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That is not a simple question. My life is what it is because I live in America. I am not driven to move elsewhere.
But America is far from what I want it to be. Last night’s debate was a good example. I am so baffled that those two are who we have decided should have power.
I agree, haven’t watched the debate yet, but I myself have mixed views on current America, mostly on mass surviellence (but we can always change that if we all tried hard enough!)
I like Chase Oliver views and I could see him being a better choice than RFK in my opinion. I feel like I could vote for him, even as a right-leaning straight white male! I really don’t like Trump or Biden, and I refuse to give them my vote.
Sadly, the effect of not voting for one of the 2 candidates is to intensify the power of the most extreme views. Say 100 people can vote. 25 on each side are going to vote for their party no matter what. 20 want something crazy in one direction and 20 in the other direction, and both sides are likely to protest and/or not vote if their guy doesn’t pander to them. That leaves 10 persuadable people – mostly people who are busy with other stuff and not paying attention to the minutia of various policies and the likely after effects they will cause.
What is a candidate to do? They pander to the crazies. They can hardly bother to assuage the persuadables because those folks aren’t paying attention anyway. They have to go after the people who might bail if they aren’t appeased. I hate the system, but there it is.
Libertarian=hard pass.
Libertarian Police Department Copypasta
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
VIDEO FROM THE NEW YORKER Throwing Shade Through Crosswords
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him
Naw, it made some kinda sense for a while but the writers really jumped the shark in the past decade.
I love it, and that’s why I want to improve it. And you can’t fix a problem without acknowledging it exists.
This is a nation founded on the ideals of genocide, slavery, and white nationalism. No I do not like the US. I’d not trust anyone who does. The USA should be dissolved.
I meant to say white supremacy, not white nationalism. But nationalism is a problem too.
I’m European and I have mixed feelings about the US.
There are some great sceneries, nice peoples and my accent does wonders there. I like its smaller towns and countryside.
But at the same I hate its cities. You can see the most widen gap between poverty and absurdly rich peoples in the same street. You can have a wonderful avenue and once in the back alley it looks like third world. I’ve never seen that many weird people than in the us. There’s too much violence and capitalism. And don’t get me on the fucking tipping culture.
Yes. As a black man, America has produced a long very involved legacy of which I’m proud being my heritage.
Sure, it was absolutely founded on treating people like as sub-human, and there are people today that are trying to return me to that state, but fuck them as they’ve been fucked for the last century and a half. I’ll be damned if I let them represent America.
No, but I like it more than China and Russia.
America is addicted to money however, and has a warped idea that working hard is somehow what life is about. But it’s still not close to fascism and there is some accountability still.
No, I live here.
I hate
- religious zealotry
- massive dichotomy in polotical ideologies
- identity politics
- warmongering
- brainwashing (pledge of allegiance?!)
- poor treatment of poor and homeless
- prison complex
- poor education system
- incredibly expensive healthcare
- terrible zoning laws and car centricity
- hiroshima, native genocide, iraq, and so many more. The US has shed so much blood and terror inflicted on the world population
- world police, vigilante, the US is basically every bad movie villian in country form
- regressing views on women’s rights
- the history of slavery
It depends on what you mean. America the government courting christofascism? Hell fucking no. I wish all the Republicans and neolibs in power would have a heart attack. I wish to live long enough to read Trump’s and Alito’s obituaries. But I do love my local community too much to just abandon them. At best, I would call my relationship with America akin to Stockholm Syndrome.
America is the center of the world, hate all you want. This is the cutting edge today. Hollywood is the dominant music/media power. Silicon valley is the dominant technology power. NY is the dominant financial hub. The hippie cultural revolution was largely here, and the civil rights revolutions that inform modern morals. America spends more on military than the rest of the world combined, and therefore has massive influence
So that’s my context for being here. I was born pretty far away in Europe, which is great in its own ways. But if you really want to play the game at the highest level, America is the place to do it. Everyone else is just trying to catch up. Or they are enjoying a happy low stress life of wine and women with a high standard of living and low inequality — which are definitely unamerican ideals XD
But if you really want to play the game at the highest level, America is the place to do it.
I mean if “the game” is having the largest prison population per capita then sure, but otherwise America is mid in almost every category.
Non-American here!
I’ve visited America a bunch of times and I really like it as a place, they have amazing scenery pretty much everywhere you look, and just about every individual American I’ve met has been really nice.
BUT…
I’d never want to live there. Their healthcare system is insane (sorry Americans but it is) and politically as a nation they’re pretty bonkers. Guns, religion, general sort of global belligerence etc.
Also as an aside, San Francisco is genuinely one of the strangest places I’ve ever been to. I dunno if I was just there at a weird time, but it seemed like every single person there was either a millionaire or homeless. Absolutely nothing in between.
Parts of it are great, the parts that aren’t are a nightmare and will never get better.
The facts are it’s an oligopoly which is rapidly moving towards pairing this with totalitarianism. Propaganda is so pronounced today that finding actual news is a chore, and if shared it’s labeled as “fake news”. A study was recently published demonstrating political moves are made without any care for how it impacts the masses. It’s tough to see the decline happen in real time while most deny it’s occurrence. Most are too focused on owning others in the working class with alternative ideals.
But in the U.S., the natural beauty is phenomenal. Yet it’s being traded to allow conglomerates to squeeze more profit out of dwindling resources. If something doesn’t change the course soon, this answer potentially could land me in prison in the near future. Which is counter to what the country was supposedly established to prevent. It’s rough in many aspects, yet not entirely hopeless, at least as of this moment.
I wouldn’t willingly live anyplace else.
