I love America. I’m rather less fond of some of the people in it. The land is beautiful and varied. There is so much space here. And the constitution is really special, I think, though not perfect. The biggest flaw is people haven’t been taking politics seriously and have elected unserious people.
I swore to defend it many years ago. At the time I was a kid just paying lip service to a required oath, swearing to a god I never believed in, but the truth is I do love it and I would fight for it, warts and all.
people haven’t been taking politics seriously and have elected unserious people.
This is the inherent flaw. We have a representative government that never intended “people” to take politics seriously. Politics was for the landowners.
That is not a simple question. My life is what it is because I live in America. I am not driven to move elsewhere.
But America is far from what I want it to be. Last night’s debate was a good example. I am so baffled that those two are who we have decided should have power.
I agree, though I haven’t watched the debate yet. Personally, I have mixed views on current America, particularly on mass surveillance. But I believe we can change that if we all try hard enough!
I appreciate Chase Oliver’s views and see him as a better choice than RFK in my opinion. He’s running as libertarian, supports immigration, opposes war, is pro-gun rights (his motto is ‘Armed and gay’), against government surveillance, pro-abortion, 38 years old, and wants to end the war on drugs. I feel like I could vote for him, even as a right-leaning straight white male! I really don’t like Trump or Biden, and I refuse to give them my vote.
Sadly, the effect of not voting for one of the 2 candidates is to intensify the power of the most extreme views. Say 100 people can vote. 25 on each side are going to vote for their party no matter what. 20 want something crazy in one direction and 20 in the other direction, and both sides are likely to protest and/or not vote if their guy doesn’t pander to them. That leaves 10 persuadable people – mostly people who are busy with other stuff and not paying attention to the minutia of various policies and the likely after effects they will cause.
What is a candidate to do? They pander to the crazies. They can hardly bother to assuage the persuadables because those folks aren’t paying attention anyway. They have to go after the people who might bail if they aren’t appeased. I hate the system, but there it is.
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
VIDEO FROM THE NEW YORKER Throwing Shade Through Crosswords
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him
Pro gun rights is precisely why I don’t like America, along the other statemente in this thread. Y’all got it tough to only be able to vote for two terrible options.
The facts are it’s an oligopoly which is rapidly moving towards pairing this with totalitarianism. Propaganda is so pronounced today that finding actual news is a chore, and if shared it’s labeled as “fake news”. A study was recently published demonstrating political moves are made without any care for how it impacts the masses. It’s tough to see the decline happen in real time while most deny it’s occurrence. Most are too focused on owning others in the working class with alternative ideals.
But in the U.S., the natural beauty is phenomenal. Yet it’s being traded to allow conglomerates to squeeze more profit out of dwindling resources. If something doesn’t change the course soon, this answer potentially could land me in prison in the near future. Which is counter to what the country was supposedly established to prevent. It’s rough in many aspects, yet not entirely hopeless, at least as of this moment.
America, americans, or american politicians? I’ve got different opinions. The common american may be misguided or misinformed, but they’re not hateful. America itself, has done incredible damage to the world, all while claiming they’re all for liberty and freedom after being dragged into the most clear-cut good vs. bad war almost a hundred years ago. Ever since, it’s has been dragged kicking and screaming towards progress, and fighting very hard to go back to the stone age. American politicians are nearly all wastes of skin.
America is addicted to money however, and has a warped idea that working hard is somehow what life is about. But it’s still not close to fascism and there is some accountability still.
America sucks. The government and the “America” it upholds is an institution of evil, a factory for global war and oppression all while insultingly calling itself “land of the free”, and anyone who latches onto its historical “achievements” probably sucks too.
The country was founded in large part as a nation for those escaping oppression and persecution for their beliefs. It was designed to provide everyone certain freedoms the founders claimed to be inalienable.
While this is still an immensely powerful idea, it can not function without guidelines and government involvement.
Two hundred fifty years ago, it made sense for sparsely populated states to operate mostly independent of the federal government. In time, land became more dense and borders dividing populations and cultures and commerce blurred. Now, the entire world is instantly connected.
