(February 5, 2016 at 9:30 pm)Aractus Wrote: Okay, so sometimes people comment that I'm "too anti-American". Well I have good reason. Some of the shit that they do has far-reaching consequences.

I am so tired of your unsubstantiated bullshit.

(February 5, 2016 at 9:30 pm)Aractus Wrote: [*]The USA starts wars. They're the most war-hungry nation on the planet.

[*]
Australians with your attitude should celebrate December 7, 1941 as a national holiday. Despite the global conflagration that had been raging for years, we war-hungry types had continued to sit on the sidelines. Without the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 we would have never secured your island's existence in the Battle of the Coral Sea the following May. Grandpa was a grunt and Grandma was a nurse; both in the South Pacific during WWII. My existence depends on them meeting after the war; however, your existence depends on their (and a million more Americans) contribution during the war.

Be honest, if the Chinese suddenly wanted to invade Australia who are you going to call?

(February 6, 2016 at 2:07 am)Cato Wrote: Be honest, if the Chinese suddenly wanted to invade Australia who are you going to call?

Ghostbusters?!?

*ducks*

(February 6, 2016 at 2:18 am)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote:

(February 6, 2016 at 2:07 am)Cato Wrote: Be honest, if the Chinese suddenly wanted to invade Australia who are you going to call?

Ghostbusters?!?

*ducks*

Funny as fuck. Legitimate answer though, they had more firepower than the Australian navy without crossing streams and total protonic reversal.

(February 5, 2016 at 9:30 pm)Aractus Wrote: Okay, so sometimes people comment that I'm "too anti-American". Well I have good reason. Some of the shit that they do has far-reaching consequences.

• The USA starts wars. They're the most war-hungry nation on the planet.
  
• They are the worst first world country in their handling of income inequality.
  
• Companies based in the USA extort people. This includes so-called "copyright trolls" and other companies like PayPal that freeze accounts without warning and keep all of their client's money.
  
• Prostitution is still prosecuted, and pornographers have not been forced to provide a safe work-palace, despite the enactment of a new law in California.
  
• Minors can be tried as adults - something not done in any other first world country.
  
• Criminal prosecutions are excessive.
  
• They trigged the GFC because they allowed predatory behaviour in the corporate banking world.
  
• Because they have corporations that are based on distributing creative works, they fight to keep copyrights and patents at unreasonable lengths, in measures that only benefit publishers and not artists or researchers.
  
• They believe they can dictate to other sovereign States how they should behave, and what policies they should enforce.
  

Feel free to add your own points.

You don't like America, bully for you, do keep going on about the sawdust on our shirts with that plank in your eye "mate".

(February 5, 2016 at 9:30 pm)Aractus Wrote: Okay, so sometimes people comment that I'm "too anti-American". Well I have good reason. Some of the shit that they do has far-reaching consequences.

• The USA starts wars. They're the most war-hungry nation on the planet.
  
• They are the worst first world country in their handling of income inequality.
  
• Companies based in the USA extort people. This includes so-called "copyright trolls" and other companies like PayPal that freeze accounts without warning and keep all of their client's money.
  
• Prostitution is still prosecuted, and pornographers have not been forced to provide a safe work-palace, despite the enactment of a new law in California.
  
• Minors can be tried as adults - something not done in any other first world country.
  
• Criminal prosecutions are excessive.
  
• They trigged the GFC because they allowed predatory behaviour in the corporate banking world.
  
• Because they have corporations that are based on distributing creative works, they fight to keep copyrights and patents at unreasonable lengths, in measures that only benefit publishers and not artists or researchers.
  
• They believe they can dictate to other sovereign States how they should behave, and what policies they should enforce.
  

Feel free to add your own points.

What, do you mean we're almost as bad as the British Empire would have been if it had lasted through today, in a world where King George III wasn't an idiot?

EDIT: Oh, pleeeEEEEEZE!!! This shit comes from Australia, that penal colony of the British, which depends on the rest of the world to defend it from multiple hostile cultures which surround it, and was even worse in their regard to the dignity of native human life than the US was 150 years ago? I agree with Julian Assenge, but don't go pretending that you are naturally better people just because your country has never been in the position to become the monster which you despise. On this, Jared Diamond absolutely nailed it - it's geographic factors which make a culture what it is!

(February 5, 2016 at 11:33 pm)Jenny A Wrote: Sorry. The U.S. of A does some shitty things.  But mostly we're just a Western nation with greater power to enforce our idiocies. I don't think Australia would do anything better.

No, I'm sorry, but Australians wouldn't want to enforce their idiocies. We don't have groups trying to violently ban abortion, for example. Trialling minors as adults, practising the death penalty, criminalising prostitution - are you really saying that's "equal"?? Those are horrific abuses of civil liberties. As is disconnecting people's internet because the MPAA says so.

Now we have PayPal banning VPNs, and freezing their money.




Nice. "As a result your account has been permanently limited and this cannot be appealed". Where is the goddamn regulation that would prevent this kind of abuse? Paypal is now an essential payment facility - that is that if you ban a VPN service's PP account, not only can they not receive PP payments from customer, but they also can't pay their bills (e.g. for servers) through PP and many data-centres and other online companies only accept Paypal. Do you reckon they'll freeze Softlayer's account as well for providing VPNs? That'd be interesting. They already removed Mega's account.

(February 6, 2016 at 3:06 am)Aractus Wrote: No, I'm sorry, but Australians wouldn't want to enforce their idiocies. We don't have groups trying to violently ban abortion, for example. Trialling minors as adults, practising the death penalty, criminalising prostitution - are you really saying that's "equal"?? Those are horrific abuses of civil liberties. As is disconnecting people's internet because the MPAA says so.

Now we have PayPal banning VPNs, and freezing their money.

Please Danny, explain how your Quixotic civil liberties rail against vpn legislation compares to your silence and tacit approval of Australian hate speech law. Which precisely is more of an abuse against civil liberties? Apparently in your book it's perfectly fine if the government limits your speech, but damn them if they become a minor inconvenience in your pursuit of digital connectivity. I'm looking forward to hearing how Americans are to blame.

(February 5, 2016 at 9:32 pm)Minimalist Wrote: You left out that there is a whole political party which looks at your list as a list of "achievements."

OMG!! So true,

@ Aractus, you sound like a cell phone commercial, the little boys bashing the big boy. We got where we are by working harder and thinking more clever than the rest of the world. I have nothing against Australia, she has problems just like the rest of the world, my problem is with a little nut who complains about an entire nation because he has a grip with PP. Well so do I and you don't hear me crying about it, I found a way to work around them, give it a try and climb down off your high horse.

GC

(February 5, 2016 at 11:50 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Yeah, nobody is more critical or self-loathing then Americans anyway.

Have you met us Brits?

Bill Bailey Wrote:I'm English, and as such I crave disappointment. I actively seek it out.