Poll: American sentiment

[bbad89]

America has the worst system in the world, except for all the others(Well it did, but these days IDK) Also, the people are perfectly normal people, and I have no doubt that if I were to go to the UK or Turkey, I would find: A. People who go around saying: I'm sad to be a member of *country* because of current affairs, etc. or B. America? No where near as good as *country*, yea we have it good here, not unlike America, especially since*over-hyped event here*.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

It always amazes me:

Spoiler: Rant.

1. How much stock the rest of the world, despite understanding the non-representational format of their own governments RELIES ON and TRUSTS IN their government controlled media sources.

2. How easily such people, when exposed to the internet, are willing to believe anything they read...ESPECIALLY when such material espouses a negative view of something or some-one they know nothing about and, possibly, hold some small amount of fear towards.

3. How the average 'world citizen' has the stones to declare THEIR country 'the end all be all greatest thing since sliced bread' and then, in the next breath, berate the United States for espousing the same sentiment.

FACTS:

1. You are not an American. You are not privy to the nuances of our politics, our social mores, or anything else that makes an American what they are, therefore you cannot truly understand us or apply your own polarized views of societal norms to us. We are NOT you. We are NOT a mirror of you. Our thought processes are as different from your own, despite sharing a language, as any other countries.

2. The United States is a country in a constant state of flux. Small changes in our social and governmental sectors occur constantly and this makes us a bit confusing to 'get to know' even to the short-sighted extent that a person from another country ever CAN truly be said to 'know us'.

3. The United States is an amalgam formed of many people from many civilizations and our unique viewpoints and sentiments are based, largely, on a consensus of 'what is right' by ALL those people..and yes, that holds water despite a sad history of racism, classism sexism, moneyism and ageism.

4. There is not enough space here, nor would you read it if there was, for me to conduct a proper lesson on American Government, civics, and economics, nor do I feel obligated to give you one. If you are truly interested, hunt down almost any professor of Government and Economics at an American University and speak to them. While in classes, they tend to follow the books, for fear of being fired, their personal viewpoints on the USA as a whole will be a lot less....cookie cutter, tend to be more critical, be more unbiased, and can give you a better insight into our society than the internet or your government controlled media ever could.

5. Admit it...about 90% of you either do not actually 'hate' America or Americans, or you are 'jumping on the bandwagon' because it makes you feel like you are part of a group of 'enlightened individuals' to talk crap about a country you have never visited, never lived in, have little concrete knowledge of, and do not understand.

Is my country perfect? HELL NO! We have so very MANY faults I cannot even think of where to start ranting and raving...but as far as I'm concerned, we still enjoy the most freedoms, the best physical and social environment, and the most pleasant topography of anyplace in the world...and I've spent time in more than 30 countries and STILL believe that.

I perfectly agree with many of the sentiments expressed about particular 'problematic' aspects of the USA, such as our insistence on often armed interference in other countries, our economic system, et al, but as a citizen, I can tell you, things are not 'QUITE' as baldly evil and self centered here as you seem to believe.

Again, unless you have lived here for at least two or three years, and can balance your personal views with a healthy dose of pragmatism, you honestly cannot claim to know enough about us to 'talk crap'.

I am unsure how to reply to you without making a low-content post, but I feel this must be done.

 

[Israirie]

Love the people, have issues with certain, very specific parts of the system. Most of it is great. I live in the U.S. three months a year, soon to be a permanent resident. Straight up, the health care system is a god damned nightmare. I've also seen many people's lives fall apart over utterly minor financial issues while staying in the U.S., something that I haven't seen so prevalently in any other first world country because of wider financial safety nets. But I don't intend to just waltz over and order them to change their system for me. For the most part things run pretty solid.

The only thing I don't like about Americans in general is their tendency to be either strictly right wing or strictly left wing about every single issue. If someone takes a conservative stance on one issue and a liberal stance on another, they're labeled a waffler. There's also a tendency to demonize politicians who are able to admit they're wrong or change their views on a topic after doing more research. In my eyes, that exonerates them and is a good sign that they possess a rational mind. But for some ludicrous reason you're only allowed to view anything from one angle in the States. Personally I think it's fucking insane to wear blinders when you're talking politics.

