Why do Americans Hate America?
Come on up! That's exactly what I did (for many of the same reasons you cited), and I haven't regretted it once.
but canada has thrown up a very tall wall to block most americans from not only living in canada but from even merely ENTERING canada. 10s of thousands of yanks were turned away at the border when they tried to attend the olympic games a while back.
Hmm... I dunno, then. That hasn't been my experience. I visited Canada four times before moving here (once to Quebec, once to Ontario, and twice to BC), and I wasn't turned away. I even managed to get through college at a Canadian university, and to obtain a work permit. So long as you've got a valid passport, and you're not bringing a truckload of guns or livestock across the border, and you have no history of felony, I can't imagine why there'd be a problem.
100 years ago (1910) there was no such thing as car registration or driver's licenses. (Yes, they had cars)
For that matter they didn't have dog licenses or fishing licenses or gun licenses.
You could walk into any gun shop and buy a pistol over the counter.
You could walk into any Drug Store and buy opium or cocaine or hemp oil.
You could walk into any bank and start an account in the name of Bill Smith.
You could wear a six-gun on your hip and a Bowie knife on your other hip.
You could cross the road wherever you wanted without some fool giving you a ticket for jay walking.
You could spank your kids without Social Services taking them away and jailing you.
Come to think of it they didn't have Income Tax either.
Even in Iraq under Saddam Hussein any person could walk into a gun shop and buy a fully automatic AK-47.
Tell us again how free we are?
I can't tell if you're being serious or facetious about this. There's a reason driver's licenses, background checks for gun owners, and the prohibition on selling certain drugs over-the-counter were put into place. There are just some people who shouldn't be given automatic access to those things, for the sake of public safety.
auntblabby
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if you have so much as a traffic infraction on your record, that is a no-no as car as canadian immigration authorities are concerned. 10s of thousands of american olympics fans were turned away at the border, during the recent olympic games in vancouver, for similar reasons.
No, I am not being facetious. Let's say that settlers to the New World started turning up around the year 1500. From there to the year 1900 is 400 years.
During that time they never saw fit to restrict the ownership of guns or to stop people using opium or hemp. So why now?
I am a Baby Boomer. I got a BB gun when I was eight years old. Many boys were given .22 rifles when they were 10 or 12 years old.
We used to be able to buy fireworks and very powerful firecrackers and we had a lot of fun with them. My father gave me my grandfather's pocket knife when I was nine years old.
Now in Australia owning a BB gun is a $1000 fine. Owning a pocket knife or even a slingshot is a $1000 fine. Fireworks are totally banned.
So is the latest generation so totally pathetic and stupid that they need a license to wipe their own noses?
No, I am not being facetious. Let's say that settlers to the New World started turning up around the year 1500. From there to the year 1900 is 400 years.
During that time they never saw fit to restrict the ownership of guns or to stop people using opium or hemp. So why now?
I am a Baby Boomer. I got a BB gun when I was eight years old. Many boys were given .22 rifles when they were 10 or 12 years old.
We used to be able to buy fireworks and very powerful firecrackers and we had a lot of fun with them. My father gave me my grandfather's pocket knife when I was nine years old.
Now in Australia owning a BB gun is a $1000 fine. Owning a pocket knife or even a slingshot is a $1000 fine. Fireworks are totally banned.
So is the latest generation so totally pathetic and stupid that they need a license to wipe their own noses?
And how do the housewives and chefs manage to prepare food without knives?
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?
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?
The USA is a very powerful and energetic country with much positive and much negative in its motivations and accomplishments. There is nothing wrong with assessing what is right and what is wrong and criticizing its faults.
auntblabby
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auntblabby
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Joined: 12 Feb 2010
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Posts: 115,276
Location: the island of defective toy santas
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?
as a non-american, maybe you should try living in a country with no affordable healthcare! any person with half a noodle can see america's good points, so get a clue and realize that americans have a right to complain among themselves about the abundant bad points as well. if you don't like americans complaining about their problems, then that is unfortunate, but this is our affair.
Last edited by auntblabby on 30 Oct 2010, 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
auntblabby
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i don't hate america as a nation, i just hate the rightist bullies being given full rein running roughshod over the rest of us, and am exercising my right as an american citizen to complain about it. i have just as much a vote in what goes on in this great nation as you do, whether you like it or not. "sufficiently decent folk" come in all persuasions, 'cept for bullies.
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.
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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
I laud those people who can point out the flaws of their own nation, and suggest practical reforms on a rational manner.
What I can't stand is these Americans I encounter online and in real life, literally moaning about how America is really the worst nation on the planet, and then go out of their way to appease foreign elements that are undermining their own and other Western societies. It's sickening.
