American Exceptionalism Exposed - The Hard To Swallow Truths

reply to post by Hefficide


Hefficide some of America "bashing" in your thread is a direct response from years of Liberal ideology pushing a welfare state that we can non-afford.In your other thread you professed to be a "bleeding heart Liberal" now you have a thread bashing Murica. I think its great when we have the cahones to write how we truly feel about things political and other taboo subjects in most polite conversation. I think your way off the mark though. I''ll just ask you why, if Murica is so bad right now, do we have so many people trying to get in? I happen to know a fellow who lives in Singapore, smart fellow, been around the block, he wants to flee Singapore. His dream is to get away. They have no land, the laws are aggressively restrictive, yet they rank number 2 from heritage. They are a tiny rich country because they are a tax haven and have very open business laws.

The other thing most liberals fail to grasp is that you cannot compare a country the physical size and population of the United States to a tiny country like New Zealand or Finland. It's naive and borders on willful ignorance to ignore problems of scale. If your going to do that compare say, New Hampshire to Finland, or Texas to New Zealand. It's like comparing a boutique store in New York and the Walmart in Winston Salem NC to compare Finland to the US. It isn't accurate. Compare the US to Russian or China. That would be more accurate. How many miles of roads does the Finish Government maintain compared to the US, how about bridges? How many people are on Welfare in Finland and how many in the US? How many airports do the manage in New Zealand? Can New Zealand send a satellite to Mars?

How come when some asshat in another country starts killing his own people does everyone ask why won't the US do something? Can Hong Kong send two nuclear aircraft carriers over to said country and bomb the # out of them?

The US has issues right now, but they also have a lot of freedoms these websites don't quantify. We are the biggest baddest guy on the block, we have the nicest houses, the largest yards, the biggest guns and if any other country pokes a stick at us can wup their ass. That's American exceptionalism.

There are many things wrong with America, but a lot of the whining and opining is because we are decaying from the inside. Like Rome did. Since we live in such a fast paced life we see these corruptions now, they are happening before our eyes in real-time. We understand the problems.

But i remember in the early 80's when they said Japan was going to take over the US financially. I was there when they closed down the auto plants in Indiana. The hand wringers were wrong then. I think they are wrong now.



V



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reply to post by Hefficide


You dio understand that a majority of your proposals include increasing the deficit and that the US is broke ? You need to add some money spending measures to your list to make it reasonable (and consider the implications of the cuts you would make).

Truth be told, I like all these statistics. It’ll hopefully awaken the US citizens. I’m sure many have heard the phrase to never rest on your laurels.

The US has a multitude of problems, always had and always will.

You can’t fix a problem until it’s been identified.

From the mayor of Cleveland. I find it ironically amusing since he is talking about Cleveland after all and there really have been not to many, if any, fixes under his term.



I think the problem is getting the American people to swallow the bitter pill.

The only way to really fix this Country is and I will use all caps...

25% CUTS ACROSS THE BOARD!

Pentagon, Social programs, get rid of HUD, the EPA, FDA etc, etc. and especially get rid of the redundant agencies.

Originally posted by cartenz
Some ways to counter it IMO are (you wont like these but it seems to work for the rest of the world):

1. Gun Control (The King of England does not want to come into your home and start pushing you around)
   
2. Health Care Reform (Slowly happening, but not the right way)
   
3. Reduction On Military Spending (More Money to Social Programs)
   
4. Tighter Regulations On Corporations (Grater Corporate Tax Burden)
   
5. Tighter Regulations On Financial Sector (Including dispanding the FED)
   

Gun Control- Irrelevant. Last time I checked, Those in the Woolwich killing didnt have a problem killing with Knives.
Health Care Reform- Its a Tax here. We were dumping Tea because of this in the Revolution.
Reduction On Military Spending- I can agree with this. That needs to be fixed.
Tighter Regulations On Corporations- Naw, how about Tariffs. Like China has.
Tighter Regulations On Financial Sector. Stop printing Money? Yep.

I knew you could come up with a few fixes, rather then pointing the finger at big bad 'Merica.

I hear ya Heff, and I do agree in many ways. I do want to add a couple thoughts here from my own perspective on this.

Is America exceptional? Well.. I believe it still is. Very much so and very exceptional at that. Are we THE exception to the world? Well..No. No, we aren't and we never have been quite 'as much' as we've like to tell ourselves.

To hear past times, you'd think Australia was still a penal colony and England, still under the rule of a feudal King for how they've been discarded in comparisons for free nations with 1st world standards of living..and I've never felt that very nice or fair of Americans in general. We're exceptional in terms of historic reference, and that never had to come at the meaning of being above others in the current world....although often, that was precisely the way it has been used.


I can see many getting a growing sense of fail and desperation too. That's a perfectly valid thing as it's actually happening in terms of the economy and other major factors going downhill.

At the same time, someone in a small Apartment in Chicago or New York sees a pretty miserable nation where costs go up and up, crime gets worse and just walking down the street can be a one way trip to a funeral? It's a crappy nation we live in. Sadly, as news media has consolidated, those who tell us what we should feel DO live in precisely those conditions and report from their own prisms of bias, whether they mean to or not. Hence...we ALL get to feel like crap because they do, too often.

While that is going on, ask someone in Helena, Montana or Keystone, South Dakota or Ely, Nevada how life is going and while taxes still suck and Obamacare worries us all? I'll bet you get a radically different attitude and overall sense of how life is progressing as well as the state of the nation.


I think the reality we need to settle into going forward is that we haven't been near as exceptional as we've liked to think we've been in America. However, outside the dirty, corrupt and increasingly deadly cities? America is still a very beautiful place with beautiful people and, if Washington's human screw ups are out of consideration? No reason exists for not having a bright, not dark future, IMO.


