It's very difficult for Americans who've never left the country or
lived outside the country to understand just how insane this country is.
I mean, we we kind of know, and we on this network remind everyone that it doesn't
have to be this way, that people don't live like this.
But now Americans living abroad,
American expats in different countries are taking to TikTok,
to air all of the ways that where they live is in incredibly different.
And all the ways that the almost PTSD, or
sort of remnants of what it was like to live in the United States,
they're carrying that with them into their new homelands.
So let's first start with the video that started
this trend back in 2021, take a look.
>> If you're an American currently living abroad,
what is one time that made you realize that America really messed you up?
I'll go first.
I live in Warsaw, Poland now, but
I always stay in touch with what's happening in the US.
And I happened to hear about that Las Vegas shooting when someone opened fire on
a bunch of concert goers.
And it was very tragic news.
But that day, I also went to the movies.
So I was already in a kind of weird mental state.
And when I left the movies, I got on the tram again in Warsaw, and
I saw this guy kind of being sketchy and acting weird in the last seat.
I kept eyeing him the whole time, and he had his jacket open, and
he was holding something inside, he was hiding it.
And I thought, my first American thought was it's a gun or a knife or
some kind of weapon, and I need to move away as soon as possible.
So I kept looking at him the whole ride, and then he takes it out, and
it was a beer can.
He was sipping it and hiding it during the tram ride.
That's what happens in Poland, not guns, not knives.
And I started crying and laughing at the same time because that's when I realized,
wow, that's messed up.
>> Right, that's messed up.
She immediately feared for her life, just a guy sipping on a beer.
I didn't think that's necessarily what he was gonna reveal out of his jacket.
Have you been on public transportation in the United States?
Sometimes it's something worse, a lot worse than beer, but
a similar experience to an American living in Australia in terms of their
fear of gun violence, take a look.
>> One of my first couple of weeks here,
it was May of 2023, and I don't know why exactly,
but some local event thing was shooting off fireworks.
In the distance I hear, [SOUND] if you're an American,
you sit up straight, you start looking around, and you wait to hear more.
Do you hear more fireworks or do you hear screams?
Because that sound is either gunfire or fireworks.
And I realized that that conditioning in me still happens.
>> So there he is, an expat in Australia, getting pretty
emotional about the fact that he was thinking that this could be gunshots.
I mean, I'm also thinking of John, veterans, American vets who've been to
war, who are also sort of traumatized, of course, by that and have PTSD,
and so when they hear fireworks, are also thinking, what is this?
Are these bombs?
Are these guns?
Is it gunshots, etc.
>> Yeah.
>> So it's not just gun violence, though, but thoughts on that?
>> Yeah, look, it's easy to forget.
We report on a lot of these mass shootings at schools, at malls and all that stuff,
at bars, in Vegas, at concerts, churches everywhere.
And eventually the media moves on, but it leaves an entire community,
the direct people who are affected by it, those who are worried that
they're going to get a call that a loved one is in danger.
And those things are scattered across the country,
an ever growing list of those sorts of experiences.
And I love that the guy made the video and it's so raw.
I could only imagine how he would be attacked by conservatives for
daring to care about needless violence.
The sort of conservatives who believe that they're the ones who really
get what's going on.
Everyone else is sheep, but
they have been lulled into not caring about constant massacres.
They have accepted that these massacres happen.
They don't believe that anything should be done about it, and
they think that that is the sane response to this bloodshed.
>> Yeah, and the fact that countries have been issuing travel warnings to
the United States because of the amount of gun and violence that we have.
I mean, this is insane, we're not making this up, it's not in our heads.
Look, I actually think that gun violence is one of a very good reason to leave this
country, a very good reason.
As the parent of a little baby who's gonna grow up and go to school,
like, uh-uh, no, I don't want that.
And you could say, you live in a blue state,
you can say there's stronger gun laws.
That's not necessarily true, that's not gonna save you.
People, we have open borders.
I'd like a wall between states that have lax gun laws and my state, but
that's not gonna happen.
So it goes though beyond just gun violence.
This is a great, great account from someone who's living in the UK and
talking about ambulances and her hesitancy to call an ambulance, take a look.
>> So I moved to the UK about ten years ago for university, and
literally my very first night there, I was fresh off the plane.
It was fresher's night, which is like the whole first week of university in the UK,
you go out drinking at different bars or whatever.
And we went out drinking and this one girl that I was with got so
drunk that on the way back home to our student accommodation.
She was like, I need to sit down.
And she sat down, and she just passed out, and we could not wake her up.
The girl was just dead to the world, it seemed like.
And immediately, the people I was with was like, we need to call an ambulance.
And being an American, I was like, we cannot call an ambulance.
I had just met this girl, I had no idea if she could afford an ambulance.
They called an ambulance, the ambulance came, they checked her out like she was
alive or whatever, and they took her to the hospital.
And they brought me home, they sat me down, and they were like,
what are you freaking out about?
And I explained what I was so worried about, and
they were like, ambulances are free, hospitals are free.
What is wrong with you?
And I hadn't realized until that point that healthcare in the UK was
completely free.
>> That's just devastating to me.
I mean, I can't say that I have worried about calling 911 or
an ambulance on somebody.
I mean, I think I have that fair,
I would say I'd have that privilege where I would call an ambulance.
I would call the fire department or whomever, a hospital.
But the fact that was her immediate reaction, I mean, maybe,
John, my first reaction would be, let's get an Uber.
>> Yeah, it's weird, I've had that conversation,
I've been a part of that conversation back at college, a million years ago.
It's probably even more expensive now than it was then, but yeah,
that's a very real concern.
And not just the general healthcare thing, but specifically the ambulance.
