most of the european people think that the american politics are the worst. there is many anti-bush people here too. you refused to help nature with the kyoto protocol and you are starting wars all the time. I am not talking about you who are kind of hippies but your country.. so are you proud of being an american?
It is very sad to be an American now as many Americans are horribly misled and uninformed by the corporate power structure which runs things. Why would anyone be proud of this? The whole world is in a tailspin though and violence and/or destruction of the earth are happening in every country. Better to be a free citizen of the planet and not adhere to national boundries. In the mind anyway.
You know here in my country there're some strange opinions about America. I think it comes from Soviet Union: So, America is bad 'cause there's sex without marriage, The country exists no more than 3 century (don't know why everyone says the wrong number) Country is made by ppl who were hiding from justice in Europe. This opinion was normal for USSR, because USA was contestant country, but today, after 20 years of Soviet Union's ending, when I hear the ideas like these I just can't force myself not to laugh. lol
Am I proud to be an American? Well, It's better than living in a third world country, or one that's terribly poverty stricken. In that sense I'm thankful to be an American. However, the American way of stepping on others to get ahead, disgusts me, as does our "president." You know what else gets is all of the mindless nationalism that occurs here. Many people around 9/11 were waiving their flags furiously. Why? Your proud of what? The fact that the most powerful country in the world wasn't protected from terrorists? Even the olympics...who cares which country wins. May those who have the best skill win...that's that. Europe seems more progressive. I wonder if would make a better place for me to live, how i'd get there, I have no idea
Only 3 decades more, quite accurate. I agree with you, those things you named are indeed not the best reasons for disliking America. Edit: oh damn, it's one century to much. Haha :tongue:
Being proud for being something you have no control of, and something that is very trivial and territorial is idiotic. Saying "I am proud to be an American" is like saying "I am proud to be white".
i am proud of what my country was founded on, i am proud of the freedom that is entitled to me by this country, but i am not proud of what this country has become. I am not proud of this so-called democracy, i am not proud of the tyrannical uneducated man that is running it into the ground, i am not proud of the violence, i am not proud of the fear and the fact that we can no longer trust anyone but ourselves anymore.
Americans are serious about protecting the environment. We have big public sector burecracies inspecting and regulating things relating to our shared environment. All of our factories are moving offshore due to the regulatory regime. Our rivers are cleaner now than any time in living memory. I view Koyoto as some kind of gesture, a stunt. The real polution in this world is happening other places. will Koyoto affect that ? :bigear:
In the 1970's I was very displeased with the way our country was being run, after a tour in Viet Nam (as a draftee) you start to ask alot of questions. Then the administrations change, you busy raising a family, keeping a roof over your heads putting food on the table. Now the kids have their own roofs to pay for and ours is already paid for. Whats happening today just is beyond insanity. Makes me think of a song by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, "Troubles Coming Everyday". Goes something like this....... "I about to get upset, watch'in my TV, check'in out all the news that my eyeballs fail to see. You know that every other day is just another rotten mess and when its going to change my friend is anybodies guess." I start thinking about that song when I hear the sound of Geo. W's voice. ....................................Alaskan.......Dennis......
hmm.. No, I am not very proud of being a swedish man. actually I am moving to amsterdam in a few months. But when I see movies and documentarys from the US you allways have so much patrioism there. myself and many, many more people doesnt like america because you like to control the world. I am sure that there are a lot of good people there too but the system is fucked up and its affecting the rest of the world. america is one of the biggest countries in the world and it stands for a lot of problems for the natureand they have done nothing.. else than sending more people to Iraq wre more people will die.. I am not the best in the english language and I am way too high to be able to find any more issues where USA stands for bad things..
i am not sure now but I think that I have read somewere that america stands for 25% of the world carbon dioxide outlets in the world and yet they didnt sign under on the kyoto protocol beacause it would take too much on the economy.. and thats something that I find very sick!! not that I like sweden too mush but we are not at any war and we are one of the worlds most equal coutries.. ..but then we have realy hard drugpolitics which sucks!
and I have totaly off topic question while I am being here. "we need it more than it needs us" is that right with a S after need in this sentence?
Umm, rude generalizations? Saying Americans want world domination is like saying everyone from Iraq is a terrorist. Our politicians can be very fucked up but the majority of us are NOT politicians. People here are outraged about how many people have died in Iraq. I don't know anyone who is apathetic about what's going on.
First of all to the person who said Europe seems more progressive, Europe consists of many countries. In some ways each person, government, country is more progressive than another in some way, it also depends on what the people see as "progressive". Also pride is a desperate emotion. To feel pride is to grasp for something to hide the truth and distract. However you have to realize movies, even documentaries are not real, they are portrayals of the story the makers are trying to tell, whether it's based on the truth or not, you are not seeing the whole thing and it is not something to base a judgement on. As far as I've seen on TV lots of countries have nationalism, but I haven't seen it personally, so I don't know what the context is. As far as I know nationalism is being taught to it's citizens by the government. I don't think it's just the U.S. but here we are brainwashed from the age or 5 at the latest that America is the greatest country, that there is only freedom here, and to trust the government, support your country and believe and abide by all it's rules, we are taught 1 or 2 things about another country, and lots of important negative truths about our country are deliberately left out. But after seeing the lies with your own eyes, people start to get sick of being brainwashed and there are tons of people who don't believe in this country anymore... that is still patriotism if you ask me, a country doesn't need to be believed in, it hardly exists. Legal facts tend to have zero pieces of shit to do with actual truth. Marriage on paper means nothing to a marriage in real life. Unless your country is 100% perfect and you had a significant job in making it that way, being proud of a country that you just happen to live on, perhaps because you were born there or immigrated there is just as stupid as being proud of a paper you wrote about information that you assumed you're an expert on because you saw it on TV.
Pride comes from ego. I can be proud of who I am as a person, or what I can do. I can be proud of things some of my ancestors did. But just because I happened to be born on a certain piece of real estate is nothing to be proud of. NOT proud because of what the government does or does not do. The government is so far from what the people want it's like two different universes. NOT proud because this land was STOLEN from it's rightful inhabitants to begin with. Not proud that this entire country was formed in WAR. NOT proud because so many people just allow these bad things to continue and do so little to change it. DEFINATELY NOT proud of our warmongering and hypocritical president and his insane friends.
Dont think that India and China will do Koyoto restrictions either, they get a developing country exception. Hopefully the US will get more nuclear power plants and further limit carbon emissions. Americans sure wont give up thier appliances and computers and cars.
