First off, I kind of have a feeling this post is going to get a lot of hype, seeming a lot of people in this community come from a place where the dislike of Americans is pretty high. I just have a question. Why? In 1775 we declared war on the British Empire, in the year 1783 we won the war and became our own free country, we were a Democratic Republic. I see a lot of people claiming that the USA is an Empire. We are of no such thing. We are still a Democratic Republic, not a monarchy or an oligarchy. In the following years we had a Civil War, the Union was victorious, setting all the black slaves free, but our racism and "Jim Crow" laws didnt end untill the 80's or 90's. We got over that problem, up to that point, we are still a Democratic Republic. On the date 12,7,41 we where obliterated at Pearl Harbor, our Pacific fleet destroyed, open for attack. The next day, war was declared between the USA and the Axis powers, the US once again in another World War to help out their Allies. But before the second world war, there was a first. And if an event never happened, we would never have joined the Allies. In the teens we were more likely to enter on the axis side. This all changed when The sinking of the Lusitania cruise ship by a German submarine and the Zimmermann note. The Lusitania was a passenger ship that a German torpedo hit and sunk, killing about 100 US passengers. This ignited the US to join the allies. Imagine the US joining the Axis, and then again in WWII. If you look at it, there would be no France, there would be no UK, there would be no Russia, hell, even the US wouldn't exist. But we helped the right people, and we won. Let's not forget the D-Day landings and paradroppings behind enemy lines the night before. Without the Ameicans the landings would have been a terrible slaughter for the Allies. In the 60's we went to Vietnam to help out the French and the South Vietnamese, we were abandoned and sent to fight a force that memorized the land like we memorize our rooms. The US never lost a battle in Vietnam, we just lost the war with our week politics, just like always. The United States is a very important contributor to medicine aswell. Without us, you would still be searching for a cure for Small Pox. We have made HUGE advancements in medical science and Military technology. And without us, there would be a Soviet flag on the moon, and the Soviets would still be in the Middle east, and they would have a huge hand in everything. There would still be a communist Soviet Union. Now please, i'm not looking for a flame war, i just want a simple explanation, i have nothing against anyone of another country. If you have anything to say just comment back. Lastly, today, from all the bs we recive from ourselves and others. We are STILL a Democratic republic, we STILL have loyal citizens, we STILL have an amazing Armed Force, and we are STILL on this planet. That is all i have to say.
don't want to be a bummer for your rant. but the modern smallpox vaccine was discovered by edward jenner in 1796. Mr jenner, indecently, lived his entire life in england. and there are records of the chinese inoculating people with a variety of methods as far back as the ming dynasty. as an american, i find that i hate americans mostly for their ego, like taking credit for things they didn't do
More accurately the American government. Let's see. Empire does not depend on being an oligarchy or a monarchy (the US is ruled by a fascist oligarchy by the way), nor is empire dependent upon the occupation of land. The American empire is vast stretching around the world. The United States has over 700 military bases in about 170 countries. No other nation in the world comes anywhere close to that. Many of these bases are for the protection of a puppet government which supplies the US with a lot of the things it needs, like oil and other natural resources. Or these countries represent strategic importance. Our financial empire is even larger. The United States exercises significant control over many nations through our economic power. The only rival the United States has in economic output is the entirety of the European Union and China. Though this will probably change very quickly. Because of America's economic and military power we are able to push our agenda on other countries. Those that do no comply are crushed either economically or militarily. That sounds like empire to me. Jim Crow laws were repealed in in 1964 and 1965. The War for Southern Independence (or the "Civil War" as you call it) was a hegemonic war of aggression and empire against the Confederate States of America. Vietnam was a war of aggression against a people that had done nothing to us. The Vietnamese (North and South) were fighting their French colonial overlords to restore their sovereignty. The French took over Vietnam in a series of military conflicts that lasted 26 years from 1859 to 1885. In 1941 the Viet Minh was established to resist the French colonial government, but when the Japanese took over they spent their time fighting them until 1945. From 1946 to 1954 the Vietnamese fought the French who were trying to re-establish their dominance in Vietnam. Then from 1955 to 1975 the United States aided the equally evil government of South Vietnam for whom few Vietnamese in the south cared much about. Vietnam fought for 116 years for its freedom. America was the enemy and was wrong to send troops there. It was empire building at its worst. Good. Bad. The Soviet Union was destroyed from within. Nothing the United States did brought it down. The American government is responsible for some very, very, very bad things. Things that should never be forgiven or forgotten. It is despotic and criminal. It is abusive and overbearing. It chooses war instead of peace, irrationality instead of reason, lies instead of truth. It is a cancer on the world scene and the world would be better off without it, just like the world is better off without the Soviet Union. We are still all of the things that have created so much misery, death and destruction in this world. Way to go USA!
not the american people just the american government. there assholes that think they know everything. what also pisses me off that they spend 500bill$ on their defense budget when they could spend idk the exact number i think its around 10bill or less to feed every starving person on the earth for a year. but... nope they would rather have more weapons to kill people than to help people that truly need it.i know its not their responsibility to help people of other nationalities but... still have a god dam heart america.
