Not exactly coherent at the moment (pub crawling in Van with pal of wonderchicken and myself - Reecky) but I'm so used to(and sick of) 'patriots' saying something like "if you were in country x you'd be arrested for voicing your opinions like this"

Like that's a reason for abusing this right of free speach by either not saying anything or just agreeing with the masses...

Heh, I was right, it's not exactly coherent.

Yes, writers, scholars, artists -- I noticed that you didn't mention politicians or government leaders, and there's good reason. When we Americans criticize "America," we are criticizing the asses-of-evil who somehow get elected to represent those of us whom they don't represent. The spirit of American flourishes not in its government and economic leaders, but in its writers, scholars, artists..... all of those with no power but the power of their ideas. Thank god (or, as I prefer to say, the goddess) for them!

John's point's pertinent. Also, that so many Americans empathize with those who beat up on the goons running their country, is remarkable and evidence of the spirit that birthed the place in genocide and slaughter, through imagination and endurance, to a profound creative phase that, sadly, seems now to be stultifying with the rise of tech. They must have a very real appreciation of the world about them. What the knee-jerkers don't realize is that most of us (well, I'll speak for myself) have an enormous appreciation of what the US has given the world - its writers, scholars, and artists of all disciplines, for example. I fear bringing them up because they tend to the first fallback of those who lash out in artifice with "If it weren't for us...". They, the creative, have been the checks that have balanced the scales rather than laws abused at will.

"it baffles me that so many americans swallow every bit of rubbish that comes out of his mouth"

Well, most people worldwide, not just Americans, do that (not that it makes it any more right, mind you, but they do it nonetheless).

Edited by author 02-21-2002 11:52 AM
stavros says: What I personally can't understand is why the American people aren't rising up to throw those tiny, greedy little men out of the halls of their capitol.

well, i can't understand it either stavros. But as an american, i agree with you wholeheartedly (maybe that has something to do with the fact that i was born in canada though :). it baffles me that so many americans swallow every bit of rubbish that comes out of his mouth. i was hopeful that the terrorist attacks would open up american minds to things that are going on around the world, but it seems to have done the opposite. it's triggered an isolation mechanism in a lot of people. But i'm still hopeful that there is less uncritical acceptance of bush than the media seems to portray. his ratings are gradually falling (thankfully).

These days I fear that too many Americans are either too damn comfortable in their own little middle-class niches or else too overwhelmed by the ecomomic and social problems that plague the other end of the spectrum to open up their awareness of what our government is doing to the rest of the world. We are insulated and isolated from all of that by the propaganda spun out by our own media. I don't know any statistics, but I'll bet that most Americans who have access to the web don't use it much to dig out political truths. They just don't want to know. I'm always surprised at how many Americans still don't undersand -- or don't want to understand -- why we're hated so much in so many places outside of the U.S.

CDI, Feb 20 2001 : "Cynics might believe that Bush would want to keep North Korea in the "rogue state" category for use as evidence of threats supporting his proposed national missile defense (NMD)."

Cynics, indeed.

I think we share an unhealthy common sense of a ghastly state of affairs. I agree wholeheartedly. I've been debating some of these issues in private and one thing that really hits me hard is the way perceptions can be so entrenched in people that they no longer realize just how skewed their perceptions are (needless to say, I straighten mine out every morning before going to work).

What I personally can't understand is why the American people aren't rising up to throw those tiny, greedy little men out of the halls of their capitol.

The only television I get in English here is the Armed Forces Network, so I don't watch televised news, much. What I do see, when it's not cunningly crafted infotainment-distractions from the Real Game, is so at odds with what I perceive to be the realities of the situation in the world today that it makes my head ring like a fucking bell...

Terrifying. Each swing of the pendulum further out from any (probably imaginary) calm and placid centre makes later transgressions all the more acceptable, and our proud civilization starts more and more to resemble the WWF on a good day, and a Heironymous Bosch nightmare on a bad one.

Yip, there are many different truths being manufactured out there and the slimeballs are fighting each other like rabid dogs to decide who gets to put out which pack of lies to whom. It maintains the Balance of Terror. Fuck with their minds, shape shift, send in... SHADOWMAN. Yeah, he's a composite of others' evil thought mechanisms, a dummy too dumb to do anything other than act as a poor excuse for a front man. Big Dick, Ashcroft, and the good ol' boys must have (ah jeez, I can't say that here) when they realized they had it, that license to kill, steal, rape, pillage, profit. Bunch of lowdown, thieving whores. Shelley's very pissed off too. Some people feel it wrong of non-US citizens to sound off about the US as I, and others, do. Well, when the US administration, mass media, and public step down from their self-appointed positions as leaders of the 'Free World' and take their noses out of my face, then I'll shut up.

Original post here.