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Originally Posted by Lisnaholic
^ In light of our recent debate, I had to raise my eyebrows when I saw your pronoun, OH - no need for you to shouder so much of the blame. 
Also, I'd suggest, don't be so hard on Democracy because this is only part of the equation:-
USA is internationally ranked as "Flawed Democracy", but (from memory) Britain, the Scandanavian countries, New Zealand and others are down as "Full Democracy" and by most people's standards they are pretty enviable places to live with some enlightened policies about health care, human rights, environmental protection, etc.
If the USA wants to get back into the Full Democracy club, they need to address the counter-democratic practices of the electoral college, gerrymandering and voter suppression. Then, as elphenor says, guys like Ted Cruz & Brian Kemp wouldn't be winning elections imo. - which, I just realise, is what 66Sexy is saying:- |
I'm honestly curious just how much of European relative non-****tiness is made possible by the exploitation of the third world by American imperialism helped along by bigger EU nations like Germany and England. I doubt they're immune to the zero sum game of what we do to the rest of the world and yet they prosper. And the amount of money going into America is a large part of why our democracy is going to hell.
I might just be presumptuous but I can't help but suspect things aren't as picturesque as they kinda sorta seem in certain parts on the other side of the pond.
Quote:
^ I respect your passion about the worst sins of the US, but there are positive signs too, e.g. the Civil War came to an end, there is no longer slavery, women can hold office, etc.
Also, two quibbles about your list of horrors:
- that nuclear stuff looks terrible in hindsight, but was a reflection of how threatened the US felt at the time.
- "rain forests destroyed": where were they, exactly? Perhaps they were cleared away to build Route 66, he asks facetiously.
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You mean how we pay poor Pacific countries, with little to no source of income besides selling fishing rights to the West and Japan, to bomb part of what little landmass they actually have (these countries being made of collections of tiny tiny tiny coral atolls that generally don't even have arable land) and if the fallout ends up giving a few fishermen cancer then phfffffffffft they're not Americans and nobody really knows what even goes on over there anyway.