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Originally Posted by Asorie
I can read. I did post something I'm glad about. I just think it's really silly to have a thread where we're only "allowed" to talk about Reasons This Country's So Wonderful So We Can Pretend It's Better Than It Is. If I posted a "Why America Sucks" thread, it would be inundated with comments about how great this place is, no matter what I said in the initial post.
Pretty sure you already have a dozen threads to talk about things you dislike about the US for, though. Still, I understand your point. If someone in such a thread said blatant untruths, I'd be all over them, as I know Hachi and Raist would, and probably a few others besides.
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This country, at one point, was pretty good. Never the great wonder our revisionist historians make it out to be, because it has as spotted a history as any other major power, but it has been progressive in the past. We are now regressive. I am disgusted that our potential to do great good has been squashed in this regressive backlash, that bad leaders have taken what could have been great and done inexcusable things with it. I am more disturbed that most people seem so inclined as to ignore this and to be happy because, well, your odds of being shot in the head when you go outside are slightly less than in the Middle East (unless you're a poor black male teenager in Gary, Indiana, or a Hispanic girl in south or East Chicago, in states you laud for their wonderful friendliness!), because we have better TV shows, and because we can buy more kinds of potato chips in the grocery store.
America's crime rate has been falling consistently for thirty years, and has now reached the lowest point in recorded history for many categories. I'm quite tired of America being portrayed as this trigger-happy murder-ready nation when the reality is that this has long since passed, and whatever problems there were have larger been subsumed by comparative western nation's crime rates.
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So, yeah, the US is great, if you're white, male, Christian, and have a decent income. It's excellent if you can afford to be educated despite the massive cuts in financial aid that people posting here seem unaware of; it's ideal if you don't ever need health insurance or want to control your reproductive choices. It frustrates me that people who are posting happy things about our country seem to not know what life's like outside of the suburbs, where most people CAN'T afford higher education, if they can even complete high school. This idea that all Americans have access to any of these good things is simply factually incorrect. This isn't a "good things about America" thread so much as it's a "things that I have personally found gratifying about living in this country in my social position". There's a huge difference. Go to poor Appalachia, the Northwoods, southern Texas, the plains states, and you'll see it.
For the record, I'm white, dislike being male, abhor religion, and have smurf all of an income. But that's because Britain's socialist practises have ruined the economy and make it very difficult for businesses to start and expand. Fewer jobs are not good. America has lower taxes and thus is a better place to find jobs. Even minimum-wage jobs are good there, though they mightn't put you through college. Work at it awhile. Get a promotion. Save up and get training for a better-paid job. Don't be an idiot with your money, basically.
I don't care for other people's social positions, frankly. They can sort their own messes out. In truth, I'd go so far as to say it's good those things exist in the US because it shows the government isn't yet too powerful, and doesn't yet tax too highly. Not a single one of my American friends of college age has complained about the lack of financial aid, because most of them are on it and find it quite adequate. And frankly, if people in the less fortunate parts of the States actually put their minds to it, instead of demanding Affirmative Action and compensation from companies who built slave boats 400 years ago, they'd be a hell of a lot better off. Look at Chinese immigrants. They came over and did menial labor for a long time, but they worked hard/ And now they are popularly held to be among the most hardworking and dedicated citizens you can find. As well as among the most skilled.
"it's ideal if you don't ever need health insurance or want to control your reproductive choices."
First point, I'd rather have the choice of health insurance than be forced into an inadequate, failing, and understaffed system. I'd also rather be too poor to have the choice, because I've got principles I put forward my agenda by, not by whatever benefits me the most. Had Britain followed on from Thatcherism in the 80s, I'd probably have had a much harder life with significantly fewer things. I'm not rich by any first world standard.
Control your reproductive choices? Are you talking about abortion? If so, I'm with you. I don't find it very savory at all, but I support abortion.
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The best thing about America is that if people wake up and actually start to CARE about something other than consumerism and what's inside their gated communities and college campuses, it's probably not too late to retrieve some of that potential. The greatest thing about this place is that even uneven wealth has left enough of us with good health and money to spare so that we could, if we chose, actually effect social change that a mother of four working two full time jobs for less than a living wage will never have time to work for.
The opposite. The best thing about America is that people are not forced to care about anything other than what they want to, and they dno't have to look beyond their gated communities and college campuses. Or at least, that they are not forced to as much as most other nations are.
And that woman shouldn't have had children she can't support.
