The American way. The Right way. THE ONLY WAY!

Ignorance knows no boundaries. Every country has their morons, including mine. Personally I think America could be more ignorant than most other countries, due to the fact that the culture there is more about being self absorbed in whats happening there, and isnt concerned too much with other world matters at hand. Not the fault of people really...

We see it so often here because the population is dominated by yanks. Not that, thats a bad thing, its just the way it goes.

By the way, for every ignorant American, there is at least 25 Americans who are the complete opposite

reply to post by devilishlyangelic23


Sorry but that's a load of crap, if you have moved beyond hate then why did you surround the building where Anne Coulter was going to speak with stones and sticks in your hands? You havn't moved beyond hate, you love everyone Untill they have an opinion that runs counter to your belief system, then you show up with rocks, ready to stone them into submission. You only fool yourselves, then whine about those arrogant Americans. I'm glad that I'm one of those lowbrow south of the border types with my guns and persnickety highfalutin attitude. Keep your evolved attitudes, btw stop pushing your arctic air down across the border, and your beers not that special either.

YouSir

reply to post by Kokatsi


In my readings, i find that the founders actually feared a population that would be trusting of government. I would disagree that they were unhappy with the monarchy, in fact, many of the founders were unsure about breaking from England. Benjamin Franklin for example was sure that things could be resolved with the crown and peace restored. Their writing indicate though that the people were better capable of responding the pressure of their lives than government. Another example of this concern about centralized government is that most of the founders were resistant to a standing army.

These men knew their flaws, which is one of the reasons they felt that professional politicians were a danger to the republic. George Washington resisted the idea that as president he should receive a salary.

A basis for government service was the expectation of disinterest in the outcomes of legislation: this was the reason for the rich men being in charge. They felt that if they had made the own way, they would be less likely to succumb to the inherent corruption of power.

They believed the maxim that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believe that this is the problem of the current government

Originally posted by hawkiye
Freedom from oppression and the ability of the individual to live his or her life a free man or women without government intervention as long as he or she is not oppressing anyone is the right way and the only way!

I couldn't agree more!

The American way: The strongest of the strongest survive. Every man for himself. The cowboy way.

What most American's don't / want to realize is that strongest may not win the day.

Intellegent, insightfulness genious - the real thinking outside the box may eventually save humanity.

Capitalism: You buy a house that cost about fifty thousand to construct and pay a bank five - seven times that amount to buy it, working for 30+ years.

A bottle of blood pressure medicine that cost about a dollar to manufacture you pay 60.00 bucks for.

and on and on and on it goes.

The cowboy ancient way.

Only the strong survive and to hell with everyone else.

Americans are selfish, greedy children.

Europe caught on long ago that together as a unified group we may survive.

Americans are hell bent on individual self sufficiency at the expense of others.

Americans have not grown up and contiue to balk at social sharing.

We are all interconnected and what affects one of us affects all of us as a species, but Americans by and large don't want to share, don't want to see the connectiveness.

Short sightnessness and greedy, imature and self destructive.

Most Americans think that if you are poor or distitute it's your fault and are unwilling to embrace "socialism".

They don't realize we are all in this experience together and but for a turn of luck they too could be in "dire straights".

Everyone likes to think they made it on their own not understanding that but for the grace of god, go I.

Europe is more understanding of the "human element" and socialism isn't thrown around in such derogatory terms.

If your house was burning down, you would call the fire department, a free service paid by tax dollars.

If you wanted to borrow a libray book again, free.

Police service, free.

Basic human needs should be free, a sharing.

And no one should make so much money they could never spend it all in a hundred lifetimes.

The asylum is being run by the inmates.

Completely illogical and immoral.

Selfish - Service to self.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by ofhumandescent]

reply to post by DesertWolf
Right and when corporations are not regulated you have bail outs.

Wake up.

