USA The Greatest!

Lots of people want to say the US is the greatest country on earth. To me, that sounds like bull****. So, what say you.

We're not bad, but we've been better.

Of course even at our best, we always seem to have some prominent blemishes. But I'm truly in love with the dream though, even if it often falls short.

And I love being part of this great experiment! :thumbs:

calamity said:

Lots of people want to say the US is the greatest country on earth. To me, that sounds like bull****. So, what say you.

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It depends on the individual's values and definition of greatness. I think it's good that people love their home and country. For many people, thinking that it is the "greatest" is part of loving it. For others, loving it means trying to make it better. Some believe in both; others believe one or the other.

I guess if I was emigrating from a **** hole, I’d either pick the US or Canada, since both seem to be somewhat easy to assimilate into. We’re not very rigid in our social structure, and both countries have substantial population of people of color. However, if I was white guy in Norway, France or Germany, there would be no way in hell that I’d come to America.

Okay. Not the best. Trump is making us worse.

Great country, but the past two years has soiled our reputation in every corner of the globe.

Chomsky said:

We're not bad, but we've been better.

Of course even at our best, we always seem to have some prominent blemishes. But I'm truly in love with the dream though, even if it often falls short.

And I love being part of this great experiment! :thumbs:

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So.......you’re on board with MAGA?

:mrgreen:

:2wave:

calamity said:

Lots of people want to say the US is the greatest country on earth. To me, that sounds like bull****. So, what say you.

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I can't think of another country I would want to live in, all things considered. Canada would probably be the closest.

calamity said:

Lots of people want to say the US is the greatest country on earth. To me, that sounds like bull****. So, what say you.

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Why not try moving to one of those countries that you say are better to live than the USA?

calamity said:

Lots of people want to say the US is the greatest country on earth. To me, that sounds like bull****. So, what say you.

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It depends on what the criteria is. We are really great at some things, not that good at others.

Amelia said:

Okay. Not the best. Trump is making us worse.

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Obama was the one that did that. Trump if fixing what Obama destroyed.

Rexedgar said:

So.......you’re on board with MAGA?

:mrgreen:

:2wave:

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Of course not. We've had messy times before. We'll get past this. I'm worried less about Trump himself, than the collective money and monied individuals like Trump that hold sway over our government.

.......pulling your leg/chain! Chomsky.

Chomsky said:

Of course not. We've had messy times before. We'll get past this. I'm worried less about Trump himself, than the collective money and monied individuals like Trump that hold sway over our government.

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As a youth, I was a blind patriot. My country was right. It didn't occur to me it would intentionally do wrong. After Vietnam, time to question the moral compass. Watching the Iraq War propaganda wave and knowing it was BS, and then the War followed and my attitude changed. We operate for Corporate, not people. We have become many of the things I loathe, but "hope springs eternal." When Local Infrastructure takes root in Federal Policy, we will be moving back to a proud structure for the people. Do you all remember, "Of the people, by the people, for the people?
/

DaveFagan said:

As a youth, I was a blind patriot. My country was right. It didn't occur to me it would intentionally do wrong. After Vietnam, time to question the moral compass. Watching the Iraq War propaganda wave and knowing it was BS, and then the War followed and my attitude changed. We operate for Corporate, not people. We have become many of the things I loathe, but "hope springs eternal." When Local Infrastructure takes root in Federal Policy, we will be moving back to a proud structure for the people. Do you all remember, "Of the people, by the people, for the people?
/

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'Nam caused an entire generation to questing their government. That's thought to be a good thing. Unfortunately, it did nothing; as that generation is currently running it!

Born Free said:

Obama was the one that did that. Trump if fixing what Obama destroyed.

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:lamo



Edit: It's not really funny. It's very sad. But with a president like Trump dragging us deeper and deeper into the swamp, not to mention the gutter, sometimes you just gotta laugh.

The basic principles upon which America was founded are very close to my heart. However, I regard America as a soulless nation that lacks both culture and a proper ethnos - A place of mishmashed European farmers and Italian mafiosi; the absolute bottom trash of 1700's and 1800's Europe and a bunch of descendants of African slaves.

An OK place.

calamity said:

Lots of people want to say the US is the greatest country on earth. To me, that sounds like bull****. So, what say you.

