fully aware of the terrible, genocidal crimes that the US government (or private US citizens under government protection) committed against indigenous populations. And I make no excuses for those. But if you look at the numbers, Europeans caused a lot more total deaths in the Americas.

[immibis]

Is there actually a difference? The people you call Americans and the people you call Europeans are the same people (in this time period). It doesn't matter if they changed the design on their flags before they charged into certain battles.

[nradov]

Assign the labels or draw the lines however you like. It doesn't change the main point. I was responding to @holyra above who claimed that the USA has a "violent culture", but there is no historical evidence to support such a claim. Over any lengthy period you look at the USA has on average been no more violent (and generally less so) than most European countries. I just find it funny when Europeans who are ignorant of their own history and traditional proclivities try to claim some sort of cultural superiority.

[mystified5016]

Even in the US, we cover this very explicitly in our history courses. Europeans did displace and kill a lot of natives, but it was the US that almost genocided them long after colonization was over.

See: the Trail of Tears, the actual, literal death march of natives out of their ancestrial lands because "manifest destiny"

[apwell23]

euros genocided all of south america.

[immibis]

But we are not since 1776. We are in 2025.

[nradov]

Feel free to start the comparison at a more recent year if you prefer. Let's say 1939.

[blacksmith_tb]

Point taken, but if we nudge that to 1946... what have we got? Kosovo?

[nradov]

There were wars in most parts of former Yugoslavia, not just Kosovo. If the US pulls out of NATO (and I don't think we should), how long do you think it will take until the other European powers fall back on their old habits of killing each other? And don't presume to tell us some nonsense about how Europeans have changed and become more peaceful.

[immibis]

We're not in 1939, either. We're in 2025.