Poll: What's so good about America?

[annoyinglizardvoice]

I am very negative about some aspects of America, but I wouldn't say it's all bad.
It think there's a big variation between states.

 

[UltraParanoia]

So only leaders that don't pray to god for guidance, don't fiddle elections, and don't lie about weapons of mass destruction are allowed to have loads of weapons?

A: there is nothing wrong with praying to god for guidance, especially when that god doesn't tell you to bathe the world in the blood of infidels.

B: So is it okay for me to say Obama stole the election because of all the voter fraud cases related to ACORN?

C: He didn't lie, he got bad intel, there is a difference. Plus, I don't see much of a problem with Iraq, except that we should have finished in Afghanistan first.

le sigh, I need to get a better computer. Damn thing froze like three times just while I was trying to type that out.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

When you say "we've consistently fallen behind of other western nations in ... the level of economic cooperation facilitated between our citizens" I assume you are a socialist, and that would be the opposite of freedom, considering that it takes away the freedom of how you can spend YOUR money. These political ideas aren't shared by everyone, or even most Americans, for that matter.

I like how you skipped half of my fucking sentence. Truly top notch sir

Note that I put a "..." where I cut your sentence, as I thought it useless to comment upon it. I chose to only speak of the part I had quoted. But now you have my statement, and there is no need for you to be as upset as you are, it comes off as slightly immature.

Oh, and are you a socialist? Just put the answer in an EDIT on your opening post. I don't mean to offend you, I just answered your thread. You can't expect everyone to feel the way you do.

its just that you cut out the part where I talked about civil liberties which i find equally important to me as my socialist economics.

yeah

I apologize. I just didn't see much need to bring that up, as I think that what you said about civil liberties was fairly true, although not entirely true.

oh, I thought you were intentionally leaving it out to make me seem as an enemy to freedom to people reading through the comments. People do that sort of thing a lot to me. Sorry

Your beliefs are your own, and you should be allowed to say what you wish and believe what you wish, and I want you to share your thoughts (although I don't share most of them) with the world, as it is your right.

Thanks.

As to socialism being anti-freedom: most people who make this claim are confusing socialism with communism. You may be very well acquainted with the differences in the ideologies and still find socialism oppressive, which is good too, but most I meet confuse the two.

Spoiler: explanation

Socialism is the idea that the people should control the means of production under a democratically elected government, with limited and regulated capitalistic systems underlying the socialist system. In a socialist system the goal is to make a society where none will abridge the rights of others, regardless of whether the majority wants to do so (i.e. gay marriage would be legal)

Communism is the idea that the people would control the means of production through the elected state, rather than directly. A communist system is described as being a "dictatorship of the proletariat", in that the majority can make any ruling they want whether it is discriminatory against others. In theory, as communism's actual ideology is that everyone should be equal, the majority in a communist society would act to preserve the rights of the whole. However, there is the potential for the majority to severely oppress a minority. Whereas socialism is a feasible middle ground between capitalism and communism, communism would do away with all capitalistic elements of society, turning the economy completely over to the state.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

B. I don't particularly care about my home country and am probably moving to Europe when I'm, you know, not as 15 years old as I am now

This is your problem right here

Note: this is actually a lot less snide than you think

Either your making fun of me for my age or sympathizing with me for it. Can't quite figure it out...

 

[Dudemeister]

When you say "we've consistently fallen behind of other western nations in ... the level of economic cooperation facilitated between our citizens" I assume you are a socialist, and that would be the opposite of freedom, considering that it takes away the freedom of how you can spend YOUR money. These political ideas aren't shared by everyone, or even most Americans, for that matter.

I like how you skipped half of my fucking sentence. Truly top notch sir

Ah, but it doesn't matter. If you don't blindly love America, you are an evil socialist nazi murderer.

 

[faceless chick]

America only works because of its symbolism- back in its day, it was "the promised land" , the place where you could go and start anew, and live happily ever after (as an idea), so people flocked to it like mad.

