On the one hand: America sucks. A country that represents freedom and liberty but is filled with abandonment and privilege.  Well, not necessarily. I agree America is an evil country built on lies, abuse, slavery, torture and eviction. My confusion comes from when people call it the worst country based on its past and current state.

On the other hand: there are far worse places to be than America, with even pasts just as bad and traditions that are more vulgar than America’s. Now, I understand people are frustrated that America brags about being this perfect country when we are from that. And I agree that America has no right to look down on other countries and brag.

However, America is still a pretty solid country. We are first in GDP as of 2020. We spend more on healthcare than any other country. And I don’t know about you, but I love the fact I can wake up in the morning and go on various websites and rant about the U.S. government and not face any consequences. Most importantly I don’t feel restricted living here(besides COVID protocols of course)I feel like I have all the opportunity to live a great life here and if I want to leave I can and still come back whenever I’m ready.

Speaking of which let’s say I move to Canada the next best thing to America right? Well, besides the rural areas filled with moose and maple syrup. You have the economic racism hidden within their system. As a black man going to school in Canada I am four times more likely to be expelled from high school than a white student. Oh, and the police are 20 times more likely to shoot me a black man rather than a white man in Canada. Then all the healthcare is paid out of pocket, yet Canada’s tax burden is 36% to 51% higher than America’s due to government healthcare costs.

So, now let’s talk about the history of America this land was stolen from Native Americans, and then it was built on slave labor. Then, America was built even further off the hard work of Europeans and people of Latino descent who came here for a better life but only received racial slurs, horrible living conditions, and pitiful pay for their hard work. Now all of this is horrible and I am aware of this but let’s take a look at another country Germany.

Germany is horrible. Germany’s economy failed due to the Treaty Of Versailles which was a result of them losing World War I. This treaty allowed France and the other allies to takeover German territory and made Germany fire over a quarter of a million soldiers. If that wasn’t bad enough then soon after their market began to fail which led to them having severe inflation. They thought printing more money would hide their debt it didn’t.  This made it hard to live in this country as simple everyday items were sold at extreme prices. People’s savings weren’t really valuable as prices drastically went up.

And do I even have to mention the whole Hitler era? Where he massacred 11 million Jewish people because they were Jewish. Or how Hitler brainwashed a whole nation into killing innocent people?

Even besides Germany, Japan has a whole tradition centered around killing dolphins. Or you can enter the black hole which is North Korea, or go to Pakistan where women are degraded and barely have rights, to the point where a 5-year-old can be raped and killed and it takes a whole social movement just for her murderer to even be sought after.

Look, every country has its flaws including America in this crazy world we live in that should be expected at this point. Just like  America, those other countries have dark pasts that when revealed are sick and ugly. At the end of the day, just make the best of what you’ve got, cause the grass always looks greener on the other side no matter where you live.