Re: Question for John McAdams

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 10:41:34 PM UTC-5, ajohnstone wrote:
> Once more i encounter "American Exceptionalism" 
> 
> Once again, any criticism of the way American society is run, raises the 
> hackles of those who frequent this forum. 

 You keep making assertions that you know what our problems are and why 
they are. You keep using questionable, biased sources to bolster your 
viewpoints. We are here, you are not.

>Once again the assumption made 
> is that the USA is the best at everything and has nothing to learn from 
> any other nation. 

  My assumption is that liberalism is ruining everything that is good 
about Western culture in Europe. I look at Europe and I see many countries 
that are ruining the future of their countries just to show how 
progressive they can be.

 
> Yet the paradox is that those promoting America is great can't help but 
> expose its weaknesses and its failures.

  Leftists think it is their job to constantly point these out. The left 
in this country wallows in the sins of our history, as do you below. You 
and they have nothing positive to say and certainly nothing positive to 
offer.

> Throughout history, America has suffered from its law and order policies. 
> From the prohibition to the war on drugs. From Jim Crow laws to the 
> "stolen election". The separation of church and state but the political 
> power of religious Christian evangelicalism. 
> 
> There is a naive belief that passing laws can fix things, in particular, 
> the way people think and behave. The world doesn't work in that manner. 

  Nothing like being lectured about how the world works by a person who 
seems entirely clueless about how the world works. You think looters only 
steal necessities. You think it is feasible to deescalate dangerous 
situations with crazed violent people with soft words and flowers.

> Material conditions have to change before people's ideas do. 

  Ok, in many poor areas in this country a kid can make $1,000 dollars a 
day standing on a street corner with his friends, listening to music and 
joking around, by selling drugs. All he has to do is be willing to kill 
the other poor kid who wants to make $1,000 a day. How far do you have to 
raise minimum wage to compete with this? These kids for the most part have 
nothing to offer any employer, they are basically unemployable.. I would 
bet that if you dumped all the money from this recent stimulus package 
into the top ten worst cities in America you wouldn`t effect any real 
change (unless is was all put into law enforcement). Saying these problems 
are the result of economics is a cop out, these problems are now ingrained 
as part of a culture. Thug Life, as Tupac Shakur put it.

 
> There is nothing new about Alex Jones or Qanon. In the past it was Father 
> Coughlin and the "Know Nothing" Party. You had Rush Limbaugh and before 
> that you had Charles Lindbergh. Before Trump there was Huey Long. I could 
> go on 
> 
> Americans just re-lives the mistakes of its past and re-names them.

  It is only your opinion that these are all mistakes.

  I`ll tell you what, all across this country people were being attacked 
and harassed for wearing pins or hats in support of Trump. Trump 
supporters would be appalled if there were a series of physical attacks on 
Hillary supporters because they were showing support for her. But the 
people on the left didn`t mind at all that Trump people were being 
attacked, they felt the attacks were justified. The people who support 
Trump are generally rational and willing to discuss ideas and the people 
on the left these days are shrill, irrational authoritarian dictators.

> Those who proclaim the USA a failed state may not be 100% correct but they 
> do indicate the way things are presently going. 

  They are being dragged there by the left.

> A failed state is one where governments are not legitimate. Republicans 
> say Biden's government isn't. Before him the Democratic Party said Trump 
> wasn't. 

  Everyone is acting as if Biden is the legitimate elected President.

> It is a failed state when the rule of law has broken down and how often 
> have i noted here those who declared BLM and anti-police riots were 
> nationwide and endorsed by governors and mayors, democracy was undermined 
> i was told by protests and a sympathetic media to them. 

  There is turmoil because the press uses it`s power to still up turmoil 
and the Democratic Party uses it`s power to stir up turmoil. They both do 
this because they both benefit from the turmoil. They need black anger 
energized because that translates into more votes come election time, an 
uninterested black voting base doesn`t get out to vote.


> Economically, financial elites get away with whatever they like. There is 
> rampant corruption of politicians through lobbyists and Citizens United 
> legality of bribery called donations.

  Money talks under any system.

> First the Trump tax cuts, then now 
> the GOP wants Estate Tax cuts. 

  There were Estate Tax cuts under Trump, Biden want to do away or limit 
them.

> Lastly, failed states aren’t able to provide basics for people 
> anymore. Were the lines to the food banks a figment of my imagination made 
> up by the media? 

  Is anyone starving here in America? No, so save your dramatics.

>And because they aren’t able to provide basics, 
> life becomes a brutal battle for self-preservation, and survival: with 
> mounting cruelty and brutality, scapegoating with hate and violence. 

  Did you watch a Mad Max video and think that is what America is about?

> America is collectively increasingly exhibiting symptoms of mass neuroses 
> and sociopathy, and i include those of both right and left political 
> dispositions. 
> 
> Healthcare, retirement, medicine, education is viewed as a lesser 
> priority to a bloated military and lucrative armaments industry. 

  Actually Trump was taking care of this. He pulled us out of several 
hotspots, he was talking about pulling out troops from Europe and Korea. 
Biden gets in and he is flying B-52 over Syria hoping they will get shot 
down so he can start a war. Starting trouble all over the Middle East 
(where Trump was brokering peace agreements), Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, 
Syria, there isn`t a Middle Eastern country he isn`t trying to get into it 
with.

  And notice there is a surge of illegal aliens at out southern border? 
Trump had that problem handled, now it isn`t.

> Sound like America to me is becoming a dystopia, if it isn't already. Time 
> for a reality check before it is too late. And i know the truth hurts and 
> that denial is more comforting. 

  I have a better idea of what is going on in this country than you do.

> America is far too important to the planet to leave it in the hands of its 
> citizens who have been shown to be too irresponsible or plainly too 
> ignorant.

  We get the leaders we deserve. And right now we deserve a befuddled old 
man.