gambit
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2009
- Messages
- 28,569
- Reaction score
- 148
- Country
- Location
It may sound strange, but while yes, that a country and its foundation ideology are distinct, they are inseparable, meaning if you discuss one, you WILL or MUST inevitably discuss the other. As I have often said in the past, ideas needs the human agency to survive and thrive, and a country is the largest and grandest agency any idea can have. We cannot discuss fascism and/or Nazism without thinking of and inevitably talking about Germany, no matter how long ago that dark part of Germany's history. To be fair, we cannot discuss slavery without thinking of and inevitably talking about the US and their Civil War. We cannot discuss Christianity without thinking of and inevitably talking about the Catholic Church, of the good and the bad. In short, we cannot discuss any idea and understand its compelling attractiveness unless we talk about the people that follows it.Yeah but here we are talking about America, As a Country/Super power not a ideology like Communism or Religious systems. Those are two separate things and topics.
Distinct, but inseparable. Prove me wrong.
Not sugarcoating. If you drive and hit a pedestrian, two things: either malice or accident. Which is it?Well what you have discuss with others in this thread is something I can not comment, but On this particular part of your post, you really sugar coated brutality with Policy errors, those errors costed thousands of lives in direct confrontations and indirect civil unrest.
Ref the highlighted, that is why no one answered my question of why John Oliver is a US citizen. John Oliver is an emigre, not just an immigrant. Oliver and his fellow celebs are not statistical outliers if we use economic needs as main reason to come to the US. There are many emigres whose wealth would be the equivalent of the American 'upper middle class', which would make them 'elites' back in their home countries, and yet they chose America. These people are not illiterate rubes. They were educated enough from their birth countries to know how to research the US and reason out why should they emigrate, and they did.As for the premises that USA can not be evil because people wants to come here, so I think its wrong, majority of USA immigration revolves around the economic reasons, people from all over the world comes to USA for better future and opportunities, now one can argue that their own countries are f'd up by America or its policies directly or indirectly, that's a whole another topic. Than you have people who immigrated due to their families/marriages, that has nothing to do with American foreign Policy or America been righteous. And than you have those who come here as Students/work of course that covers my point about the economic immigration, and last are those who come to USA as asylum seekers because things are not good in their countries, but just because their countries are bad doesn't make America right, right ? There might be some people who come here because they actually consider that America is the last/only righteous nation on earth.
Who said anything about 'all good'? That means perfect and I never said America is perfect. I said America is great. If you are perfect, you cannot be great. You are perfect, like God. Like it or not, America, no different than all the countries in the world, is ever on a sliding scale. The US is a great country, and that is good enough for me and many people, now and in the future.Personally I stand by my point that America is neither all evil nor all good,...
We may evangelize that certain rights are 'universal' and 'God given', but we also know the application of certain high minded principles are limited to within our borders. Am not talking about the legality of them but about knowing that not everyone believe that anything can be 'universal' or transcends The State. In China, nothing is allowed to be even perceived as greater than The State, or specifically The CPC. So if we know that in many geopolitical situations, there are actors that obviously do not share our values, what choice do we have if we want to achieve certain shared geopolitical goals?I admire a lot of things about America since I came here 2 years ago, and the list a long one. On the other hand I dislike many American policies but than who am I to have a say in all that ? I am not even American citizen and even If i was it won't matter. America does and will keep doing what's best in its interest even if it means siding with scums of human race or oppressors like India or Israel, so Justice/Liberty/Equality/Freedom loses its air when it comes to those USA allies and their brutality,...
But the fact that YOU are in the US means those geopolitical expediencies do not matter much. They are more than six degrees of separation from your daily lives. It means you can comfortably criticize the US on the moral plane without experiencing any consequences on the practical plane, so you can still feel good about yourself.
Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Freedom are very important should you ever have any encounter with the law. You diminish them outside the borders but inflate them inside precisely because they are applicable inside.
Then ask yourself how important are those values that according to you, America failed. Are those values important enough that failure to live up to their standards would compel you to leave for your birth country? Am not asking to be mean spirited. Americans, no matter where they go, inevitably carries their country's historical baggage. On the other hand, as a non-citizen, you can say "I am <whatever>" and instantly you are removed from America in their minds no matter how long you have lived in America. So why not leave if America's foreign policies are so morally abhorrent? It is not a 'troll' question but a seriously moral one....to me personally they (America) has failed in this particular regard where they did not stood for the values they preach,...