Btw, fucking epic levels of retard in this thread. Some of this shit is straight out of Team America World Police. Great read. Bookmarked for later lulz.

 

[jaketheripper]

i hate living here lol

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I live here. I love the TRUE spirit of America, that being a libertarian point of view. Unfortunatly we've gone so far from that I hate it, and I hate being here.

 

[revolutionaification]

Generally, I tend to like Americans themselves. I know that you can't generalise an entire country's population but so far, most of you seem alright bar the odd fruitloop. As for your system...it sucks. There's no two ways about it. Britain's is so far from perfect that there's no way we'll ever correct all the flaws but to me, it still seems better than the entirely 'every man for himself' mentality of America.

Just be proud that even though your system sucks, most of you've still turned out alright!

 

[_Cake_]

They're not be perfect but I rather have them leading the world then any of the other super powers such as China. I think they have a lot of people who are just batshit crazy and really loud, but hell of a lot more who are smart and far too quiet. Sometimes I feel like they are held to higher standard then a lot of other countries. Young people have to stand up for human rights and vote more.

 

[Trogdor1138]

This topic can't do anything besides bring about more stupid hate from the type of people who "have lost faith in humanity".

Let me spell it out for people.

EVERY COUNTRY HAS IT'S FAULTS, EVERY PERSON MAKES MISTAKES, EVERY SOCIETY IN HISTORY HAS HAD TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS.

It seems to be that people are using America as a scapegoat now and can spend all day talking about how they are the shittiest country, yet being completely ignorant of everything else in the world. Whatever country you're from, you have a shit government and you have assholes on the street every day.

Seriously, get over it.

 

[internetzealot1]

Which system are we talking about? The system on paper or the system in practice.

 

[OrokuSaki]

I never accused anyone of not being accepting of others?[/quote]

Not directly, but you stated that they are greatly ignorant of other cultures, thus leading one to assume that you accuse them of accepting no one's opinion but their own.

 

[OakTaooper]

It always amazes me:

1. How much stock the rest of the world, despite understanding the non-representational format of their own governments RELIES ON and TRUSTS IN their government controlled media sources.

2. How easily such people, when exposed to the internet, are willing to believe anything they read...ESPECIALLY when such material espouses a negative view of something or some-one they know nothing about and, possibly, hold some small amount of fear towards.

3. How the average 'world citizen' has the stones to declare THEIR country 'the end all be all greatest thing since sliced bread' and then, in the next breath, berate the United States for espousing the same sentiment.

FACTS:

1. You are not an American. You are not privy to the nuances of our politics, our social mores, or anything else that makes an American what they are, therefore you cannot truly understand us or apply your own polarized views of societal norms to us. We are NOT you. We are NOT a mirror of you. Our thought processes are as different from your own, despite sharing a language, as any other countries.

2. The United States is a country in a constant state of flux. Small changes in our social and governmental sectors occur constantly and this makes us a bit confusing to 'get to know' even to the short-sighted extent that a person from another country ever CAN truly be said to 'know us'.

3. The United States is an amalgam formed of many people from many civilizations and our unique viewpoints and sentiments are based, largely, on a consensus of 'what is right' by ALL those people..and yes, that holds water despite a sad history of racism, classism sexism, moneyism and ageism.

4. There is not enough space here, nor would you read it if there was, for me to conduct a proper lesson on American Government, civics, and economics, nor do I feel obligated to give you one. If you are truly interested, hunt down almost any professor of Government and Economics at an American University and speak to them. While in classes, they tend to follow the books, for fear of being fired, their personal viewpoints on the USA as a whole will be a lot less....cookie cutter, tend to be more critical, be more unbiased, and can give you a better insight into our society than the internet or your government controlled media ever could.

