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Old 08-09-2019, 09:19 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia Pa
1,213 posts, read 955,809 times
Reputation: 1318

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese French Italian View Post
I'm sorry for making this thread political. I know America is a great country. I'm just daydreaming about life elsewhere that's all.
That's fair and I understand - no need to refrain from voicing your discontentment. Free speech after all is a rare allowance around the world, but one that this country holds dear and defends. I respect and support your ability to voice your opinion without being picked up by the government and thrown in a hole without due process (another rare freedom). However, you should considering tempering your verbiage about the country you and your family went, to what I can only imagine was consider trouble, to call home. And, considering you are still here and obviously reaping the many benefits that make this country unique, in my opinion, you should look beyond what you don't like in this country and compare that to other countries around the world. And, in all seriousness, maybe research other countries. It's a truly global planet now and one can pretty much go anywhere one wishes.
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Old 08-09-2019, 10:49 PM
 
52 posts, read 35,334 times
Reputation: 91
Yeah but it's not like I'm just reaping tons of benefits. It's not like America is just handing stuff to me personally. All the hard work my family and I have done to better our lives came from ourselves. It didn't come from "America". America is just where it happened. Therefore I don't credit the state for the life my parents and I have individually worked hard to create.

And ironically much of our fortune comes from doing business in China. But anyways I think America is a good country that has good history but I just don't feel as if I myself embody this identity. Or at least I don't feel like I'm JUST American. Anyways blagh I'm done talking sorry.
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:01 AM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
14,179 posts, read 9,068,877 times
Reputation: 10521
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese French Italian View Post
Yeah but it's not like I'm just reaping tons of benefits. It's not like America is just handing stuff to me personally. All the hard work my family and I have done to better our lives came from ourselves. It didn't come from "America". America is just where it happened. Therefore I don't credit the state for the life my parents and I have individually worked hard to create.

And ironically much of our fortune comes from doing business in China. But anyways I think America is a good country that has good history but I just don't feel as if I myself embody this identity. Or at least I don't feel like I'm JUST American. Anyways blagh I'm done talking sorry.
Oddly enough, some of what you say here gets at one of the big distinctions about this country.

There are a number of countries where the leaders do their darndest to convince the people that everything good in their lives comes from the state.

This is not one of those countries.

However imperfectly we do this, and the contradictions notwithstanding, what happens here is that the people make the country what it is, and the things that are good in their lives come from their efforts (and the efforts of their friends, relatives and neighbors, and those of the larger community).

It may not always be thus in reality, and we do live in a large, complex society that has centers of power that don't work this way, but at heart, this country runs from the bottom up, not the top down.

Oh, and: A lot of us, including many born here, don't see themselves as "just" American. Some consider this a problem. I don't. We have many personalities, many identities, and together they make us what we are - as individuals, as communities, as a country.

I have a reading recommendation for you. It will take a lot of time to read it, and it was written almost 200 years ago, when the country and the society were way different. But the insights in it remain valid and help explain how the country works even today:

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

de Tocqueville was a French nobleman who journeyed around the country in the early decades of the 19th century to determine what makes it tick. He produced two thick volumes that assessed just about every aspect of the society. Still worth reading two centuries after he wrote it.
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:57 AM
 
52 posts, read 35,334 times
Reputation: 91
Thanks I might just go do that. I do agree that it's wrong to put all of America under one box. Since it is just soo big. But anyway thanks for your patience in our conversation.
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Old 08-10-2019, 07:19 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia Pa
1,213 posts, read 955,809 times
Reputation: 1318
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese French Italian View Post
Yeah but it's not like I'm just reaping tons of benefits. It's not like America is just handing stuff to me personally. All the hard work my family and I have done to better our lives came from ourselves. It didn't come from "America". America is just where it happened. Therefore I don't credit the state for the life my parents and I have individually worked hard to create.

And ironically much of our fortune comes from doing business in China. But anyways I think America is a good country that has good history but I just don't feel as if I myself embody this identity. Or at least I don't feel like I'm JUST American. Anyways blagh I'm done talking sorry.
One benefit that immediately comes to mind is that you are actually online. Not so easy to get internet access in China. Even less easy to stay out of jail in China if you visit the “wrong” website.
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Old 08-10-2019, 01:30 PM
 
52 posts, read 35,334 times
Reputation: 91
I'm sorry but I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Lots of 24 hour internet bars in Beijing. You can just keep ordering snacks and stay online forever. And the biggest prison population in the world is in America. https://www.google.com/search?q=coun...hrome&ie=UTF-8
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:08 PM
 
5,955 posts, read 2,878,990 times
Reputation: 7792
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese French Italian View Post
I'm sorry for making this thread political. I know America is a great country. I'm just daydreaming about life elsewhere that's all.
Never feel sorry for what you like
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:10 PM
 
10,787 posts, read 8,759,762 times
Reputation: 3984
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese French Italian View Post
Ok I confess my knowledge of history is MUCH less then yours and so I concede you have a richer understanding of what is "America" and what it stands for.

[some deleted]

To me somewhere more stuck in the past like Boston or Europe just seems easier and calmer.

But I guess everything in moderation. I'm sure the Puritans or Europeans have plenty of dark sides. And I definitely don't blame the Quakers. They don't deserve my diatribe. My main beef was against the revolutionaries and the whole "Give me liberty or give me death!" insanity.
When someone(sounds like you)says the past was calmer or easier you are literally proving that you are 100% clueless about the past that includes stuff like one set of my ancestors being caught in chattel slavery, another set being forced off their lands(lands that they had been on for generations) by the American government and the final set being forced to leave Ireland because they were starving to death. Right. So calm and easy.

Are the people in Hong Kong who have been protesting for weeks insane for wanting liberty from extradition to main land China? American revolutionaries wanted liberty from paying British taxes when the American colonies had no representation in the Brit parliament. Were they insane?

I laughed at Europeans "have plenty of dark sides". Dude, Europeans started two world wars that killed roughly 100 million people. I'm not counting how many were killed wrt the US's war with Japan.
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Old 08-11-2019, 09:23 AM
 
2,041 posts, read 1,523,721 times
Reputation: 1420
I don't know why New York isn't held in the same regard. It's arguably more historical than either one. And if you would say it doesn't really matter because New York isn't known as much for it's history as its present, then I would say I hope Boston's seen as more historical. Philly is too great and modern of a city to be known only for it's history.
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Old 08-11-2019, 09:42 AM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,688,469 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj View Post
I don't know why New York isn't held in the same regard. It's arguably more historical than either one. And if you would say it doesn't really matter because New York isn't known as much for it's history as its present, then I would say I hope Boston's seen as more historical. Philly is too great and modern of a city to be known only for it's history.
Read up on the Revolutionary War. The boroughs that became NYC were Tory strongholds.

After WWII the decision to salvage Society Hill was made. Strict zoning laws got the job done, privately.

City Hall made the decision to push for tourists as the mills closed down and other businesses failed to come in and take up the slack.
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