Stupid patriotic Americans

[Dinner]

Re: Re: Re: Stupid patriotic Americans

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Only two Presidents since Eisenhower have had actual combat service.

Bush senior and...?

[orange]

Re: Stupid patriotic Americans

Originally posted by johncmcleod
This country is way to patriotic. First off, I'm not over patriotic. You'd probably call me crazy for saying this. That thread saying we are the best country was one of the dumbest things I've ever done. Also, it sounded much worse than I intended it to. I don't go around bragging that my country is the best, but it sounded like it, which wasn't what I wanted. And finally, when I say the US is the best country in the world it doesn't mean anything to me. It's a label that doesn't matter. I believe Americans are no better than anyone else in the world, I don't like our president, I was opposed to the war in Iraq, and I understand how arrogant we are.

With that out of the way I'll tell a story that is an outrage. I live in a town about 30 miles away from Spokane. During the period before the War in Iraq when Germany was doing the smart thing and trying to stop the war the German teacher and a couple of German foreign exchange students at a school in Spokane received hate letters saying "Go back home you Nazi."

Another thing that I hate so much is the patriotic idiots who live around me. Everyone makes very cruel jokes about France for opposing the war and are boycotting French products are defacing their culture by calling French fries 'Freedom Fries'. Our country is so stupid because everytime someone opposes something we do we get mad at and threaten to cut off their foreign aid and other stuff like that. So we do whatever we want because we're special.

Another thing that pisses me off is the fact that we expect people to do something wrong just because we've helped them in the past. If a friend of yours has been very kind to you in the past and has done a whole lot for you and then asks you to help him to do something wrong, should you have to do it?

I wish we could save all of our patriotic thoughts for the 4th of July, party a lot and say we're the best and then have all of it overwith.

\

[Guynemer]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Stupid patriotic Americans

Originally posted by Oerdin


Bush senior and...?

JFK.

[Sava]

I think everyone knows my policy on Patriotism vs Jingoism... I don't understand the need to profess the love for one's country in such an excessive manner. I love my mother, but am not about to go:

M O M --- M O M --- M O M --- M O M

I think excessive pride and displays of patriotism are probably due to some sort of inadequecies.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by johncmcleod
I don't get it. I start a thread saying we're the best, and everyone gets pissed off for me being overpatriotic. Then I start a thread saying we're overpatriotic and it turns into a God Bless the USA thread.

I too think this thread is impressive. Thank you for opening it, because I can see the moronity that seems to subjugate your country every day

[Sava]

Don't worry Spiff, we're getting better. I hope.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Azazel


So do you think only the real men that saw combat can decide national policy? Because that's what you're saying. The hawks that never saw combat don't have the right to do it, and the doves that never saw combat neither have the right to do it, nor want to do it. Only the real hardcore supertroopers have the right to determine policy.

No, as LoneWolf understood, it's common for conservatives to denigrate whiny liberals for not having any military service, while conservative leaders also don't have any military service. So if it's an issue, it's an issue for the whole ideological spectrum, and if it's not an issue, it's not an issue for the whole ideological spectrum.

However, now that you mention it... Foreign policy run by the D-boys would be kinda interesting...

[Sava]

That's why Eisenhower was such a great president. I may not have agreed with him 100% on every little political issue, but the man had integrity, and his military experience gave him a great perspective on the use of military force:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, is a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross." --Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953

I think this gives us a good idea what Ike would think about the Neo-Cons and their destructive, self-serving foreign policy.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Azazel
(magnificent creatures, btw. )

Actually, bald eagles are bastards. One of their common hunting tactics is to let ospreys (also called "fish hawks" in the US) catch a fish, then the higher flying (and quite a bit larger) eagle dive bombs the osprey, scaring the crap out of it and making it drop the fish, which the eagle then takes. Now if there's any symbolic linkage to it being the national bird....

[Sava]

MtG

[GePap]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


No, as LoneWolf understood, it's common for conservatives to denigrate whiny liberals for not having any military service, while conservative leaders also don't have any military service. So if it's an issue, it's an issue for the whole ideological spectrum, and if it's not an issue, it's not an issue for the whole ideological spectrum.

However, now that you mention it... Foreign policy run by the D-boys would be kinda interesting...

These kinds of guys are the ones that attacked the ex-democract senator from georgia as somehow "weak on defense" and "not patriotic". Yes, the guy who lost three limbs in Vietnam knew nothing about service and sacrifice....

Personally, I don;t think Military service makes one any better a national leader than not, as long as, when in dealing with military matters, you accept the advice of those that have served in making choices. The demand for martial leaders is a common sight for populism and a dangerous one for democracy.

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by Sava
I think everyone knows my policy on Patriotism vs Jingoism... I don't understand the need to profess the love for one's country in such an excessive manner. I love my mother, but am not about to go:

M O M --- M O M --- M O M --- M O M

I think excessive pride and displays of patriotism are probably due to some sort of inadequecies.

When I went to a Spurs game a few weeks ago, in the opening.. uh... I guess you would call it 'ceremony', the lights were turned off as spot lights and other colored lightrs were flashed around the stadium while the pep squad ran out onto the floor waving a giant spurs flag. On the Jumbo Tron it flashed "GO SPURS, GO!" with which the crowd chanted (or screamed at the top of their lungs rather) in unison. All the while the spurs dance team was doing some showwy routine and the announcer was introducing the players as they ran onto the floor... "Number 21 at 7 feet tall....TIIIIIIIIIM DUUNCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!"

My point being that the showy patriotism is litle different than whats done as team spirit at various professional sports, colleges, and High Schools across the country. Its probable that this "team spirit" is just ingrined in our culture through these activities, 'ceremonies', and traditions.

Even though i find it rediculous, at hte same time the show of emotion and such has sent chills down my spine. However, i usually end up feeling embarassed for those outgoing fans and supporters who make fools of themselves, in my opinion. But i must remember that to others of their same mind set, they are heroes, not fools.

[Al B. Sure!]

amazingly, the leftists don't got no problems with Iraqi and/or Arab patriotism... and that patriotism is not simple being proud of your country... that brand is aggressive

[Spiffor]

AS :
Had I belonged to a forum with as many Iraqis as there are Yanks here, I would probably have raised an eyebrow or two to Iraqi nationalism, too.

But here is a place with plenty of Yanks, and the uberpatriotism you can witness worldwide comes from Yankland. If you want to start a thread about the Iraqi/Arab nationalism, go ahead. It will of course be less heated than this here one, but I doubt many leftists will laudate the Iraqi nationalism

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
amazingly, the leftists don't got no problems with Iraqi and/or Arab patriotism... and that patriotism is not simple being proud of your country... that brand is aggressive

That is a good point. I never hear much criticism form certain people when Palestinians are dancing in the streets over a dead martyr or baby or something, but they are a bag full of wind when it comes to Americans