American Exceptionalism

[sys]

that world war shirt make me want to punch the crap out of it.

[Mrs. Gooch]

I don't know where to put this. I am just going to put it here because apparently America is exceptional because we just cut out the bad parts of our history books.

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/07/new-texas-textbooks-slavery-side-issue-civil-war/

[puniraptor]

and the sleeves off our shirts

[eastcat]

I used to think american exceptionalism was a stupid birther idea. Went to europe for a month last year and saw how utterly trashed and overhyped it is. Europeans are literally broke useless peasants rioting over government pension programs and crap. Reminded me of books about peasants petitioning the king or church for bread or something in the dark ages. Switch king/church for government and it's stuck on repeat over there.

Asia on the other hand is scary man, super efficient.

Not sure what to think anymore.

[Kat Kid]

I used to think american exceptionalism was a stupid birther idea. Went to europe for a month last year and saw how utterly trashed and overhyped it is. Europeans are literally broke useless peasants rioting over government pension programs and crap. Reminded me of books about peasants petitioning the king or church for bread or something in the dark ages. Switch king/church for government and it's stuck on repeat over there.

Asia on the other hand is scary man, super efficient.

Not sure what to think anymore.

I want an eastcat update to Frommer's 2014.

[ksupamplemousse]

American exceptionalism is probably responsible for more deaths in the past couple centuries than all but the most brutal dictators (excluding natural factors like disease, natural disasters, etc.). It's unadulterated, unfiltered, and unabashed hubris in its purest form. The idea is anathema to any kind of unity that humanity might try to achieve. It is probably the largest impediment to global progress, other than natural resource limitations. If American exceptionalism were an individual, that individual would surely be a sociopath. Imagine that sociopath with the financial, technological, and military resources that America possesses. Frightening thought. Especially for those that get caught in the crossfire of our petty political games.

[wetwillie]

American exceptionalism is probably responsible for more deaths in the past couple centuries than all but the most brutal dictators (excluding natural factors like disease, natural disasters, etc.). It's unadulterated, unfiltered, and unabashed hubris in its purest form. The idea is anathema to any kind of unity that humanity might try to achieve. It is probably the largest impediment to global progress, other than natural resource limitations. If American exceptionalism were an individual, that individual would surely be a sociopath. Imagine that sociopath with the financial, technological, and military resources that America possesses. Frightening thought. Especially for those that get caught in the crossfire of our petty political games.

Glad you got that off your chest, that kind of thing can really eat away at a guy.

[sys]

We in the U.S. have a broad and heavy bias away from unpleasant data.

p. 17-25.

https://www.gmo.com/docs/default-source/public-commentary/gmo-quarterly-letter.pdf

[Emo EMAW]

We in the U.S. have a broad and heavy bias away from unpleasant data.

p. 17-25.

https://www.gmo.com/docs/default-source/public-commentary/gmo-quarterly-letter.pdf

Well I certainly didn't want to find this out.

[Kat Kid]

I appreciate his views but he does some sloppy work on his implicit claims on education and agricultural production.

He wisely does not attach himself to the Population Bomb crowd of Paul Ehrlich.

The PISA and Pre-K critiques are important, but have little to do with most of the benefits of having the best, broadest and deepest university system in the world.

I think most of the rest of his examples are true both anecdotally and would hold up to scrutiny via survey results, but the implications are unclear.  I think the most under explored part of his piece is what effect the united states mass incarceration has had on the labor participation rate and what happens when those offenders are released.  I think i could piece together a plausible picture with my imagination, but it might be helpful to look at the alternatives and what the actual impact is on the US workforce.

It also would be useful to generate some ideas about why the similar labor participation rates have not had similar impacts on wages?  Is it all state intervention?  Is illegal immigration really that big of a drag on wages?  What are all of the differences between the European labor market and the US labor market? 

[michigancat]

Everyone has a bias away from bad information. No way is that unique to Americans.

