That’s the neat thing - you don’t! For the same reasons that some people in your country will continue to hold their own stubborn beliefs about other people despite all evidence to the contrary, some people in other countries will do the same to you.
I never fit in with my home culture. For me, that’s racist, fascist Americans. Even as a kid I wasn’t accepted by my peers, school admin, and even my own mother. Having grown up under that, and becoming myself despite it all, some of those people (my mother at least) have come around. But honestly, I wouldn’t count on it.
The best you can do is keep being yourself (I know, cliched, but seriously) and live by example. Take it from someone with a lifetime of dealing with this - attempting to convince people doesn’t work. However, those who are open-minded will see you as you are and note you as one of “the good ones.” Instead of trying to change the mind of someone who’s dead set on seeing you as an enemy, focus on the people who already understand that it’s wrong to define a group of demographically-related people by the actions of a few.
Speaking as an Israeli, I don’t have an answer for you. But you’re not alone. I and most of the people I know are in the same boat to various extents. That tends to happen with today’s social-media-fueled political polarization.
What I try to say online (if it comes up and becomes a problem) is this is just where I was born. But to be honest, I find that most people worth talking to don’t give a shit where you live. As one of them once told me in reply, you don’t control your spawn point.
I used Israel as an example else where in this thread. Definitely a polarizing situation and easy to understand not everyone there agrees with their government.
Yeah, to say the least. A year or so before the October 7th attack that sparked our country’s intentional relations nosedive, there were massive country-wide protests, which I also participated in. You can probably find articles about it (Edit: Here’s a Wikipedia article about it if you want a jumping-off point). It was protesting against certain anti-democratic things the government was doing (I don’t want to get into the weeds here), but it was also fueled by unprecedented distrust of just about everyone in the government, and most of all Netanyahu. This distrust has only gotten worse.
That bastard should be in jail, but as “luck” would have it, he is always so preoccupied with all the wars he started that he can’t attend his court trial where he faces serious criminal charges. What’s that? Conflict of interest? He gains personal benefit from neverending war, so he has no incentive to actually end it (be it through diplomacy or through military victory)? Nah, I’m sure he has the country’s best interests at heart.
That people keep voting for him astounds me. But we’re seeing similar patterns worldwide, most obvious example being USA, so I guess this democracy thing is just failing all over the place this decade.
You don’t. People either understand most people worldwide are disenfranchised or think every citizen of certain countries should be shot. You will not change the opinions of the latter.
In my experience most people understand that it’s not the fault of every individual citizen that their state behaves a certain way, but at the same time the citizens of a country have a vastly larger influence on their state than the citizens outside that country.
So no, don’t distance yourself from your country. Distance yourself from your government or state. And work in a safe way to leverage whatever influence you have over your fellow citizens, your local or national systems, to hinder the bad guys and help the good guys.
haha some of the responses here being proof of that
You can’t. Heck if its a country that effects the rest of the world they can’t either. Its fight flight freeze fawn. You can get yourself physically far away but if it has a powerful military that can be bombing things on the other side of the globe that is going to be pretty useless. So flight is kinda out. Fawn is becoming them and just bending over and pretending to yourself that you like it and are one of them. Thats most of their supporters. Freeze sounds bad but its better to be not helping than if you can’t actively hinder. of course fight but yeah it can feel like being a gnat trying to stumble the giant.
You don’t. You start to participate/become active and fix your country.
It’s probably a safe assumption that the greatest majority of the rest of the world will be unaware of your existence. Just don’t be a dick to your inner circle and immediate outer circle and you’re probably good.
What if OP is Donald Trump ?
Nailed it LOL
For many people once they leave their home country it becomes very obvious they don’t belong. For example, I left my home country almost 2 years ago and where I’m at now I stick out like a sore thumb. I left my country because it wasn’t someplace that represented who I was. So now that I’m in a new country everyone is aware of my existence.
I mean, the answer is that you simply stop viewing everything through the lense of politics and national identity. If all you do is think about your old country and how it sucks and how you wish people didn’t associate it with you, it will be all you are ready to talk about, and people will associate you with it.
But if you are really interested in electric dirt biking, then you will be the guy who really likes electric dirt bikes. Your former nationality becomes mostly irrelivant.
For example, I am from Florida, known throughout the world as a trashy dumpster fire with some pretty good cuban sandwiches. I can talk about it if needed - but mostly I talk about my hobbies or my plans or my job or my struggles or my friends or random funny bullshit. The most common comment I get is “you don’t seem like someone from Florida”, and my response is “well, I left for a reason”. And then we laugh and the conversation moves on.
everyone is aware of my existence.
that sounds awful, you have my condolences
You act according to your own thoughts and ethics and denounce whatever it is you dislike in your country.
Don’t let “I’m from X” be your whole personality. Get actively involved in changing the trajectory of X if you can. And if you can’t, just be a decent fucking human being, heaven knows we don’t have enough of them to go around.
Also, counterpoint: if people do judge you by your point of origin, put some distance between you and those shallow motherfuckers.
Met, I’m just trying to leave this world a little better than I found it. And to do that it makes no difference where I’m from, how I speak or how I look like. If I get to act contrary to someone’s stereotype to do it, I consider that a plus.
Through your words and actions.
Worry less about people-pleasing. You will always be seen as part of somebody’s problem. Whether you actually are, or they just see you as such, doesn’t matter much as you almost certainly can’t do anything about it, either way.
Parlamentary politics means I have close to 0 input in what actually goes on in government.
actively support, volunteer for, and fund what you do believe in, to the extent possible. note that some people will still blame you for what “your” country does, as a means of expressing frustration.
Agree… and this is the path I’m following.
Those who view you as part of the problem will keep doing no matter what. There is no way to gain those people’s favor
Don’t take up space online defending yourself as “one of the good ones”, or saying not all people from your country are like that.
Don’t take up space online replying to content critical of your country by saying how ashamed you are to be from your country, or how sorry you are.
Strangers online don’t know you. If you truly believe you are not part of the problem you should be able to rationalize negative comments about people in your country as generalizations and/or venting and therefore not directed at you personally. There is no need to correct them. There is no need to make sure they know you are not part of the problem. That does not help them, it only helps you. Let it go, stay out of it, move on.
(This isn’t a passive aggressive meta comment btw)
