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(I see you don't understand the term potential. I was proud of my nephew when he still in diapers and couldn't speak. I was not proud because he pooped his pants every ten seconds. I was proud at the fact that he has the potential to have a good life. I'm also proud at aspects of the US. When I was dating this one girl, I liked certain parts of her and didn't care for other parts. You don't toss the baby with the bath water).
But doesn't every country have potential? Doesn't Iran even have potential? If all it takes for someone to be proud of something is "potential", then shouldn't everyone be proud of everything and everywhere? And then wouldn't being "proud" at all be meaningless?
What do you think being proud is supposed to mean?
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(No. It's called equality. Americans chastise atheists. Some people tend to state that when this is pointed out, it is anti-religious...hmm...thanks for making my point. Notice, I didn't say ANYTHING anti-religious. Obama's religiosity has been questioned too many times to count (as well as Clinton's).)
Did you not read your words? You said that Americans laud people of blind faith and chastise "critical thinking atheists". Do you not understand the meaning of that statement? First, you are generalizing Americans, because if Americans really did what you believe, there would be no Bill Maher. Yes, there are some Americans who would rather remain ignorant, and whom attempt to silence anyone who opposes their beliefs and values. But those people exist on all sides of every issue.
If you want to know who gets "chastised" for their views. Ask yourself, who do you think sees the other side with a more hateful and condescending attitude, theists or atheists? In my experience atheists tend to carry this "I'm better than everyone else" vibe. Whom love to point their fingers while throwing insults such as "ignorant, childish, superstitious, silly, or plain stupid". I don't see the inverse often at all.
Your real complaint is that you simply don't believe in god, and you are tired of the "religious majority" trying to shove their beliefs down your throat. But you seem to be oblivious to the behavior of a great number of atheists. And again, a great example of that attitude can be summed up in Bill Maher, who holds a great amount of disdain for religion in any form.
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(Did I say that. You do know what examples are? Correct?)
What are examples? You made the statement that Americans say they are compassionate, but they don't provide free college or free healthcare(so they must be hypocrites?). Which I think is silly, because I doubt you think some of my examples are necessary for a country to be considered "compassionate". But others will believe those programs are necessary for compassion(and there are already many private charities trying to offer the things that I mentioned).
What you are trying to do is define whatever you want to do as "compassionate", and people who don't agree with you as "incompassionate". But who gets to decide what compassionate is and what it isn't? Would all people consider your perfect society as being "compassionate enough"? Probably not.
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Sorry if I'm not a sheep? Seriously, please spend a little more time reading the posts so I don't waste my time. It's only common courtesy. I didn't even bother responding to many of your points, because it's painfully obvious that you only wanted to read what you wanted to read.
Sorry if you aren't a sheep? What is that supposed to mean in this context? A sheep being something that follows others without question? I don't think you should blindly follow either your government or religion, but I find your statements to be far too biased. With basically zero facts to back up your drivel.
You are basically doing the same things you are complaining about, but in the way you agree with.
Look over what I said, did I say anything to defend religion or America? No. Why would I? But I also don't sound like a hypocrite, one second complaining about how much I hate America, then the next second making the claim that I love it and I'm proud of it. You aren't going to win any brownie points with me by lying.
Pretty much every country in the developed world has freedom of speech and religion, far greater accessibility to higher education, and the US actually rates pretty poorly with regards to social mobility.
America has been steadily on the decline with regards to infrastructure, social mobility and income equality, health, education, and pretty much every metric of civilised society, yet the people who make the most noise about being patriotic, the type of reactionaries in this thread, don't seem to care at all. Further, they take offense that anyone might dare to document this decline. With friends like that...
Good points, but most of the world is not developed. I've have worked in jobs and attended classes where many people came from undeveloped, and even developed countries for the opportunities here that don't exist where they live. (Africa, Germany, Russia, Poland, Ireland, England...)
I'll absolutely agree that mobility and etc has declined drastically in the last two decades. I've been out of work for 2 years, so I am well aware of those problems. And many people DO care. Perhaps you don't realize that just 40 years ago, someone like me would not have been able to go to college (working class woman).
We have a LOT of problems. It doesn't mean we can't overcome them and get back on track.