5. Admit it...about 90% of you either do not actually 'hate' America or Americans, or you are 'jumping on the bandwagon' because it makes you feel like you are part of a group of 'enlightened individuals' to talk crap about a country you have never visited, never lived in, have little concrete knowledge of, and do not understand.

Is my country perfect? HELL NO! We have so very MANY faults I cannot even think of where to start ranting and raving...but as far as I'm concerned, we still enjoy the most freedoms, the best physical and social environment, and the most pleasant topography of anyplace in the world...and I've spent time in more than 30 countries and STILL believe that.

I perfectly agree with many of the sentiments expressed about particular 'problematic' aspects of the USA, such as our insistence on often armed interference in other countries, our economic system, et al, but as a citizen, I can tell you, things are not 'QUITE' as baldly evil and self centered here as you seem to believe.

Again, unless you have lived here for at least two or three years, and can balance your personal views with a healthy dose of pragmatism, you honestly cannot claim to know enough about us to 'talk crap'.

I would like to tell you good sir/madame who wrote this, that this brought tears to my eyes. I know not if they were of joy, were of sadness that this beautiful masterpiece was created and had to be used, or if it was from some other thing that I am not yet aware of, but tears it brought. In short, I'm trying to say that this is beautiful.

OT: I voted I like 'em both, you wanna know why? America is my home.

 

[Devil's Due]

... that's some pretty shabby argumentation there, first: do you like, use, or experience the following: democracy...

You do know that the United States of America doesn't use democracy, instead we utilize rather a Republic, right? Democracy is everyone votes on an issue, Republic is everyone votes for a leader to decide on issues. (ThisNation.com, U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, USHistory.org) They're similar for the most part, and rather close in their roots, but still fairly different. If you'd said Republic instead, then I'd agree with you as the first dated Republic was in the Roman Republic (Roman-empire.net, wsu.edu). But since you did not, I have to ask you that if you're going to argue with someone, at least get your facts right, please?

As for the thread at hand: Every country has idiots, and every country has something that is in someway or another corrupt. America has no problem trying to show that we have issues, but at the same time we don't try to hide it in the darkness and pretend it doesn't happen. Do I agree with the politics? No, a lot of it pisses me off quite frankly, but there's so a large part that I am proud to be able to use in my everyday life. So for that matter, I simply voted "neutral."

Works Cited:
http://thisnation.com/question/011.html
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/rep-index.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/REPUBLIC.HTM

 

[Elanthil01]

Generally, I tend to like Americans themselves. I know that you can't generalise an entire country's population but so far, most of you seem alright bar the odd fruitloop. As for your system...it sucks. There's no two ways about it. Britain's is so far from perfect that there's no way we'll ever correct all the flaws but to me, it still seems better than the entirely 'every man for himself' mentality of America.

Just be proud that even though your system sucks, most of you've still turned out alright!

The 'every man for himself' bit is an unfortunate side effect of our pioneering history. This view of the world was necessary back when it was just you, your family, and whatever weapons you could carry against a hostile wilderness, and still has some admirable aspects today (self-sufficiency is a great thing), but I tend to agree, it has carried over into an excuse for selfishness and greed in a lot of Americans.

Over the last ten years a rather subversive campaign to soften the hearts of the American public toward their fellow citizens, and world neighbors, has rendered SOME good changes, but there is so much more that needs to be done, not the least of which would be, in my opinion, the sad-but-needed passage of 'good samaritan' laws that require individuals to render aid to others to the best of their ability...period.

I've also felt for a long time that every American should be forced, if there was a way to pass such a law given our system, to do 1 to 4 days of community service per month, with their only reparation being given their meal(s) for the day and a firm handshake and a thank you at the end of the day.

 

[jedizero]

....
I'd like for someone from the 'we hate the people' camps, to explain to me, what exactly *I* have done wrong, what *I* have done, to earn your ire, and hatred.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Which system are we talking about? The system on paper or the system in practice.

Both, fellow Escapist.

 

[Sandytimeman]

as an American, I hate the system but like the people. For all the people that hate us, well all I can do is give you the middle finger and hope you sit and spin.