$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'I') think thats really what it is. The rest of the world is jealous of Americas might and power, and the only way they can express themselves is with anger and hatred at our obvious success.
Understandable of course, given we have the most powerful military, a world spanning economy, the de facto monetary standard in the world, free people, and a boatload of other benefits.
Yep, pretty understandable why the world hates America. Their simply jealous of our success, and cant hink of no other way to express themselves except with hate and anger.
PeakOil is You
Its too bad the rest of the world is jealous of America
Re: Its too bad the rest of the world is jealous of America
by Riddick » Tue 22 Mar 2005, 22:06:54
I guess this depends on what your definition of "success" is. If destroying the environment for the never-ending quest of the Almighty dollar by the corporate/fascist groups (which are really controlling this country), then America has been a success.......a "catastrophic success"........one might say.
Rome had the most powerful military at one time too. And for the record, the people of the Netherlands are more "free" than we are.
Seriously man, I thought you were smart enough to stop generalizing.
P.S. Any dumbass can pull the trigger of a gun; real power comes when you know you don't have to.
"Your failure to be informed does not make me a wacko." - John Loeffler
December 23, 2012
December 23, 2012
-
Riddick - Lignite
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Fri 13 Aug 2004, 03:00:00
- Location: Hiding from the All-Seeing Eye
by BlisteredWhippet » Tue 22 Mar 2005, 22:25:24
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('alpha480v', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'J')ealous of America. I see fat people.
Fat people in fat cars shopping in fat stores.
Fat people in fat cars shopping in fat stores.
I didn't realize that all the obese people in the world resided in the United States.I'd better come to this sight more so I can learn the facts as you know them.
I'm an American, lived in America for three decades. You bet your ass we're fat. If you don' think we top the lists for heart disease, diabetes, and generally slovenly fatness you're wrong. There are statistics... which I'm too lazy to go out and find for you. Do a google.
Its not just an offensive stereotype. We are fat. Girth. Largesse. Indulgence, habitual, ritual, addictive. We're calorie vacuums. We get very little calming, balancing exercise. We have the largest array of delicious food available almost anywhere. We pioneered the empty calorie. We figured out how to take perfectly nutritious organic food and turn it into mutant food while getting rid of some taste. We invented the Biggie/Super Size concept. We created 'fast food'. We landed on the continent with the world's greatest proportion of free-range game animals and absolutely decimated them. We took the most abundant salmon stocks in the world and cut them to a fraction of their populations, contaminated their environments, and cloned them. We figured out how to add color to make it look even more appetizing on the plate.
Are you kidding? This is the land of cascading cheap food. We figured out how to wring so much food out of the same square foot of dirt that we enabled a 25% increase of the world's population. Americans actually pay a greater percentage for the packaging and distribution of their food units than the food itself.
On average, Americans are fat, out of shape and generally unhealthy. Americans are consumers, first and foremost. Food calories are just one aspect of our degenerated physical capacity.
America, Fuck yeah, as the song goes.
So please, if you're getting mad about people calling a spade a spade~ which is to say the majority of Americans are fat~ you would do well to remember that we all live in glass houses over here.
Anyone who doesn't think adult-onset diabetes is a problem raise your hands.
Let me tell you something about America's impulse to consume.
When it comes to inventing ways to lose weight, America has pioneered more efforts than anyone in the world. By default, though, our instinct is to find something to consume that will fix the problem, which is why these schemes never work for long- the problem is consumption. Just gross consumption. Behind every defeatist sighing that the latest diet didn't work is a dedicated car-commuter, or big-screen TV watcher, midnight snacker, caffeine, beer, or sugar addict.
As an American, I'm relatively ambivalent. I don't see the point in having false pride in the whole thing though. My advice to other nations, other people is emphatic: don't be like us. Don't do what we do. Don't be who we are. Run, run away.
