Re: Mr. RobototalmanesSeptember 14 2002, 02:12:16 UTC
Point by point...
It's fine that you took umbrage at my journal. No one has to agree with me, especially when it comes to despising this country. If you're proud to live here, so be it--good for you. I wish I were as comfortable at home. I'm not.
As for the sloppy journalism of that post, I could not say what it was about, as it was not my place to say. Just trust that there was something behind it, and it did not come out of nowhere. If you need more than that, ask the Notorious DM whether or not it was justified. It's not something I'm going to talk about openly.
You claim there's a disparity between entries, and I suppose on a surface level there is. But don't go confusing 'freedom' with 'good' in my entries. We're free in America. They're free in Canada, in most of Europe, in some of Asia, in some of Africa, in Australia, in some of South America... a lot of places have freedom. Some have more freedom than others--mostly predominately white nations, especially if you happen to be white and male. Freedom is all over the place.
Corruption is also all over the place. A nation being "free" does not make it "good," be it America, Canada, England, or wherever. No nation is completely blameless. America is a sonofabitch, but Canada is a prison bitch. Just because these places aren't America doesn't make them better, it just makes them different, also in very undesirable ways. Once again, America is not special--we do not have the monopoly on bullshit.
Upon the point of my rethinking leaving, do understand that there is more to my living in the USA than my wanting to be in this country. I have family and friends here, I like where I live, and thus far I haven't found any other nation that I can think of as "better" to the point where living there is worth the effort. And when you say stuff like that, try not to be so condescending.
As for telling people over the past 300 years that freedom is easy and common... I'd think they'd be proud. They fought for it, and now it's everywhere. Sounds like a battle won to me. This nation was great once, in its way, and a lot of people died to make it so. They had a grand ideal in mind and they set out to make it a reality, and for a time they had that, or as close to it as they could get. But I think many of them would be ashamed to see what we've done with that freedom, which is essentially give our free will over to someone else so they could make our decisions for us. Freedom is a wonderful thing, but you need to exercise it. We don't. That's the problem.
By that same vein, these freedoms are not so easily practiced here if you're not white, not male, not heterosexual, not Christian, or you weren't born here. How truly free are people whose freedoms are infringed upon and repressed? We are not so enlightened a society as you seem to paint us to be.
We're not going to see eye to eye on this. You're proud to live here, very full of the nationalistic pride and responsibility that America engenders, and you have a great love and respect for this country and its history. That's great for you, and I envy that, because it's not that easy for me to be proud. I see all that's wrong and how easily people are led to making it worse, and I'm saddened. As I've stated many times in my own journal, my natural reaction to such things is anger, and thus, an entry is born.
Believe what you will. Belief is good for you. We just believe differently.
holy shit, you'ze boys write novels to correspond with each other. That's why I propose a third solution, livejournal is not a journal at all but a giant email forward and cc: substitution. And comments are just heaven's emails.
And I back this up by saying: "gentlemen, what a collective bunch of assholes."
It's fine that you took umbrage at my journal. No one has to agree with me, especially when it comes to despising this country. If you're proud to live here, so be it--good for you. I wish I were as comfortable at home. I'm not.
As for the sloppy journalism of that post, I could not say what it was about, as it was not my place to say. Just trust that there was something behind it, and it did not come out of nowhere. If you need more than that, ask the Notorious DM whether or not it was justified. It's not something I'm going to talk about openly.
You claim there's a disparity between entries, and I suppose on a surface level there is. But don't go confusing 'freedom' with 'good' in my entries. We're free in America. They're free in Canada, in most of Europe, in some of Asia, in some of Africa, in Australia, in some of South America... a lot of places have freedom. Some have more freedom than others--mostly predominately white nations, especially if you happen to be white and male. Freedom is all over the place.
Corruption is also all over the place. A nation being "free" does not make it "good," be it America, Canada, England, or wherever. No nation is completely blameless. America is a sonofabitch, but Canada is a prison bitch. Just because these places aren't America doesn't make them better, it just makes them different, also in very undesirable ways. Once again, America is not special--we do not have the monopoly on bullshit.
Upon the point of my rethinking leaving, do understand that there is more to my living in the USA than my wanting to be in this country. I have family and friends here, I like where I live, and thus far I haven't found any other nation that I can think of as "better" to the point where living there is worth the effort. And when you say stuff like that, try not to be so condescending.
As for telling people over the past 300 years that freedom is easy and common... I'd think they'd be proud. They fought for it, and now it's everywhere. Sounds like a battle won to me. This nation was great once, in its way, and a lot of people died to make it so. They had a grand ideal in mind and they set out to make it a reality, and for a time they had that, or as close to it as they could get. But I think many of them would be ashamed to see what we've done with that freedom, which is essentially give our free will over to someone else so they could make our decisions for us. Freedom is a wonderful thing, but you need to exercise it. We don't. That's the problem.
By that same vein, these freedoms are not so easily practiced here if you're not white, not male, not heterosexual, not Christian, or you weren't born here. How truly free are people whose freedoms are infringed upon and repressed? We are not so enlightened a society as you seem to paint us to be.
We're not going to see eye to eye on this. You're proud to live here, very full of the nationalistic pride and responsibility that America engenders, and you have a great love and respect for this country and its history. That's great for you, and I envy that, because it's not that easy for me to be proud. I see all that's wrong and how easily people are led to making it worse, and I'm saddened. As I've stated many times in my own journal, my natural reaction to such things is anger, and thus, an entry is born.
Believe what you will. Belief is good for you. We just believe differently.
Reply
And I back this up by saying: "gentlemen, what a collective bunch of assholes."
Reply
Leave a comment