Speak about America here if you want to.

**Hunny** Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:28 pm

I'm sure there are those who'll hate my "About The United States" thread. Well, we're even, because I hate that there are people who inexplicably go along with the ridiculous notion that there can be more than one version of what the facts are. I'm 52. I earned knowing a few things the hard legitimate way (college, life experience, years of observation); I didn't take the hideous shortcut of listening to propaganda until it set in. (I don't get the "news" from an American network. And I don't just repeat what I hear as if it's trustable.)

I locked that thread from comments because I wanted to document something, I didn't want it to turn into a mess of arguing. But this thread can be used for discussion if you'd like. I doubt I'll get involved in it though because I don't like to play "this versus that".

I know, you may think I'm pompous. Well I'm old. I know what's going on in this country. It repulses me, and I feel ashamed and angry and embarrassed by it. And it won't help to battle over contradictory spin, as if defending the imaginary against each other would be better to do than to just review the facts as they are and discuss what to do about them in a sane constructive manner.

I'm especially offended by the republicans for disseminating misinformation as propaganda. And I'm even more deeply disappointed that otherwise intelligent people will repeat it, mindlessly, like parrots. And I'm then saddened at a society which thinks having a spectator competition is a better idea than getting on with anything constructive or decent or whole. For us to be so robbed while so many of us willingly refuse to acknowledge that political contests are as constructive and as fake as professional wrestling, that all which you see on "the news" is just bullshit to keep your attention deflected, to "divide and conquer" you, to make you repeat and believe things that just aren't true...makes me downright depressed. -as does how impossible it seems to be to replace the misinformation with any truth.

People only dig in harder when their beliefs are contradicted. They've swallowed something, and they will only defend it. (This is what I mean by "I'm old". -> Been there, done that, arguing is fruitless frustration.) So I've just stated how things really are, and if it doesn't match what someone heard on FOX, well of course it doesn't.

The only thing I'd add, would be perhaps to simplify what I stated this way: What's going on with America isn't new. History is a long chain of empires. Fascism is often involved in imperialism. It's hard for Americans to think of their own country as bad - Americans who were brought up being told lies about how right matters and "we're the good guys" and all that. We're even now constantly assaulted by ideal notions (lies) about how things are or should be viewed. But shit is shit. And things simply are not ideal. The truth about human nature is ugly, not noble. Perhaps we should just face that.

I keep recommending "Animal Farm" as an example of what authority always starts out as promising, and what it then turns into in time. It was a cautionary tale when it was published, and it still serves as one now. I think you can figure out who the pigs are in America.

This thread is for discussion of The United States.