When you think about the United States of America, by and large three of the most prominent things which probably pop into your mind are film, spaceflight and the internet. These are the three things the USA is most famous for; the three things Americans like to brag about inventing or leading the world on. The thing is, when you look at it, America doesn’t deserve the credit for any of them. Film, and especially filmic grammar, is essentially a french invention of the first half of the twentieth century. NASA would never have got into space without the progress made by German scientists among others. And we have a Brit, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to thank for the World Wide Web. Thus, for all their bravado and bragging, I think it’s time we recognised that America and Americans aren’t as special as they claim, especially as their country edges closer and closer towards fascism. If we are ever going to break the USA off it’s current, dangerous path, surely we must let our American friends know that what they are doing is unacceptable, and that their country is nowhere near as exceptional or special as they think. They can’t take the credit for everything they like to claim the credit for, and the wider world would get on perfectly well without them.

Of course I take no pleasure in expressing this much animosity toward an entire nation, but the way the US is now behaving through it’s current president means it does not deserve the respect it had until recently. We must collectively show Americans our displeasure at the path that they have chosen. That means recognising that their healthcare system is abhorrent and their education system woeful, among many other things. America is not great and frankly never was, and it’s time the rest of us made that clear to them.