But doesn't every country have potential? Doesn't Iran even have potential? If all it takes for someone to be proud of something is "potential", then shouldn't everyone be proud of everything and everywhere? And then wouldn't being "proud" at all be meaningless?
What do you think being proud is supposed to mean?
Did you not read your words? You said that Americans laud people of blind faith and chastise "critical thinking atheists". Do you not understand the meaning of that statement? First, you are generalizing Americans, because if Americans really did what you believe, there would be no Bill Maher. Yes, there are some Americans who would rather remain ignorant, and whom attempt to silence anyone who opposes their beliefs and values. But those people exist on all sides of every issue.
If you want to know who gets "chastised" for their views. Ask yourself, who do you think sees the other side with a more hateful and condescending attitude, theists or atheists? In my experience atheists tend to carry this "I'm better than everyone else" vibe. Whom love to point their fingers while throwing insults such as "ignorant, childish, superstitious, silly, or plain stupid". I don't see the inverse often at all.
Your real complaint is that you simply don't believe in god, and you are tired of the "religious majority" trying to shove their beliefs down your throat. But you seem to be oblivious to the behavior of a great number of atheists. And again, a great example of that attitude can be summed up in Bill Maher, who holds a great amount of disdain for religion in any form.
What are examples? You made the statement that Americans say they are compassionate, but they don't provide free college or free healthcare(so they must be hypocrites?). Which I think is silly, because I doubt you think some of my examples are necessary for a country to be considered "compassionate". But others will believe those programs are necessary for compassion(and there are already many private charities trying to offer the things that I mentioned).
What you are trying to do is define whatever you want to do as "compassionate", and people who don't agree with you as "incompassionate". But who gets to decide what compassionate is and what it isn't? Would all people consider your perfect society as being "compassionate enough"? Probably not.
Sorry if you aren't a sheep? What is that supposed to mean in this context? A sheep being something that follows others without question? I don't think you should blindly follow either your government or religion, but I find your statements to be far too biased. With basically zero facts to back up your drivel.
You are basically doing the same things you are complaining about, but in the way you agree with.
Look over what I said, did I say anything to defend religion or America? No. Why would I? But I also don't sound like a hypocrite, one second complaining about how much I hate America, then the next second making the claim that I love it and I'm proud of it. You aren't going to win any brownie points with me by lying.
Pretty much every country in the developed world has freedom of speech and religion, far greater accessibility to higher education, and the US actually rates pretty poorly with regards to social mobility.
America has been steadily on the decline with regards to infrastructure, social mobility and income equality, health, education, and pretty much every metric of civilised society, yet the people who make the most noise about being patriotic, the type of reactionaries in this thread, don't seem to care at all. Further, they take offense that anyone might dare to document this decline. With friends like that...
As a kid, I kinda sorta bought the whole jingoism thing about the heroic Founding Fathers, and One Nation Under God, and all that. I never really got emotional during the National Anthem or anything, just seemed like a tradition, but I never really thought much of it.
The older I get (I'm only 21 btw), the more and more I realize most of what we consider great about America is either not true at all or isn't true in this day and age. The reality is, America is not all that free compared to a lot of countries, you can't really do anything without a permit and multiple forms of ID, pot is still illegal, the media, while technically free, is dominated by the mainstream media to the point that the influence of the alternative media is permitted only because it is not influential in comparison, we have more people in jail than any country in the world because we believe in revenge and not in rehabilitation and treatment, it costs a fortune to rent, to the point that poor people can't even live in some states.
Americans are basically raised to believe the outside world is still living in the 1800s at the latest and the stone age in many places. Most Americans have no idea that western Europe and much of Asia is far more modern in infrastructure than most of the States are, and ignore the fact that places like New Orleans are practically third world and even though we don't chop off people's hands like a few Middle Eastern countries do, we do still use the death penalty even though countries like Turkey have even gotten rid of it and put people in jail for decades for relatively minor crimes such as drug offenses. Not to mention a very large percentage of Americans probably believe the world is 6,000 years old and that evolution is a myth.
American idealism is a strange brew of Christianity, materialism, and individualism. Religion without spirituality, Christ without the compassion. Everything is about individual rights even though the average American loves to complain about how irresponsible people unlike themselves are.