Originally posted by Clearskies

Originally posted by Merriman Weir
I honestly think that a lot of the "British" attitude towards Americans is more a case of 'who the **** do you think you are?' as in 'who do you think you are to think you're better than us?' rather than us thinking we're actually better than you. There's a big important difference there. It's the difference between Americans going on and on about being #1 and non-Americans saying 'no you're not' and being critical of Americans but still not saying 'no, my country is #1!' Honestly, I never hear any significant amount of people from any other country other than America speak the way they do.

You think you're better than Americans, because WE SAY WE ARE BETTER? oooookkkkkay........
I haven't heard it much, but I have heard Americans at fourth of July and such say things like that.
I have also seen British and others (not all of course) speak condescendingly of our citizens and our 'ignorance'. ESPECIALLY FOR US SOUTHERNERS.
So, do I get my knickers in a twist? No. But this thread makes NO sense to me.
"We're better than Americans, because Americans think they're better!"
Don't you see the irony??? ROFL

Well done on completely missing the point of my reply: you've misunderstood completely.

What I was saying is that, generally, the British don't think they're better than Americans or anyone else. Even rivalry against the French isn't as barbed as many would believe - despite the fact that it perhaps should be due to our histories, from hundreds of years of warfare and the Norman Yoke - as our middle-classes (different from your middle-classes) tend to be Francophiles.

When the British do get the metaphorical flags bunting and out, it tends to be a response to other people's jingoism - usually American. For various reasons, the British rarely get into unprompted displays of nationalism and patriotism. Neither does anywhere else really. I've mentioned this many times on these boards: there's nowhere in the modern Western World that has a culture of patriotism like America.

Again, to reiterate the point when Britain - or perhaps other countries too - do get patriotic in response, it's not to say 'shut up, we're better than you' - it's a case of another country backing us into a corner and us merely holding our own. Compare this to some of the responses in this thread to the idea of Canadians not having free speech. The Canadians don't go on and on about having free speech like the Americans do when they're flag waving and claiming their country is unique and special because of it. The Canadians just also pointed out that they too had their own 'free speech'. They weren't doing it to show they were better than Americans with their 'free speech'.

If you can't see how all that's vastly different from what you're saying, or thinking I'm saying - that, by doing this, the British are somehow saying they're better than Americans - then I can't really help you as I can't explain it any better and perhaps you, for some reason, don't actually want to believe any differently.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by Merriman Weir]

reply to post by Terapin


i was just thinking the same thing. the world's opinion of american
topics, is being manipulated big time in the press, movies, music and various other types of publications, on and offline. it dawns on me that i have to live here, and leaving the fate of this country up to the whims and anger of people from other countries, is dangerous at best, not because they might not have legitimate complaints, but because it's a global problem. people are so territorial to begin with, that we often can't see trouble in our own living space, much less our cities and countries of origin.

i think you should also include in your list of areas of disagreement, that atheism also plays its role in being elitist and territorial. it's easy to see what's wrong with the other guy. not so easy seeing what's wrong with ourselves.

reply to post by endisnighe


Sorry but a bit of food and money that you send does not make up for things like rape, murder, lies, thievery, abuse among others that i will be leaving out.

The problem with the states is that you always start it and you mostly never finish it, and if you do it is in a way that is inhumane, bout time to stop stickin you nose in other peoples business and using your aid to needing countries as a means of unnoticed invasion and takeover.

Bottom Line,

We as Americans Grew Lazy, that's it, we feel because we are a becon of freedom that the world owes us, if anything this country grew to be great thanks to our forefathers that came before us, the ones that worked day and night to give their children a better life.

In reality the world was here way before anyone one of us, if anything we owe it for the opportunity to breath, sleep and eat.

I say this as an American==> We have entitlement issues.

reply to post by ofhumandescent


FREE--FREE--FREE-- I see a pattern here and, think about this when you give away everything as free who pays for it? The rich people you say what about in twenty years when the have moved on our given up because they give it all away?


It will look alot like Germany in the late 1930s. Control will rule and the only way to get it is to take it from others. This attitude is what fascist leaders want and they willing ignorant sheep give it to them. You should practice walking with really big goose steps in your house because in reality this is what you want.

