sigh i’m really getting tired of people who keep talking about how America is such a horrible country, how they hate it and how Americans are so awful…especially the ones who are themselves American citizens. Do they stay here only because they aren’t many countries who give you the freedom to talk bad about the country.
i’m not keeping you here. hell, i’ll even find some way to buy your one way ticket to Siberia if i can find a way. thanks in advance to those who take me up on this offer.
Staying here gives us a better chance of changing things to the way we want them.
Also we can piss people like you off more in the process.
I’d gladly move to canada if that wouldn’t basically fuck me over.
It’s my right as an American to bitch.
It’s a government for the people, hence people complain and things eventualy change. I’d consider people who complain more patriotic than the folks who say things like “If you don’t like it leave”.
The stupidity of your comment astounds me, Sponge. I’ll address the specifics later when I can form a more coherent reply.
Well, you know, Sedition isn’t still a federal offense in America, so I can see your point about political freedom. Oh, wait, what’s that. It still is. Oh. Nevermind.
Oh, and the reason most of us stay here is because we want to make a change, you know, not run away from whatever problems we see to other countries where we can forget whatever atrocities we’ve seen here over a barrel of wine in some shithole bar wherever the hell we end up. Until we give up and burn out and assume this country can never change, I doubt any of us, no-matter how hateful we sound, are ever just going to turn our backs and leave it. Until we give up all hope of making a difference, I doubt any of the rebels will ever leave.
Kevin Barry didn’t just sail away from Ireland when it was under English rule. Oh, and while we’re on how great America is, let’s think of some other people who didn’t like the rule they were under and often complained about it sucking, and did things about it. Oh, right, that was the founding fathers. What jackasses, right? Somebody shoulda taken a musket to them before they opened their mouthes.
Oh, that Martin Luther King guy. Him too. Glad he got shot, along with that Malcolm X. Union leaders, too, what the hell is wrong with workers goign 16 horu days at next to no pay, that’s the American way, ain’t it, what dumbass complainers changed that?
EDIT: Oh, and, by complaining about ‘how many’ American citizens do this, I hope you do realize you’re basically talking about how American society, and thus America, or at least a large part of it, sucks. My coffee sure does taste, like, Irony, you know, full of iron, right now.
Maybe you can move to a country where the state heavily censors and controls the media. Then you won’t be as exposed to people complaining about your country’s government.
Well, there’s a certain point at which you can say that; such as when people say America is the worst country in the world and will never change (and I have heard this before). Why do you stick around, then? There must be better places than this.
At this point these people usually jump the couch and start spouting conspiracy theories about how <i>The Man</i> won’t let them leave because WHERE IS SARAH CONNOR.
There’s also a difference between just complaining about your problems (i.e. whining) and actually taking proactive steps to fix them. Write your congressman, go out and vote, <<!-- -->The King and I>et cetera, et cetera, et cetera<<!-- -->/The King and I>. I think that the ideals we hold up in this country are more aligned with the proactive, pragmatic one than the passive, ineffective one, so I see why some people would consider those who complain un-American.
As an American, yes, it’s your right to do either, and it should be. What good are these ideals if you’re forced to comply with them? They’re as empty a gesture as donating for the tax deductions.
Anyway, can’t wait for Sin’s reply, unless it was posted while I was writing this.
Silly Vorpy, that’s why we have the FCC. Instead of just pretending people don’t protest, we train mindless meat puppets to think them Un-Americans, terrorists, and fools. I’ts called ‘successful fascism,’ and it’s one of the most nauseatingly beautiful things you’ll ever see, because it’s so perfect, and yet so deeply wrong.
cough >_>
Right. That’s why Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken are found on the same radio dial (or at least they were; did Air America die?). Because of all that censorship. Or are you perhaps referring to Howard Stern, king of content free media?
I hope this wasn’t some attempt sound patriotic and more mature than the rest of us, Sponge. It really failed and you just sound like another Neoconservative saying “Well if you don’t like it, leave”.
no u
Oh, yes, because Al Frankten is damned revolutionary. His mildly leftist opinions encourage voting Democrat and not realizing that fact that the whole system of dividing opinions and parties when the candidates always end up the same damn thing is part of the problem.
That’s how it works here in America. We don’t censor ‘obscene’ things, or liberal or conservative things, we slant them in the news or we censor the truly radical statements that are needed for a change.
Muwia’s trial was mentioned as ‘a former black panther tried for killing a cop,’ and none of the appeals and movements for mistrial, such as the all white jury, racist judge, small lawyer budged, ridiculous bail, and not allowing Muwia to repersent himself were never adressed on the national news. Don’t say ‘that’s because they weren’t news,’ because look at Scott Fucking Peterson. We don’t censor anything here in America, we just only tell part of the story.
