Poll: What's wrong with America?

[LockHeart]

We are at the front lines of most scientific fields. That's worth some props, I think.

And I also sort of have to disagree with the whole "Americans are fat lazy douchebags" generality since I, for one, are none of those things. The people I associate with usually can only fall into one of those, two at worst. And in general I hate it when people decide they can just attach a label to some 300-million people just because it makes them feel superior. Are there American fat, lazy, douchbags? Of course! Are there, say, British fat, lazy douchebags? Without a doubt! Are there more American FLBs than British? Certainly! Is the population of America about 5 times that of Britain? Most definitely!

I could go on, but my point is clear.

More importantly, in proportion to normal-sized people, are there more fat folk in the United States of America than in... let's say the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...

I don't know, whenever I go out in London I see an awfully high proportion of fat people...

 

[QuirkyTambourine]

That's an interesting idea, we did try that once, and ended up with the bloodiest war in our history. The problem with doing that though, is that we'd get the split where New England, which has NYC and Connecticut, would be a very wealthy nation all on its own while the rest of the countries would be shabby compared.

Sorry for sounding ignorant because I really don't know, but is New England really rich anyway or would it only be rich if they were divided?

Perhaps it'd just be better if, instead of calling everyone from America 'American', we'd call you by where in America you're from? I'm sure people from various parts of the US have already adopted slang terms for those in other regions much in the same way that Aussies call Brits 'Poms', etc.

Although I'm also sure some would consider this slanderous, racist, elitist, even though that's not the intention.

Well the thing about New England is that it's pretty middle class to upper middle class. Most families who live here have a decent income and live in pretty nice two story houses. But when the rich are rich here, oh BOY are they rich. The entire Fairfield country of CT is, for the most part, rich as hell. They have mansions that make Beverly Hills almost look like slums. These people are all the big executives at the major NYC financial institutions and what not. So basically CT is rich because of New York executives and New York City is rich because it's freaking New York.

 

[Xaositect]

Yeah, youve got it right in all but one aspect. Those people who look down their noses at America? Well if they have any sense, they wont be touting their country as hot shit either. Speaking as a British person I have very much the same problems. I just dont feel Britain is doing anything worthy of respect anymore.

But what I dont forget is that neither is anyone else.

I think human development has slowed down quite a bit if you ask me. I occasionally suggest what we need to solve it is another big war. Thatll shake up society a bit. It will either teach a lot of the scum some valuable lessons, or at least kill them and do society a favour that way.

Just generally I have the impression that things suck, even without the economic crisis.

 

[Rawker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HAy-DRBOyo because america was the new best thing and its disapointing to see it fall apart.

 

[Stewie Plisken]

Generally speaking, it's merely the fact that the United States are constantly biting more than they can chew. They have the tendency to expect a somewhat myopic view of the world to be endorsed and embraced by the rest of the world, which stems from nothing less than simple immaturity; they're not a nation old or experienced enough to be the leader they think they are.

Somebody before me mentioned it as well; what America is now others have been and have done many times and many thousands of years before. The difference is that the world is bigger than it used to be in those much older times and the "like it or leave it" attitude isn't going to stick. My personal, very foreign opinion is that they have to finally start being more leniant and accepting of the world around them and realize that maybe, just maybe, they can learn a thing or two by those folks who have been in their position and fell from said position before.

My two cents.

 

[FROGGEman2]

Well, that's actually a complaint about George Bush. But you guys did vote for him! Just teasing, I know that you are all individuals, but Republicans are evil. If anyone contests me, I will just give them that fact.

I agree with you somewhat (really, your argument against government healthcare is bureaucrats? We have those: they're called insurance), but just for the sake of friendly argument (read: complimenting each other's points and drinking tea while wearing monocles), could you back that up some? Nothing in your post that set me off (I come from a proud liberal family), I just like playing devil's advocate.

But with America in general, my main problem is just nationalism, with both politicians and the public. It's a stupid thing regardless of country, it's just that Americans have a lot more of it and, living there, I'm more exposed to it.

Uuuh, you win, you managed to introduce monocles to this conversation ;-D

It was a TV show, so I'm afraid I cannot give you a reference.