Many replied with, 'hey but they do it too!' well we never would have guessed that would we? This isn't a school playground.

Good post OP, and very true but unfortunately it is an entirely lost cause. Unofrtunately too many fools leave the lasting representation of all the good people they do have frequently visiting ATS. Which is why I now visit sites that have built a community consisting of any nationality except Americans.

It's great, we talk issues through and it has resulted in an absolutely huge reduction of the misplaced patriotism. Nor do we have to listen to any other nationalities ever act as if the world owes them something, our time is so much more porductive and educational.

Oddly enough though, the Americans still are mentioned often even though the nonsense (superiority complex, indoctrination, arrogance, lack of humility, mass paranoia, gullibility, war mongering, amongst others) some of them believe isn't directly in our board.

I know many of you Americans are good guys, so please don't feel this is directed at you. It's unfortunately though an accepted problem that having a large number of Americans bring.

reply to post by MotherGoose


Agree one point two trillion percent, although at the same time as realising few can influence what is done in there name I find it so laughable how some of the Yanks use the issues you mention as a good thing. When no other nation in the world has half the amount of the same issue.

Yet noooo, that's ignored by many and the finger then pointed in the other direction. The indoctrination they have taken has made it a lost cause.

reply to post by Kokatsi


Excellent post, one thing I would point out is in response to this statement.

The Iroquis principles of tribal confederacy were even more that way than Rousseau. Keep in mind that in most American Indian nations, the majority could never enforce their will upon the individual. As far as I know, the hardest punishment was ostracism from the tribe. No police went to your tent to enforce tribal decisions.

Ostracism from the tribe was essentially a death sentence, an extremely harsh death sentence. Yes, the tribal warriors did act as the police, go to your tent, and enforce the tribal decision. Not only were you not allowed to live in the village, you could not hunt in the tribal hunting grounds, if seen, you would be hunted down and killed. Guess what, the next tribe over wasn't going to let you hunt in their territory either, chances are that you are a murderer, rapist, or thief, and they won't want you around either. Your only hope of survival was to go to some territory so harsh that survival was do difficult, no tribe controlled the area, where you chance of survival were very slim. You weren't tried by a jury of your peers, you weren't presumed to be innocent.

Don't get me wrong, I greatly admire Native American culture, but I think making it out to be far greater than it actually was would be a disservice as well. One of my favorite cultural traits that came from the Natives is the concept that a chief is only a chief as long as others are willing to follow him.

I fully agree with you, corporatocracy is the biggest problem we face in the U.S.. Corporations have gotten so powerful once again, that they have more control over our government than the public, and that is completely against the constitution. Our democratic republic has been usurped by corporations, and that is what we need to change.

The bigger problem is that corporations control the media, and through the media they are successful at fooling enough of the people enough of the time (brainwashing) to gain special privileges for the corporations. Through campaign financing, contracts, out and out bribery, and numerous other means corporations have managed to take control of large areas of our governments, federal, state, county, ect., enabling them to control our laws, dictate what our children will be taught in school, control labor rights through local control of building ordinances, zoning, and other factors.

The privately owned monetary system takes a 40% chunk out of our economy, primarily from simply moving around numbers in computers. That is the biggest scam of them all. Private banks, by controlling lending are able to determine who can buy what housing were, and have tremendous ability to manipulate property values, which is extremely profitable for these private organizations that control our money supply.

This is a thread I wrote that addresses how banks have created these suburban sprawls that are designed to control the population, and strip wealth from the working class.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I really liked your closing.

However, the freedom the think tanks of the corporatocracy want us to consider is more freedom for their collective greed.

Is that much better than other kinds of collective greed?

reply to post by FoxStriker


Another example though mate, you're not a becon of freedom! lol.

To yourselves perhaps, but not to anybody else other than perhaps Communist and third world nations. It's just crazy mate, so many such claims have been lapped up by so many in your population.

