Sloppy Santa wrote:rbstern wrote:radomu wrote:There was an interesting scene in the premier episode of the luckluster tv show Newsroom, where the protagonist shouts at the right-wing tv journalist that the US is not "exceptional" in terms of freedom. Lets confirm the fact then. I'll list multiple studies involving "freedom" of various aspects and rank the first five country on the top, but also add where the US ranks...
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It's remarkable that the so-called "socialist" europe ranks so high on freedom. I wonder why... :/
It's difficult to understand your seeming need to convince people of the United States' "flaws."The United States is what it is: To some, it's wonderful, to others, not so much.
One of the better qualities is there are no walls stopping people from getting out if they don't like it And yet others are excited about no walls while they try to get in.
It's probably a reaction to the many many Americans who think and say that the US is the greatest country on earth.
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rbstern wrote:radomu wrote:There was an interesting scene in the premier episode of the luckluster tv show Newsroom, where the protagonist shouts at the right-wing tv journalist that the US is not "exceptional" in terms of freedom. Lets confirm the fact then. I'll list multiple studies involving "freedom" of various aspects and rank the first five country on the top, but also add where the US ranks...
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It's remarkable that the so-called "socialist" europe ranks so high on freedom. I wonder why... :/
It's difficult to understand your seeming need to convince people of the United States' "flaws."The United States is what it is: To some, it's wonderful, to others, not so much.
One of the better qualities is there are no walls stopping people from getting out if they don't like it And yet others are excited about no walls while they try to get in.
You can say the exact same thing for the majority of the liberal democracies in the world. I don't feel restricted to my "walls", whatever you mean by that, in Japan, Britain, or Canada. Actually, I would rather stay home as much as possible in a bad part of America where there is crime.
Just Me wrote:radomu wrote:Just Me wrote:no, I'm am just thinking about most of the major innovations throughout history have come from the US.
There is a long list of innovations and breakthroughs coming from the United States - from machinery, manufacturing, technology, science, communication, ..The list goes on.
You're telling me that a country that has been only in existence for just over two centuries have provided the most of the major innovations throughout the whole of history???? Sir, what in the world are you smoking????
actuall, I was tihnking more along the lines of 1700 thru 1950 - so yeah, just a small chunk in terms of history. More like Industrial revolution stuff - my bad.
Well, okay then. But even in that case I'm not sure if that's even true, that the US have provided most of the innovations. You need actual evidence for these kinds of claims.
Originally Posted by Noam Chomsky
We suck as a society. We rely on immigrants for new ideas. Our children are delinquants. Nuff said.
We don't have a society, to be honest. For one thing, the country is just too big with too many different kinds of people. It's hard to imagine how you could have a unified sense of collective identity with 300 million plus people spread out over such a huge land area. (Or why you would even want such a thing.) Any attempt to provide such a unified concept would inevitably be based on propaganda and brainwashing, which is what we have.
Furthermore, the design of urban space in the United States, with its emphasis on commercialism, advertising, consumerism and the primacy of 'car culture', has undermined what might otherwise be a more organic sense of community and society. Europe is much better at this - the piazzas ('places' in French) you find everywhere in European cities create communal space and atmosphere - here everything is dominated by commerce and its attendant bullshit.
Corporate, consumerist monoculture sucks! But it's what we've got instead of society... 
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