 

[wootsniper]

ya as much as the bibal study teachers disagree for america war is good

we made this country on war with england

world war 2 kicked us into hyperdrive and i love the way yahtzee put it "ever since then it has been one long search for a worthy enemy" maybe not exact quote but it works

I think the problem is that amercia THINKS it's a long search for a worthy enemy but since WOII you didn't won anything. (even though i wouldn't call WOII an american victory since the germans kind off destroyed themself)

vietnam was a total failure so they just threw napalm on some poor city's. (and they still lost the war)

And iraq? i'd call it a draw. they have aren't exactly winning or losing, but they are WASTING HUMAN LIVES without accomplishing allot.

 

[Gashad]

Moreover this was under Mao, with later Chinese leaders being even more isolationist. The "colonisation" of Africa you accuse them of is nothing like interventionism. The Chinese have no interest in controlling or changing the African nations government. It mearly makes a deal with it so it can mine its natural resources-greedy yes, interventionist no.

Well, isn't that out of the frying pan and into the fire? I mean, that's like saying "China--raping the African continent just like the Europeans, while transmitting none of the benefits of interventionism!"

I did not argue that Chinas foreign policy is good, I'm just arguing that there aren't interventionist as you claimed them to be.

This hypocrisy is what I would say is the heart of my gripe with America, Its tendency to use violence to resolve its disputes with other countries claiming to be promoting peace, stability and democracy in the world, while constantly undermining international institutions meant to promote these(not to mention its rich history of toppling democracies in South America).

Constantly? I wouldn't say Japan/South Korea/West Germany are examples of that.

Last time I checked non of those were international institutions. Moreover I feel that South Korea is yet another case of the US supporting a right wing dictatorship rather than promoting democracy(South Korea only became a democracy after the cold war ended and the US lost interest in it). Now I won't deny that the US intervention in the South Korean war was in essence good but it is important to note that this was one of the few times the US acted on behalf of the UN and hence can be seen to act in accordance to international law. All later interventions(except the first Iraq war) have been illegal and in virtually every case done great harm to the people in the country they intervene in and acted to further inflame the conflict.

Moreover how did the US intervene in Japan and West Germany?(the only intervention I have heard of is a CIA attempt to influence elections in West Germany-once again showing the US lack of dedication to democracy around the world[even though at least this time they didn't kill anybody while trying to evade or ruin a democratic process"]).

My gripe with people who have a gripe with America is that they overstate the hypocrisy by ignoring the instances where the U.S. has gone to war for all the right reasons and done right by the countries involved.

I will not deny that the US has done a few good interventions(I can list 4, the first Iraq war, its intervention of the Balkans, the Korean war, and WWII if you want to go that far back). It is important to note that these were all actions taken by major international coalitions in which the US acted alongside many other nations. Indeed when the US adopts thoughts of internationalism I would be the first to admit it does good work. However during the entire cold war except maybe the first ten years, and during the entire Bush administration(about 48 out of the 70 years that has passed since WWII) the US has viewed its foreign policy as a way to serve only its self intrest ignoring the cost of the people of the rest of the world aswell as international law.

Besides claiming to be the defender of democracy and "leader of the free world" while toppling numerous democracies, ignoring democratic principles like Habeus Corpus(sp?) is blatant hypocrisy.

 

[Splyth]

Would it be wrong to say that as a country we're unsure of where we want to be and what we want to do? As far as countries go we're still basically a child. Possibly a spoiled one at that. we've had wars but we've never had a definitive loss. which has made us kind of arrogant.

Now please understand I'm speaking in generalities. I'm not saying everyone in America is an egotistical bastard.

 

[Stewie Plisken]

we've had wars but we've never had a definitive loss

You've never had a definitive war to begin with. There's a world of difference between sending your kids away to fight and seeing them raped and murdered in their own bedrooms by the enemy.

I do believe you'd be a lot less trigger-happy, had you experienced the tragedy of war in that scale.

 

[benbenthegamerman]

im an american, i think have disliked my country for a long time.

it suprises me that we call ourselves the land of opportunity, (spell check) yet we wont let people who are dying every day from starvation and abbuse into the FUCKING LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. also, if republicans are so jealous that obama is in office, why cant they just accept the fact instead of go with the right descisions that might help the world, not help their party alone. also, i think if people would listen to what obama has to say about health care, we wont have screaming idiots interrupting our senators while they are trying to fix the god damn problem.

 

[benbenthegamerman]

Well, that's actually a complaint about George Bush. But you guys did vote for him!

im still in doubt that he legitemately won the first election. he sure as hell didnt get my vote of approval. what an arse.

i mean george bush is an arse, not you FROGGEman2. you make a good point.