Americans are the most submissive to authority people ever. Americans demand swift and cold justice to all evil-doers, unless they wear a suit, then they deserve our scorn but otherwise deserve to get off scott-free. Americans believe being in the Army automatically makes you a hero, even if you kill innocent people in other countries for fun. We constantly re-elect the same types of people into office even though they never do us any good, because we believe that strongly in the good of the status quo.
Americans would rather let people with cancer just die than have universal healthcare. Hard work is valued infinitely over having a good time; that's why most Americans only get 3 weeks off their job the WHOLE FREAKING YEAR.
I thought only a certain type of American (ie, a redneck) was super-patriotic and jingoistic, but I've come to discover a vast majority of my people basically think we're superior to everyone else.
Stop kidding yourselves guys - we are not the light of the world. Not anymore at least.
Wisdom doesn't always follow with age. You don't think there's seniors out there who are still idiots?
Absolutely. However, in general, MOST persons who have lived 40+ years have a certain amount of experience, youth cannot equate with. Its very easy to say what will and what won't occur. Its alot different, when you've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt (an issue school falls flat on the ground, however that is another thread).
As a kid, I kinda sorta bought the whole jingoism thing about the heroic Founding Fathers, and One Nation Under God, and all that. I never really got emotional during the National Anthem or anything, just seemed like a tradition, but I never really thought much of it.
The older I get (I'm only 21 btw), the more and more I realize most of what we consider great about America is either not true at all or isn't true in this day and age. The reality is, America is not all that free compared to a lot of countries, you can't really do anything without a permit and multiple forms of ID, pot is still illegal, the media, while technically free, is dominated by the mainstream media to the point that the influence of the alternative media is permitted only because it is not influential in comparison, we have more people in jail than any country in the world because we believe in revenge and not in rehabilitation and treatment, it costs a fortune to rent, to the point that poor people can't even live in some states.
Americans are basically raised to believe the outside world is still living in the 1800s at the latest and the stone age in many places. Most Americans have no idea that western Europe and much of Asia is far more modern in infrastructure than most of the States are, and ignore the fact that places like New Orleans are practically third world and even though we don't chop off people's hands like a few Middle Eastern countries do, we do still use the death penalty even though countries like Turkey have even gotten rid of it and put people in jail for decades for relatively minor crimes such as drug offenses. Not to mention a very large percentage of Americans probably believe the world is 6,000 years old and that evolution is a myth.
American idealism is a strange brew of Christianity, materialism, and individualism. Religion without spirituality, Christ without the compassion. Everything is about individual rights even though the average American loves to complain about how irresponsible people unlike themselves are.
Americans are the most submissive to authority people ever. Americans demand swift and cold justice to all evil-doers, unless they wear a suit, then they deserve our scorn but otherwise deserve to get off scott-free. Americans believe being in the Army automatically makes you a hero, even if you kill innocent people in other countries for fun. We constantly re-elect the same types of people into office even though they never do us any good, because we believe that strongly in the good of the status quo.
Americans would rather let people with cancer just die than have universal healthcare. Hard work is valued infinitely over having a good time; that's why most Americans only get 3 weeks off their job the WHOLE FREAKING YEAR.
I thought only a certain type of American (ie, a redneck) was super-patriotic and jingoistic, but I've come to discover a vast majority of my people basically think we're superior to everyone else.
Stop kidding yourselves guys - we are not the light of the world. Not anymore at least.
I appreciate your passion, but your post is full of contradictions. You complain about Americans being submissive to authority, but advocate a system of universal healthcare which is submitting 16% of our economy to authority. There are other contradictions which tell me that you are beginning to sort out your views, which is a good thing, but more thought is required.
I appreciate your passion, but your post is full of contradictions. You complain about Americans being submissive to authority, but advocate a system of universal healthcare which is submitting 16% of our economy to authority. There are other contradictions which tell me that you are beginning to sort out your views, which is a good thing, but more thought is required.
There are indeed some flaws in the OP's reasoning, but that's really not one of them, unless you think that privatization frees our citizenry and economy from authority. It's just switching out one group of wealthy, powerful administrators for another group, a group who are even less accountable.
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