[sweetdreams101]

Yes but when people are talking bad about it they should not agree with them.Poeple should not hate what they do not know. And he should show them not to hate us,not say that he doesn't blame them for hating us. Pshh yes you can, or atleast the people in it.

[The Deaner]

If people are pointing out the flaws in America, and you believe they're correct, you're more than welcome to agree with them, freedom of speech, and all that jazz. Also, you cannot be racist against America, because America is not one race, people of every race reside in America.

[sweetdreams101]

Yes he can say his opnion, and I can also tell him mine. Their still Americans. When they say they hate Americans their talking about every race here.

[BLONDEH]

i do agree about the americans being their own race thing. we are our own race, that is made up of other races...we pride ourselves on that...

call us the mutts of the world lol

you can agree with the flaws you have in your country, and you can agree with someone when they say that, that doesn't make you a less patriotic person at all. i'm prolly the most patriotic person you could ever meet, and i'll be the first one to say when i don't like something about america. it's what i fight for, for you to have an opinion to say "i don't like this about america"

[Death Hand]

indeed. Always a good thing to see someone disagree with something about their own country. Shows it is healthy and its people are free to say what they feel is wrong.

Try saying something bad about the government in one of those third world religous despot countries , or communist "paradises" and see how long you'll last before your shot, or thrown in jail for the rest of your life.

[The Deaner]

Being American is a nationality, not a race.

[SlabumniLoviets]

Originally Posted by happy_bumblebee

id definatly say more aware, unfortunatly America is so big, there are several states larger than the size of England, so inadvertantly they are socially unaware of many cultural and social developments, their media/magazines/newspapers have enough gossip and stories which are happening in their own state, that small developments say like in Georgia, Serbia etc get over looked because there are more interesting events happening in their own state or accross America.

Take China, Russia or India. China and India have a multiple racial and demographic variance while Russia and China have variance in area. But none of these countries have citizens who display a complete lack of awareness and extreme hatred and paranoia of the rest of the world, even a third as much as an American does.

The large size of America isn't an excuse for political or social dumbheadedness. It is not an excuse for discussion sex, sports and girls all the time in locker rooms and news magazines filled with gossip rather than real news. Compare Newsweek covers of US vs the rest of the world (including UK) to see what I mean.

Originally Posted by happy_bumblebee

As America is so big, there isnt such a melting pot of cultures, say like there is in London, for instance, i can go from a Afro Caribbean area (brixton), travel up then be in upper class white toffs (Chelsea) go up further and be in middle class white suburbia (queens park) go accross and enter west indian areas, then carry on going right (and down abit) and enter bangladesh/indian areas (bethnal green)....

Exactly. Even we have a much larger population of immigrants than US does but we don't racially or demographically segregate them, any national is accepted as one of us without a fuss. UK, France, Belgium or Netherlands have a much varied multi cultural and multi racial demography which if percentages are taken, would beat US exponentially. In US the number of people outside the black+white+hispanic combo is miniscule compared to their demographic population. Despite facts it is Americans who make a big hype about their tiny migrant population.

Originally Posted by Death Hand

Try saying something bad about the government in one of those third world religous despot countries , or communist "paradises" and see how long you'll last before your shot, or thrown in jail for the rest of your life.

Try standing up against a US president and the next thing would be CIA eliminates them using special methods or the Department of Homeland Gestapo...err..Security picks knock on their door, picks them up and throws them in Guantanamo for life without trial.

Originally Posted by Spammy

No, it might actually be because the U.S. is a western country.

The term 'western country' was coined by imperial colonists of 18th and 19th centuries with the 'us vs them' mentality. Today it is only Arabs and Americans who use it. The Arabs because of their dislike of secularism and open mindedness of Europe. The Americans because they like to believe they are the same as Europeans which is not the fact as they are culturally and intellectually inferior. Some Europeans use this term because of their old age colonial mindset. The intellectuals know, there is no homogenous 'western world'.

By the way, isn't it ironic that the only people who have something good to say about America have that small stripy flag in their postbits (i.e. the Americans). That is just like blowing your own trumpets when the rest of the world sees otherwise. And the only people who have called me racist oso far were Americans. Even World Health Organization has recognised my humanitarian efforts, maybe an American could argue UN and WHO are some kind of racist organisations?

[BLONDEH]

no we don't allow seditious speech i'm me...your right... is that a bad thing??

[Spoon]

America have united the world...united them in their hate of America...

[SlabumniLoviets]

Originally Posted by BLONDEH

no we don't allow seditious speech i'm me...your right... is that a bad thing??

The definition of sedition like morality, varys according to the country. In France for example a lot more liberty can be exercised when expressing dissent without fear of assassination or prosecution. UK is not far behind. Even developing countries like Malaysia or India have a lot of freedom in this regard. It is US which lags behind in freedom and yet feels like it is a duty to push their ideals down other's throats.

Talking of seditious speech, if you try preaching Christianity, religion or anything which creates division of identities in our country, you face persecution and even life imprisonment. This is not a human rights voilation but protection of humanity by preventing the society from getting swayed by blind faith and getting divided. I know....your hatist Christian missionaries have been crying foul for this inability to poison our society. We don't allow sedition either, is that a bad thing?

Originally Posted by Spoon

America have united the world...united them in their hate of America...

Actually it is a good thing. For one it helped China and Russia unite after years of conflict. Now we all have a common ground coupled with capability. France re-examined its perspectives and realised it should withdraw the support of a despot nations, failing which it will be down in history as the supporter of one of the biggest mass killers nation in the world.