Obviously it turned out to be bull, but nevertheless, America maintained its propaganda after that.

I think(america also thinks) that its moment of glory was WW2. Smelling opportunity, America baited Japan into bombing a useless abandoned harbour, now way too famous, and then had an excuse to go bomb their way into war for profit and glory, seeing as how almost none of the war took place on their homeland (sounds very familiar, amiritie?)

Anyway, after that America never shut up about their awesome victory, they slowly but surely installed themselves in most non-communist country and sealed their image as Jesus-incarnate.

Granted, America did put itself on its feet pretty well, and it worked fine on its own, but it didn't actually give a damn about other countries that worshipped it.

Like a popular jock, it smiled a perfect smile and walked down the alley with 2 cheerleaders in its arms, and spit on the notebook of the geek who asked for its autograph.

In short, America is good for its image , not its content, under that image it's still a heartless bastard like most "saviour" countries out there, it's just very good at putting on a convincing show for ya.

I respectfully disagree with your first paragraph. Number one, how did America 'bait' Japan into attacking this 'useless' harbor? It wasn't useless, it had a good lot of battleships there. And tons of people died. Which obviously doesn't seem to matter to you.

America helped out alot in the world war 2, mind you, like helping out a hell of alot in D-Day (not to mean that the Canadians and Brits didn't help out.). And America had to be 95% of the war effort in the far east (Japan).

Also, I don't see why there aren't any other countries that don't try and adopt Patriotism. You know, pride for your country, which seems to be stereotypically grouped into the 'egotistical' section. Every country has their faults, but it doesn't hurt to say 'I'm proud to be a/an___' if you don't disagree with it's values.

America had already deserted pearl harbour mostly by the time japan attacked. they were just waiting for it to have an excuse to go to war.
Britain did help out, it was the other force standing against the nazis.
America was afraid that Russia would fall and then Nazis might get too strong and might get to them, they didn't care about he rest of the world, they cared about their own asses.

They left Eastern Europe to die at the hands of commies and quietly retreated home, pretending it didn't happen and again, protecting their own sorry asses from communists.
Oh, what mighty heroes.

And about patriotism, I don't mind patriotism at all, every person should be at least a bit patriotic about their own country, but why should we all worship America?
Why do you have to broadcast internationally everything that happens there?
I for one don't care if Paris Hilton got a boob job,and I don't want Paris Hilton to be a celebrity over here.

It got to the point where everyone worships America more than their own damn country,and this is what I'm against, because America isn't that great to be worth it.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

So only leaders that don't pray to god for guidance, don't fiddle elections, and don't lie about weapons of mass destruction are allowed to have loads of weapons?

A: there is nothing wrong with praying to god for guidance, especially when that god doesn't tell you to bathe the world in the blood of infidels.

B: So is it okay for me to say Obama stole the election because of all the voter fraud cases related to ACORN?

C: He didn't lie, he got bad intel, there is a difference. Plus, I don't see much of a problem with Iraq, except that we should have finished in Afghanistan first.

We had no proper right or reason to invade Iraq

 

[Shynobee]

Well, I'm usually very wary of anyone asking a "whats so good about X" questions, because they usually have their minds already made up on whatever "X" happens to be. But, I'm bored, so I'll humor you.

What is so good about this country? We were founded by men who, although having good ideals for the rights of man, still advocated slavery. In fact, we were the LAST western country to get rid of slavery.

The reason they didn't get rid of slavery at the constitutional conventions was because they knew the southern states wouldn't sign the constitution if it eliminated slavery. Thus, they chose to allow slavery for the time being, and added the 1810 provision which forbade the sale of slaves after that year. The debate that ensued in 1810 eventually led up to the civil war freeing slaves, yadda yadda, long story short, their free now, and they can vote, and we are still working on the whole racism thing.

Before that, the continent was "discovered" (a good 400 years after it was found by the vikings and thousands of years after settlement of it by the Indians) by a murdering, enslaving, twat (Christopher Columbus) who had no qualms about killing for greed.

