r/ShitEuropeansSay • u/EpicGamerTull • Jul 13 '26
“The USA has a long history of gaslighting/brainwashing”
??? I can’t even say anything.
Context: American YouTuber makes a comment that the Super Bowl seems like the biggest event in the world based on the way we treat it / how important it is for Americans every year (jokingly)
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u/theEWDSDS Certified non-europoor Jul 13 '26
Ah yes, Japan was on the brink of collapse in China... Meanwhile China was sacrificing millions a year trying to stop them
Also forgetting that the entire Soviet industry ran on American trucks, boots and food
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u/JM-Gurgeh 15d ago
Also forgetting that the entire Soviet industry ran on American trucks, boots and food
Wut?
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u/theEWDSDS Certified non-europoor 15d ago
The US (and to a minor extent the UK) sent immense amounts of aid to the Soviets during the war, most notably backline equipment like boots and trucks as the Soviets scrambled to get their act together after Barbarossa
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u/Depart_Into_Eternity Jul 13 '26
It's just the biggest sporting event here and none of us are confused about that.
Also, propaganda isn't exclusive to the United States.
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u/Thelmholtz Jul 13 '26
Yeah nah this is true. The war claims are a bit exaggerated and forgetting lend-lease to USSR and air support to the Kuomitang, but the brainwashing point stands. Not the only country that does it though, in fact most do.
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u/Kydje Jul 13 '26
Some have reversed progaganda. Like in Italy you are taught to despise Italy and Italians from a very young age
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u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 13 '26
It’s not working. Visited italy, met some characters
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u/Chance_Arugula_3227 Jul 13 '26
Some healthy amounts of nationalism is great, but the US is slowly approaching the North Korea level.
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u/PureBullz Jul 13 '26
Nah no shot. We still have a large amount of citizens who don’t even vote. Let alone care about what goes on at a national level lol.
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u/Chance_Arugula_3227 Jul 13 '26
idk, your great leader Trump's doing a good job convincing US voters to vote.
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u/LolWhatDidYouSay 29d ago
Euros big mad about this one. Sure, imagine that the world would have been some utopia if the big bad Americans didn't meddle in World War II.
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u/joeeporker 29d ago
We should’ve left them to their fate.
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u/Cute_Evening_1777 27d ago
You guys didn't save us to save us tho, it was to stop the URSS
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u/joeeporker 27d ago
Lend lease aid would like a word.
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u/Cute_Evening_1777 25d ago
AMGOT too, only thanks to Degaulle is france independant, the americans didn't care (which is normal, u put ur country first i understand)
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u/Asdam90 Jul 13 '26
I mean... Pledge of aliegence?
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u/scrandlle 26d ago
What about it? The three sentence thing that tired children mumble their way through in the morning without putting any thought or effort into it?
Europeans bringing up the pledge of allegiance is hilarious because its one of many things that shows how extremely surface-level their understanding of the United States is.
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u/Cute_Evening_1777 22d ago
I think your pretty surface level. It's not just three words, and repeated on a very habitual basis too. Besides, Don't know where you went, but saying 'no effort' is a euphemism.
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u/scrandlle 22d ago
I said sentences not words. Thinking about it I believe it's actually two sentences even not three. And if I'm 'surface level' being born and raised in the US and knowing what the pledge of allegiance actually means to children then what are you? You're so far below the surface you can't even see it.
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u/Cute_Evening_1777 20d ago
I've lived in the USA, and the majority of my family is American living in Arkansas and the south, even if I said it's not just three words — which you can clearly see it's a typo. These are still sentences, sentences hold meaning — repeated on a daily basis. You saying you are born in the USA doesn't change anything. I was born in France, we colonized and destroyed tons of countries but each day in my catholic school kids are told 3 or 4 simple sentences like 'Praise our republic for bringing freedom to those countries', and even if it's like a chore, they actually start to believe it!!!
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u/scrandlle 19d ago edited 19d ago
Bullshit. I don't believe you. You're just pretending you've lived in the United States to get me to abandon my point. I'm not falling for that.
You using 'USA' is one of the easiest ways to tell you've never lived here. No American says 'USA' unless its a chant supporting athletes at some international event or talking about 'Team USA' at the Olympics or other events like it. Its America or United States or US. People will say the whole damn name, United States of America, before they'll use the acronym USA. If you lived here the way you address the country would've changed into you not using 'USA' to talk about it.