For anoyther example, look at the media’s reactions to the strike Carnegie’s workers made, a long time ago, and Carnegie ordered his security forces to shoot them. The media sided with the shooting secturity, not the striking workers. Openly, as well, ‘roudy demonstraters’ were ‘dispersed by force,’ which was ‘necessary,’ rather than simply ‘striking workers were attacked by Carnegie’s security forces and dispersed. There is, at the moment, controversy over whether or not the attack was justified.’ This was standard coverage, too, in paper articles, not editorials.
Let’s take some other examples: Pearl Harbour is droned into our heads from the first days of history class, yet how many American studens have heard of the Tokyo firebombing? How man know that it is highly possible America actually fired the first shot? We’ve heard about communist takeovers in other countries. How man American students are taught there was off-shore oil abundant in Vietnam? How many American students are taught the events of the Santiago Stadium massacre, where Nixon’s administration financed the murder of thousands of people in Santiage chile to depose the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED marxist government.
Now that Reagan is dead, the Contra arms deals are not mentioned, El Salvador, in which the Sandanista were put down like dogs by the openly fascist and much more brutal Contra, is referred to as a victory for freedom. The White Citizens’ Council is never brought up.
n00b
I’d like to take this time to say I love Arac. I love you, man. 
This is why all the cool people should move to Australia. We are too busy sitting at the beach and nailing the hot women/males in swimwear to actually care about patriotism. I mean, why scream at other people how much they HAVE to love thier country when you can actually love your country with your actions?
Anyway, the apathetic people dont complain, people who care should complain, unless the country is perfect. Which isn’t the case. EVER.
Dear Ignorant Hick,
You see, you are expressing the very malaise of intolerance which so many of your confreres in our lovely society are doing by selectively blanking out that which it is that they do not want to see or hear because it displeases them. You are exaperating the problem by exagerating that which you see as a problem, which is that there is dissent against the status quo. This is demonstrated by how you mention that you talk of an undefined mass of individuals you refer to as “people” and you indescriminately make the blanket generalization that if a person is presenting dissent then that person believes America is awful. You then show that you are a hypocrit by refusing yourself to acknowledge the right of these people expressing their dissent by being intolerant of their expression and labeling them as non-Americans when the very reason you are American and that you have the rights that you have as an American is because of these very same kinds of people that did not accept the blatant idiotic bullshit which people like you are supporting by rejecting a person’s right of dissent.
It is one thing to intelligently debate a difference of opinion on the philosophical basis of how one believes a society should work. Its another thing to so clearly demonstrate you are stupid asshole that by spouting random non-sense in the very same ways as the individuals you so apparently wish to mindlessly conform to.
Before you start spouting further bullshit, you should probably try to think for the first time in your life and realize that what you are suggesting is the very same kind of policy presented by governments like the one controlling the country you acquire so many of your products from and not the one which follow the ideals you say you support but so vocally reject.
The next time you have such a brilliant moment of insight, think twice about the discussion value which your thoughtlessness brings to our message boards and how you can prevent irrationally spreading more of your malignant and malicious spew.
And Vorpy: the irony is that if you consider how the US media has changed, technically, he doesn’t really have to change country, does he?
My point is that radio is not homogenous. Radio is a market, and we have regulation so that we don’t have a wild-west-type situation, where your ability to reach people over the airwaves in a particular area is entirely dependant on your ability to have more powerful broadcasting equipment than your competitors. It would be hard to secure advertising revenues in this kind of environment, and with no profit being made, radio stations wouldn’t get off the ground.
The further you get the the left or right, when selling your commentary on the market, as radio talk show hosts do, you appeal to fewer people, so, just like in politics, those who move to the center get voted for, but this time it’s in attention (and dollars for the advertisers) instead of ballots.
That’s how it works here in America. We don’t censor ‘obscene’ things, or liberal or conservative things, we slant them in the news or we censor the truly radical statements that are needed for a change.
Muwia’s trial was mentioned as ‘a former black panther tried for killing a cop,’ and none of the appeals and movements for mistrial, such as the all white jury, racist judge, small lawyer budged, ridiculous bail, and not allowing Muwia to repersent himself were never adressed on the national news. Don’t say ‘that’s because they weren’t news,’ because look at Scott Fucking Peterson. We don’t censor anything here in America, we just only tell part of the story.
The Scot Peterson trial was a circus, just like the O.J. Simpson trial and the trial after the Rodney King beatings (not sure of the acceptable colloquialism for that one). They were broadcast because people tuned in to watch them (or because it was a slow news month, in the case of Perterson, who was neither celebrity nor controversial).
I think your mistake is expecting television news to report some. They’re looking to pump their ratings, and frightening the taxpayers doesn’t do for that.
Your other examples, no matter how dated, also illustrate this. Media, like politicians, like to appeal to their base. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t freedom of speech or expression.
I did hear about the Tokyo firebombing in history class, but it was glossed over in the rush to get to Hiroshima and Nagasaki; most grade school history classes give you the Cliff’s Notes version. And, as we know “the winners write the history books.”
Now, I don’t know if you live in the US (I can’t remember and won’t bother to check) but how do you know all these things? If there is active censorship going on, it’s not working.