America is a country where they tell their kids fairy tales and keep them from the truth their entire childhood becuase the reality we're living in is just too horrible to contemplate. Most adults are living in a fairy tale world as a result. There is very little crossover to reality-based thinking.
I don't think any arguments about the superiority of any one modern culture are appropriate either. No person or culture should assume they would do differently in the face of such enormous social and political pressure to consume. I don't see a problem with criticizing it though. A lot of America's "innovations" have actually come from completely screwing up the environment and generally causing problems to create pressure to develop solutions to solve. In other words, a general problem of obesity is just another avenue in which to develop a luctrative market for goods and services and thus "Grow" the economy. The big, fat economy.
-
BlisteredWhippet - Tar Sands
- Posts: 848
- Joined: Tue 08 Feb 2005, 04:00:00
by threadbear » Tue 22 Mar 2005, 23:09:32
Blistered Whippet, Well said. That's a keeper. You have amazing insight. There are many in the US who have the same opinions, and therefore plenty of hope for your country. There will be a collective wake up for nearly all the people. Maybe peak oil is it.
You know, I was thinking the other day, I wonder if alcohol consumption has dropped and that is one of the reasons that food consumption is up, besides all the other reasons you mention? People, (and this includes Canada too, and specifically me)
eat to tranquilize themselves, rather than drink. I know very few people who drink at all, compared to my parent's generation. They're in their 70's.
You know, I was thinking the other day, I wonder if alcohol consumption has dropped and that is one of the reasons that food consumption is up, besides all the other reasons you mention? People, (and this includes Canada too, and specifically me)
eat to tranquilize themselves, rather than drink. I know very few people who drink at all, compared to my parent's generation. They're in their 70's.-
threadbear - Expert
- Posts: 7577
- Joined: Sat 22 Jan 2005, 04:00:00
by BlisteredWhippet » Tue 22 Mar 2005, 23:39:40
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'B')listered Whippet, Well said. That's a keeper. You have amazing insight. There are many in the US who have the same opinions, and therefore plenty of hope for your country. There will be a collective wake up for nearly all the people. Maybe peak oil is it.
You know, I was thinking the other day, I wonder if alcohol consumption has dropped and that is one of the reasons that food consumption is up, besides all the other reasons you mention? People, (and this includes Canada too, and specifically me) eat to tranquilize themselves, rather than drink. I know very few people who drink at all, compared to my parent's generation. They're in their 70's.
You know, I was thinking the other day, I wonder if alcohol consumption has dropped and that is one of the reasons that food consumption is up, besides all the other reasons you mention? People, (and this includes Canada too, and specifically me)
eat to tranquilize themselves, rather than drink. I know very few people who drink at all, compared to my parent's generation. They're in their 70's.I don't really see where my insight is special. I'm just formulating on my own observations.
I wonder about alcohol as well. I don't really drink much, not like grandpa did anyway- or rather, still does- at age 96.
I do know one thing- the government takes it seriously- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. Its interesting that they've taken the "big three" and lumped them together- Presumably because of their potential for phyiscal harm to the user- yet I can't help but think its because I've often heard the most politcally incorrect opinions come from someone clutching a gun, cigarette, or beer bottle.
Food consumption as a palliative for the depression and trauma of everyday life seems to me a built-in tendency among humans. Its an example of the classic personal challenges that have faced mankind throughout history in regard to issues of self-control and discipline. Peak Oil will be a wake up call- yes, if only because it challenges basic survival instincts instilled by modern society- the threat of scarcity, malnutrition, and so on.
Being addicted to your own brain dopamine as ritual addiction is maybe the world's foremost problem- being in the background. Peak Oil and modern problems are just the foreground. Collective solutions may be impossible in light of the fact everyone looks out for their own best interest- against which the collective solution would be anathema... if there was a collective solution.
-
BlisteredWhippet - Tar Sands
- Posts: 848
- Joined: Tue 08 Feb 2005, 04:00:00
