Give America the credit due

[Hagi]

and the Dutch (who didn't have the means to carry out their plans...)

Don't remind us....

We used to own the seas and Manhattan.... We were on top of the world! We had the first (evil) corporation!

Now we've got what? Legalized weed and the first gay marriage? Blegh....

Things were looking so good for Dutch world DOMINATION.... Now we're like the hippie nation of the world...

 

[MuzzleFlash]

I've seen this nitpick a lot, and it bugs me. Tell me, what other country or continent is referred solely to as "America" when no other pretext or context is provided? Sure, it is TECHNICALLY vague, but only a moron wouldn't be able to distinguish what a person is referring to when they speak about "America."

Sorry, I suppose, I was merely trying to clarify what he meant and not seem foolish by assuming something incorrect. The original post was the only one here when I replied so I didn't have the benefit of the now existing conversation to give me an idea.

I suppose that does make me a moron then. I'd have to clarify exactly what you mean by moron, but I wouldn't want to annoy you.

 

[Dense_Electric]

The reason why there's so much hating on the USA isn't that it's an actual bad country. It's this conviction that the USA is somehow the best country, which simply isn't true. There isn't a 'best' country, it's not a freaking contest.

But see, there's also this conviction floating around that that's somehow exclusively an American trait. In reality, there are ultra-nationalists in virtually every single country on Earth without exception. I don't know, maybe the US's dominance in international media gives off this notion that we're the only nation with people who take the whole patriotism thing way too seriously, but that's of course not true.

 

[Pegghead]

You guys freed my grandfather from the Nazis. The Goddamned friggin' Nazis! For that, my family is eternally grateful.

Not to mention I love your movies, music, history, books, games, customs, people, cooking (down south that is, my favourite) and actually being there. Seriously, you guys rock.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

The rest of the world revolves around us, not only for the sheer mass of our people, but our horrible mastery of taking everyone down as soon as we fall. We live in a "free" christian-based society where some states make it legal to beat your wife, but only twice a month, and in Texas you have to acknowledge some sort of god before running for office(according to other escapist members).

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Four? Wow. Sorry. But there was an error with escapist bandwidth hamsters or something.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Double Post. Wow, the sites been screwin' me over lately.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

I don't know I think Europe has benefited the world the most so far as technological advances are concerned. Cars were german/ the first was made by a french guy, before USA existed, the telephone was invented by a Scots man. Penicillin was invented by a scots man. T.V was invented by an American so you win that one.

Television itself was inventedby John Logie-Baird, Scotsman. It was however a young American who invented the electronic television we use today.

In that case you lose that one America. You get the light bulb instead although the inventor of the LB is debatable. Scotland are whooping your as America.

The invention of the Telephone is so debatable saying any one person did it is most likely a lie. Americans made the T.V. worth watching, so I say we can split the credit 50/50. We also put cars into the hands of middle/working class families. Lightbulbs are like the television, it was actually invented by a Scottish man (James Bowman Lindsay), but it was made practical by an American (Thomas Edison). So the credit for what we use today is 50/50. We also have video games, potato chips, the microwave, the internet etc.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Wait. A triple post. Sorry.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Five? Wow one appears every time I come back. How. Sorry.

 

[Hagi]

But see, there's also this conviction floating around that that's somehow exclusively an American trait. In reality, there are ultra-nationalists in virtually every single country on Earth without exception. I don't know, maybe the US's dominance in international media gives off this notion that we're the only nation with people who take the whole patriotism thing way too seriously, but that's of course not true.

That's true of course.

But the impression I personally have is that, at least in most of Europe, such ultra-nationalism is considered negative. They're considered slightly crazy fringe groups. I know some French people and they considered it extremely insulting to be called patriotic, and those aren't eccentric people in any way or form (well... they're French of course so that's probably an eccentricity in and of itself, but beyond that not really).

In the USA it seems to be considered a positive mainstream group. American patriotism seems a clear compliment and sometimes even a desired trait. Even looking at speeches made by prominent Americans, it seems a lot of positive traits are being attributed to being American, not being human, not being strong, just being American. And while that does happen in other countries it, as far as I know, isn't anywhere close to being so mainstream.

 

[Private Custard]

You owe the internet to our military, now be nice.

I wasn't aware that Tim Berners-Lee was American!

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

The only other empires that came close to mimicking that were the Spanish (who did it quite accidently and non-genocidedly)

Sorry but there are several problems with this post. First of all, what we did wasn't genocide. We didn't round natives up and slaughter them ala holocaust, we forced them off their land (often with force, I am aware) repeatedly until they were stuffed onto small reservations. Is this something to be proud of? Hell no, but it was far from genocide. Secondly, it would have been us mimicking Spain, as their empire rose and fell before America's existence. Also their atrocity was far from accidental, it's called slavery.(along with smallpox) They forced the locals to work on their farms until they all died of disease or hunger, then they did the classy thing and brought in Africans(sarcasm). Don't be so quick to absolve them.

 

[orangeban]

The only other empires that came close to mimicking that were the Spanish (who did it quite accidently and non-genocidedly)

Sorry but there are several problems with this post. First of all, what we did wasn't genocide. We didn't round natives up and slaughter them ala holocaust, we forced them off their land (often with force, I am aware) repeatedly until they were stuffed onto small reservations. Is this something to be proud of? Hell no, but it was far from genocide. Secondly, it would have been us mimicking Spain, as their empire rose and fell before America's existence. Also their atrocity was far from accidental, it's called slavery.(along with smallpox) They forced the locals to work on their farms until they all died of disease or hunger, then they did the classy thing and brought in Africans(sarcasm). Don't be so quick to absolve them.

You also paid people to slaughter all the natives bison, which the natives used for just about everything, food, clothing, materials.

Google "American Bison killings" and the first image on Google Images is of a mountain of bison skulls. That is the genocide, of both the animal and the people who depended on the animal.

 

[Magicmad5511]

How you've grown from small settlements into a global power. I guess that's quite respectable.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

You owe the internet to our military, now be nice.

I wasn't aware that Tim Berners-Lee was American!

I'm just going to clarify something,

He invented the World Wide Web (hypertext). Not the internet itself, it was developed by a U.S. science team to try and gain a technological advantage over the Soviet Union.