25 Issues That Modern Americans Are Failing To Understand

It’s easy to forget that the world is a huge place. There are differing opinions and unique ways of approaching things based on individual countries. Local laws, customs and traditions affect behaviours and situations in ways that may not always make sense to someone from another nation. So when a Redditor asked, “What’s something current-day America needs to understand?”, people were quick to respond with their opinions, from which we’ve shared a few of the most insightful, in the gallery below.

#1 YOUR OPINIONS AND FEELINGS ARE LITERALLY NOT THE SAME AS ACTUAL ESTABLISHED FACTS. They’re just not. F*****g IRKS me. The pure confidence some of you have saying whatever you feel like, and believing that deserves the same platforms as actual educated experts.

#2 Once freedoms are lost they are likely gone for good. A democracy is not guaranteed and is fragile. It takes checks and balances to make sure there is no overstep. Unchecked power will destroy this experiment called the United States of America.

#3 We are very dependent on what happens in the rest of the world.

Americans seem to want to believe we can put up the walls and forget about the rest of the world. But from the temperature of the ocean to the price of semiconductors, what happens across the world affects us. Instability in countries across the world affects us. We’re the world’s biggest economy, everything we do has international implications and those go both ways.

We do not get to opt out. Any attempt is just surrendering control.

#4 Knowledge is not elitism and not trusting experts will literally k*ll us all.

#5 Russia is not a friend of Republican nor Democratic party nor the people of that matter. The goal of Russian state is to cause chaos and polarization within US. Well, this goes to anywhere in the world. Divide and conquer.

#6 The importance of education.

#7 You are not temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

You are closer to being homeless than to being a millionaire.

A poor white person has more in common with a poor black person than with a rich white person.

Class solidarity above all else.

#8 Social media is not your friend.

#9 Social media is designed to get you to engage with it and use it. It is not a source of news. It is a source of propaganda.

#10 The politicians/party you vote for are not immune to criticism. If anything, you should hold your own politicians to a higher standard. They’re supposed to represent you, not the other way around.

#11 That those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it.

#12 That you need to do your research BEFORE the election, not after.

#13 How government works. How power is divided, how rules are made and enforced, how the court system works, and how each of these institutions can be manipulated to disproportionately benefit one side or another.

#14 How important it is to follow the global news to understand what can hit home. For example, most economies had high inflation after covid, not just the Biden administration.

#15 Voting in your local elections is more important than voting for president. Want that police reform? Education funding spread out? Someone in congress who wants to put on term limits? Local elections.

#16 Tariffs.

#17 That we no longer live in a country that was established for the people, by the people. It is a business, and has been run into the ground. Good luck everyone, may the odds be ever in your favor.

#18 How to listen, and that words mean exactly what they mean not what you feel they mean.

#19 It can be hard to recognize propaganda and disinformation.

#20 Just because someone is different doesn’t mean they are an enemy.

#21 You can’t vote away economic forces. The post ww2 economy is gone for very explainable reasons. Coal mining and steel plant jobs are going away for very explainable reasons. Nobody is at fault. Nobody has stolen anything. People want to vote away having to adapt to the future and this is simply not the way.

#22 America needs to understand that we’re more divided than ever, and listening to each other, even when we disagree, is the only way forward.

#23 America needs to understand that empathy and open dialogue are key to bridging divides, not just picking sides.

#24 Equality doesn’t mean someone else is getting more or special rights than you. Also that people need to mind their own business and focus on themselves instead and let people live their lives.

#25 Tariffs raise consumer prices.

Shanilou Perera

Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.