How the USA is regarded from the rest of the world

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I'm assuming ruve is the one of those americans from the upper caste who hasn't been covered in s**t....yet.

Meanwhile I'm seeing a completely different picture from here.

Heh, i wouldn't assume anything about how ruveyn lives. =/ Besides, i thought there wasn't any "castes" as properly showned by Hindi castes, in the USA. <.< (Although to some extent, one could see it as such with understandable reasons)

Feet of sh*t disturber topic

Interesting analysis by a Methodist.

The way i see it (as an objective opinion, and Im american), the US is still a fledgling nation. Its only been around for 250 years and has only had 2 civil wars, and participated in 1 world war, and now one conflict of cultures (the revolutionary pitted friend against friend, regardless of nationality). Compared to other nations, we still have a long ways to go in understanding the best way for a society/nation to work when dealing with just 50+ million individuals (assuming at least 1 mil per state). The European nations have been established for nearly a millennia and have dealt with at least one civil war every few decades (in various countries), plus two world wars.

Why does the US like to view itself as the perfect country with unmatchable life-quality?

And that's why people hate the USA. An imperialistic state that doesn't even care about its own citizens. A fake "democracy", spreading lies and irrational propaganda, and ruling all of us through corporations.

I don't hate American people, of course.
I hate the imperialism, the pop-culture, the consumerism, the capitalist corporation rule, the racism, the propaganda, the materialism, the lie of the American dream, the Americanisation, the two-party system (with no major difference, usually), the conservatism, Manifest Destiny, McCarthyism, FBI (Hoover quoted in RATM song), Agent Orange, Guantanamo, etc.

I hate(d) the American regime. I hate what it kept standing for, for years, hopefully now it may change. I truly believe that most Americans had no choice until Obama, so they can't be blamed. I'm sorry for the brainwashed ones. I hated how they kept pretending to be a free country. I hated how "socialism" became a pejorative by some political figures. I hated how there was no difference between both candidates, and how it was possible that Al Gore got more votes, yet lost the elections - is it a democracy, or a board game?

I hated how after they beat the Nazis, black people still couldn't sit in the front of buses. I hate how you have to sing in English to become popular in the world. I hate the marketing techniques such as advising to pour a beer extra cold (can't feel the taste that way). I hate the hype about the superbowl commercials. I hate how sports teams change colours/name/towns.

And there's no point in answering me that my government/culture isn't better - we're individuals. That's exactly what they want, to turn this to a nationalistic debate. I hate my regime as well, its foundations, and hate the ignorance in my homeland. I hate how my nation thinks American culture is great.

I have nothing against American people.
I wish them the best, as to all human beings. Even the brainwashed ones... But I do believe in Obama.

That's because there was no real democracy - so no conflicts.
Even the civil war in the US was despisable - people aligned for the state, not for their beliefs, as in, let's say, the Spanish Civil War.

If no one hears the poor people, no black people get to represent their community, both candidates say the same things - of course it'll all be stable.

I'm pretty sure it's the only western country that has capital punishment - unless you consider Belarus western (and if you consider Israel western, it's valid for Nazis) - and still has a higher rape and murder rate. So what's so good in comparison to Europe?

In Europe you can choose your political party, other than democrat/republican. Still not perfect, but better. In Europe you have a sports tradition (I can't a big club changing colours...). In Europe, at least in some places, people seem to appreciate the simpler life, social security, help for the poor, etc.

If you talk about history - well, I'm pretty sure the US joined WWI towards the end, but anyhow - I wouldn't call the Indian genocide, Manifest Destiny, wars with Spain and Mexico, slavery, giving voting rights to black people only in the 60s, the cold war, Agent Orange, war in Iraq, Guantanamo, etc. such a clean history.

Not saying other places were/are great - but in America there seems to be this denialism, like in your post (no offence personally). At least from the regime's side, not talking about the people themselves, but it convinces some people, unfortunately.

In comparison - Nazi Germany was responsible for one of the biggest crimes ever. Today every German I speak to tells me he is ashamed of this history, the government takes measures to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, and every Nazi demonstration is a magnet to a larger anti-Nazi demonstration. But the Americans seem clean, as looks like from your post - "they don't gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em"...

In the US, even when public opinion seemed against the Iraq War in retrospective, Bush insisted on staying there. In Europe, that can't happen, because the people take down the government.

I think denialism explains it best actually. We want to do stuff, but we dont want to consider ourselves responsible (if it can be avoided). Bear in mind our founding groups: puritans and pirates . . . a contradiction if there ever was one. The puritans were, lets face it, hypocritical a**holes (followed faith in public, but were devils behind the scenes . . . course thats 99% of the world's politicians anyway ) and pirates, complete and utter opposite of puritans and they lived by/admitted it. To this day, you could probably label someone in America by either of those (and of course there are many different layers of severity to each group). Course someone would say that is also the basis for the political parties (Democrats = Pirates, Republicans = Puritans).

Most of the Union troops believed in the Union. There was no draft initially, so most troops signed up voluntarily.

By the way, the U.S. is not a Democracy. It is a Republic.

ruveyn

Which pretty much sums up what Omerik said...

Not so. The Troops fought, motivated as individuals, not merely as minions of the State.

ruveyn

Yes America was a different time and different place back then. Except I wouldn't say they all voluntarily fought. I'm pretty sure even the drummer boys weren't too keen on pounding their senseless drum sets into the battlefields. If I'm also not mistaken, many soldiers were executed if they decided to leave the army as they were branded "cowardices".

Let's also not forget the individuals who had much more "right" to the lands than the original Americans or the way some Americans were treated for not being of a lighter shade.

At least now we have less puritanism thanks to the second, third, and fourth generations of immigrants who contributed to our society and culture which helped enrich it as well as unions and rights groups.

Still some things never change...

Actually, from about the time of Ronald Reagan until the last election, the term "liberal" was used as a major epithet. Over time, the term "liberal" lost its sting, particularly in light of the catastrophes caused by President Bush and the Republican Party (which labels itself "conservative"). Hence, they came up with the term "socialist" as their new invective, probably because it seemed more ominous and intelligent than a term like "dum-dum."

And don't you find it odd that the people simply fought for their ideology, and just happened to live in the same place?

Songs as "God Save the South" and lyrics such as:

As opposed to:

Sound pretty local/nationalistic to me.
It looks pretty much south vs north.

In cotrast - the Spanish Civil War was between Republicans and Nationalists, each supported by groups "closer" to them. It split neighbours, friends, families, etc.
The same can be said about the Russian Civil War, the Greek Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, and other civil wars.

well, if all the other countries can fess up to their misdeeds, I suppose we can fess up to ours.

The question is: are those your misdeeds?
Was it the American government who is responsible, or the American people?
I don't feel any need to defend "my" state (which is the authority where I live). Perhaps I could've done more, but I voted for parties against those misdeeds, for example. And if we talk about things that happened centuries ago - what does that necessarily have to with the current citizens of the country?

I think if you talk about your misdeeds, you should ask yourself what misdeeds you're talking about, and if you could've done anything better/different.