All this bitching about america when we enrich you and your very fucking existence Aractus, lol? The world wouldn't have known what to do without us all these years. You hookers just -need- us, and it pisses you off. That's okay though, cuz we're 'murica, and were cool with people stomping their feet while bellying up to the trough.

Well there is money to be made from war well.. for third parties anyways.

The majority of Americans isn't comfortable with what you call your list of disgrace. Polls show that they hold pretty liberal views. It's white, old, rightwing America endorsing what you list. A dying out breed.

The only thing I hope for is more secular liberals moving their asses to the voting booths. The American voter turnout is the only real American disgrace compared to every other Western democracy. Everything else is down to who's parking his ass in the White House and who's dominating the houses.

(February 6, 2016 at 9:15 am)abaris Wrote: The majority of Americans isn't comfortable with what you call your list of disgrace. Polls show that they hold pretty liberal views. It's white, old, rightwing America endorsing what you list. A dying out breed.

The only thing I hope for is more secular liberals moving their asses to the voting booths. The American voter turnout is the only real American disgrace compared to every other Western democracy. Everything else is down to who's parking his ass in the White House and who's dominating the houses.

Er  now, sir! Sweeping generalizations must never be challenged!

(February 6, 2016 at 7:45 am)ignoramus Wrote: Brits? Yanks? We've been screwed over by so many Australia will soon be called Priscilla!

I got that reference.

(February 6, 2016 at 9:40 am)Pandæmonium Wrote:

(February 6, 2016 at 7:45 am)ignoramus Wrote: Brits? Yanks? We've been screwed over by so many Australia will soon be called Priscilla!

I got that reference.

So did Elrond.

(February 6, 2016 at 7:28 am)Mathilda Wrote:

(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.

Yay! Make America great again!

Oh hold on, that's what you're complaining about. Another thing you can add to your list is racism. It astounds me that people can still call for segregation nowadays.

I personally hate the British establishment. Not Brits, but the establishment that has been in place since feudal times. While America is like the big school boy bully, the British establishment are like the snivelling weak bully that hangs around the bigger one making matters worse. I think Britain is just as war hungry as America. Not that the public wants it, but the establishment does. We have a thriving arms industry that profit from this and also sell weapons to Saudi Arabia to wage war on Yemen.

We need to be conquered ... but not by America.

The UK is one of the most liberal and tolerant societies to have ever existed. Not prefect by any stretch of the imagination, and of course there are social injustices that still occur.

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/d...B67E204749

By almost every indicator detailed on the OECD report the UK ranks above average/high in things like wealth creation and societal tolerances of political and religious POVs. Of course there some problems, like wealth inequality levels, but still a lot lower than many other western OECD states (incidentally the US spends way less on public care than we do as a % of total spend based on government expenditures).

In terms of corruption even transparency international ranks the UK as one of the lowest: https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015

The CI 2015 reveals the UK as no. 10 on the world for perceived corruption by given populations, pretty good but obviously not perfect: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupti...Index#2015

So I'm interested to know whom we should be conquered by and why?

One thing I don't understand is the continued self-loathing by westerners of the states they live in. I am not a patriot. I am a liberal and an egalitarian and I advocate all means to elevate the world in general to grow and develop. Opportunities to all regardless of their country, religion, race, beliefs etc. The west as we know it today has developed egalitarian values to the highest point that I think has ever been achieved in the entirety of human civilization, and I am eternally grateful that I was born and raised in a country where I can think and say whatever I want without fear of being murdered for it by state mandate. I want to stress that life is not perfect, not utopian. But it's a hell of a lot better than almost everywhere else in the world.

We should be advocating and petitioning change and evolution from within, not advocating the closing down of the entire system to hope that something better will come along, in my view.

It is irrational to be mad at a country.

(February 6, 2016 at 10:24 am)Excited Penguin Wrote: It is irrational to be mad at a country.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

(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.

I'm an American so I'll throw in my $0.02 worth. (That's two cents for those that don't understand US currency)

You want to bitch about all you think is wrong with my country, yet we are one of the FIRST countries to step up and offer aid to other countries who suffer a major catastrophe, such as an earthquake. Does Haiti ring a bell?

When the US was hit by Hurricane Katrina, how many other countries stepped up and offered us assistance? To this fucking day, we still have areas of New Orleans that have never recovered from that disaster that happened more than ten years ago. When FEMA failed to properly do its job, our own citizens organized a nationwide televised relief effort. What other countries did that for the American people that even came close to what our own citizens did?

MY country might not be perfect, but it's where I live. It's where I was born and raised. What I have noticed is that for all that's wrong here, we have given out trillions in aid to other countries and we have NEVER been paid back a single penny for it.

The next time another country suffers a natural disaster, I hope those bitching about how horrible we are, don't expect us to show up with our American Red Cross trucks, volunteers and supplies (such as potable water, food, blankets and building supplies). You clearly don't deserve it.