American Exceptionalism

[Nanners]

Came accross this great comment on reddit-

We sell our nation's brand as America, the Greatest Country on Earth. Nobody is more free! Nobody has more opportunity! Nobody has a higher quality of life!

And that's great, if we can live up to that. But the problem is that the people trying to sell this idea don't compare the US to the best places in the world, they compare the US to the worst places in the world.

"The US is great! If you don't like it, try living in North Korea!"

Well yeah, North Korea sucks. Nobody's disputing that. But people'd rather live in South Korea than North Korea. People would rather live in China or Japan or even Vietnam than live in North Korea.

You can't say you're the best, and measure yourself against the worst. Because then you aren't the greatest, you're just the not-worst.

And then when you take countries with better opportunity and better wages and better education and better quality of life and better longevity and better rates of infant mortality (Scandinavian countries come to mind for all categories), and you try to use these as examples of how the US can do better, you get shut down.

"They have less people than the US! They have a more homogenous culture! You can't really compare them to the US!"

Well, that's great, but eventually that means that when you say the US is the greatest country in the world, what you mean is the US is the greatest country in the world with 300-350 million inhabitants located in North America between a country called Canada and a country called Mexico. By those standards, yeah, we're great.

Meanwhile we're knocking on India for being disease-ridden and corrupt, we're knocking on China for having a repressive government, we're knocking on both of them for not being fantastic about the environment. But India has 1.27 billion people and China has 1.4 billion people. So we can't really fairly compare them to the US, now can we? Do we know that we'd be any better than China with its population 440% the size of ours, if we had that same population?

What it all comes down to is, American exceptionalism is bupkiss. And anybody who loves their country, no matter what country it is, should constantly be striving to make their country better. Not looking at the shitty countries and saying "Meh, we're good enough."

-jabbaciv (http://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/35afvl/americas_poor_are_envy_of_the_world_says_richest/cr2m8y7)

[Akrazotile]

Reads like a fifth grader just beginning his " the world is so unfair and stupid you guys!!" phase wrote it.

[Akrazotile]

Right, Josh?

;)

[SourSamCassell]

Scoreboard ;)

[DonDadda59]

2 Time World War Champion.

May 8, 1945 (70 years ago to the day) WWII officially ended in Europe and we were crowned Kings of the World, GOAT nation. Haven't looked back since. F*ck a 'Scandanavia' :whatever:

[Akrazotile]

2 Time World War Champion.

May 8, 1945 (70 years ago to the day) WWII officially ended in Europe and we were crowned Kings of the World, GOAT nation. Haven't looked back since. F*ck a 'Scandanavia' :whatever:


Back to back as well. With 2 WWMVP's.

2/2 > 2/5 > 5*/7


Top 1 in all time GOAT rankings and its not even remotely close :rockon:

[HitandRun Reggie]

You know America is a great country when people need to find trivial things to b!tch about, like "You know what really bugs me about this country? It's that I find it like soooo annoying that people think America is TOO great".

http://media.giphy.com/media/poiOz3yYCThiU/giphy.gif

[NumberSix]

What country in the world has a greater degree of individual freedom than America.

InB4 some retard says a population terrorized by lawless pirates is more free than America.

[Hittin_Shots]

What country in the world has a greater degree of individual freedom than America.

InB4 some retard says a population terrorized by lawless pirates is more free than America.

I feel pretty free.

[King Jane]

Right, Josh?

;)
http://i.minus.com/ibbzL3WPBL4ewE.gif

[~primetime~]

I feel like there are way more Americans declaring that America sucks than there are declaring it is "the Greatest Country on Earth".

It's like you must some inbred hillbilly redneck from jesusland to declare you love 'Merica'...




will be nice when the trend of bashing this country passes...

[KingBeasley08]

Reddit is full of a bunch of dumb 17 year olds who think they have the whole world figured out. I'd know because that was me three years ago. Now I'm a 20 year old who realized he doesn't know shit


America has problems but if you spent time on reddit, especially it's BS
'politics' subreddit, you'd think we were Somalia and Scandinavia was some paradise. There is a middle ground

[Dresta]

Something written by a clueless bumpkin who doesn't even know what the term American exceptionalism means, let alone its origins and intellectual history, is for Nanners 'a great comment' :lol

FYI American exceptionalism has nothing to do with being 'the best' (that's more nationalism) but is part of a long existing debate regarding the uniqueness of the American founding and whether or not this makes it an exception to certain historical rules. A French aristocrat was the first to describe America as being exceptional (as in: not typical), and the debate was later taken up by socialists wandering whether the US was exceptional in the sense it seemed to have the capacity to avoid the inevitable (Marxian) proletarian revolution due to its rather unique historical circumstances.

No wonder you're such a dumbass if you consider Reddit an educational resource.