[Death Hand]

Try standing up against a US president and the next thing would be CIA eliminates them using special methods or the Department of Homeland Gestapo...err..Security picks knock on their door, picks them up and throws them in Guantanamo for life without trial.

Once again your lack of knowledge of this country knows no bounds.
. I take it you havent heard of Cindy Sheehan or whater ever the hell that womans name is. Camps outside of Bush's Ranch for weeks on end protesting what on why bush is the devil. Guess what she is still around. many other anti-bushites protest openly against him daily. Nothing happens to them.

Be interesting to see the same thing happen, over in China or Iran. but it wont. and you know it.

[SlabumniLoviets]

Originally Posted by Death Hand

I take it you havent heard of Cindy Sheehan or whater ever the hell that womans name is. Camps outside of Bush's Ranch for weeks on end protesting what on why bush is the devil. Guess what she is still around. many other anti-bushites protest openly against him daily. Nothing happens to them.

I know of a friend's American grandfather who met with an accident from the 21st floor of a building in Dublin because he revealed classified CIA assassination attempt records on two democratic nations. I have a copy of it and I can post it if you can be sure you won't face problems for it. By the way I am lucky I am not in America.......who knows?

I know of CIA Death Squads whose main job is to try to destabilise un-American governments and assassinate leaders who stand in the way of American interests. Like the way they destabilised democratic republic in Iraq to put Saddam to power and then backed him up to gas Iranians to break the Iranian's morale. I have had the honour to kill 4 similar operative spies in my country in firing squads after they were convicted in proper trials.

I know of an Indian student who got arrested for posting a hate message against Bush in an online forum which Bush got scared of.

I know of 10 million Koreans who were killed by US backed corrupt South Korean forces because these people decided in favour of a socialist republic.

I know of independant journalists who were killed or thrown in Guantanamo for uncovering US abuses in Iraq.

I know of independant news channel Al Jazeera which had its offices bombed right after the Abu Ghareed incident was uncovered by them. That happened by smart bombs despite USAF being given exact co-ordinates of their location.

Do you really think a country which does all these is really free? How many die and how many go missing for national security? Why does Guantanamo bay exist so that prisoners are tortured and imprisoned their without trials? Have you ever read the clauses Patriot Act and the agenda of Department of Homeland Security?

Next time before you accuse someone ot knowing about your country, try to do a bit of rational thinking instead of hitting on others.

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by I'm Me

But none of these countries have citizens who display a complete lack of awareness and extreme hatred and paranoia of the rest of the world, even a third as much as an American does.

Really? I don't recall seeing American citizens showing extreme hatred. I've never seen a rally where we prance around burning other nation's flags.

Originally Posted by I'm Me

Compare Newsweek covers of US vs the rest of the world (including UK) to see what I mean.

I'm not catching your drift. What so wrong with Newsweek again?

Originally Posted by I'm Me

but we don't racially or demographically segregate them

Just come and see it with your own eyes. Many of our immigants segregate themselves from the rest of society.

Originally Posted by I'm Me

The term 'western country' was coined by imperial colonists of 18th and 19th centuries with the 'us vs them' mentality. Today it is only Arabs and Americans who use it. The Arabs because of their dislike of secularism and open mindedness of Europe. The Americans because they like to believe they are the same as Europeans which is not the fact as they are culturally and intellectually inferior. Some Europeans use this term because of their old age colonial mindset. The intellectuals know, there is no homogenous 'western world'.

You obviously know nothing about the use of the term "western." America is certainly a western country. Just read the page I linked below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world

[SlabumniLoviets]

Originally Posted by Spammy

Really? I don't recall seeing American citizens showing extreme hatred. I've never seen a rally where we prance around burning other nation's flags.

I have a question. Which is a worse act of hatred, burning a nation's flag or burning millions of a nation's human beings? What is a flag but a piece of cloth, are you comparing an American flag to the lives of millions of non-Americans? Touche.....for telling you are not racist, you have just proved it you are.

Originally Posted by Spammy

I'm not catching your drift. What so wrong with Newsweek again?

Get hold of US, European and Asian editions of Newsweek, September 25, 2006. Right from the cover to the stories you will see the difference. While the international editions discuss topic of geo-political interests like the situation in Afghanistan, the US edition had the covered story of a lesbian who took photographs of celebrities. The next week's international story was on "Background to the North Korean Nuclear Test" while the US edition discussed a very special 400-word article about how 77% of Americans spend most of their time praying to their dead relatives’ ghosts.

Originally Posted by Spammy

Many of our immigrants segregate themselves from the rest of society.

It is not only them who are responsible for it, it is your own brethren who are equally responsible for calling Russians 'evil commies', not giving good pay or job positions to blacks, making hype about Negroes with even judges handing them tougher sentences compared with the white committing the same crime. Only a person with no self respect or was fooled my impressive PR stunts would move to the nation of fools, forget mixing with them.

Originally Posted by Spammy

America is certainly a western country. Just read the page I linked below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world

Have you read it yourself. You gave me the page which proves my points, the concept of 'west' is doesn't have any fixed meaning and is an attempt to homogenise totally heterogenous nations. Just read what you posted, for free!

"The term "Western world" does not have a strict international definition, governments do not use the term in legislation of international treaties and instead rely on other definitions."

If everyone were to use their own narrow terms then USA is in the east, not west. Plain and simple and can be backed by plain geography and little mathematics from where I am.

[Zachary Gibbons]

Originally Posted by I'm Me

If everyone were to use their own narrow terms then USA is in the east, not west. Plain and simple and can be backed by plain geography and little mathematics from where I am.

Observation: On my map it's the westernmost extremity. Given that the world is a globe, one can draw an arbitrary east-west line on any given section.