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Easily the greatest country to ever exist, despite all our warts. Any other answer is just the ignorant babbling of children who are so spoiled they don't realize how good they have it.

I've never been anywhere else so I'm going to say we're fantastic!

Chomsky said:

We're not bad, but we've been better.

Of course even at our best, we always seem to have some prominent blemishes. But I'm truly in love with the dream though, even if it often falls short.

And I love being part of this great experiment! :thumbs:

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Right. When we live up to our ideals, we have made extraordinary contributions to human freedom. When we do not, as has often been the case in this hemisphere (and in Vietnam) we have made extraordinary contributions to human misery.

I voted that we are the greatest country ever anywhere.

But, then again, I say the same thing about my Packers. Greatest football team ever. Any where.

I guess I'm loyal to a fault. :3oops:

Fishking said:

Easily the greatest country to ever exist, despite all our warts. Any other answer is just the ignorant babbling of children who are so spoiled they don't realize how good they have it.

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Are we better than Italy that produced Michelangelo and DaVinci and classical music, better than England that produced the Magna Carta, better than Greece that gave us Plato and Aristotle, the two models for philosophy ever since, and which gave us democracy, for which we model our government buildings, better than all the countries that abolished slavery before we did? Our contributions to humanity are great, our sins many. Statements like “greatest ever” supports the inaccurate “Ugly American” stereotype. Much to be proud of in the US, but not that sentiment. Ask the Cherokee and Sioux, among others.

The US is the superpower of the Enlightenment. As long as a nation is enlightened, that is to say a "Western" democracy, it's pretty much the same. We're all in the fight together, the US just happens to be the wealthiest (for some reasons we'd prefer not to mention) and really big geographically and population.

It all depends on what the criteria is.

For example, in terms of military strength, no other country even comes close.

In terms of our K-12 education, we are mediocre.

Our universities though are some of the best in the world.

We have one of the highest per-capita GDPs, but we also have a higher poverty rate than our peer nations.

Our murder rate is much higher than any of our first world peer countries.

If you have enough money, we have some of the best medical centers in the world with institutions like the Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, John Hopkins, and the Cleveland Clinic. Our overall health system does not perform as well as many of our peers though, and is more expensive.

In terms of cost of living, we beat many of our peer nations, particularly with housing costs.

In terms of economic mobility, we are unexceptional among our peer nations.

When it comes to IT and innovation, we absolutely kick ass.

All that said, where we really excel more than any other country, other than Canada with its low population density, is in preserving wilderness. For example, only the far north of Europe has any significant true wilderness. Only Siberia has any significant true wilderness in all of Asia. Much of Africa is exploited, and South America is headed that direction.

In contrast, we have over 109 million acres of wilderness in our federal wilderness system alone. There are really just two qualities we have in this country that are truly unique, more guns than people, and we preserve wilderness - protecting vast areas from any development at all, while still allowing full access by citizens to those areas. We all own our public lands, we call can access them any time we want. In the case of wilderness you can spend all the time out there you want with little restriction. You can camp where you want, fish where you want, hunt, climb, whatever you want to do as long as you don't damage it. It's the closest thing to true freedom that you will find anywhere on this earth.

For example, I took this photo deep in the Southern Wind River Range last August on a 5 day off trail solo trip there.



If you were to continue walking along the divide there, you would have to walk almost a 100 miles before you hit a road and even then, it would only be a dirt one. Moreover, your great grandkids will be able to do the same one day. No matter how much modernity impacts the world, this will remain the same. There is nothing more uniquely American than how we have preserved and protected this places and we are probably the greatest in the world at it.

ecofarm said:

The US is the superpower of the Enlightenment. As long as a nation is enlightened, that is to say a "Western" democracy, it's pretty much the same. We're all in the fight together, the US just happens to be the wealthiest (for some reasons we'd prefer not to mention) and really big geographically and population.

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I read a book back in the 90's which explained how the US tapped it's resources more efficiently than any other nation on earth between, 1800 and the early 1970's. We occasionally do it again, as we saw with fracking. Also, it helped that the indigenous Americans all pretty much died at our feet. I imagine that is one of the "reasons we'd prefer not to mention."