‘First World’ Privilege, the Decline of the U.S., and Romanticizing Life Abroad, a video essay

The U.S. is known as ‘the best country in the world’, but where does this notion even come from and why is it so persistent despite the fact that the U.S. seems to be inferior to many countries, specifically other wealthy nations in the imperial core when it comes to walkability, third places, car culture, and public transport?

In addition, is the U.S. only inferior to their ‘first world’ equals or to countries in the global south as well?

And lastly, how does first world privilege come into play when moving abroad and romanticizing one’s life there?

In this video essay I talk about imperial privilege, as well as U.S. privilege and ‘first world’ privilege and how its tied to race and class, as well as the global hierarchy of countries and U.S. imperialism. I also talk about the decline of the U.S., no third spaces, car culture, and the romanticization of your life abroad trend as an American.

Timestamps
Intro: The Best Country in the World? 0:00
Part 1: The Rise of a Superpower and The American Century 09:20
Part 2: U.S. Privilege 34:04
Part 3: The U.S. vs. The Rest of the World 46:07
- no third spaces
- car culture
- schooling
- healthcare
- dress
- food quality and food deserts
Part 4: Romanticization of Life Abroad 1:05:42
- romanticizing life abroad
- passport bros
Conclusion 1:12:35

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Works Cited/Sources:

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Special Thanks to Nicole Cooper:
Twitter: @_NicoleCoop

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Music:
all music is from the YouTube Audio Library

Kevin MacLeod Darkest Child

Kevin MacLeod Investigations

[jannecapelle_art]

the "trump was elected when i was like 10" comment sent me into a spiral for a second, gotta be honest. i had to do some math bc it felt wrong that kids who were 10 when trump was elected were on the internet, commenting on stuff...but then....i realized....those kids are 18 now, what the actual fuck. time isnt real, i refuse to believe it

[kiyawilson]

I literally got stopped two days ago by cops while trying to walk home. I wasn't even five minutes away from my house, but they DEMANDED to know my business and why i was walking.

[jannecapelle_art]

oh wow. a sign literally saying "its illegal to walk to this public thing a few hundred meters away, you could die bc we have made no effort to make any part of our infrastructure walkable. good luck", i have not seen that before. thats a new low for the US infrastructure/transportation i think?

[ms_cartographer]

When you are in poverty, living in the U.S. doesn't feel like a privilege.

[oxxxhinatahyuugaxxxo]

It's so weird being a black woman in America and knowing that I live with privilege while at the same time I don't. The U.S. is such a shit show. Great video to help keep an open mind!

[LilFeralGangrel]

One of the reasons why most Cyberpunk stories cast the US as a collapsed former super-power or a regional power is because cyberpunk writers saw the writing on the wall with the rise of austerity and neoliberalism in the late 70s and early 80s, they realized that the widening economic gap between the wealthy and the poor would only grow and inevitably accelerate. Neoliberalism was going to destroy the country.

And honestly? They were right. The US was never perfect. But the economic situation for countless families was far better mere years ago, nevermind decades ago.

[iknownothing]

While I do agree w your thesis. I do disagree when you mentioned people in the US are immune to its propaganda. Individuals in the US are the biggest victims of their propaganda, given that it doesn't affect the point of view but rather the mechanisms to formulate a pov. An example would be the inclination to think in binaries. If it's Democrat, its republican, if it's not black, it's white. In my time here, a good amount of the citizens find it difficult to fathom nuances and/or grey areas.

[nathalinda]

i visited the us once and it's so weird how you don't have sidewalk everywhere, I had to leave my hotel and go to wallmart and i was almost walking in the street

[serenediipity]

as useful as the internet is for finding community, it'll never compare to the feeling of sitting with friends in a communal space. that factor was easily the main reason why i miss living on a college campus. people underestimate the feeling of existing in a community space that doesnt require you to spend gas or buy food just to exist outside for an hour or two

[monicacolon]

i really appreciated you bringing up how u.s. americans will use living abroad as like their own personal self-actualization. i experienced that as a u.s.-born latina who studied abroad in mexico with a group of mostly white american students--many of them saw mexico as a place that existed to serve their own personal development. even the professors acted like i was just an extension of the "latino perspective" or whatever, also there to "broaden the horizons" of the white kids. the situation ended up with a white student complaining to the group leaders that i was "making him uncomfortable" by talking about race--which i was repeatedly *asked* to do. it was such a weird position to be treated that way even as a u.s. american with tons of privilege, and it was just a small taste of how "locals" must be treated every time a u.s. american visits their community, as a tourist or expat or whatever they want to call it.

[brownenerdygurl]

I live in Mexico and I found that the quality of fruit and vegetables is way better. Also, it's extremely cheap..for Mexicans. This is because most of us cook at home and it's part of the culture to make and eat fresh food. Even tacos in here are way healthier than their cousins in the US. They include veggies and whole meats, plus the tortillas are fresh and soft. I've never seen a hard taco here. This means that you have to wait for your food to be made but no one seems to mind as it gives us an opportunity to talk to each other and the food vendor.

