America is Great! - Page 5

Kim · 02-02-2013, 01:17 AM

If you want to make a thread about nationalism you're going to have to accept that some people are distinctly anti-nationalist and are going to make, OH DEAR GOD, jokes in your thread.

"American invented unoriginality." You see, it is a joke. If unoriginality did not exist, inventing it would be original. There is an inherent conflict to the statement, and that is made with the intent of humor.

Responding to that with, "Well China's worse!!" reflects really poorly on you. This is in part due to your history of overt racism against the Chinese people and the way you have repeatedly singled them out in the past for crimes your own country is also guilty of.

Aerozord is also guilty of responding to jokes and humor with generally inane statements, by replying to a light-hearted joke by a mod at the expense of the country that mod lives in with an earnest attempt to trivialize the actual awful things the country has done.

If you want to have a positive thread about a country that has done a lot of awful shit, you can't respond to jokes at the expense of that country by trivializing or defending the awful shit. Well, technically you can. It'll just turn your positive nationalist thread into well-deserved criticism of that country you love.

stefan · 02-02-2013, 01:18 AM

yeah no this thread started out with three engines on fire and is doing its best to crash into a building, and the only responsible choice is to ride it like a mechanical bull straight down into hell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satan's Onion

The banana belt! organized crime! ingrained stigmatization of altruism!

Solid Snake · 02-02-2013, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobinStarwing

I thought you were serious Liz.

That's funny. My name's not Liz and I don't know anyone named Liz or Elizabeth.

Quote:

1. Limiting on Freedom> No surprise here.

I'll agree that this criticism of the Chinese government's restrictions on Chinese citizens' individual liberties is accurate so long as you agree that A: America's just as bad or even worse on some issues, offsetting those where the American Constitution has actually guaranteed its citizens superior natural rights, and B: changes to China's government have to be demanded from and earned by Chinese citizens; America can't imperialistically demand the Chinese to adopt their 'freedoms' without provocation or a jus ad bellum and call that an authentic or meaningful outcome.

As American citizens, however, (and/or European and/or Canadian citizens) we're in a far better position to demand and achieve change in our own political systems, as doing so would not superimpose our will in violation of ideal IR norms.

...Dammit, if this keeps up I'm going to have to bust out all my Chinese History and Chinese Law notes.

Quote:

2. Tibet> They invaded it in the 1950's and since than have said it's always been a part of China that they held rights too.

...Every time an American brings this up you know it's the ultimate in stupid shit to say, right?
Hey, I know: The nation with 100% of its lands not belonging to the native culture but rather being wrongfully appropriated from its natives by military force should lecture the nation with a small portion of land wrongfully appropriated -- albeit far better and historically murky gray-area political claims to said land -- about how wrong it is to forcibly invade and occupy land!

PyrosNine · 02-02-2013, 01:34 AM

China's a bit loose on international intellectual property law, I'll admit, and being a growing economy just like ours (was?) they are just as likely to shamelessly crib ideas just like Americans do all the time. And both countries are totally going out of their way to copy Japan, which does it's best to return the favor, and so we've got this nice era of culture mixing, so I ain't complaining.

Pyros's laptop upstairs hooked to his TV is running on StartOS, an Ubuntu OS created by a Chinese company, designed specifically to look like Windows, and marketed for the selfsame reason. It used to have a slightly more blatantly Windows-y theme and name, but changed them after it starting being popular with Westerners and thus getting Internet Spotlight. Too bad it uses some ypk thing though, as it's a decently light build for my old hardware to run HD youtube vids, but installing or upgrading my apps is a pain the rear.

And America didn't invent Unoriginality- that shit's older than steel, considering early Western culture emphasized a few specific "arts" and artists, and every time any of them became popular there was a flood of imitators of a specific style or theme. We only remember the first and best, or look back specifically to see the "originals" in a period of copycats.

America is a country where everyone has the privilege of being an asshole, compared to countries where they don't, and is also not a country where people are supposed to be assholes for the country to work (though some would argue with me on that), and the best part is that particular privilege is there, but we don't have to make use of it.

We also have political parties and their leaders who don't go on stage and tv to publicly decry people of other ethnicities, religions, and creeds (though yeah, just like any person they'll probably do it behind closed doors). Sucks that we only have two parties, but I suppose if we did have 50 parties there'd be at least one that wore a "xenophobia/racist" hat.

While the quality of education may not match our European/Asian counterparts, (I think?), and some children in problematic areas of the nation still have to have more dedication and patience to get a high school diploma than most would expect of a young child, the luxury of attending some level of education is still higher than most for the lower classes.

Minorities will be the Majority within my lifetime!

We also still have one of the most diverse interconnected landscapes in a single stretch of country, having our own frozen north, our own tropical south, and fertile prairieland- radical shifts in terrain, flora, fauna between every state, and I think only China shares that situation in terms of global position and size.

People still go out of their way to come and live here for some reason.

This country has Sun-Drop.

This country has Pyros in it.

This country created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

There is a community college here where one can get a degree in makin' video games for less than $11,100. That's pretty awesome for me, anyway.