[renocat]

When it comes to relationship of individuals to a to a strong and exceptional America no life matters more that the greater good of the country. We are so fixated on trying to get government to provide goodies and quality of life for each individual we forget Kennedy's challenge that that wteates we should not ask what our government can do for us but what we can do for our government or our country. The Democrats are so fixated on pandering to everyone and to every group that they really don't give a rat's ass about the greater good of America. Let's concentrate on doing what it takes to make our country an engine that lifts all individuals to a better life of peace and prosperity.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

What a weird concept to get butthurt about

[star seed 7]

Everyone has a bias away from bad information. No way is that unique to Americans.

If you accepted it as true would you be less American?

is your IQ in the 50's?

[The Big Train]

I think you're probably over the 50's just from being able to construct a paragraph FWIW

[Kat Kid]

Sounds like Trump does not believe in American Exceptionalism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html

SANGER: Erdogan put nearly 50,000 people in jail or suspend them, suspended thousands of teachers, he imprisoned many in the military and the police, he dismissed a lot of the judiciary. Does this worry you? And would you rather deal with a strongman who’s also been a strong ally, or with somebody that’s got a greater appreciation of civil liberties than Mr. Erdogan has? Would you press him to make sure the rule of law applies?

TRUMP: I think right now when it comes to civil liberties, our country has a lot of problems, and I think it’s very hard for us to get involved in other countries when we don’t know what we are doing and we can’t see straight in our own country. We have tremendous problems when you have policemen being shot in the streets, when you have riots, when you have Ferguson. When you have Baltimore. When you have all of the things that are happening in this country — we have other problems, and I think we have to focus on those problems. When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger.

SANGER: So that suggests that you would not, as, say, President Bush did, the last President Bush, make the spread of democracy and liberty sort of a core of your foreign policy. You would say, “We need allies, we’re not going to lecture them about what they do inside their borders.”

TRUMP: We need allies.

SANGER: And lecture inside their borders?

TRUMP: I don’t know that we have a right to lecture. Just look about what’s happening with our country. How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood. How are we going to lecture when you see the riots and the horror going on in our own country. We have so many difficulties in our country right now that I don’t think we should be, and there may be a time when we can get much more aggressive on that subject, and it will be a wonderful thing to be more aggressive. We’re not in a position to be more aggressive. We have to fix our own mess.

[DQ12]

i think i agree with his sentiment more than i disagree with it.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Very odd for libtards to take issue with those comments.

[Kat Kid]

i think i agree with his sentiment more than i disagree with it.

The context of his comments were

1) he had a few grafs up just called for the US to not guarantee NATO commitment

2) in advocating for democracy and democratic institutions in other countries

You don't have to be a Bush or Hillary interventionist to be puzzled by his comments.

[star seed 7]

Unelected bureaucrats 

[Kat Kid]

was reading about Darius I and Herodotus and came across this quote which made me chuckle.


From Herodotus relaying a story about Darius I

Just suppose that someone proposed to the entirety of mankind that a selection of the very best practices be made from the sum of human custom: each group of people, after carefully sifting through the customs of other peoples, would surely choose its own. Everyone believes their own customs to be by far and away the best. From this, it follows that only a madman would think to jeer at such matters. Indeed, there is a huge amount of corroborating evidence to support the conclusion that this attitude to one’s own native customs is universal. Take, for example, this story from the reign of Darius. [Darius I, Great King of Persia, r. c.522-486 BC]. He called together some Greeks who were present and asked them how much money they would wish to be paid to devour the corpses of their fathers – to which the Greeks replied that no amount of money would suffice for that. Next, Darius summoned some Indians called Callantians, who do eat their parents, and asked them in the presence of the Greeks (who were able to follow what was being said by means of an interpreter) how much money it would take to buy their consent to the cremation of their dead fathers – at which the Callantians cried out in horror and told him that his words were a desecration of silence. Such, then, is how custom operates; and how right Pindar [Greek lyric poet, c. 518-447] is, it seems to me, when he declares in his poetry that ‘Custom is the King of all’.

[_33]

We own the moon, so I know we are at least better than freaking Sweden.

[michigancat]

I would probably eat my dad's corpse for the right price.

[_33]

Kat Kid have you read Horace Miner's paper about the Nacirema?

[Kat Kid]

Kat Kid have you read Horace Miner's paper about the Nacirema?

Yes.  P. Good.


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