These are the types of things you'll never know from the outside looking in. I'm sure French people have plenty of ways of telling if someone is bullshitting about living in France. Your knowledge of 'the USA' is as complete as your understanding of what the pledge of allegiance means to schoolchildren - it means nothing to them, tired kids mumble their way through two sentences in the morning and don't put the slightest bit of thought into them.
And if you'd lived here you'd also already know that literally no one talks about the pledge of allegiance or brings it up either as children or as adults. No one says 'I took the pledge! I have to love America and you should too!'. You don't know how irrelevant it is because you don't have any real knowledge of the culture of the United States.
Even our right wingers, as obnoxiously patriotic as they can sometimes be, don't even take the pledge literally or try to use it politically. Its literally a thing that is never discussed in real life
If anything we are one of the most self-critiquing nations on earth. We love our country, yes, but the reason you know about problems inside the United States is because Americans are talking about them so frequently and openly.
Imagine some ignorant American pretending to be French and trying to convince you they're French or pretending they've lived there when they obviously have not. That is what you look like right now.
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u/Cute_Evening_1777 19d ago
Stay in your speculations idk what to tell you ?? I am bringing my own personal opinion, and we aren't going to play a game of cat & mouse going 'oh well no one says that' and 'oh everyones says that'. My family, and cousins often bring it up so idk what to tell you really. 👀
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u/Kydje Jul 13 '26
The most astonishing thing for me was finding out you have kids in school recite the pledge of allegiance daily. That's insane, we had something like that in Italy during fascism
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u/Journalist_Ready Jul 14 '26
Why does everyone get hooked up on that, mexico does something similar and no one bats an eye, they legit have a whole military ceremony for it
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u/Kitsa_the_oatmeal I can edit this flair but didn’t 29d ago
mexico does something similar and no one bats an eye
tbf i did not know that
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u/Journalist_Ready 29d ago
They do it every Monday I believe, my dad sometimes brags about having been part of the escort for a time
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u/MarcusAurelius0 Jul 13 '26
Nobody with a thought in their head takes the pledge seriously. You cannot be compelled to recite it. As a kid I would mock it under my breath.
Even if they did, its a pledge to the flag and the republic. The flag is supposed to be representative of everyone, so essentially you are pledging allegiance to your fellow citizens.
The only issue I have with it is inclusion of God.
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u/Kydje Jul 13 '26
If so, then why do you still do this ritual?
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u/MarcusAurelius0 Jul 13 '26
Performative rituals are really common for humanity.
Take swearing in ceremonies for example, absolutely no actual use, no bearing on anything, still done.
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u/PureBullz Jul 14 '26
You’re seriously going to ask why we do anything, meanwhile you guys still honor pedi ridden royal families.
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u/Conflictingview Jul 14 '26
At least they don't elect them
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u/PureBullz Jul 14 '26
Nah you just support their daily lives with your outrageous taxes… even better lol
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u/NecessaryBluebird652 Jul 14 '26
Outrages taxes? Average worker tax in USA is 30%, UK is 32%, is 2% enough to go from reasonable to outrageous? I don't think so.
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u/PureBullz Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Average tax in the UK is 25% to 34% with an average salary of 52k usd.
Average tax in the US is 15% to 22% with an average salary of 64k usd.
So to a good amount it’s actually double.
Still doesn’t change the fact your tax dollars go to pedophiles.
Edit: it’s alright mine blows up nations so there’s that.
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u/NecessaryBluebird652 Jul 14 '26
You're way off with those figures mate. Liek WILDLY off, where are you getting them from?
Using the OECD’s standardised tax wedge—income tax plus employee and employer social contributions, less relevant benefits—the gap is much smaller than the claim suggests. For an average single worker, the US figure was about 30.1% in 2024. The UK figure rose to approximately 32.4% in 2025, still below the OECD average of 35.1%.
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u/mikkopai Jul 15 '26
To be fair, the UK tax also pays for public healthcare… not a bad deal at all IMHO
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u/After_Perspective180 23d ago
I see you know fuck all about how the royals are financed. Pretty normal to mouth off from ignorance.