Solid Snake · 02-02-2013, 01:38 AM

I think I'm going to create a "Reasons China Kicks Ass" thread this weekend with the explicit intent of ensuring that Robin has to least be sufficiently informed before demonizing the shit out of China again

Spoiler: Reason #1 China kicks ass is because right now they're practically the only remotely decent nation out there with a spine to speak up when America starts using Shitty Superpower Logic to do Shitty Superpower Things

Solid Snake · 02-02-2013, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PyrosNine

This country created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

...That'd be Canada.

Loyal · 02-02-2013, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

Robin has to least be sufficiently informed before demonizing the shit out of China again

Noooooooooooooot gonna happen.

Solid Snake · 02-02-2013, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loyal

Noooooooooooooot gonna happen.

Irrational hatred of a foreign nation and its people isn't a 'quirk.' It's a goddamn disease.

Grimpond · 02-02-2013, 01:46 AM

WHoah whoah, back the fuck up loyal. Robin ain't no "peer".

RobinStarwing · 02-02-2013, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

Irrational hatred of a foreign nation and its people isn't a 'quirk.' It's a goddamn disease.

I think you missed me bolding the word Government to stress my issue is with the government of the country, not the people.

02-02-2013, 01:17 AM	#41
Kim adorable Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 12,950	If you want to make a thread about nationalism you're going to have to accept that some people are distinctly anti-nationalist and are going to make, OH DEAR GOD, jokes in your thread. "American invented unoriginality." You see, it is a joke. If unoriginality did not exist, inventing it would be original. There is an inherent conflict to the statement, and that is made with the intent of humor. Responding to that with, "Well China's worse!!" reflects really poorly on you. This is in part due to your history of overt racism against the Chinese people and the way you have repeatedly singled them out in the past for crimes your own country is also guilty of. Aerozord is also guilty of responding to jokes and humor with generally inane statements, by replying to a light-hearted joke by a mod at the expense of the country that mod lives in with an earnest attempt to trivialize the actual awful things the country has done. If you want to have a positive thread about a country that has done a lot of awful shit, you can't respond to jokes at the expense of that country by trivializing or defending the awful shit. Well, technically you can. It'll just turn your positive nationalist thread into well-deserved criticism of that country you love. __________________ this post is about how to successfully H the Kimmy

02-02-2013, 01:34 AM	#44
PyrosNine Zettai Hero Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: A figment of my own imagination Posts: 6,103	China's a bit loose on international intellectual property law, I'll admit, and being a growing economy just like ours (was?) they are just as likely to shamelessly crib ideas just like Americans do all the time. And both countries are totally going out of their way to copy Japan, which does it's best to return the favor, and so we've got this nice era of culture mixing, so I ain't complaining. Pyros's laptop upstairs hooked to his TV is running on StartOS, an Ubuntu OS created by a Chinese company, designed specifically to look like Windows, and marketed for the selfsame reason. It used to have a slightly more blatantly Windows-y theme and name, but changed them after it starting being popular with Westerners and thus getting Internet Spotlight. Too bad it uses some ypk thing though, as it's a decently light build for my old hardware to run HD youtube vids, but installing or upgrading my apps is a pain the rear. And America didn't invent Unoriginality- that shit's older than steel, considering early Western culture emphasized a few specific "arts" and artists, and every time any of them became popular there was a flood of imitators of a specific style or theme. We only remember the first and best, or look back specifically to see the "originals" in a period of copycats. America is a country where everyone has the privilege of being an asshole, compared to countries where they don't, and is also not a country where people are supposed to be assholes for the country to work (though some would argue with me on that), and the best part is that particular privilege is there, but we don't have to make use of it. We also have political parties and their leaders who don't go on stage and tv to publicly decry people of other ethnicities, religions, and creeds (though yeah, just like any person they'll probably do it behind closed doors). Sucks that we only have two parties, but I suppose if we did have 50 parties there'd be at least one that wore a "xenophobia/racist" hat. While the quality of education may not match our European/Asian counterparts, (I think?), and some children in problematic areas of the nation still have to have more dedication and patience to get a high school diploma than most would expect of a young child, the luxury of attending some level of education is still higher than most for the lower classes. Minorities will be the Majority within my lifetime! We also still have one of the most diverse interconnected landscapes in a single stretch of country, having our own frozen north, our own tropical south, and fertile prairieland- radical shifts in terrain, flora, fauna between every state, and I think only China shares that situation in terms of global position and size. People still go out of their way to come and live here for some reason. This country has Sun-Drop. This country has Pyros in it. This country created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. There is a community college here where one can get a degree in makin' video games for less than $11,100. That's pretty awesome for me, anyway. __________________ Pyrosnine.blogspot.com: An experimental blog of writing. Updated possibly daily. Possibly. A fair chance. Current Works for reading: War Between them, Karma Police. PyrosNine: Weirdo Magnet Extraordinaire!

02-02-2013, 01:38 AM	#45
Solid Snake Erotic Esquire Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 5,563	I think I'm going to create a "Reasons China Kicks Ass" thread this weekend with the explicit intent of ensuring that Robin has to least be sufficiently informed before demonizing the shit out of China again *Spoiler:* Reason #1 China kicks ass is because right now they're practically the only remotely decent nation out there with a spine to speak up when America starts using Shitty Superpower Logic to do Shitty Superpower Things __________________ *WARNING:* Snek's all up in this thread. Be prepared to read massive walls of text.