Quote:
Originally Posted by Havelock
And Algerians might have a different opinion of France, and Aboriginal Australians might have a different opinion of the Australia, and the black Sudanese might have a different opinion of Sudan, and the Ainu might have a different opinion of Japan, etc. ad infinitum. What's your point?

All this oh-woe-is-us self-loathing is ridiculous when viewed with even a hint of perspective. With regimes out there like Iran, Sudan, China, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Syria, Cuba, etc., and plenty more that, while not crushingly oppressive, curtail basic freedoms like speech and minority religions, no rational person can justify melodramatically castigating the U.S. as the world's villainous regime. Sure, the country's made mistakes, but rather than going on about how awful the place is, use one or more of the many mechanisms to change things - through participation in democracy, advocacy through the press, membership in one of our thriving civic organizations, education through our amazing higher education system, etc. And appreciate that a great many people around the world do not have anything like those opportunities to influence their countries' destinies.


Not to mention the money we pour into 2nd and 3rd world countries. How about the massive aid we gave the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War during the Reagan Years? We had a country with enough nukes pointed at us to destroy the world and we sent them massive aid to help their people.

Yeah, I'm thinking we've screwed up, certainly, but that in the grand scheme of things, we're definitely not even close to the top 10.


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