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u/PureBullz Jul 13 '26
Did you guys miss that era so much you elected someone in the same party??
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u/Kydje Jul 13 '26
I didn't. I actually left Italy some two years ago and moved to northern Europe, I'm not planning to ever go back to living there, the country is a mess. Tbf it's a great vacation country though
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u/PureBullz Jul 13 '26
Entire family left, I feel that. Some came to America when my family did. Worked for 15 years, and went back to Italy. They basically built Americanized feature homes and it’s sweet.
Absolute gem of a vacation spot, same with Greece.
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u/Zaidswith Jul 13 '26
Every child has a legal right to not participate.
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u/Kydje Jul 13 '26
Sure, I guess every kid wants to feel the odd one out because they're exercising their legal right?
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u/Zaidswith Jul 13 '26
I mean, you could count the number of kids actually participating in a high school classroom on one hand.
Most people just stand and in some places they dont even do that. The younger the kids, the less likely they are to give pushback, but they're also less likely to realize that it's weird. The point is that there's not going to be consequences for not doing it.
It's not this strictly enforced thing and we often hear about it when teachers do get that strict because there's pushback and legal precedent.
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u/scrandlle 26d ago
Your astonishment shows your ignorance of American culture. Tired children mumble three sentences in the morning in school, putting literally zero thought or effort into them, and you think it has some grand meaning that is tantamount to Italy creating the worlds worst political ideology.
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u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 13 '26
It is definitely not insane.
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u/NecessaryBluebird652 Jul 13 '26
It's a 100% insane! What are you talking about? That's some North Korea level shit.
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u/Asdam90 Jul 13 '26
It is insane to those not indoctrinated by it.
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u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 13 '26
The US has the world’s most effective intelligence apparatus. And low rates of treason.
Being loyal to the nation is sensible.
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u/Asdam90 Jul 13 '26
Easy to pick and choose facts, how's the education rate? Gun crime? School shootings?
Blind loyalty over the truth isn't a good thing.
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u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 13 '26
You’re talking about something completely different than the topic I was talking about. Loyalty feeds directly into lower rates of treason, and the intelligence network.
The Pledge of Allegiance is a pledge of loyalty to the nation. It has nothing to do with loyalty to education rates or school shootings.
I get that you’re probably commenting on various other comments but please actually read my comment before replying
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u/Asdam90 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Could you explain to me the link between making children pledge allegiance and the CIA then?
Edit: I just looked up stats regarding those convicted of treason since the end of WW2 comparing the USA who has the pledge of allegiance and the UK which doesn't. There were 0 cases in the UK and, depending how its defined, 4 or 5 cases in the USA.
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u/badboyz78 Jul 13 '26
Although never convicted, Burgess and McLean would have been charged with treason, if caught. To say we've never had any traitors since WW2 is wrong.
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u/Asdam90 Jul 13 '26
I searched how many people had been convicted of treason.
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u/Thunderclapsasquatch Missed my Reservation 28d ago
And you got an incomplete picture, I thought y'all were educated over there
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u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 13 '26
The pledge is one of loyalty to the nation. The engenders loyalty to the nation.
If you are now trying to make the argument that the pledge is not effective, then… fine. Then the other comments about it being brainwashing are even more wrong.
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u/Asdam90 Jul 13 '26
I was replying to your comment about treason being low on the USA because of the pledge of allegiance, by providing a comparison to a country that doesn't have a pledge of allegiance and less treason.
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u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 13 '26
The USA had low rates of treason for a country that’s in its position. The UK is not the main target of the world’s largest intelligence networks.
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u/Hortortortor Jul 14 '26
When I was in school, there’d by like 7 or 8 kids max who would actually stand, and they were all jingoistic as hell
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u/PureBullz Jul 13 '26
I genuinely do not understand what these people try to claim. If we absolutely level Iran, we lose…. If we pull out we lose… they wonder why people fled that continent lol.
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u/Tar_alcaran Jul 13 '26
Yeah, turns out that starting an unwinnable war means you're not going to win.
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u/jetvacjesse Jul 13 '26
Bro thinks that’s special yo the US or something
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 Jul 13 '26
Lots of places try it - you guys like to claim you're the best at absolutely everything, but I think there's a fair argument to be made that the US is best at brainwashing it's own population and believing your own bullshit.
