• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yes, but do you have to justify yourself with half the Europeans you meet that you’re not one of the Trump supporters?

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      During his presidency, yes. On a related note, when I would speak to someone in the UK during Boris Johnson, he would be careful to inject a bit of “Boris Johnson sucks, Brexit was dumb” to make his stance clear.

      Related, they sometimes assume I not only own a gun, but I’m armed at all times like some old west cowboy, depending on how little they deal with Americans day to day.

        • jj4211@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well, of course I didn’t have to clarify I wasn’t a supporter of President Trump while he wasn’t President…

          I pretty much have to be prepared for assumptions about any dubious American move in the global stage, and America makes a lot of dubious moves.

          • jarfil@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you want something to justify yourself about for life, I have one:

            “America is a continent with plenty of different countries, why do you people from the USA call yourselves ‘American’ like you owned the whole continent?”

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Right, but my point is that there never has been a time in my life where someone hasn’t equated Jew and Israeli. I’ve had to defend myself against that since I was a teenager and that was the 1990s. And if people blame all Americans for the crimes of what is actually a minority of those Americans, then they shouldn’t do that either.

    • AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes. Europeans tend to think Americans get the government we vote for and that we must like Trump since he was the president and isn’t going away. It’s ignorant, but I understand that they have this notion and I will, out of compassion and tolerance, explain that I am not a deranged bootlicking reactionary and do not support forever war, Christian nationalism or corporate hegemony.