Universal healthcare and education

originally posted by: pexx421
Sorry, no. The USA is not the most charitable nation for those in need. But it’s a good sales pitch!

And I’m tired of Americans entitlement. They feel entitled to ignore international law. They feel entitled to lie, cheat, assassinate, torture. They feel entitled to cut other nations off from food and medicine. To starve their children. To unilaterally coerce other nations to do our bidding. To steal resources and murder civilians around the globe.

It's not like other countries don't do this (or would if they could). It's just that the US is so influential that all of these things happen on a larger scale. My theory is that for every country out there, people had to die to make it happen.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Yeah. That’s how medicine works. Docs get stuff wrong all the time. I know it’s a natural inclination to think a doctor or hospital is an idiot if they misdiagnose or make a mistake. But I can tell you that it happens all the time, everywhere. I’ve worked in numerous public, state, and military facilities, and I’ve worked in numerous private ones. You’re experience was different than mine, you were a patient.
I’ve seen horrific stuff in both, and I’ve seen great stuff in both. And that’s my point. And it’s valid.

Not to downplay the experience you had. I know exactly how frustrating it can be when a doctor fails to figure out something simple. I expect all of the Lyme disease patients could school any of us on how stupid private AND public doctors can be for diagnosing and treating a common illness.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: pexx421
Sorry, no. The USA is not the most charitable nation for those in need. But it’s a good sales pitch!

And I’m tired of Americans entitlement. They feel entitled to ignore international law. They feel entitled to lie, cheat, assassinate, torture. They feel entitled to cut other nations off from food and medicine. To starve their children. To unilaterally coerce other nations to do our bidding. To steal resources and murder civilians around the globe.

It's not like other countries don't do this (or would if they could). It's just that the US is so influential that all of these things happen on a larger scale. My theory is that for every country out there, people had to die to make it happen.

That could be true. It could be true that humans are all dicks, or that most humans are dicks. Or it could be that somewhere out there, there is a nation run for and by the people, and led by their wisest and not their greediest. Or it could be that we are all just products of the sins of our parents, and our whole paradigm of what humans are like is just something that’s been indoctrinated into us since the dark ages.

Who knows? Humans have been around for at least 300000 years, of which we have a fairly good grasp of 500, and vague ideas going back 2000, and extremely limited clues going back maybe 5000. We really have no idea who we are, or where we came from, or even a remote clue about who our ancestors were or how they thought and interacted together for 99% of human history.

If we put the shaolin monks in charge of the world, would they be the same? Or the Jains? What if we venerated all the Down syndrome people and put them in charge, you think they’d be the same? Or the hippies?

Let’s stop pretending that we have human nature locked down, that we know what it is and what it isn’t, and that we Americans are it’s best, greatest expression. We are far from wise or advanced, and the idea that we are the epitome of human cultural potential would scare and disappoint me. We are monkeys with technology and nukes, and barely more than that. We can do far better, and I expect there are nations out there that do, and would even if they were at the top of the pile.