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Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,926,708 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stizzel
American exceptionalism is lost because it doesn't exist. Were only number on on military spending and imprisonment.
The first solution to solving a problem is realizing there is one. Besides, lets us compare and contrast countries that lean left vs those that lean right. Leftist countries like Australia and Canada and many Nordic countries vs countries that lean right like Somalia, and many limited govt countries in Africa. Man such a hard choice....LMFAO!!!
Canada has had a Conservative government for a decade now.
All this stuff is debatable and peripheral. Motivations are of little importance, and propaganda aside, what it all boils down to, is who was on the right side, and who was on the wrong side of this war. To me, and most of the world, the answer is clear. I am sensing it is not so clear for you. Am I wrong? Did the wrong side win here? In your opinion, would the world be better off if Germany had won?
No, the right side and the wrong side depend on who is the winner. The winner gets to write history, simple as that. The Allies won, so we get the version of history written from the Allied POV, and that is where the perception of right and wrong side for you and most of the world comes from. If Germany had won, we would get the German version of history. It would probably include valiant Wehrmacht soldiers smashing down the doors of Stalin's gulag camps and liberating emaciated prisoners, barbaric Allied bombings of thousand-year-old cities, Soviet soldiers raping 8-year-old German girls (which by the way, happened too) - everything to make "our" side look as good as possible and the other side look like absolute evil. Politics, and especially warfare, is not about morality, it is about power.
Whether the world would be better off if Germany had won - that I don't know. Some things would probably be better, some other things not. I think the world had gone wrong even earlier than that, during WWI, and America playing everybody's savior had a part in that too.
Funny thing, I don't remember any Hollywood films featuring Josef Mengele. I do remember a lot of others picturing every German as if he was Mengele's assistant or something. Also funny you brought up that example. Do you really think all Germans were like that?
No, the right side and the wrong side depend on who is the winner. The winner gets to write history, simple as that. The Allies won, so we get the version of history written from the Allied POV, and that is where the perception of right and wrong side for you and most of the world comes from. If Germany had won, we would get the German version of history. It would probably include valiant Wehrmacht soldiers smashing down the doors of Stalin's gulag camps and liberating emaciated prisoners, barbaric Allied bombings of thousand-year-old cities, Soviet soldiers raping 8-year-old German girls (which by the way, happened too) - everything to make "our" side look as good as possible and the other side look like absolute evil. Politics, and especially warfare, is not about morality, it is about power.
Whether the world would be better off if Germany had won - that I don't know. Some things would probably be better, some other things not. I think the world had gone wrong even earlier than that, during WWI, and America playing everybody's savior had a part in that too.
Funny thing, I don't remember any Hollywood films featuring Josef Mengele. I do remember a lot of others picturing every German as if he was Mengele's assistant or something. Also funny you brought up that example. Do you really think all Germans were like that?
We both know Mengele is far from the only example I can give. Clearly I cannot assess each and every German citizen of that time period, and I am sure there were plenty of good Germans too. But 44% of Germans DID vote for Hitler, which is the largest win of that time period. What is the point of even having separate countries if they can't even be held accountable for the actions of the nation?
America IS exceptional. We're so exceptional that we're pretty much the only modern Western industrialized nation that:
- Does not have universal healthcare.
- Allows corporations to get away with paying little to no income taxes.
- Does not provide free or low cost higher education to its own citizens. Instead we foster a student loan system that charges students higher interest rates than banks pay.
- Allows our roads and bridges to fall into a third world state of disrepair.
- Continually guts elementary and high school educational funding, while disrespecting and de-professionalizing teachers and blaming them for our students lagging behind.
- Considers money to be free speech, and allows for corporations and the very wealthy to effectively buy elections.
- Has a military larger than the next ten nations combined.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,926,708 times
Reputation: 4561
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnesthesiaMD
We both know Mengele is far from the only example I can give. Clearly I cannot assess each and every German citizen of that time period, and I am sure there were plenty of good Germans too. But 44% of Germans DID vote for Hitler, which is the largest win of that time period. What is the point of even having separate countries if they can't even be held accountable for the actions of the nation?
Yes, and do you blame all Americans for voting for Obama or Nixon?
The Social Progress Index (the people who conducted the survey) describe themselves like this:
The Index has four key design principles:
1.Exclusively social and environmental indicators: The index focuses on indicators like indoor air pollution and women in school, not family income or individual employment.
2. Outcomes not inputs: The index assesses performance on indicators like access to electricity and suicide rates, not inputs like policies, laws, or levels of funding.
3.Actionability: The indicators used are specific enough, such as access to improved sanitation facilities, to pinpoint exactly what needs to be changed or maintained.
4. Relevance to all countries (societies): The index has been designed to measure performance of societies at all levels of income and on any continent.
Canada has had a Conservative government for a decade now.
Did they really? So I'm guessing that conservative govt. got rid of their single payer healthcare and low tuition education system and let the invisible hand of the free market handle it right?
Other countries conservatives govt are as left if not more so than our countries democrats.
Did they really? So I'm guessing that conservative govt. got rid of their single payer healthcare and low tuition education system and let the invisible hand of the free market handle it right?
They wouldn't do that because real fiscal conservatives (ie. not like the idealogue Republicans we have in Washington right now) understand that allowing businesses to not be encumbered with healthcare expenses leads to economic growth and job creation. True fiscal conservatives also understand that an educated workforce that isn't encumbered with crippling student loans leads to a new generation of consumers who can actually afford to buy goods, services, and housing.
You forgot leftist countries like Cuba and North Korea and Venezuela. Man, such a hard choice. LMFAO!!!
LMFAO at the straight ticket republican being upset by the truth. Any leftist ideas implemented by most moderate countries like universal healthcare and free/low cost tuition and most conservatives here would say we will turn into the USSR. Just shows how ridiculously right leaning this country is.
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