It irritates me so much how some Americans are so blind to it all. You're indoctrinate into believing you are so special, when in actual fact your nothing but abit richer and stronger militarilly. The life style and the infrastructure you have is like every nation abit better in places and abit worse in others.

They've even made some of you believe you have an empire somehow, how they managed that god only knows. The word Empire often redifined to suit propaganda needs.

And don't get me started on charitable contributions when worked out fairly by GDP.

reply to post by poet1b


You are right corporations are to big but why? It is a set up so they can get people mad and then bring change. We have anti-monopoly laws they are just not enforcing them. It has worked like a charm and all the sheep huddle together looking to bring down the big bad corporation not realising they are getting into bed with the devil himself.


America wake up it is one big lie they are doing it to gain more control. It has nothing to do about fairness or equal playing fields. They don't want it to be fair they want us as slaves under one big corporation which is the government.



Look outside the box and ask why? Why are they doing this and why are they allowing it to happen. Just like the economy they could fix but they don't why? The answer is in your heart and gut you know something is wrong and if you don't you might be part of the problem.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by Subjective Truth]

reply to post by Merriman Weir


I genuinely believe it's largely due to Americans are always pushed from childhood away from humility. Where in other nations I've been regularly it is viewed as a great trait.

I'd like Americans to answer that though, do you feel humility is something that is viewed as a great trait to hold in The States?

reply to post by Sed Non Credo


I am all for pulling our troops out of all the countries from the around the world, locking our borders from immigration, and while we are at it sending large numbers of immigrants home who have failed to adopt our culture.

Most of our foreign aid money only seems to go to third world warlords helping them maintain brutal control over their populations, so we should end all of this charity, and let these people work out their own problems.

Ah, but most people on the planet don't harbor your prejudices, and hatred, and envy. Most people in third world countries are the victims of people, who are probably very similar to yourself.

Where I live I am surrounded by immigrants. Their attitudes are nothing like yours. They think the U.S. is a great place to live, with a culture and attitude that is far superior to the nations of their origins, and plenty are from Europe as well. They like America, and Americans. I have also traveled abroad, and found that most people in most countries extend a great deal of respect and towards me because I am an American. When I return to the U.S., it is easy to see how much better we have it.

Most people around the globe dream of being able to live in America. There are countries who have lotteries, where the prize is a VISA enabling them to go live in the U.S.. I wish that everywhere you go on Earth, you could have the same quality of lifestyle that we enjoy here in the U.S., the same level of justice. While our system has lots of problems, things are even worse, in most places far worse, than they are here in the U.S..

I guess that makes me an arrogant American in your eyes.

Originally posted by Sed Non Credo
reply to post by Merriman Weir

 

I genuinely believe it's largely due to Americans are always pushed from childhood away from humility. Where in other nations I've been regularly it is viewed as a great trait.

I'd like Americans to answer that though, do you feel humility is something that is viewed as a great trait to hold in The States?

ITs a cultural thing here bud, in my neck of the woods it is like gold.

I mean there are places in the states where I cannot even understand WTF folks are saying.

You get into certain regions and it is all about macho, domineering and holier than thou, at least from my experience. Judged by your cloths, facial hair and the rest, at the ready... Think patchouli, hippy in rural Georgia - thats the womb of much of this stuff -

"You ain't from around these parts is ya???"

If you were political you would notice the same people on here who hate the government in fact defend the policies of the government under the guise of THE AMERICAN WAY!!!

The people who believe in extreme individualism
but want to defend the COLLECTIVE AMERICAN WAY (their specific way ), interesting for a lot of individuals.

Other members who fall into this category (on this thread) say : "DON'T TREAD ON ME"
and then proceed to applaud things that restrict gay people for instance...

It is America worst quality, but the same can be found in Northern Mexico, not as detrimental (from my travels) - macho, my poopies don't smell - however America dominates the world in some ways and this makes the blind attitude VERY detrimental.

IRAQ war was born of this attitude


[edit on 25-3-2010 by Janky Red]