Thread: Did my country really plan this????

Originally Posted by kidkboom

I guess my "button" (and i'm ashamed, on re-examination, to find I was so reactionary) was the concept that someone's opinion should be invalid, and that someone should request they take it back.

Yes, I admit it was a bit extreme. I've only done it for the consistency reasons. I guess I just got sick and tired of some people blaming the US for just about anything without considering the alternatives. As soon as they hear anything negative about the US - voila! - they are caught like a fish on a hook and start crying some blanket statements. You know, it became so fashionable these days to be over-critical of the US that all the positive factors are forgotten. And usually those very people are very vocal, but unfortunately have not that much clue of what's going on...

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Yes, I admit it was a bit extreme. I've only done it for the consistency reasons. I guess I just got sick and tired of some people blaming the US for just about anything without considering the alternatives. As soon as they hear anything negative about the US - voila! - they are caught like a fish on a hook and start crying some blanket statements. You know, it became so fashionable these days to be over-critical of the US that all the positive factors are forgotten. And usually those very people are very vocal, but unfortunately have not that much clue of what's going on...

I respect this. I should mention that the reason you hear me cry about this, is not because I'm caught on a certain idea, but because I DO love my country. There are plenty of things about capitalism and American freedom that I love dearly.. As a case-in-point, I've been allowed to say and think things about my country that would have had me, if I were a Chinese citizen, whisked away into whatever unknown dungeons their dissidents go to.. (1984-style: Weiwei, an artist, was just freed.. because he "confessed" to his crime of dissidence) .. And I'm very vocal because I'm disheartened by the general US opinion that we should ignore it all, there's nothing we can do, that we should focus on being workers and consumers of functionally-obsolescent electronic goods and trust the leaders to lead.. I'm not really frightened or appalled by the IDEA of corruption - it's part of human nature, in our current iteration - but that corruption can snowball out of control when no one's watching the store.. Sometmies it feels like the curtain has been pulled around our poltical Oz for so long that no one can say what he's been up to. I'm no revolutionist. I like this place. I would just like to encourage people to have a mind for cleaning it up a bit.. And when I have an opportunity to bounce things like this off of people like you all, I feel like I learn more about it, from every angle.. so hopefully one day I WILL know what can be done constructively.. I'm no good at "Oh well, what can you do?" =)