Things you dislike about your country.

Page 2 of 27 [ 431 posts ] Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 27 Next

Previous topic | Next topic

Lord_Gareth
Velociraptor

Joined: 20 Feb 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 440

01 Jun 2012, 5:41 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Lord_Gareth wrote:

There's not a lot I can say that I legitimately like about the U.S.A, since it mostly represents the logical consequences of certain freedoms being treated as absolute (freedom of speech enables holocaust deniers, for example). With that being said, there are a few things I feel could legitimately be worked on:

.

Individualism still lives in the U.S.A. in spite of the efforts of government to quash it.

The right to free speech is the right to make unpleasant speech. Pleasant agreeable speech needs no protection. Speech that grates and offends, does.

ruveyn

...My first sentence should've read 'legitimately dislike', not 'legitimately like'. Man that's humiliating >.< I was acknowledging that the freedoms I cherish enable most of the speech/expression I happen to dislike.

_________________
Et in Arcadia ego. - "Even in Arcadia, there am I."

ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 89
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

01 Jun 2012, 5:55 pm

TM wrote:

1. Government invading the private sphere.
2. Politicians who no longer represent the agenda of their voters but the agenda of their party.
3. Too much bureaucracy and too much incompetent bureaucracy.
4. Conformity being overvalued.

These apply to several nations of the world.

ruveyn

Declension
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 20 Jan 2012
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,807

01 Jun 2012, 6:00 pm

ruveyn wrote:

One of the most bewildering things about US culture is the discrepancy between its claim to be the most free nation on earth and the actual tendency for its freedoms to be roughly the same as any other Western country, if not a little worse. I remember that during my travels in America, I could not believe the extent to which the government bleeps out vulgarity on TV. And I recently discovered that prostitution isn't even legal there!

Lord_Gareth
Velociraptor

Joined: 20 Feb 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 440

01 Jun 2012, 6:03 pm

Declension wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

Hey, hey! We've got THREE states with various kinds of legalized prostitution!

That said, three is way too few T_T

_________________
Et in Arcadia ego. - "Even in Arcadia, there am I."

Declension
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 20 Jan 2012
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,807

01 Jun 2012, 6:09 pm

Lord_Gareth wrote:

Hey, hey! We've got THREE states with various kinds of legalized prostitution!

That said, three is way too few T_T

In fairness, I think that in some sense the US does actually have the most liberal free speech law in the world. But it's tempered by the fact that the US recently invented "Free Speech Zones". So you can say more stuff, but in fewer places.

Raptor
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,997
Location: Southeast U.S.A.

01 Jun 2012, 9:00 pm

Lord_Gareth wrote:

Raptor wrote:

These come to mind right off but not necessarily in this order.

Not enough national pride/patriotism.
Unstable economy.
Too much reliance on world market and foreign industry.
Too many liberals (more than 0 is way too many).
Too much greed/ selfishness.
Not a firm enough hand in diplomacy.
Not enough industry.
Too much of a nanny state.

You find nothing inherently ironic or comedic about being an american conservative and then bitching about greed?

Liberals are very generous but only with other people's money. In my experience conservatives tend to be more generous when they have a choice whether to give or not to a charitable cause.

Raptor
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,997
Location: Southeast U.S.A.

01 Jun 2012, 9:10 pm

Lord_Gareth wrote:

There's not a lot I can say that I legitimately dislike about the U.S.A, since it mostly represents the logical consequences of certain freedoms being treated as absolute (freedom of speech enables holocaust deniers, for example). With that being said, there are a few things I feel could legitimately be worked on:

1. Education is undervalued, underfunded, and run on obsolete systems whose worth continues to plummet daily.

2. Culturally, many citizens of the U.S.A. are content to be ignorant and to dismiss facts as irrelevant or as being part of a conspiracy without engaging in their own sourced research.

3. Food, water, shelter, and medicine are treated as commodities to be purchased instead of basic human rights. Those too poor to purchase these things for themselves are metaphorically or literally left to die.

4. American Exceptionalism, full frakkin' stop.

EDIT: Fixed horrible spelling error.

Since you've seen fit to attack my list let's have a go at a few of your grievances.

Quote:

3. Food, water, shelter, and medicine are treated as commodities to be purchased instead of basic human rights. Those too poor to purchase these things for themselves are metaphorically or literally left to die.

Food, shelter, and medicine ARE commodities since it takes money to produce them, believe it or not. Water you can get from a public fountain.

Quote:

4. American Exceptionalism, full frakkin' stop.

Spoken like a true Stalinist.
I can assure you American Exceptionalism won't stop with me. In fact I'll probably practice it more now that you've reminded me how wonderful it is.

I could hack into items 1 and 2 but 3 and 4 needed it first.

Lord_Gareth
Velociraptor

Joined: 20 Feb 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 440

01 Jun 2012, 9:39 pm

Raptor wrote:

Lord_Gareth wrote:

Since you've seen fit to attack my list let's have a go at a few of your grievances.

Quote:

Food, shelter, and medicine ARE commodities since it takes money to produce them, believe it or not. Water you can get from a public fountain.