 

[Uncompetative]

This is something that's been bothering me for a pretty long time, about the time that I became aware that there's much more to the world than the little northeastern corner of the US that I live in. There's a TLR version at the bottom of this post.

Why does America continue to disappoint me? I grew up with my American history classes, the ones on stuff we've invented, global issues we've solved, wars we won, all that stuff. What happened to all of that? This really isn't an "AMERICA F*** YEAH!!" rant, it's much the opposite actually, we I'm quite disappointed in what I see in society today. We brought the world the telegraph, the wrench, the revolver, the first assembly line, and countless others. We were a big part in winning WWII (I'm saying that as delicately as possible to avoid all of my fellow European, Canadian and beyond Escapees from flaming me to pieces) and all that great stuff.

What happened to all of this, and what do we have to show as the pride of our society today? We don't have any major exports aside from tourists who are apparently really easy to spot, we're seen as fat, whining, pushy loudmouths who are so used to instant gratification that we don't know the value of hard work (I was called just this by my grandfather years ago over something I don't remember, minus the fat part, he was right though) All in all, it's just embarrassing to be American sometimes. From what I've gathered, we have a horrible image in the world today, partly our doing, and partly because we're currently partaking in a war that doesn't have a clear justification as to why we're there.

Between the whole anti-Obama faction decrying everything that the man does (Fox News and the shouting town hall meetings and such) and a very publicized broken governmental system, it's not easy to find things to be happy about. We constantly have Senators and Representatives become involved in scandals. These are our highest elected officials, and to say that they're human and make mistakes is one thing, to say that flying to Argentina for a mistress on the state taxpayer's dime falls under the purview of humanism(?) is totally another. Maybe this whole issue I'm having is not totally with the American people, maybe it's with the government who has enable the people to come this way. Or at least to let me perceive them this way.

I'm not embarrassed to be American, I love my country, a bit short of jingoism, but I still love it. I'm just embarrassed by what we've become today. I'm incredibly proud of what we've managed to achieve in less that 200 years, but it seems like we're still chewing the fat instead of innovating the world. Sure we've got the absurdly progressing Silicon Valley projects making computers faster and smarter, but I can't find much else to be happy about with us right now. What do you guys think? Am I right at all? Being melodramatic? Or totally wrong.

I'm having trouble figuring out what I should be proud of as an American anymore. It's easy to fall back on the history books to look for justification, but I want to find something recent. Maybe it's just

Spoiler: TL;DR version here!

I feel that America really has no image in the world today, and that it doesn't do much to deserve a good image anyways. What do you guys think?

Don't fret about it. Just do as I do and stop defining yourself by your Nationality completely.

About the only major consequence of this is that you will have to be a conscientious objector if they bring back the Draft as it is illogical to fight in a war for a country, just because you happened to be born in it (or have adopted citizenship there as an immigrant). If you never paid taxes you might "owe them something" for all the services they provide, but from what I gather about America, you don't get much...

 

[matnatz]

Because you're sheltered. People are jealous, the average American lives a comfortable life, so comfortable that they can afford to grow fat. Your problems are trivial compared to others. You're like animals in the zoo. It's jealousy. I hate America in some ways, but I want to live there, why? Life would be better, I could get a better job, live in a bigger house. And that's coming from somebody who already has quite a comfortable life. Think about what America seems like to those who don't live in the west? America is hated for the same reason that mega-rich sons and daughters, like Paris Hilton are hated for.

 

[BeastofShadow]

I'm Irish. I was actually in the states for 9/11 I'll give it to you that America really pulled through in coping with that. The goverment on the otherhand was rubbish. The Bush administration has managed to ruin the American public image and cause harm to the country itself. Katrina was an example of a disaster that was not dealt with well. It gave an impression that you don't care from one another.

There is the well documented racism and general discrimination between any person who is believed to be diffrent.(Although I think that mostly applies to Conservitaves(sp?)
Also Tv shows that are exported tend to be so dumb and self centered that it gives a horrible interpritation. Such things as child beauty pageants. That and I'm pretty sure America started that Celebrity worship craze. Kinda gives a mind set that if your not rich you aren't important.

There is the whole Sue cultre thing that you hear about but I don't understand it enough in my opinion to comment.

The last thing is murder and stories about mass shootings. By that I mean the likes of school shootings. They seem to happen a lot more over their than anywhere else in the world. What does that say about American culture? Then all that happens is the blame game is played. Rap Music, Rock Music, Video games, D&D. It just seems like they never want to blame the school. Or the family. Which odds are, are the main factors.

/rant