Things most Americans (and others) don't know

[trage]

Lone Wolf........ Wow just you need to stop with the whole you learn something every day. We already knew that.

[Psycho Pixie]

That is why Texas is a republic and not a state. It is isn't the State of Texas but the Republic of Texas.

yup, didnt that have something to do with "these" USofA wanting Texas to pick a side during a war? the government gave texas the right to become 5 states, and the title of "republic" rather then state because Texas was trying to( or already was) its own little country..


PsPi

[Psycho Pixie]

I actually did the same, i got hockey, curling, and lacross. But the guys canadian i think he would know. O_o

what the heck is "curling"????????

[Lone Wolf]

I actually did the same, i got hockey, curling, and lacross. But the guys canadian i think he would know. O_o

what the heck is "curling"????????

Think of shuffle puck on Ice

[Sho]

Hey, it's an Olympic sport now! Show some respect! Call it bowling on ice with brooms. Strange sport.

[David]

I've got one, a little known fact I mean, at least in Merica n' Europe...

Upon the beginning of Combat Operations in Iraq by U.S. this go round, the Turkish Stockmarket fell about 25% in one day or so. It was a news blip on the screen for a brief period, which really really stood out to me, as it is of great importance, but people only seem to like self-serving news and have selective sensory perception. Little known, and downplayed fact...

To put this in to perspective, it would be like if the DOW Jones fell about 2600-3000 points in one day. Better be damn sure the majority of Americans might be singing a different tune about American nation's war aims if that happened to our economy in one day or week. - Before we go getting all high and mighty about how poor little America doesn't have any real friends and the only reason people disagree with America is to spite it and jelousy, no there is a reality and a world out there besides America, with people in it that have real beliefs and desires, everything doesn't revolve around Merica and how ferners like to crucify it lol

[David]

And for those of you who wonder why I am becoming more inflamatory and less counciliatory and even-handed in my approach to these questions, its because I am tired of listening to people drone on and on about those crazy A-rabs and how "us Mericans" jus' oughta turn the middle east to glass, or kill everyone and let god sort it ought bullshit talk.

These terrible terrible statements are said with unflinching sincerity by a great many Americans and are considered acceptable viewpoints!! I'm not saying this is what most people here think, but some one has to say something to snap people out of it. It's insane yet considered completely legitamate. Group think, facist, discusting, and rarely challenged. And I realize it is the infection of Empire. To liken it to LOTR, which I think most people here have seen, Empire is like the ring, and the people and leaders of the nations that possess Empire are like Smeagel. You just want to shake these people and say "CAN YOU LISTEN TO WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!!!" But no... Empire is what puts the people in situations where they feel justified in their Imperialist and ruthless statements... many of the European powers had lost their Empires and have seen it evils, they have had the ring taken from them, sometimes forcibly, making the evil effects start to lose their grip... but everytime even there that Empire starts to rear its head the old discusting ethnocentric, exceptionalist views come back... France with Algeria, Britian with Faulklan Islands and Northern Ireland... gah... I can't stand it.

[David]

You feel awash in a sea of thinly vieled hatred if you don't subscriped to American Imperialist doctrine when conducting yourself in the country. Irrespective of the windowdressing of multiculturalism, tolerance, and democracy... its just a big joke. And you know all the hatreds and intolerances are just below the service working over and destroying the higher-minded principles of America and Americans.

Never far away are the ideas of American exceptionalism, American superiority, American Hubris, American materialism, American racism, yet in peacetime and when the people are not brought into the notion of Empire, it all goes deeper down and you think you actually live in a civilized country... until the cannons begin to fire again. Yet you are a product of the culture? Do these ideas live within you somewhere, like a putrid plague waiting to spring forth the second you give an inch in your humanism and morality that is not bound to patriotism, but to humanity...

My first external loyalty must be to my fellow human, not the nation, that falls further down the list... past my integrity and morality... but before my superficial wants and desires...

[David]

And the multiculturalism, tolerance, and democracy only goes as far as those who subscribe to the "right-headed" values... It is like what I heard a right-wing religious nut say once. "I don't have a problem with Jews, Muslims, Hebrews, or Arabs, as long as they accept Christ as their savior" This is the true mentality of it, its not a real tolerance, its a kind of ideological blackmail, not a true tolerant way that is prevalent in America...

[David]

And I have to say that if you are just visiting the country you may not be able to probe the depths of the deep national arrogance and hatred that is prevelant... it is in passing and the unguarded moments that you see in people's daily dealings that accumulate over time that you begin to see a place fuelled by anger and hatred...which very well may be the driving force behind many nations...Yes we have tolerance, but only for those who agree with us on a few basic principles... so no not really tolerance.

It's as though you see the culture and society insinuating itself into the pure individual... the great irony being that it is a culture supposedly founded on individualism and the sacrosacnt place that freedom of thought and the individual plays in the world... and yet it is a society and culture by definition collective and filled with solidarity... something antethema to its stated values...

And for those who would say well you don't love it than leave it... I think that deep down most countries may be like this... but the gaulling thing is that the culture touts itself in the exact opposite direction of its actual nature... supposedly nonconformist and pioneering... and yet why do people chose to live in identical housing in many cases? Again it isn't rights and government I am talking about here, it is the cultural content of the thing that is completely contradictory and so farcical. Perhaps instead of being angry, one should laugh, at the massive cosmic joke...

[rklenseth]

David #2, this wasn't the political thread. Try some of the other ones.

[Bran-Muffin]

Wow, he had alot to say. I cant blame him though im tired of it going on and on myself. But hey Rkl nothing ever stays on topic.

[kroner]

@richard> true dat.

as the world becomes smaller, the importance of tolerance grows. us americans, we have it on the surface because that's pc, but for most it's a front and most don't even realize. that's why this fits on the thread.