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  1. #1

    [Politics] Why is the world's opinion different than America's?

    http://iftheworldcouldvote.com/polls/results/
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20008687
    (BBC link added to support first one)

    I stumbled across this this morning. As I'm not American myself, I can heavily relate on everything in that poll - how true it is. For those too lazy to click;

    - 88.6% of the world would vote for Obama
    - 92% of the world prefer Ron Paul as Republican candidate (with Romney following at a mere 2.4%)

    Now, if I'm right, only about 50% of Americans would vote for Obama, and the other 50% for Romney. That is a MASSIVE difference from the views of the rest of this world, and same goes for Ron Paul and his PoV. My guess is that we like him better because even tho some of his ideas suck, he looks HONEST compared to most. (*corrected this last part to better explain my "idea").

    What do you guys think, and who can relate to this?

    "Surprisingly, support for Romney fails to match Obama's everywhere except Israel... countries such as Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Romania, Saudia Arabia & Australia showing 91% support (and up) for Obama" (UPI.com)

    EDIT2: Another source to back up; UPI Poll
    EDIT3: Also found this. Very interesting. theworldfor.com
    Last edited by Chickensoup23; 2012-11-04 at 05:31 PM.

  2. #2
    I've never heard of this website until today. Which means that it was probably shared on a targeted basis in order to deliberately produce biased results.

  3. #3
    Now my personal theory on this is that most of the difference is based on history. Europe and most other countries were ruled by kings, which meant a powerful government, which the democratic view supports more than republicans (Economy wise at least).

    So most of europe, having powerful government throughout history, maintains some of that today. As to why America is so different is because they wanted to get away from that, hence the revolution. North america (US area) never had any history of kings or other mass government as it was never really settled on a large scale. But when it finally was,it broke away in order to get away from that big government, hence the large support for republicans, who favor less government control on economy.
    Quote Originally Posted by Henry Ford
    Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why few engage in it.
    This explains a lot.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gheld View Post
    I've never heard of this website until today. Which means that it was probably shared on a targeted basis in order to deliberately produce biased results.
    We actually did a poll on who you would vote for as a non american, Obama won by a landslide...
    ∞=0
    0/2 = 0 , ∞/2 = ∞
    2/0 = error , 2/∞ = error
    0*2 = 0 , ∞*2 = ∞

  5. #5
    The percentage that would vote for Obama makes me think others are more reasonable than us. The percentage that would vote for Ron Paul tells me that this is not the case.

    I suppose it's simply that most industrialized countries are more liberal than the United States.

  6. #6
    Ron Paul's ideas are not realistic. At all. And I don't think the RotW really knows what he's actually all about - I think support for him reflects dissatisfaction with the US political establishment moreso than any actual preference for his policies. That or it's because it's one of the countries that like his idea of ending the world police.

    As for Obama vs Romney, American is more centre-right than pretty much all of the (developed) world, so no surprise there.

    You'd have to also take into account the fact that the election is waged in American hearts and minds, so that's where the campaign's actually at. The rest of the world votes on impressions, America votes on extremely, extremely expensive targetted advertising.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by RüneRS View Post
    We actually did a poll on who you would vote for as a non american, Obama won by a landslide...
    And "We" aren't a statistically significant portion of the world's population, nor a scientifically randomized sample.

  8. #8
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    I indeed think the BBC (or some known broadcasting network) made a study of this, and the percentage of the world that would vote for Obama was higher than 88.6%. It was into the 90's if I remember correctly, which is quite staggering. I'm not a politics guru so I too was rather interested into why there is such a difference between America's point of view and the rest of the worlds.

  9. #9
    My guess it has something to with their (the US) history.
    "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Chickensoup23 View Post
    http://iftheworldcouldvote.com/polls/results/

    I stumbled across this this morning. As I'm not American myself, I can heavily relate on everything in that poll - how true it is. For those too lazy to click;

    - 88.6% of the world would vote for Obama
    - 92% of the world prefer Ron Paul as Republican candidate (with Romney following at a mere 2.4%)

    Now, if I'm right, only about 50% of Americans would vote for Obama, and the other 50% for Romney. That is a MASSIVE difference from the views of the rest of this world, and same goes for Ron Paul. Everybody I know likes him and his ideas, yet Americans tend to completely ignore his realistic views on things.

    What do you guys think, and who can relate to this?

    EDIT: Another source to back up; UPI Poll
    I've never heard of Ron Paul being realistic. I've heard of him being idealistic.

  11. #11
    Yeah its not the first time Ive seen these kinds of things. Ive seen polls here saying something between 80% to 90% of Canadians would vote for Obama, but this is because we are much more moderate than Americans. Republicans scare the hell out of us in a "how the heck can anyone take that point of view!?!" kind of way. America is really the only country that would elect some of these people.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Chickensoup23 View Post
    Uhat is a MASSIVE difference from the views of the rest of this world, and same goes for Ron Paul. Everybody I know likes him and his ideas, yet Americans tend to completely ignore his realistic views on things.
    I wish you could meet me, then you'd know someone that doesn't like Ron Paul and thinks he's little more than a ranting child. I agree with him sometimes, but 7 year old kids say sensible things by accident sometimes too.

  13. #13
    The US politics are just as odd as Japan's TV shows, from my PoV of course (no offense meant).

    That's how it feels when I read some of these political discussions here on MMO.
    "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Sills View Post
    Ive seen polls here saying something between 80% to 90% of Canadians would vote for Obama, but this is because we are much more moderate than Americans.
    Moderate's a relative term that only works within the context of a certain frame of reference. While I'd generally agree with the statement, "Canadians are more moderate", it's not really the best way to describe things. I think it's more accurate to say that Canadians are generally to the left of Americans (this is a good thing, from where I sit, to be clear; I'm not hating).