I know everybody thought it was actually kind of a deterrent sometimes to going
harder because you knew that would financially break you if you needed to
call that.
>> My God.
>> And that's such a weird way to live.
And again, it's another thing that we have just been trained to accept as normal.
That other advanced countries can do better, but so
many of us have no expectation that our country should ever be as good as them.
>> Yeah, there's two more, but this one I really, really like.
So here is someone talking about the criminal justice system, and just like
a fun little thought exercise that I think a lot of Americans we all engage in,
take a look.
>> I'm an American, I've been living in Europe for about ten years.
I first moved here when I was 23.
I moved to Paris without knowing a soul.
I had this French boyfriend, I remember there was one time I think I was with his
family, and I said something like, if I could choose any meal for my last meal,
if I'm ever on death row, this is the meal I would choose.
What would you choose?
And it was like no one had ever had this thought experiment before.
In fact, my boyfriend turned to me, he was like,
that's the most American sentence I've ever heard.
And I totally didn't get why, I had no concept that the death penalty
just did not exist anymore in other places.
>> Yeah, except haven't you seen The Green Mile?
Come on, people.
>> [LAUGH] >> Oscar nominated.
Probably a lot of winners as well.
Anyway, yeah,
the last meal on death row is very morbidly specific to the United States.
>> Yeah. >> Very specific.
But the idea of a last meal on earth that I think everyone has thought about.
>> Yeah, I do feel like I get there not having to think about incarceration
the way that we do and capital punishment and all that, but
free your mind creatively.
You've never thought about the last whatever you would do.
There are other ways to die than lethal injection.
Start to plan ahead, you never know.
>> [LAUGH] No, but it is true, though.
It's like an incredible like, you do get a last meal.
That's something that people who are about to be put to death by the state, which,
again, what are we, one of three countries that still does this?
Like Iran, some like Saudi Arabia, I think.
>> Yeah.
>> And maybe that's about it.
Maybe one of like six or maybe, yeah, I forgot.
>> That's kind of amazing that they still do that.
I know that in Texas they tried to severely limit that last year, but
considering how easy it is for Republican politicians to say prisoners
are cockroaches, they don't deserve any of their empathy.
It's weird that they still give them any kind of special meal.
>> I mean, let's not even get started on the entire,
the idea that this is my favorite, that fetuses or
that Zygotes can feel pain, right?
Before death.
And it's just like, what about the actual people you're putting to death in the most
horrific ways who definitely, absolutely can feel the pain of a lethal injection?
No, they don't care.
My thoughts on this, John, are that when I was living in Argentina,
because I have to mention I was living in Argentina.
I thought it was fascinating that when we would protest,
I'd go to different street marches, there were no cops.
Now, it was because of the president who was in power at the time,
who was more left leaning.
But because there had been so much police brutality against protesters in years
prior, they had a no police at protesters rule.
They were around, but they were not swarming us, coordinating us.
>> Yeah. >> We would stop traffic, protests and
strikes regularly stopped traffic in Buenos Aires, and they would be allowed
to do that because there was like this we're not gonna crack skulls policy.
>> Yeah. >> And that was, like, fascinating,
I've never felt more free being part of a protest when I was there in Argentina.
To say nothing of so many things like last minute plans, your life not being
based around your work in other countries, people are so much chiller.
You never open a conversation with, hey, what do you do?
It's like, what do you do?
What do you mean?
I breathe air.
I eat food. Get off my sack.
>> Yeah, I've never had a problem with that.
I think a person's chosen career is a big part of their life.
I don't think it has to be unhealthy.
But yeah, it's been forever since I spent significant time abroad, so it's hard for
me to even remember.
But yeah, the food culture, very different,
obviously work life balance, very different.
There's a lot of bad stuff about TikTok and everything, but I like this trend.
>> My latest thing is, like, moms and dads who are raising kids abroad, and
they're comparing how baby friendly and
kid friendly other countries are compared to this country.
And I'm like thank you.
>> Yeah. >> Yes, there should be beer in the park,
hello.
>> [LAUGH] >> But
I also think it's really interesting to Americans,
do you think that Trump voters know we're not the greatest country?
Do you think deep down they know or
they have been trained to like the trash, and the violence, and
the awfulness, and the sickness, and the expensive ambulance rides?
Because it's like they've been told that if they criticize it or
that they are suddenly like they're a traitor.
>> Yeah, I think that there's definitely a part of that.
I mean, look,
obviously they will criticize America when a Democrat is in charge.
>> Sure. >> So there are things that they could
identify that are bad.
But it's also, we've probably talked about this.
There was an old Al Franken book where, I think it was Al Franken,
where he talked about love for your country and how liberals and
conservatives do it different.
And he used an analogy to your mom having a drinking problem.
A lib loves their mom, so they do an intervention,
they try to help her with her problem.
A conservative loves their mom by saying, how dare you say my mom has a problem?
>> Right. >> It is a problem,
you should do something about it.
>> Right. >> I think that they would identify those
things, but they love the idea that, basically Conservatives love
anything that makes them automatically superior without effort.
And the fact that you were born into the best country in the world,
they love the idea of that, they don't wanna give up that concept.
>> No, and I think they are being told to embrace the trash.
They're like, no, that's just part of it, that's part of our freedoms.
All those dead children and
all the mass shootings, that's just part of our freedoms.
And it's just like, is it, though?
Is it all worth it when the fireworks and the pigs butts get served on July 4th?
Cuz that's like the one moment where I'm like, yeah, America,
because I like fireworks.
I'm like, that's cool.
>> Uh-huh. >> And then it goes back to we could be so
much better.
>> Yeah. >> But that's-
>> I liked it more before LA,
where they're a little bit of control.