We just need people to stop telling us, every day, 7 days a week and without let up or pause, how outright crappy and second drawer we, our ideals and our values are. I don't mean you, Heff... I mean media and I mean Television and Movies. Superman is damn near anti-American outright, and you know the joke about what Batman and Robin do when no one is looking? Well... It WAS a joke when I was a kid...it's how they are officially presenting Batman now. Everything good is being..just slightly tweaked..to look a bit off center of what it's ever been and it's leading to a cumulative impact over time. Perhaps that's the whole point and intent.

This is America....Outside the Beltway and K Street scumbags with their corrupting touch to everything they come near.



That America? That is where I live. That America IS exceptional in all but leadership, even if we aren't an exception after all.

reply to post by cartenz

Yeah, and the things that no longer set my food allergies alight become fewer every year.

Buying organic doesn't matter when everything is cross pollinated with GMO's when a stiff breeze kicks up.

We wrecked it, we wrecked it all, we wrecked it all for everyone everywhere.

Good thing this rock has the ability to purify itself and restart again, too bad we won't remember though.

reply to post by Variable


Nice post. You bring up some very valid points.

But if a simple graphic will wake people up to what is happening to the good 'ol U.S. of A and get them to do something, rather than ignoring the problem. I'm all for it.

I think of everyone born after the fifties as the sound bite generation. You've got 30 seconds to get your point across otherwise you'll lose their attention.

While there are plenty of people who do realize there is a problem and are trying to fix it, there are just as many taking advantage of the problems and twice as many who are totally ignoring it; thinking that it always happens to someone else. And when it does happen to them...they take no personnal responsibilty and affix the blame to someone else.

No one thinks of the Country or greater good anymore. They just think of themselves.

Originally posted by TDawgRex

No one thinks of the Country or greater good anymore. They just think of themselves.

Thats not just the USA. Thats a Global Epidemic.

Im sure there are those that would blame the USA for that also though........

America.............some times I think was created, for just such purpose as it serves globally.....
I notice similar stresses and inner corruption were the end of the Roman empire, as well as others.
I get the distinct impression that the" BIG MONEY".......The Owners....are draining the guts out of Her.....
The BIS, the IMF,That "square mile that is NOT London, nor even British.....The really really BIG money..
has other plans.....

reply to post by Hefficide


It does seem kind of strange how many Americans who have kind of "embrassed" the term of "American Exceptionalism" which was first posed in a statement by Stalin but not as a complimentary term.

That was a fantastic OP. It was spot on, honest, and sadly very true.

Heff, thanks for the effort you put into this. You are right about redefining the word "patriot " It should be a person who lives up to our highest ideals and moral code of honor. Loving the US isn't enough anymore. You must do more to live up to that potential spoken of in the OP. The world described in the OP that is possible when that potential is tapped is truly amazing as well as entirely feasible.

In short we have to aspire to more individually to prosper as a people.



....oh and this is the feeling I got after I read the OP......

Maybe its not really just a case of the USA getting worse but the rest of the world catching up?

We have the potential to be able to honestly claim these things

Yes , but what was the result ? How many wars could you stop ?

How many suspicious terrorist acts conspiracy could you solve for sure ?

The truth is the controller hand decides what you can pick from truth , and you play in that region.

And there comes the figures and statistics provided by govt , but every one should believe them because they are pictures anyway.

And I can never find an skeptic question from people who use these statistics and figures , that

what was the criterion to make such figures ?

how unbiased and un-engineered the result is ?

All I hear is ,

"we , American people , listen here , trust my numbers , trust the picture , trust the surveys , trust my justice.
Open your mind , to me.
Because it doesn't matter my words are based on truth or falsehood , I always have the figures to get the conclusion I want."

I take no joy in pointing out how much our nation sucks. I love America. Well....the America that is in my heart and soul. But that America isn't around today (and may have never existed to begin with, if i am painfully honest).

I point out that we suck solely because it just pisses me off so bad. I demand more from this country.

I don't get why the constant comparison of America to other countries, as a measure of success or decline.

Seem to notice a trend of America, and others of determining their self worth by how well someone elses is doing.

American Exceptionalism are those who don't.

it's like,,'Hey the grass is greener over the other side of the fence' we must suck. ! '.

reply to post by neo96


That green grass on the other side of the fence is also known as the principles of liberty born of the age of enlightenment.

We are so far away from that. Just in the last 15 years we have seen such substantial erosion of our bill of rights as to make my head spin.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Yes,Yes

I am constantly told on daily basis how much America sucks.,

Ok now what ?

I love my country, I weep for what its become.

I want the America I was sold, not the one that's been delivered to us all.

reply to post by Hefficide


We are the freest though, the freest to pillage, the freest to plunder and the freest to exploit!
Is it the freedoms we so cherished that allowed the wealthy to take advantage of the rest of us?
I don't know for sure but there is a reason why America has become one of the most exploited
places in the world! Why we seem to be a testing ground for GMOs? Why we have failed to support
our countrymen by purchasing American made products? Why we have allowed our media to become
a propaganda machine of government? Why we allow corporate lobbyist to write nearly 60% of all bills that turn into laws? Why we have become a machine that promotes lies to destroy countries if it's in the best interest
of corporate profits? Why all of our leaders are pawns for the industrial banking machine! Why the majority of
Americans continue to deny that any of this is true? I can probably keep asking why for several more pages
but what's the point of asking when the answers will never change anything!

Does anyone else have any hypothesis as to why any of this is and
to what could help us to change into something worth fighting over?

reply to post by neo96


I think I already told you: time and place.