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bloodshot
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31 Oct 2010, 5:18 am

Zara wrote:
bloodshot wrote:
As a non-American who frequent American forums, I am tired of hearing Americans complaining about having to be American.

Your nation has been the no.1 contributor to human advances, technology, business and arts wise. Overall America's influence on the developed world is a positive one. Would you prefer if the Soviets had won the Cold War instead?


HAS. China is quickly catching up to us in economic power and if things don't seriously turn around soon, they'll start being the dominant force in the world.

I don't disparage America's positive works in the world in history, but to be fair, there's been little of that so far in the 21st century. Our biggest exports so far to the rest of the world has been war and little to show for it. Osama Bin Laden eluded us Afganistan, and we made ourselves look like fools in Iraq and we're leaving both in unstable situations.
You'd think maybe we could have used our military might in more constructive ways like ending the Dafur massacres, killing off the Somali Pirate gangs or preventing North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons... but no, we'd rather go on wild goose chases across the middle east and exhaust ourselves while our enemies just continue strengthening themselves.


The world will quickly miss the days of Pax Americana, should China ever replace America's spot on the sphere of influence. China is a nation with no concept of human rights, democracy and freedom of speech, and no hopes of reforms. While it's economy is booming, it has contributed nothing to the scientific advancement of mankind. Every modern technology in China are either cheap knock offs, or obtained through coercion. The Chinese laws force all foreign business to "share" their technical know-hows since not only their level of innovation is lacking, they don't have the slightest respect for intellectual property.

I agree on your critique on America's intervention policies. Your nation have produced a great deal of great minds, but also quite a few terrible politicians, sadly.



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31 Oct 2010, 5:43 am

ruveyn wrote:
Zara wrote:
bloodshot wrote:
As a non-American who frequent American forums, I am tired of hearing Americans complaining about having to be American.

Your nation has been the no.1 contributor to human advances, technology, business and arts wise. Overall America's influence on the developed world is a positive one. Would you prefer if the Soviets had won the Cold War instead?


HAS. China is quickly catching up to us in economic power and if things don't seriously turn around soon, they'll start being the dominant force in the world.

.


They are welcome to the job. Being the World's Surviving Superpower has caused the U.S. to pursue a course of perpetual war. Getting out of that role may give us a chance to get back to our True Calling: The Business of America is Business.

ruveyn


Unfortunately, a huge chunk of US business is now performed in China leaving many Americans without jobs.



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31 Oct 2010, 7:09 am

Sand wrote:
Unfortunately, a huge chunk of US business is now performed in China leaving many Americans without jobs.


We can get it back by inventing more and working cheaper and (this is important) better.

ruveyn



Sand
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31 Oct 2010, 7:12 am

ruveyn wrote:
Sand wrote:
Unfortunately, a huge chunk of US business is now performed in China leaving many Americans without jobs.


We can get it back by inventing more and working cheaper and (this is important) better.

ruveyn


I'm not sure you can convince Americans to be satisfied to accept Chinese wage levels but perhaps you know more desperate Americans than I do.



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31 Oct 2010, 7:12 am

Sand wrote:

I'm not sure you can convince Americans to be satisfied to accept Chinese wage levels but perhaps you know more desperate Americans than I do.


Necessity necessitates. Wait until we have no choice.

ruveyn



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31 Oct 2010, 7:15 am

ruveyn wrote:
Sand wrote:

I'm not sure you can convince Americans to be satisfied to accept Chinese wage levels but perhaps you know more desperate Americans than I do.


Necessity necessitates. Wait until we have no choice.

ruveyn


When Americans can no longer afford the hamburgers that they flip we can then be assured we are back on the road to world dominance.



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31 Oct 2010, 7:38 pm

I doubt China's population will be in age to work and support their growth for very long y'know. They also had a baby boom, and just like the West, they are starting to die off. <.<



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31 Oct 2010, 9:43 pm

In general, to get back to the original question, one of the most powerful generators of hatred amongst Americans for what their country does is the arrant hypocrisy involved. All this blather of freedom and the open opportunities to become wealthy contrasting with the oppressive police and CIA and FBI actions regarding freedom of speech and use of vicious prison systems and outright denials of fair trials and use of torture and loss of privacy and many other indications that the wealthy are really in control cannot help but bring out strong negative emotions.



codarac
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01 Nov 2010, 4:10 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Being the World's Surviving Superpower has caused the U.S. to pursue a course of perpetual war. Getting out of that role may give us a chance to get back to our True Calling: The Business of America is Business.

ruveyn


What a dismal Calling. But I think your conclusion is probably accurate. America is a commercial empire. It barely deserves to be called a nation.