Ok, everyone with a brain now acknowledges that Colombus didn't discover America. There are hundreds of petitions every day to rename the holiday, and we only teach little kids he was a nice guy because its easier on the ears.

Other than our initial founding as a nation, which, although including slavery, was progressive for the time- we've consistently fallen behind of other western nations in level of freedom granted to their citizens, and the level of economic cooperation facilitated between our citizens.

Granted, most european nations still have quite a bit of a head start on us. We've been playing catch up as a country since our inception, so it should be obvious that we're still behind in many areas.

So, I ask you, the people of the Escapist:

What's so good about America, if there is anything?

As for whats so good about America? Well, as much as the UN and other countries complain about us and our military, we do keep the crazies of the world in check. Seriously, America always gets alot of crap for being to militant and invasive and what not, but, just imagine if the US Military decided to take a year off. I don't care what people say, all hell would break loose.

We also almost exclusively fund the UN, and basically the world economy as a whole. Being a nation of consumers, we all saw what happens when we stop doing our jobs as such. You know, the entire world economy tanked.

And, aside from creating the "western" culture that most of us seem to know and love, and say that that is why America is so great.

I hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction, though, based on the nature of your original query, I probably haven't.

 

[GreyWolf257]

I just always find it strange America proclaims itself land of the free where you can say and do anything but seems so racist, homophobic, conservative and xenophobic compared to other western countries.

How ignorant are you? The fact that we allow people to be racist, homophobic, conservative, and xenophobic just means that we allow people to say what they want. Isn't that the definition of freedom of speech?

a lot of countries allow their citizens to be racist, homophobic, conservative, and xenophobic. they're just not. thus his point stands.

When you say "we've consistently fallen behind of other western nations in ... the level of economic cooperation facilitated between our citizens" I assume you are a socialist, and that would be the opposite of freedom, considering that it takes away the freedom of how you can spend YOUR money. These political ideas aren't shared by everyone, or even most Americans, for that matter.

oh yes capitalism definitely lets the lower working class have freedom. they're absolutely not modern slaves at all. if they'd just get off their lazy asses every persn in america could own five cars an a mansion.

Sorry I don't share the same beliefs as you, I just think that what is mine is mine and not the government's. If I want to give my money to other people, then I will, but I don't want other people to force me to give up something I have worked for. If people are in an economic hole, then they should apply for financial help while they look for a job, not just because they want to get a check for doing nothing.

ok maybe that criticism of capitalism was a bit obtuse. You do share my beliefs, because on a purely me level I fucking love the system since I will be making frankly ridiculous amounts of cash after I get my degree. But I've actually done my research so I know capitalism doesn't work. that's the difference. I like my property as much as the next person, big house nice car it's all good, but I know the actual cost of those things.

It works pretty well for me. I think it is an incredible system (so simple, all it is is "Reap what you sow.").

 

[Samurai Goomba]

What's so bad about America? Show me a country that wasn't founded on lies, violence and bigotry.

I'm so sick of this anti-America counter-culture. Hate the people in the country, not the country itself.

You know one thing that's good about America? You have the freedom to hate and openly denounce its leaders. In other words, America is great because it gives you the right to hate it without consequence.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

When you say "we've consistently fallen behind of other western nations in ... the level of economic cooperation facilitated between our citizens" I assume you are a socialist, and that would be the opposite of freedom, considering that it takes away the freedom of how you can spend YOUR money. These political ideas aren't shared by everyone, or even most Americans, for that matter.

I like how you skipped half of my fucking sentence. Truly top notch sir

Ah, but it doesn't matter. If you don't blindly love America, you are an evil socialist nazi murderer.

exactly true

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Well, I'm usually very wary of anyone asking a "whats so good about X" questions, because they usually have their minds already made up on whatever "X" happens to be. But, I'm bored, so I'll humor you.