  15. #15
    Here's the proof though.

    Polls currently show 48/47 Split (Obama/Romney).

    According to the website linked, Americans who participated were 81.25/18.75% in favor of Obama.

    Huge statistical deviation, and with a larger sample size.

    Which means one of the polls is not statistically valid. And I'm going to guess it's the one the OP linked.

    /thread.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Sills View Post
    Yeah its not the first time Ive seen these kinds of things. Ive seen polls here saying something between 80% to 90% of Canadians would vote for Obama, but this is because we are much more moderate than Americans. Republicans scare the hell out of us in a "how the heck can anyone take that point of view!?!" kind of way. America is really the only country that would elect some of these people.
    Took the world out of my mouth.

    I cannot even imagine someone like Romney leading say, an europeean country, Canada, New-Zealand, etc...

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Dezerte View Post
    The US politics are just as odd as Japan's TV shows, from my PoV of course (no offense meant).

    That's how it feels when I read some of these political discussions here on MMO.
    I'm American and I feel this way. I often have moments of, "wait, what, we're arguing about this?". I also frequently have the, "wait, we're considering electing someone that believes what?". How the fuck do we have people that think the Earth is 6,000 years old in public office?

    ---------- Post added 2012-11-04 at 12:21 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Chickensoup23 View Post
    I cannot even imagine someone like Romney leading say, an europeean country, Canada, New-Zealand, etc...
    While Romney's social ideas are certainly much loonier, it's worth mentioning that David Cameron is basically his doppelganger when it comes to economic ideas.

  18. #18
    Deleted
    McCarthyism and the Red Scares did a real number on American political discourse. A disdain for Leftist rhetoric and policies meant that a lot of hardline, reactionary Conservatives, who might not be able to gain a platform or build a following in other countries were able to flourish in the States, epitomised by the Prohibition becoming State law.

    Combine that with the Constitution being very personal liberty-centric and the First Amendment ensuring separation of Church and State and Conservatism, staunch belief in free-market Capitalism and 'traditional' moral values are disproportionately more popular in the U.S. than in other developed countries. So, fairly hard Right-wing (by global standards) candidates like Romney and other Republicans are favoured by a lot of Americans and anyone that people are suspicious of having a "Socialist" agenda is condemned as anti-American.

    Where many Europeans take socialised initiatives like universal healthcare as being the norm or a State obligation, even the more conservative among them, many Americans still see Left-inspired policy as un-American, largely because of the Soviet Union, the big bad wolf of the Cold War, claiming to be Socialist. Just my outside perspective/2 cents.
    Last edited by mmocf558c230a5; 2012-11-05 at 10:24 AM.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by BoomChickn View Post
    Now my personal theory on this is that most of the difference is based on history. Europe and most other countries were ruled by kings, which meant a powerful government, which the democratic view supports more than republicans (Economy wise at least).

    So most of europe, having powerful government throughout history, maintains some of that today. As to why America is so different is because they wanted to get away from that, hence the revolution. North america (US area) never had any history of kings or other mass government as it was never really settled on a large scale. But when it finally was,it broke away in order to get away from that big government, hence the large support for republicans, who favor less government control on economy.
    Agreed. I would also point out that Europeans already don't enjoy full freedom of speech - hurting someone's feelings is illegal, it's called "incitement to hatred". It's mostly only enforced when religions are insulted, with many people (Brits especially) recently getting 1-3 month jail sentences for words they spoke. Given the way Europe feels about free speech, they wouldn't see anything wrong with Obama, who signed anti-blasphemy legislation at the UN this year which would take precedence over the US constitution's first amendment. Americans, meanwhile, are not fond of a president who finds loopholes to go around our constitution.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dezerte View Post
    The US politics are just as odd as Japan's TV shows, from my PoV of course (no offense meant).

    That's how it feels when I read some of these political discussions here on MMO.
    Don't worry, we feel the same about you. France just elected a socialist and the country is going downhill fast... we could have told them not to do that, but they would have called us ignorant Americans and told us to mind our own business (and they would have done this as they gave us their opinion on our election ) Uteoya, the island where that evil man shot all those children , is a political indoctrination camp, which is just weird... In the states we don't send children to camps to force them into a certain way of political thinking, we let them grow up and decide for themselves.
    Last edited by Trotheus; 2012-11-04 at 05:31 PM.
    What the world needs is Lesshammad.

  20. #20
    Ron Paul comes across as a lot more honest and intelligent than Mitt Romney by a mile, as does Obama.
    I'm not sure about Ron Paul's politics so I won't get into that.

    As for Obama's politics, many countries have some form of nation-wide health insurance, I've never heard from anyone who has such a system and would consider voting for someone who would want to get rid of it. Look at the UK, the NHS has been around for a very long time and nobody wants it gone.
    Also if you look at the difference between rich and poor in the US, that difference is absolutely huge. If you come from a poor family and live in a poor neighbourhood, it's almost impossible to ever get into a good university, and even if you did get in that's not enough, you'd need to be good enough to get a full scholarship.
    Both of those things are completely alien to me, because overhere, everyone who has the right diploma can go to university, and anyone who is smart enough can get that diploma at a public school without paying through the nose. And the thought that someone who needed health care wouldn't get it because they couldn't afford it seems ridiculous now.

    Then there are things like gun laws, which are significantly more restrictive here and, in my opinion, still not restrictive enough.
    And I'd think of some more things but my pizza is here so it'll have to wait
    I don't think this matters nearly as much as you think it does.

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