-Because all these great accomplishments your talking about happened in the past, and we live in the present. Most of the people are anti-American government, not anti-American. - Those people in other countries who are anti-American are mostly mis-informed about the people of America, we're all people and we all want the same things, a comfortable life, no war, and we just want to have freedom like everyone else on this earth. Unless less their argument is based on us, for the most part, being arrogant, materialistic douche bags, then they are right for the most part. But you cant really blame people of this world for being anti-American, because we have created alot of hardships all over the world, and we get away with it because of our military. -Our own government makes laws for terrorism, the Patriot Act which gives them damn near unlimited possibility's to fight terrorism including "domestic terrorism". It has "flexible standards" so that they can monitor "illegal activities" which includes terrorism, the American people, or individuals not involved in crime or terrorism at all. It updates the governments surveillance powers, but failed to update the "checks and balances" and the safeguards to protect its own citizens. It also allows the government to obtain a persons internet activities, telephone records, medical records, financial records....etc, on the basis that the FBI states that the records pertain to an "investigation", and the judge is required to fulfill the court order and this order includes a permanent nondisclosure requirement. It contains many things that make the judicial review a formality than actual oversight. Now Im not necessarily against the Patriot Act, I realize that it does help us against outside threats, but I just wish they would restore the checks and balances, and restore some of our civil liberty's. - We act like we are their to bring peace and democracy to the country we invade, but really we bring war against the people of other countries and our government has no remorse. And they try to disguise it as a threat to our national security, when the main threat to our country is our own governments reckless decisions. -War has not been declared since 1941, when we entered WW2, which is against our constitution. We fought in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, the Iraq war, and the ongoing war on 'terror' have all been declared un-constitutional wars, which is not something we should be exactly proud of. - Can you really blame people for being anti-American? -Oh, and our past president made a reaoy stupid comment to the world saying "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
1) American accents piss me off 2) American shows (besides the animated ones) aren't funny 3) Americans, on average, have no sense of subtlety. Tremendous generalisation, I know, but it seems like the American popular culture of 'bigger is better' has largely nuetralised Americans ability to detect and appreciate the smaller, subtler things in life. 4) 40% of more of Americans are fucking creationists. How do you sensible Americans put up with it?! 5) Americans elected a president fairly well entirely because of his skin colour. Great work, I take off my hat to your rationalism! 6) Americans seem to have a thing about their 'Cherokee grandmothers' which you will NEVER hear any other nation talk about. For example, NO white person here would ever claim a Nyoongar or Yamatji grandmother, even if they do have Aboriginal ancestry - that's because if people around here are predominantly white and grew up in white culture, they call themselves white. But a lot of Americans, for whatever reason, seem to have a thing about claiming some minute percentage of Cherokee (ALWAYS Cherokee, for whatever reason... maybe they link it to the prestige of owning a Jeep?) blood, even though they are predominantly white and grew up in white culture. Jesus, it's like the whole 'passing' concept has turned itself on its head... 7) American tourists. I fully encourage you to come and visit our lovely country - the change of scenery from majestic Rocky mountains and rolling plains to endless fields of featureless, arid red dirt dotted with horrid, nasty little shrubs (with such inviting names like Spinifex and Bloodgrass) is sure to reactivate your woefully battered sense of subtlety! But please, enjoy the country and not the fact that YOU'RE in the country, talking about YOU and YOUR country all the time. I swear, it's like the standard American greeting is "Hello, I'm X and I come from X" ("Helloooo, I'm Amber and I'm from Caroliiiiiina!"), before launching into a spiel about how nice America is and how hot/dry/windy/boring it is here. Really, can't you instead say "Oh wow, this is a mighty strange looking building, what can you tell me about this?" or "I like this plant, that's nice!" rather than waffling on about how you can't buy Dr Pepper here? 8) The words 'butt', 'guys', 'ass', 'jello' and the like. Each to their own, but I prefer 'bum', 'fellas', 'arse' and 'jam', along with 'Mum' and 'colour'. 9) Guns. Here, only farmers own guns, and only feral pigs get shot. In America, every second person owns a gun and people get shot in plague proportions. 10) Flags. Why do so many Americans fly flags around?! Fuck, it's like you need to remind each other that you are a member of the club and the flag proves it - a genuine, flag-waving American! Here, only dickheads fly Aussie flags and that fact is relatively widely recognised, besides on Australia Day, where everyone decides to show their patriotism in buying a nylon flag made in a Chinese sweatshop to wave around for a while until they get bored of being patriotic and chuck it on the ground for an endangered native animal to choke and die on or something. Flags are for insecure collectivists, and I associate Americans with the word 'flag'... so take THAT, you bunch of Commies! 11) That whole pledge of allegience thing you make kids do in school. 12) Hanging the 10 commandments in public buildings, like courthouses. And so on... these are generalised things that I don't like about AMERICANS, not the American government. Lucky thing too, I don't want to be here 'till 10 o'clock typing... I apologise if I have offended any Americans, and I would hate to think that I've upset anyone here. An outsiders perspective can offer valuable insights, and if that still doesn't alleviate your sorrows I would advise you to take the advice of the esteemed Chopper Reid - "Harden the fuck up!"
