Quote:
Originally Posted by fool on the hill
I'm very liberal, socially and fiscally. Clinton and Obama are both too conservative. Kucinich is the the closest Dim I'd vote for. What passes for "liberal" in the States is a joke. The entire US is skewered further to the right than any other developed nation, not just politically, but culturally, and that's the real problem here.
Americans don't realise how badly the Repugs and the Dims are screwing everyone. They must be very thankful for typical American insularity from what life is like in developed nations outside the US.
I'd be called an evil socialist or worse here in the States, but elsewhere (like New Zealand, where I am moving back to, permanently next time) I'm pretty typical. Its damn sad when you feel like an alien in your own country of birth...
~ josh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fool on the hill
Exactly. This mindset is culturally alien to the myth of "American individualism" -- you can't have "freedom" without also having responsibility. Freedom is not absolute (nor is responsibility for others) but there is a balance between the two that must be made.
But when people don't want to acknowledge that or bother with the shades of nuance, people will do anything to justify narcissism, lack of empathy and good old fashioned selfishness.
This is called "common sense" in Europe, Australia & New Zealand, but in America that is the heresy of being "unamerican."
America can and should do better than that.
~ josh
p.s. BTW, I'm fond of Beckett too...
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I have to say that this is horrifyingly scary. You seem to suggest that the U.S. is nothing more than a crumbling empire fronted by corrupted neo-facists while the rest of the "developed nations" are all roses, peaches, and cream.
Respond to what you want but please answer me this one yes or no question: If the U.S. vanished tomorrow, I mean everything including the land mass itself, do you think the world would change for the better?