Somehow, generation after generation, it was not self-evident that all people should be treated equally. The police force and prison system still largely resemble what they were initially intended to do - serve the wealthy and enslave people for profit.
The United States affords everyone the same freedoms and opportunities by way of doing nothing at all. Everyone has the opportunity to work hard and make a fair living for themselves. But some people win the genetic lottery and inherit extra opportunities and extra freedoms.
We all have the freedom to be complete idiots and that’s considered a win.
Our constitution needs to be re-written. In my opinion, it needs to be explicit about what all the citizens of the United States should be afforded: education, health care, clean air and water, shelter, the right to not be lied to by the people who draft and pass legislation impacting our lives, the right to a source of information that’s not subject to special interests.
No. I can’t say I like it. I don’t like how our government is intent on making our lives worse by their inaction. They take more and more of our money while we get less and less in benefits.
We have no leadership. We have influencers and celebrities. Some people complain about globalism because they know we can’t compete on a global scale. People are prejudice of foreigners who take their jobs because they’re complacent with doing as little as possible. Our most successful form of entertainment is ragebait. Who’s helping us progress as a country? Who’s helping to make us smarter and healthier and happier? Who exactly is promoting general welfare and domestic tranquility?
It’s the land of the me and home of maybe. And our constitution supports your freedom to be this way. Some people love that and claim the freedom to do nothing is what makes America great.
A great America, to me, is one built for everyone to prosper, that promotes self-worth and civil respect, that strictly enforces the idea that my freedoms can not be infringed upon by you freedoms or beliefs. A great America is one that doesn’t have elections where you have to vote for the person you dislike the least. Politics should be positively engaging. We should give a damn about our leaders and they should have to deal with consequences of their actions, like anyone else.
Though it’s not perfect, the one thing I really love about America is our immigration policy. It’s the best place on the planet for people to escape for a better life. Our country is built by and thrives because of immigrants. It’s the one thing that has held true for hundreds of years. How we treat immigrants is a sin. How our government fails to properly fund our immigration system is appalling. I believe most people are in support of legal immigration yet they fail to support proper funding of our immigration department. It wreaks of racism and bigotry.
America is, by design, the land of the self-righteous. The only people in favor of that are the self-righteous.
The world isn’t black and white. I agree with some of the reasons I like the USA in the comments over here - like subculture, universities, research institutes, etc, but I want to discuss about what I don’t like.
As a South Asian, I feel grateful that we have governance over our own land by our own people. I can’t help but pity and empathize with the aboriginal folks and native Americans, whose right over their own sacred lands were snatched, their lakes polluted, and mountains defiled, their tradition destroyed, and them being treated like third-class citizens in their own land. Long ago, they were nomads, but today, based on what side of the border they ended up in, they’re either natives or illegal immigrants.
I hate the tone-deaf white defaultism, I hate it’s genocidal campaign and foreign interference, and worst of all, I hate how it still enables exploitation and wage-theft.
And what I hate even more is shoving down everyone’s throat like a clockwork about how groups opposing them were bad. Obviously, for example, the Nazis were bad, no doubt about it, but addressing so in a way so as to ignore your own terrible past absolves the crimes of the collective West, which is quite convenient for the imperialist empire.
Now, let me break it down - the amount of crimes under the Old Glory or the Union Jack exceeds far more than that under the Nazi flag. But someone decided that the Old Glory or the Union Jack aren’t hate symbols, but singled out on the Nazi flag. Being a PoC in America must suck so much, imagine having to see that disgusting hate symbol that enslaved your ancestors, bombed houses and dropped chemical agents on farms.
This is a nation founded on the ideals of genocide, slavery, and white nationalism. No I do not like the US. I’d not trust anyone who does. The USA should be dissolved.
I’m European and I have mixed feelings about the US.
There are some great sceneries, nice peoples and my accent does wonders there. I like its smaller towns and countryside.
But at the same I hate its cities. You can see the most widen gap between poverty and absurdly rich peoples in the same street. You can have a wonderful avenue and once in the back alley it looks like third world. I’ve never seen that many weird people than in the us. There’s too much violence and capitalism. And don’t get me on the fucking tipping culture.