Tough shit? I'm not about to apologize for our culture. You can bash our government all you want, fuck them but as far as your complaints, well they are cultural differences and well, tough shit, why should WE change our culture or apologize for it, you don't like it, you don't like the way we live, then go the fuck away. I mean i don't like the customs of Islam so you know what? i don't fucking go to Islamic countries. Why not substitute, muslims, or Africans, Mexicans, for Americans in your post.......sounds a little bigoted, huh? Here's some advice from Mr. Pulaski, my esteemed high school gym teacher...." Blow it out your ass!"
The fact that you take pride in being an anti-liberal (in your sig) pretty much turns this argument into a statement of hypocrisy.
Chill brah. Australian accents are hilarious. TV is pretty much a huge clusterfuck over here. There's only a few channels I can actually watch and even those sometime can get annoying (Comedy Central and Discovery come to mind). You're definitely generalizing and I know plenty of people who live in the US who don't fit this description, but I do think you're right, in general. I think most people in the world have some delusional beliefs. Americans are no exception. How many Americans voted for Obama? Elections here are a sham and I have a hard time believing you don't experience the same nonsense in Australia. Can't really comment on this. I have one friend who says he's 1/32nd Native American, but he's such an honest dude, I never really thought to question him. His mom (also really honest) has confirmed that she has a Native American ancestor (cant remember if it was a grandfather or grandmother). I don't think gun ownership is directly correlated with how many people get shot. We have a crime problem here in the US, mostly due to our idiotic drug policy. American nationalism is a little spooky sometimes. lol Man, I rejected that shit when I was 10 years old. Fuck that noise...
If you knew anything about me or bothered to look at my previous post you will see the reason i have Beck as my avatar.....i find it interesting how just the image of the man evokes a negative assumption about the poster thus irritating individuals such as yourself, and the anti liberal is referring to him, not me (although i do think liberalism is a flawed ideology). I consider Beck the anti liberal. And even if i did say i was anti liberal how does that have any emphasis on my argument....are you saying that a difference of opinion in political ideology is equivalent to bigotry? Oh and thats not my sig, duh.
America is not the government which is what most have the problem with. Today's government barely resembles the government the country was founded on
Okay, firstly, why would I spend my time looking at your previous posts? I looked at the message below your name, which said anti-liberal, and presumed that this was your political stance. Seems like an easy mistake to make. Secondly, to say that you are anti-liberal is essentially talking about not accepting other peoples viewpoints ( I realise I'm not giving the whole picture here), and here you critiscise someone for not accepting your viewpoint. That is why I called you a hypocrite.
So you don't believe there's a difference from an individuals political ideology, or as you refer to it "a view point" and a nations heritage and culture? We are not a nation of liberals, conservatives, etc. we are however all Americans, and we all share that distinction, heritage, and culture.
I think you've misunderstood the point I'm trying to make. I am pointing out the fact that you are an anti-liberal (which we have established now that you aren't) yet when someone won't accept your culture (which is give or take a few points anti-libertarianism) you simply reply with "tough shit", implying that they are in the wrong and that he should be more accepting of Americans. You may wonder why I am pointing this out since we have established that you're not an anti-liberal, but earlier you asked how being an anti-liberal and writing the things you wrote would make you a hypocrite. Lastly, why would you infer that I stereotype America as a nation from what I have written in this thread? I have never once expressed an opinion that you are all conservatives or liberals.
Except our current foreign policy resembles something more similar to Imperialism than a Democracy or a Republic. If you think the Civil War had anything to do with looking out for the interests of slaves you're just wrong. Lincoln liberated slaves to protect the business interests of northern companies who couldn't compete against the cheap labor. Not to mention that the 13th amendment has done more for private corporations than any other amendment. It's largely why corporations exist as they do today. Really, I thought we entered WW2 because of Pearl Harbor, I'm pretty sure we left our "allies" hanging for a while making bank with out war economy. ok? Imagine if we spent all that money on NASA on genetics instead - we'd have dragons by now! Senseless, needless deaths that would not have ever happened if it were not for the power instilled to those in government. And it was a terrible slaughter . . . Maybe we shouldn't have been in Vietnam anyway, see above - Imperialism And because of US patents and copyrights new drugs are held in a monopoly lingo until the patent expires. Patients who cannot afford the premium rate of companies who hold the patents go untreated. Without the US government to protect the company other people would be free to manufacture it cheaper, a much more humane and economic alternative to a government enforced monopoly. I'm not really sure what your point is, it's mostly fluff and it's not even feel good fluff. It's an astonishment and a testament to the blind patriotism and faith that exists in America that anyone bothers remaining loyal. Our armed forces aren't so amazing, so much as everyone else really sucks. America isn't the home of the free and land of the brave, it's the haven of the wealthy and bastion of corporate interests.