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Since 2001-9-11, US citizens have been asking Why do they hate us so much? For most US citizens, this is a rhetorical question. They don't really want to know why. They just want to voice their belief that they are the best country in the world and have never done anything wrong. On the contrary, so they believe, they have been the most generous and helpful country in the world. Unfortunately, the facts are quite different. The USA is very good at media manipulation. Their propaganda techniques would have made Goebbels faint with delight. The USA has helped the world, but just as often, they have helped themselves -- to the resources and well-being of the world. US foreign policy is openly based completely on national self-interest, not international cooperation. The only kind of cooperation the USA understands is one-way cooperation where other countries cooperate with the USA. Other countries must do what the USA requires or be punished by what is euphemistically called linkage, which means punishment for disobeying orders.
Having good advertising/propaganda technique is not in itself a bad thing, but it does mean that US citizens can't see the world clearly from within their own environment. The USA is in many ways an excellent country. The problem is that this is so often at cost to the rest of the world, both in wealth and lives. State-of-the-art media manipulation ensures that most US citizens don't know what is being done in their name. US Americans are given the mushroom treatment by their government and media, but this does not exonerate them from the responsibility to seek the facts for themselves.
As the saying goes, whoever discovered water wasn't a fish. It is impossible for most US residents to be aware of what is going on at a global scale. You have to get out of the pond to see the water. You have to get out of the palace to understand the feelings on the street.
Americans genuinely don't understand how much evil they do because they have a blind spot for their own country's evil.
The United States sees world issues with one eye closed. US citizens see only what is good about themselves and their client states and what is bad in others. But they should open the other eye too - and see the evil in themselves and the good in others.
About 3000 innocent civilians were killed on 2001-9-11. This is a tiny token compared the suffering inflicted on the world by the USA. (Perhaps I should mention that the murder rate by guns in the USA is about 110 per million per annum, or about 30,000 per annum for the whole country. So the deaths on 2001-9-11 equalled a typical 5 weeks of murders in the USA.) [PS. 2005-1-7: The USA has killed about 150,000 people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001-9-11. That's a 50-to-1 revenge ratio.]
In the USA, it is said that the terrorists hate the democracy and freedom of the USA and the West. This is complete garbage. Anyone with more than 5 neurons working in their brain knows that this is garbage. People worldwide admire the good things of the USA and hate the bad things. US citizens must do some homework to find out what crimes, barbarism and atrocities are committed in their name. It's the same old story - the people are good, but the government is bad. The difference in a democracy is that the people choose their government (at least in theory). So in a democracy, the people are responsible for the crimes and evil of their government. People who trumpet the virtues of their democracy should remember that they are responsible for the crimes of their government. There are so many good people in the USA, isn't it a shame they're not running the country. The USA has built up a deep reservoir of hate against it. The reservoir of hate has become much deeper since 2001-9-11. Sometimes the dam wall breaks a little. But if the USA does not open its eyes soon, the dam wall will burst wide open and unleash the entire reservoir. The suicide hijackings are just the first in a series of anti-USA actions which are sure to continue. If you whip an angry lion, it does not lie down and roll over. A country which has a shoot'em up approach to world politics should not be surprised when some of their victims take the same attitude. Since the USA has been terrorizing the world for the last 100 years, they can't be surprised if a little terror blows back at them. If the USA continues to treat other countries of the world as provinces which need to be suppressed, they could soon find that no US citizen will be safe without bodyguards in almost any part of the world.
Americans don't care for the why, they just care for what actually is.
I believe I was once told that we are doing the world a favor and saving their souls from their primitive ways and that like teaching children, the "primitive" countries will struggle against the "good" ways of (faux)democracy, freedom, and Christianity until their eyes open.
Not my words. But it sure brings some things into perspective.
Because they don't want to understand. To understand it would be to acknowledge that a zealous religion wants us dead and will do anything to see that happen ~ it would require accepting that this Republican president was right in his efforts to protect this country and what she stands for...
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,330 posts, read 54,400,252 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sooner_Nation_60
Because they don't want to understand. To understand it would be to acknowledge that a zealous religion wants us dead and will do anything to see that happen ~ it would require accepting that this Republican president was right in his efforts to protect this country and what she stands for...
If by "zealous religion" you mean Islam and if by "wants us dead" you include all Muslims I hope you've taken the time to warn Congress that there is one among them who wants them dead.
If by "zealous religion" you mean Islam and if by "wants us dead" you include all Muslims I hope you've taken the time to warn Congress that there is one among them who wants them dead.
Agreed, take that "ONE" big mistake out of the equation and we've solved more than half the problem.
Because they don't want to understand. To understand it would be to acknowledge that a zealous religion wants us dead and will do anything to see that happen ~ it would require accepting that this Republican president was right in his efforts to protect this country and what she stands for...
This is the official Bush administration (and right wing talk radio) propaganda. Both have been distributing paranoia pills by the bucketful, which work very well among the gullible.
None of the current policies from the Bush administration show any cooperation with the world, and least of all, any fairness towards muslims or arabs.
Like all other nations upon this planet our country is also not infallible. It would benefit everyone if Americans used their own brains to formulate their views, instead of merely repeating (as tape recorders) the propaganda fed to them.
i do agree that it is easier to just not understand. it is easier to just say they hate us for our freedom and leave it at that.
western civilization as a whole sees themselves as neutral bystanders in the changing world. we see ourselves as just being the victim of change. and the only time we do acknowledge that we change the world is when we hear about the warm and fuzzy crap. we never see the negative change we make in the world, we never see how our choices and lifestyles effect more people than just us. and thus it is simply easier to believe that countries hate us for no reason other than religion.
but what can you expect from a country that was founded on freedom and slavery at the same time or that paints a picture of columbus being a hero? or a country that can't and wont realize the difference between Muslims and Arabs and lumps them all into the same pile? what can you expect from a country that thinks they can operate on free convenience without responsibility? Americans as a whole are ignorant pampas pansies with a small penis complex and a mountain of denial.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,330 posts, read 54,400,252 times
Reputation: 40736
Quote:
Originally Posted by GracieJJ
Agreed, take that "ONE" big mistake out of the equation and we've solved more than half the problem.
Yup, we have a record of allowing hysteria to trump fact. Why stop now?
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