Why the USA is a disgrace

[Aractus]

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.

[Minimalist]

You left out that there is a whole political party which looks at your list as a list of "achievements."

[Angrboda]

And we give out free party whistles!

[ignoramus]

At least they eat healthy!

[Whateverist]

Sounds like sarcasm to me. We're pound for pound the largest humans in the world. We start wars so we can eat you.

[CapnAwesome]

Wow, another Atheist forums thread bitching about America. How original.

[Ravenshire]

I've gotta agree with the Captain on this one.

No, we're not perfect. Yes we're quite well aware of it. We're also sick and fucking tired of being painted in strokes wider than the fucking Atlantic.

[Jenny A]

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.

[GrandizerII]

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.

Australia certainly isn't any better.

[CapnAwesome]

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.

In fact if you look at their history and the way they treated their natives or their white's only immigration policy that lasted until 1970, you can pretty much guarantee that they would not. Not to mention their recent support of Iraq and Afghanistan. For all of Australia's wealth, one of the towns I stayed at while I was there didn't have access to clean water and the rate of spousal abuse in Australia is at crisis levels according to their own government.

I mean this isn't to say that Australia isn't also an awesome place. I'm just saying you can make a list of shitty things about any country, esspecially when you get to compare them to 'first world countries'

What are the first world countries? Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, The US and Canada. Not a single country in South America or Africa normally gets included and a very limited number of Asian countries are and half of Europe (the east half and the Balkans) gets somehow removed when people talk about Europe. I mean western Europe spent centuries plundering the wealth of the rest of the world, so yeah they are doing pretty well economically.