[aliasfakename]

I'm a black woman who's lived in Arkansas my whole life (24 years give or take). It sucks but it could be worse. I could be trapped in West Virginia. It's fascinating how West Virginia is a whole other world compared to Virginia. Anyway, my state is very rural so if you didn't have a car, you were basically isolated from the larger world. I had books and the internet, so I was more aware than my classmates.

[WaiScience]

Mahalo. Thank you for mentioning Hawai'i's overthrow and treatment of Natives. Your pronunciation of Native words was terrific. I'm so used to people loving Hawai'i and Hawaiian culture, but not giving a damn about Hawaiians and never bother to learn how to pronounce things appropriately. Keep it up!

[Patchouliprince]

As a Us citizen I’ve never considered travel and passports privilege because I’ve grown up in poverty and I’ve never traveled very far and I’ve never had a passport, I’ve never considered that as an option because I don’t have that kind of money so I just don’t even think about it. Glad this brought it to my attention

[DR-ndyz]

The point about privilege abroad as a POC is so interesting too. I used to live in South Korea and would experience so much casual and at times really harmful xenophobia. In the airports my checked luggage would always be flagged for further review or when I was flying domestically I would be taken out of the regular line and told I had to go through a separate foreigner line. Which is insane for domestic travel. Xenophobia would affect the treatment I’d receive at the doctors office. My friends and I would get extremely inappropriate comments from people we worked with our students our bosses. And just generally too. Being American doesn’t always insulate you from racism and xenophobia abroad. It’s also very wild how much passport privilege Americans have. I was born in the global south and moved to the states when I was young and we couldn’t visit relatives who were sick and dying in our home country because of visa issues. And then we became American citizens and got American passports. I just traveled to the United Kingdom, where Americans can stay on a tourist visa for 6 months, and passport control consisted of me scanning my passport and took less than five mins total where I didn’t even have to speak to anyone on the broader. Its crazy how powerful these documents are. But really great job parsing through a super complex topic!!!!

[ishathakor]

i think it's kind of crazy how thoroughly advertising and cultural norms have convinced so many usians that cars are the ultimate symbol of freedom and any country that isn't extremely carbrained hates freedom. and it's just extremely weird to me that people think that it's freedom when you need to pass a test and some kind of eye exam at minimum and have a govt issued id and register your car and PAY for your car and insurance and gas and parking and lose your ability to drive if you have a medical procedure or get injured or are too young or too old?? how is this freedom to them?

[allariruiz-rueda]

in México you usually have a store or buisness just around the block and it´s nor rare to just put on some flipflops and go to the store in pijamas either in the morning or at night.

[harwammer]

Friendly reminder that 1st world privilege is a different hierarchy from the hierarchy you got in a 1st world nation. You can struggle, marginalized, and suffer in america and still benefit on the ounces/crumbles of 1st world privileges as a 1st world citizen against most working and esp. impoverish classes in 3rd world countries esp. when you travel there.

A sample of that would be a 3rd world person with a college degree and a stable job who migrates to a 1st world nation alone (no sponsorship, not through outsource hiring etc) would risk a higher chance to struggle double time to be able to get back on their feet again. A 1st world marginalized or struggling person starting a new life in a 3rd world would have a higher chance to gain a decent house and even a small business to run.

No matter how a 3rd world nation works so hard to make their country better, how they produce and manufactured majority of both world's and foreign goods, how rich their biodiverse resources are, and how they seem progressively convenient than the ones in the 1st world countries, controlled economic factors, money-exchange wise, powerful passports, and other things that contributes to the benefit of your world status, 1st world citizenship will still be favored regardless.

You can blame that on centuries of colonization, geopolitical racism, overexploitation, planted coups, and imperialism that made this rigged world hierarchy possible.

These seemingly contradicting situations do exist, can coexist and that's not hard to understand.

P.S: this is not to say that struggles of the marginalized ppl in the 1st are not serious. It is also a big deal and should be taken seriously especially more ppl had to crawl through mud nowadays in 1st world nations.

It just so happens that the benefits you have as a 1st world citizen, no matter how small that benefits are, would have a higher chance to become ur leverage on most 3rd world countries. This may not cancel your issues back home but you are most likely won't be able to carry that struggle in 3rd world either, depending on it's sociopolitics.

[morbidsearch]

I'm from Ireland and I moved to Portugal a month ago. Since both countries are in the EU, it was all a matter of getting on a plane and securing a place to rent.

There was a guy in my college from El Salvador and he told me about the ridiculous guidelines he had to fulfil just to stay in Ireland.

And a Brazilian I worked with said he can't even go on vacation to the USA because they're so paranoid about people staying past their Visas.

[TNoelani]

10:19 As a Kanaka Maoli wahine, it was incredible to see Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask's iconic speech marking 100 years of illegal occupation by the american empire in relation to this topic. For those who want to learn more, please go read her book "From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereigntyin Hawaiʻi." Mahalo nui loa for drawing attention to Ke Ea Hawaiʻi. 🤙 Kū kiaʻi ʻāina! Kūʻē! 🔥