GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Enough with the bashing. Make it clear how you feel.

jayeff · 04-19-2007, 03:24 PM

Stupid thread, but okay. I love the US. I have done ever since I spent several semesters at school here on exchange programs. I have visited and worked here for short periods throughout my adult life. I have lived here for the past 10 years.

I'm also a realist. Might is right. But that doesn't prevent me wishing that the US had trod more lightly around the world. Over the past 3/4 century millions have been killed, injured or otherwise had their lives destroyed as a direct or indirect result of US foreign policy. I have to believe that the majority of Americans are not aware of all the interference which has gone on in other countries' affairs, because I do not want to believe they would approve of much that has been done.

I think the US has a huge problem. Election-by-sound-bite has been going on here for several decades. Most of the media have gone the same route with news and information, to the point that the majority of the US public is so dumbed down about what is happening at home and abroad, I doubt it is even possible to hold their attention long enough now to attempt to explain anything in more detail. That is why there hasn't been a truly impressive president, let alone congress or senate, in probably 50 years.

Which I believe is why Americans seem so pig-headed and reactionary to many outsiders. They are fiercely proud and patriotic, but if they could scratch the surface they would have to start wondering how things ever went so wrong.

There is a mexican restaurant I eat at fairly regularly. There are SEVEN different licenses on the wall behind the cash register, yet Americans are sure they have, if not small, then at least not big government. I visit hospitals and doctors regularly, and although I'm paying, I'm likely to have to wait longer than in the UK I would have to as a National Health patient. Right until graduation as straight-A students, my kids used to come home from school at 3:30, most days if they had homework at all, having been able to do it during school hours. Etc.

The US has the potential to be the greatest country in the world, but until Americans start to care about it in practical terms as much as they do in theory, it is going to drift further and further away from that ideal.

04-19-2007, 03:24 PM
jayeff Confirmed User Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 2,944	Stupid thread, but okay. I love the US. I have done ever since I spent several semesters at school here on exchange programs. I have visited and worked here for short periods throughout my adult life. I have lived here for the past 10 years. I'm also a realist. Might is right. But that doesn't prevent me wishing that the US had trod more lightly around the world. Over the past 3/4 century millions have been killed, injured or otherwise had their lives destroyed as a direct or indirect result of US foreign policy. I have to believe that the majority of Americans are not aware of all the interference which has gone on in other countries' affairs, because I do not want to believe they would approve of much that has been done. I think the US has a huge problem. Election-by-sound-bite has been going on here for several decades. Most of the media have gone the same route with news and information, to the point that the majority of the US public is so dumbed down about what is happening at home and abroad, I doubt it is even possible to hold their attention long enough now to attempt to explain anything in more detail. That is why there hasn't been a truly impressive president, let alone congress or senate, in probably 50 years. Which I believe is why Americans seem so pig-headed and reactionary to many outsiders. They are fiercely proud and patriotic, but if they could scratch the surface they would have to start wondering how things ever went so wrong. There is a mexican restaurant I eat at fairly regularly. There are SEVEN different licenses on the wall behind the cash register, yet Americans are sure they have, if not small, then at least not big government. I visit hospitals and doctors regularly, and although I'm paying, I'm likely to have to wait longer than in the UK I would have to as a National Health patient. Right until graduation as straight-A students, my kids used to come home from school at 3:30, most days if they had homework at all, having been able to do it during school hours. Etc. The US has the potential to be the greatest country in the world, but until Americans start to care about it in practical terms as much as they do in theory, it is going to drift further and further away from that ideal.