[kNIOKAS]

Something written by a clueless bumpkin who doesn't even know what the term American exceptionalism means, let alone its origins and intellectual history, is for Nanners 'a great comment' :lol

FYI American exceptionalism has nothing to do with being 'the best' (that's more nationalism) but is part of a long existing debate regarding the uniqueness of the American founding and whether or not this makes it an exception to certain historical rules. A French aristocrat was the first to describe America as being exceptional (as in: not typical), and the debate was later taken up by socialists wandering whether the US was exceptional in the sense it seemed to have the capacity to avoid the inevitable (Marxian) proletarian revolution due to its rather unique historical circumstances.

No wonder you're such a dumbass if you consider Reddit an educational resource.

If you tried to see what Nanners ment by his post, you could have had a nice day (if you are capable of that at all). But you didn't, and ended up with spewing some supposed yet misplaced information just for the sake of being a dick. A douchebag. :hammerhead:

You need to seek some mental help. Carrying too much hate within...

[Dresta]

If you tried to see what Nanners ment by his post, you could have had a nice day (if you are capable of that at all). But you didn't, and ended up with spewing some supposed yet misplaced information just for the sake of being a dick. A douchebag. :hammerhead:

You need to seek some mental help. Carrying too much hate within...
What 'hate'? The man, and the person he quoted, don't have a clue what they're talking about, and yet to your warped mind, correcting them, is 'hate.' If anything, you hate me, otherwise you wouldn't keep quoting my posts, saying nothing, whining like a 3rd rate bitch, and banging yourself on the head.

If you actually knew anything about any interesting subject whatsoever, then you might actually have something to say for once other than just complaining about me.

Your entire post is also irrelevant, off-topic, and has wasted my time. Good day to you sir!

edit: what i also find funny is I get accused of hate, while angry and resentful losers like Nanners and Driod are so keen on anonymously telling me to 'kill myself'

Who hates who here, really?

[Nick Young]

2 Time World War Champion.

May 8, 1945 (70 years ago to the day) WWII officially ended in Europe and we were crowned Kings of the World, GOAT nation. Haven't looked back since. F*ck a 'Scandanavia' :whatever:
:bowdown:

[tpols]

2 Time World War Champion.

May 8, 1945 (70 years ago to the day) WWII officially ended in Europe and we were crowned Kings of the World, GOAT nation. Haven't looked back since. F*ck a 'Scandanavia' :whatever:

All about dem rangz baby...

Fucc a birthrate statline :rolleyes:

[The Iron Sheik]

literally no one does this. america is the best compared to any country. "greatest country in the world" doesn't mean "greatest country in the world compared to shit countries".

[kNIOKAS]

What 'hate'? The man, and the person he quoted, don't have a clue what they're talking about, and yet to your warped mind, correcting them, is 'hate.' If anything, you hate me, otherwise you wouldn't keep quoting my posts, saying nothing, whining like a 3rd rate bitch, and banging yourself on the head.

If you actually knew anything about any interesting subject whatsoever, then you might actually have something to say for once other than just complaining about me.

Your entire post is also irrelevant, off-topic, and has wasted my time. Good day to you sir!

edit: what i also find funny is I get accused of hate, while angry and resentful losers like Nanners and Driod are so keen on anonymously telling me to 'kill myself'

Who hates who here, really?
I'm actualy sympathetic about you, in a way, because it is apparent that you have psychological problems and/or inefficiencies. Just ask me.

[Nick Young]

NSA got Maksimilian monitered and on lock.:lol

[Dresta]

I'm actualy sympathetic about you, in a way, because it is apparent that you have psychological problems and/or inefficiencies. Just ask me.
Firstly, this post of yours (like 90% of them) is incoherent, vague, and doesn't really make any sense. Secondly, when are you actually going to make a point, other than simply calling the person whose opinions you are incapable of understanding (due to that vast ignorance of yours) mentally deranged or some such nonsense? Did you not know that the need to describe away one's opponents as crazy people is pretty much the staple of all totalitarian regimes, and the argumentative tactic of natural tyrannisers, who, if they could, would hang those 'hateful' people who dare to question their bs?

I've never seen someone talk with such certainty on subjects they demonstrably know **** all about. Go read a book for once in your life, jeez..

edit: Also, you've proven me right, in once again not being able to refute a single one of the points i made earlier about the stupidity of this thread. All you do is quote someone, refuse to engage them in any sort of proper discussion, and then just patronise and call them a bad person to make yourself feel better about your own thoroughly pathetic excuse for a life (and very clear intellectual inadequacies).

[nathanjizzle]

god blessed america and no other countries.

[Ass Dan]

O'doyle Rules!!!

[HitandRun Reggie]

Never been more sure Scandinavian countries are better places to live


I agree. They actually deport their illegal immigrants and refuse to allow their anchor babies citizenship. Illegal immigrants don't drag down labor wages like they do here