[DrBang]

For decades now the US has been pulling some amazingly bad sh*t on the rest of the world. The rest of the world has let it go because it was all too hard to do anything about it. Now the rest of the world is being forced to see things as they really are.

Time to act I guess. Time to pay the piper and fess up. I would like to hear some thoughts of those here on what a full accountability statement would include. I would be interested in hearing about it all. Let em have it!
Dr Bang

[Jotapay]

This is going to be a long list. Are you trying to break the internet?

But to be fair, the rest of the world have been dirty rotten scoundrels to each other every chance they have gotten as well.

[la2al2tex]

Are you an "enemy of freedom"?

[Snowrunner]

This is going to be a long list. Are you trying to break the internet? But to be fair, the rest of the world have been dirty rotten scoundrels to each other every chance they have gotten as well.

Yep. There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" nation, or "good" or "bad" business. All of these constructs exist as an object of opportunity.

[la2al2tex]

Would we be posting these messages now were it not for the loathsome offensive brute?

[AlexdeLarge]

I ,for one, welcome our new China overlord! LOL

[DrBang]

This is going to be a long list. Are you trying to break the internet?

No doubt. I subscribe to the model where all countries interact at a geopolitical level behind what is seen in mainstream media. The US has gone farther than most others in living memory. The worst may well be the British.

I also find it interesting that at a point, all conspiracy theories merge into one picture.

[DrBang]

Are you an "enemy of freedom"?

This made me laugh out loud and wake up my daughter. Thanks for the smiles.

[Zardoz]

Are you an "enemy of freedom"?

Sounds like it. Maybe he needs a personal regime change. Perhaps we should bring democracy and freedom into his living room, especially if he has any oil under his house.

[vtsnowedin]

This is going to be a long list. Are you trying to break the internet?

No doubt. I subscribe to the model where all countries interact at a geopolitical level behind what is seen in mainstream media.The US has gone farther than most others in living memory. The worst may well be the British.
I also find it interesting that at a point, all conspiracy theories merge into one picture.

Quite right, Quite right, The citizens of Zimbabwe are so much better off now that the bloody British have given up the colony.

[mos6507]

Ah, I thought this thread was going to be dedicated to Tor Johnson.

[DrBang]

I find it curious the disparity of how Americans see their country and how the rest of the world see it.

[burtonridr]

I find it curious the disparity of how Americans see their country and how the rest of the world see it.

I have always wondered how you (the rest of the world) see it, care to explain?

[jasonraymondson]

I live in a big international community and I use to live in a building for internation students working with them and helping them acclimate to this country. 99% of them seen america as the great land of opportunity.


Unless they were from europe and then they just spent their time making fun of americans for being fat and lazy.

[threadbear]

Would we be posting these messages now were it not for the loathsome offensive brute?

This is a moral argument, not one about technocratic triumphalism, though in the US, distinctions between business success in any area, and morality often get confused, or are inextricably linked in the collective mind. Thank you for providing a clear example of the utter loathsomeness that defines your country, internationally, and why your kind must be firmly anchored in the muddy waters of moral bottom feeders.

[efarmer]

"Its a loathsome offensive brute, yet I can't look away.."

I remember hearing this exact phrase come from the
bride's side of the church during my wedding. Hearing
it again after all these years makes old efarmer moist
in the peepers.

* edited because old efarmer in the throes of an emo
meltdown botched his own name

[Specop_007]

I find it curious the disparity of how Americans see their country and how the rest of the world see it.

If only you knew what Americans thought of the Continent of Criminals.....

Admittedly I've heard theres a lot of redheads down there, and I do love redheads.....

[threadbear]

I find it curious the disparity of how Americans see their country and how the rest of the world see it.

If only you knew what Americans thought of the Continent of Criminals.....

Most can't find it on a map.

[Snowrunner]

I find it curious the disparity of how Americans see their country and how the rest of the world see it.

I have always wondered how you (the rest of the world) see it, care to explain?

Ugh that would be a book in and on itself, but let me try to paint a picture in very very broad strokes.

• A land with a lot of promises that was sold down the river by the supposedly non existing elite.
• Public opinion being "fabricated" by the non-existing "intellectual" elite.
• As a whole, anti intellectual. Complex issues are only complex because the other person is trying to confuse the "average" American. (I do give the average American a bit more credit, but it seems that most people have swallowed that line hook line and sinker).
• Optimistic to a degree that it at times crosses the line into naivete.
• Not "looking back" only "forward". Which results in a lot of repeated mistakes that could have been avoided.
• Thick and thin skinned (as a society) at the same time.

A lot of the "image" that America projects is through it's media and all that it entails. The reality on the Ground is quite different, I have lived and travelled through the US quite a bit in a decade and a half and my personal feeling is one of disappointment. What I thought the US was and what the reality is were two different things.

The Russians (supposely) had the Potemkin Villages to show the Czar just how well his people where off, which lead to the revolution. The US has Disney Land.... True to it's founding fathers, it's not the ones in power who are deceived but the populance and I think even those who know don't dare to open the door to that nice looking house, afraid of what they may really find there.

But to be clear: Every country is self deceiving. We all have an image of ourselves that mostly is much nicer than reality.

And finally: Most Americans I have met in person are nice people, even the "vaunted" Republicans (I had to do a business roadtrip with one in my last job for two weeks), but there is also a high-degree of self denial going on, I think the more dire the situation for the individual the harder they squeeze their eyes and push the fingers into their ears, but that's human too.

[threadbear]

Dr. Bang, I have to give equal time for my loathing of the Canadian self image. "We are so nice. We always do the right thing. We never raise our voices and our children are all above average". It's like Lake Woebegone, from coast to coast! I make me sick, I tell you!