What do you Think of America

KeithCash · 07-07-2007, 02:48 PM

What do you think of America? Do not Hold back.

America is a nice place to live, We like to make money, a vice or an addiction, the places I have lived have mostly been crime free.

American by birth.
Southern by the grace of God.
Alabama

Cheers

**pctec** · 07-07-2007, 05:41 PM

If I voiced my opinion some would take it the wrong way...

ewomack · 07-07-2007, 08:55 PM

Since this wasn't limited to non-Americans...

First some negatives:

We don't take criticism. We complain that we're going down the tubes while we find clever ways to dodge taxes. We're myopic. What happens in the rest of the world is one huge opaque mystery to most of us. We're monolingual. We take too many things at face value such as what the media and politicians of our persuasion say. Most of us don't know our own history. We're hedonists with little regard for others. We're selfish, sneaky, self-centered, and greedy. We don't have a social safety net nor national health care, but we're more upset about our tax rates, which are very low on a global scale. We can't take care of ourselves financially. We try to live lives like movies and television. We want to fence ourselves off from the rest of the world at the same time that we try to conquer it. We don't have an intellectual culture. We instead have an infantile knee-jerk reaction bottom-line culture. We're push-overs to authority and greed. We're hopelessly polarized.

And some positives:

We can build strong communities. We feel united. We're diverse from coast to coast. We're proud of our country's great accomplishments. We try to trust one another even when we have no reason to do so. We work hard. We get through crises together with friends and family. We have a rich history. We have an enormous country that most Americans won't see half of in their lives. We sacrifice when called to do so.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: I listed many more negatives than positives. I'm not entirely happy with what my country has become recently. I like to think I'm a moderate and I hope we return to moderation again soon. What will it take to restore balance? We keep going from left to right to left to right and now we're extremely far right. Here, people on either side (we only have two sides here, Republican and Democrat) become so polarized that they can't see anything good about the other side. Sports and politics have merged: we have teams and each team sees the other team as a loser. That's bad for everyone. We need to quiet the extremists and get back to the center somehow. I hope we can.

**Zap** · 07-09-2007, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewomack

We need to quiet the extremists and get back to the center somehow. I hope we can.

I agree with much of what Ed posted.

And I think some middle ground in US politics would do you guys a world of good.

KeithCash · 07-07-2007, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pctec

If I voiced my opinion some would take it the wrong way...

Do it anyway we can take it.

Cheers

**pctec** · 07-08-2007, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeithCash

Do it anyway we can take it.

Cheers

Have you ever watched Rick Mercer interview American politicians?
It truly is an eye opener as to what they know about their closest neighbor...

Thats about as far as I am going to go on this topic

StrongInTheArm · 07-08-2007, 06:46 AM

I'm not touching this with a barge pole, I had a cartoon blow up in my face on Friday.

Rududu · 07-08-2007, 06:58 AM

America America who are you

the simple jewish experiment like Soviet Union, but maybe i am not right, who knows

stewart · 07-07-2007, 11:11 PM

Earn a degree and use it to get out =)

Deejay Dan · 07-08-2007, 06:54 AM

I tend to stay away from political threads but I'll make an exception here.

First I'll say, I love love my country and echo the positives of ewomack! They say we're the freest in the world, I've never been to another country so I cannot counter that argument. All I know is I wouldn't trade living here for any where else in the world, that's for sure.

My biggest negative for America, IMHO is the rich get richer while the poor stagnate or get poorer. For the average working class "stiff", prices go up while salaries stay the same. People brag about the unemployment rate being at an all time low. It sure is but they're crap jobs. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, McDonald's etc. None of them are good jobs with a livable wage that you can raise a family on. To raise just one kid both parents have to work this days, it's led to the break down of the family unit which can never be a good thing.

Just my

bochgoch · 07-08-2007, 11:15 AM

[off topic - sorry] What the hell is going on with Rududu's avatar?

odysseus · 07-08-2007, 11:27 AM

A nice place to make big bucks

Domestic Diva · 07-08-2007, 11:53 AM

*applause*

Good call!

kristeejo · 07-08-2007, 12:13 PM

No country is "perfect." I am still proud to be an American, although I do disagree with much of the decisions of our government. America is FULL of people who care very much about the suffering of others. We are a generous nation, as a whole and have proved that time and time again.

cabdirazzaq · 07-08-2007, 03:57 PM

As professor Noam Chomsky always remind us, the US is the biggest terror state out there.

KeithCash · 07-09-2007, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cabdirazzaq

As professor Noam Chomsky always remind us, the US is the biggest terror state out there.

To whom do we terrorize??

Cheers

cabdirazzaq · 07-09-2007, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeithCash

To whom do we terrorize??

Cheers

Pretty much everyone... Why do you think the vast majority of the world hates you? Europe, Latin America, central America, eastern & western Asia and most certainly the middle east (apart from the Zionists of course...)

Ron Paul is among the few American politicians who understand, they don't hate you because of your (so called) freedom, "they" hate you because the U.S is the #1 Terror state in the world. An obvious fact to most humans above the age of 15, who are mentally stable and who do not watch Fox news...

rankland · 07-09-2007, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cabdirazzaq

Pretty much everyone... Why do you think the vast majority of the world hates you? Europe, Latin America, central America, eastern & western Asia and most certainly the middle east (apart from the Zionists of course...)

Ron Paul is among the few American politicians who understand, they don't hate you because of your (so called) freedom, "they" hate you because the U.S is the #1 Terror state in the world. An obvious fact to most humans above the age of 15, who are mentally stable and who do not watch Fox news...

Im an american, and i believe the reasons why every country hates us is $, and power. Its no big secret. As far as being the #1 terror country if we didnt have to spend so many tax dollars bailing out other countries out we would own the world and this way we would all be free. I ghess thats why we vote for presidents, congress, dept of defence and so on.

**Cricket** · 07-09-2007, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cabdirazzaq

Pretty much everyone... Why do you think the vast majority of the world hates you? Europe, Latin America, central America, eastern & western Asia and most certainly the middle east (apart from the Zionists of course...)

Ron Paul is among the few American politicians who understand, they don't hate you because of your (so called) freedom, "they" hate you because the U.S is the #1 Terror state in the world. An obvious fact to most humans above the age of 15, who are mentally stable and who do not watch Fox news...

They may choose to hate our government, but if they hate us as individuals simply because we were born in the United States, I am not sure they are someone I would want to know anyway.

P.S. (To the person starting this thread) America includes a whole lot more than the United States.

cabdirazzaq · 07-09-2007, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cricket

They may choose to hate our government, but if they hate us as individuals simply because we were born in the United States, I am not sure they are someone I would want to know anyway.

P.S. (To the person starting this thread) America includes a whole lot more than the United States.

I was referring to the U.S as a nation of course, I have nothing against Americans as a people. That would be racist, even your worst enemies (Bin laden and those who support him) don't hate America because of the people who live there.