greengeek wrote:
Do you think that the United States is evil? I call the United States evil, as they can get away with things that other countries can't get away with. An example of that are medical experiments conducted without the populations knowledge or consent. They did things that the Japanese and Germans did and didn't even compensate or tell the victims. I also call the United States evil as the government can get away with abusing it's citizens, and making it harder for people to get evidence and a fair trial against them.
You err in assuming that other countries don't so such things, when in reality, they do. You are simply ignorant to them, and those countries tend to have less transparency than the US, relying on NGO's to report ethics breaches and atrocities instead.
That you view the US as having less than desirable ethics and morals is actually a result of the high ethics and morals that permeate American mentalities. You see instances of corruption committed by your country, and you respond with a strong sense of revulsion and criticism because they are counter to the values instilled in you.
In many countries, corruption and poor treatment of others is tolerated because it is so endemic and permeates society so thoroughly that few people see anything wrong with it or care to put in any effort to do anything about it. That is how corrupt or low their standards are.
As of 2010, the US ranked 22nd on the Corruptions Perceptions Index out of over 178 countries, with Denmark being the least corrupt and Somalia (though it has no officially recognized formal government) being the most corrupt.
So the US isn't perfect but it's certainly not as horrible as you believe it to be. I've crossed paths with many individuals from various countries and many of them were utterly perplexed when they heard Americans talking about how corrupt America was because their own countries were so much more corrupt.
Gedrene wrote:
John_Browning wrote:
There were some medical experiments, there were some nuclear experiments, there were some cloak and dagger activities that aided some really disagreeable people, but it was the price to be paid otherwise we would be having this conversation in Russian if we were even authorized to have it at all.
You're absolutely nuts. This conversation in Russian? Also thanks for telling me that you believe that the ends justify the means.
In a more perfect world they wouldn't, but we were stuck trying to hold of a set of foreign policies originally shaped by Stalin, who could care less about moral superiority. We gave that a try in Vietnam and they regularly used that against us, do you remember? Or are you even old enough to know where to begin researching the subject?
Stalin's foreign policy stopped being relevant by the time of the "secret conference" where he was denounced by guys like Khrushchev (mid 50s...). Thus the Chinese and the Soviets split due to this fundamental disagreement. The USSR wasn't as evil as most people seem to think, since they were using the same justifications you just wrote about the United States using. They were not a "nice" country, or a "free" country, but cold war era propaganda is really irrelevant if you read into the bigger situation. They were as afraid of the US as the US was afraid of them
03 Sep 2011, 11:23 am