What is so good about this country? We were founded by men who, although having good ideals for the rights of man, still advocated slavery. In fact, we were the LAST western country to get rid of slavery.

The reason they didn't get rid of slavery at the constitutional conventions was because they knew the southern states wouldn't sign the constitution if it eliminated slavery. Thus, they chose to allow slavery for the time being, and added the 1810 provision which forbade the sale of slaves after that year. The debate that ensued in 1810 eventually led up to the civil war freeing slaves, yadda yadda, long story short, their free now, and they can vote, and we are still working on the whole racism thing.

Before that, the continent was "discovered" (a good 400 years after it was found by the vikings and thousands of years after settlement of it by the Indians) by a murdering, enslaving, twat (Christopher Columbus) who had no qualms about killing for greed.

Ok, everyone with a brain now acknowledges that Colombus didn't discover America. There are hundreds of petitions every day to rename the holiday, and we only teach little kids he was a nice guy because its easier on the ears.

Other than our initial founding as a nation, which, although including slavery, was progressive for the time- we've consistently fallen behind of other western nations in level of freedom granted to their citizens, and the level of economic cooperation facilitated between our citizens.

Granted, most european nations still have quite a bit of a head start on us. We've been playing catch up as a country since our inception, so it should be obvious that we're still behind in many areas.

So, I ask you, the people of the Escapist:

What's so good about America, if there is anything?

As for whats so good about America? Well, as much as the UN and other countries complain about us and our military, we do keep the crazies of the world in check. Seriously, America always gets alot of crap for being to militant and invasive and what not, but, just imagine if the US Military decided to take a year off. I don't care what people say, all hell would break loose.

We also almost exclusively fund the UN, and basically the world economy as a whole. Being a nation of consumers, we all saw what happens when we stop doing our jobs as such. You know, the entire world economy tanked.

And, aside from creating the "western" culture that most of us seem to know and love, and say that that is why America is so great.

I hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction, though, based on the nature of your original query, I probably haven't.

You certainly have provided solid and reasoned insight on the matter

 

[UltraParanoia]

We had no proper right or reason to invade Iraq

Killing a family of dictators whose favorite pastimes included finding new and inventive ways of killing their own people strikes me as a decent reason.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Hate the people in the country, not the country itself.

I quite like the American people in general.

However, I think that the people who generally run it, acting as the country, are completely inept

 

[Acier]

B. I don't particularly care about my home country and am probably moving to Europe when I'm, you know, not as 15 years old as I am now

This is your problem right here

Note: this is actually a lot less snide than you think

Either your making fun of me for my age or sympathizing with me for it. Can't quite figure it out...

Neither. I'm saying your sentiments align a lot with your age. It makes sense for a 15 year old to say these things. We were all 15 year olds once so hating on them is dumb in my opinion, but I also find them incredibly annoying so I don't sympathize with being 15

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

We had no proper right or reason to invade Iraq

Killing a family of dictators whose favorite pastimes included finding new and inventive ways of killing their own people strikes me as a decent reason.

In the process destroying their nation and killing more civilians than that family ever would have- all in the name of profit for the military industrial complex

 

[Serge A. Storms]

Being anti-American is the newest fad, I guess. Seems like most of the people posting are Brits with little to no understanding of America or Americans past what their media tells them.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

B. I don't particularly care about my home country and am probably moving to Europe when I'm, you know, not as 15 years old as I am now

This is your problem right here

Note: this is actually a lot less snide than you think

Either your making fun of me for my age or sympathizing with me for it. Can't quite figure it out...

Neither. I'm saying your sentiments align a lot with your age. It makes sense for a 15 year old to say these things. We were all 15 year olds once so hating on them is dumb in my opinion, but I also find them incredibly annoying so I don't sympathize with being 15

So you are covertly making fun of me for my age by insisting my ideology to be held by people of my age. This would be fine, except that your phrasing of your thoughts seems to indicate that it is held ONLY by people of my age because we are stupid.