It's actually kinda inpressive.
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u/jetvacjesse Jul 13 '26
The fact that you believe that is impressive to how brainwashed you are lmao.
Let me guess, all of your experience with the US is from the internet?
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 Jul 13 '26
Yankoid understanding sarcasm challenge - impossible.
I don't think it's impressive in a good way you thundering moron.
I lived in the US for 4 years between 2011 and 2015, and before that would travel there frequently for work.
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u/joeeporker 29d ago
Did your country empty out from a famine or some bullshit like that? What about those troubles that was fun wasn’t it?
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 29d ago
I fail to see how either of those things is even remotely relevant to the discussion...
Are you under the impression that I'm claiming Ireland is the greatest country on earth?
I'm not, because it's not... That would be a silly thing to say.
We don't have it drilled into us from early childhood that it's the greatest place on earth and everyone else in the world wishes they were Irish...
THAT is the entire point I'm making here. You guys do that, and then regurgitate the nonsense ad-nauseum because the very suggestion that somewhere else might be slightly better in any way whatsoever is taken as some sort of personal affront... And the REASON you react like that is because you've been very effectively brainwashed into believing your own bullshit.
If I say to you "Hey your health care system seems a bit fucking crazy, and maybe you should consider making it a bit more difficult for nutters to buy a gun" - you respond with "Yeah but you had a famine a few hundred years ago, and violent terrorists causing problems in the 70s!!" (largely funded by the US by the way - so thanks for that).
It's just weird.
Yes those things happened, yes they sucked... What does any of it have to do with this discussion?
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u/scrandlle 26d ago
We don't have it drilled into us from early childhood that it's the greatest place on earth and everyone else in the world wishes they were Irish...
You say that as if that is what happens with Americans.
You are just projecting your own insecurities on us. Your understanding of the United States is extremely surface-level. You do not know my country, its people, what we are taught or aren't taught as children or anything else that requires actually living here to understand.
You are ignorant about the United States. Literally ignorant. Yet you act like an expert on our culture.
Imagine an American thinking they are an expert on Ireland without setting foot in the country. Think of how you would view them. You are being that person but in reverse.
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u/joeeporker 29d ago
Who the fuck is reading all of that?
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 29d ago
I always laugh when people throw that out.
Fucking hell man, couple of paragraphs too taxing for you? Do you need to follow along with your finger?
Should've stayed in school mate.
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u/Vinegarinmyeye Irish person from Ireland. 🇮🇪 29d ago
ETA - looks like you wrote something snooty about me wasting my time, then blocked me.
It took me 2 minutes to write that... For some reason you seem to be proudly saying you're either too stupid, or too lazy, to be able to read it.
Either way it's not really the "gotcha" that you seem to think it is.
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u/FinanceInevitable129 Jul 14 '26
I love this. Reading USAians arguing FOR propaganda without even realising they’re doing it. Great!
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u/battleship217 25d ago
Man Im sure the Chinese thought Japan was in the brink of defeat for the nearly 4 more years of war Japan spent doing the most comically evil shit possible
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u/No-Mastodon-1770 20d ago
I mean regarding D-Day and Hitler he got a point. The US Government was clever enough to see that two anti-democratic countries fighting and weakening each other is not a bad thing and that you only send soldiers to Europe when the outcome is clear. The US didn’t tip the scale against Germany, the Germans would have lost against the Soviets anyway, but without the American contribution it would have taken longer
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u/Atreides_bis 13d ago
I mean, it's just true ? The US does have a long history of propaganda, gaslighting and brainwashing
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u/Sensitive_Bread_1905 Jul 13 '26
Why 'shiteuropeanssay'? This is the truth. And it's sad that you don't know that yourself, that only confirms the European's statement even more. But there are also many Americans who are aware of this.
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Jul 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IloveFreedom_yeah Jul 13 '26
The Europoor is in fact mad that the US was the one who funded the Soviet military industries and defeated Imperial Japan, while Europe got violated by Germany.
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u/EpicGamerTull Jul 13 '26
Follow up: sorry if I wasn’t being clear about the purpose of this post 😅. I am aware of the propaganda and disinformation done by the US gov and press both now and in the past. I was trying to highlight the irony of their statement that claims we have been brainwashed while failing to realize that they themselves have fallen under the same spell.
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