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01 Nov 2010, 4:24 pm

codarac wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Being the World's Surviving Superpower has caused the U.S. to pursue a course of perpetual war. Getting out of that role may give us a chance to get back to our True Calling: The Business of America is Business.

ruveyn


What a dismal Calling. But I think your conclusion is probably accurate. America is a commercial empire. It barely deserves to be called a nation.


How so? Our territory is well defined. We have a single public language - English; and an identifiable set of laws. That makes the U.S. a nation.

Somalia and Haiti barely deserve to be called nations.

ruveyn



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04 Nov 2010, 1:24 am

FederationJunkie wrote:
Being one of what seems to be a dying breed of patriots these days, I find it nothing less than appalling when people say that "we shouldn't have the freedoms we have" or "this country is dying because we have too much freedom." My question is: what the hell happened??? Since when is freedom such a bad thing? Since when have the ideals of self-reliance, individualism, and limited government become invalid? Why does everybody assume that people can't take care of themselves, and the government needs to do that for them? And by far the worst part about all this is that nobody seems to care. In fact, the mere mention of politics or other such things seems to make people cover their ears and sing to themselves. Am I the only person left who realizes these problems? Fellow patriots, let your voice be heard!


I haven't heard anyone ever say "we need less freedom". Usually they argue we need more restrictions for safety or something like that. I think freedom is mostly illusory. Yah, there's more restrictive forms of government than others, but the notion of absolute freedom is pretty subjective. I find the subjectivity of the concept is used for a lot of propaganda purposes.



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04 Nov 2010, 1:28 am

Sand wrote:
In general, to get back to the original question, one of the most powerful generators of hatred amongst Americans for what their country does is the arrant hypocrisy involved. All this blather of freedom and the open opportunities to become wealthy contrasting with the oppressive police and CIA and FBI actions regarding freedom of speech and use of vicious prison systems and outright denials of fair trials and use of torture and loss of privacy and many other indications that the wealthy are really in control cannot help but bring out strong negative emotions.


Good point. Yah, they have along history of funding coups against democratically elected leaders like Allende and Mouhammad Mossadegh.



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28 Dec 2010, 9:37 pm

Political infighting is everywhere. It's been around since prehistoric times.

Countries with a long term perspective, high-equality, and such have less fighting about politics.

Oddly, in the most equal places the parties seem to have pseudo-merged into a single entity that truly serves the people's democratic interests.


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29 Dec 2010, 12:05 am

The only time I hate America is around election time, when the stupidest candidates for President get picked and Americans eat them up.



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29 Dec 2010, 9:03 am

FederationJunkie wrote:
Being one of what seems to be a dying breed of patriots these days, I find it nothing less than appalling when people say that "we shouldn't have the freedoms we have" or "this country is dying because we have too much freedom." My question is: what the hell happened??? Since when is freedom such a bad thing? Since when have the ideals of self-reliance, individualism, and limited government become invalid? Why does everybody assume that people can't take care of themselves, and the government needs to do that for them? And by far the worst part about all this is that nobody seems to care. In fact, the mere mention of politics or other such things seems to make people cover their ears and sing to themselves. Am I the only person left who realizes these problems? Fellow patriots, let your voice be heard!


I see it as this....

The flip side of freedom is individual responsibility. When society demonizes individual responsibility (as America has at large), people become uncontrolled and the concept of freedom becomes a bad thing. People with no self-control should not be allowed to do whatever they desire...it results in chaos.

Hence why so many Americans are willing to sacrifice individual freedoms for "security" against the large number of people with no sense of self-control.



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29 Dec 2010, 10:56 am

The U.S. is in danger of dying because we have too little freedom.

Too much Nanny Government.

ruveyn