Quote:

4. American Exceptionalism, full frakkin' stop.

Law enforcement, water filtration, government offices and other public services available free (or practically free thanks to subsidy) to the public also cost money. That argument doesn't hold water for me. As far as American Exceptionalism goes, the big questions are: A. What the hell makes us so much more special than anyone else? B. And how does that grant us any kind of moral right over the remainder of the planet?

(I'll give you a hint: we aren't, and it doesn't. It's the same kind of arrogance that the English practiced during the height of their empire, and the Romans during theirs.)

_________________
Et in Arcadia ego. - "Even in Arcadia, there am I."

Raptor
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,997
Location: Southeast U.S.A.

01 Jun 2012, 10:10 pm

Lord_Gareth wrote:

Raptor wrote:

Lord_Gareth wrote:

Since you've seen fit to attack my list let's have a go at a few of your grievances.

Quote:

Food, shelter, and medicine ARE commodities since it takes money to produce them, believe it or not. Water you can get from a public fountain.

Quote:

4. American Exceptionalism, full frakkin' stop.

Quote:

Law enforcement, water filtration, government offices and other public services available free (or practically free thanks to subsidy) to the public also cost money.

Those and others are standard services. Merchandise, personal services, and property are not.

Quote:

And how does that grant us any kind of moral right over the remainder of the planet?

This:

Last edited by Raptor on 01 Jun 2012, 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AstroGeek
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 28 Jan 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,582

01 Jun 2012, 10:31 pm

Raptor wrote:

Quote:

And how does that grant us any kind of moral right over the remainder of the planet?

This:

That is the argument of "Might makes right." It you can do what you want because you have the guns to back it up. There is nothing moral about it.

Lord_Gareth
Velociraptor

Joined: 20 Feb 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 440

01 Jun 2012, 10:51 pm

AstroGeek wrote:

Raptor wrote:

Quote:

And how does that grant us any kind of moral right over the remainder of the planet?

This:

That is the argument of "Might makes right." It you can do what you want because you have the guns to back it up. There is nothing moral about it.

Pretty much. The inability of anyone else to stop you doesn't give you the moral high ground, and it doesn't give us the right or responsibility to try and act as the 'moral police' of the entire fraggin' planet.

_________________
Et in Arcadia ego. - "Even in Arcadia, there am I."

John_Browning
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,456
Location: The shooting range

01 Jun 2012, 10:57 pm

Lord_Gareth wrote:

Most of the world makes those claims about us...until they or the UN want us to be the world's yard duty somewhere again. :wink:

_________________
"Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars."
- Unknown

"A fear of weapons is a sign of ret*d sexual and emotional maturity."
-Sigmund Freud

Raptor
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,997
Location: Southeast U.S.A.

01 Jun 2012, 11:14 pm

Lord_Gareth wrote:

AstroGeek wrote:

Raptor wrote:

Quote:

And how does that grant us any kind of moral right over the remainder of the planet?

This:

That is the argument of "Might makes right." It you can do what you want because you have the guns to back it up. There is nothing moral about it.

Do you have your heads buried in the sand or is it just denial of how the world actually works?
And I can assure you the world will continue to work this way as long as there are people in it.
That being the case, and it IS the case, it's always better to wield the big stick.

snapcap
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 12 Oct 2011
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,328

02 Jun 2012, 12:07 am

Raptor wrote:

It annoys me that people this is a big source of American pride.

It also annoys me that a lot of these people act like there are only two choice to vote for president.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5gXRPXs0PQ[/youtube]

_________________
*some atheist walks outside and picks up stick*

some atheist to stick: "You're like me!"

heavenlyabyss
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 9 Sep 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,393

02 Jun 2012, 5:05 am

The voting system. What bothers me is that half the population votes for a candidate they don't even like. They just vote to feel like they have their duty.

I think I am going to start a campaign urging people to protest our idiotic political system by simply not voting. Of course, the republicans would all still vote, so it would be a failure.

Far right conservatives bother me a heck of a lot, especially the free speech fanatics. The free speech fanatics should have no qualms with this since I am just representing my freedom of speech.

The fact that people actually give money to people who are campaigning for presdiency. I mean, how stupid can we be? Why encourage such a filthy use of money.

AstroGeek
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 28 Jan 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,582

02 Jun 2012, 6:36 am

Raptor wrote:

:wall:
Do you have your heads buried in the sand or is it just denial of how the world actually works?
And I can assure you the world will continue to work this way as long as there are people in it.
That being the case, and it IS the case, it's always better to wield the big stick.

Whether that is true or not, you were using this as a moral justification. But it is not. At most it is a practical justification.

heavenlyabyss wrote:

I think I am going to start a campaign urging people to protest our idiotic political system by simply not voting. Of course, the republicans would all still vote, so it would be a failure.

It would be far better to urge them to vote for a third party candidate than to urge them not to vote at all.

Page 2 of 27 [ 431 posts ] Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 27 Next

Jump to:

Things you dislike about your country. Post Reply New Topic

Things you dislike about your country.