Are Americans Losing the plot?

[ghast]

I think that the strangest thing of all with the race issue in this election is the general consensus that Barrack is simply "Black". His mother was white, and his father, black, yet nearly 100% of people who refer to him, refer to him as being black. I guess the black genes are just that dominant. I'm beginning to wonder what mechanism is behind never hearing about him as being mixed race.

[looprication]

First, ghast:

VOTE!!! Get everyone you know to vote!!! We need Florida!

And, to paraphrase Chocolate News' David Alan Grier,

"White people don't want to vote for Obama because he's black. He's not black, he's HALF black! So just vote for the WHITE half!"

Machinate: I'm not sure what to say. The American philosophy has gone from, Work hard, and you'll get what you deserve, to, You deserve to be Paris F'ing Hilton because you're an American and gimmie some money for doing nothing. This whole "American Idol" mentality prevails these days, and it's really sad.

When I travel, I'll admit I'm an American, be myself, and hope that I'm not perceived as an asshole. This is pretty much how I go through life in the US, but without having to declare my national heritage.

There are a lot of great ideas in America, and that's what I really love about Obama. To me, he stands for getting back to what this country was supposed to be about: freedom. He talks about parents being responsible for their children. Duh.

However, the republicans seem to be content to talk out of both sides of their mouths since at least the Regan years. They promise to get government off our backs, but they don't have a problem being in a woman's uterus. OK, gotta give that one to George Carlin. But it's true. We have so many goddamn rules in this country it's silly.

I go to Coachella pretty much every year. It's a big festival about 2.5 hours from my house here in southern California. My friend was talking to a guy from the UK about the difference between festivals here and there, and it really underlines the fact that we are NOT the "land of the free" anymore, if we ever were. In the UK, you can bring in a cooler of beer, all the extracurricular meds you want, and they don't bat an eyelash. Here? You'd be kicked out for trying to sneak in a plastic airplane bottle of schnapps. Despicable.

So back to your original question, what's wrong with socialism? One explanation is that the people who have most of the money know that it won't benefit them. As they have the bulk of the money, they can afford to brainwash the typical American into believing that it's a bad idea through propaganda. After all, 10% of the people control 90% of the wealth. Or at least they did before Bush II. It's probably a more discouraging statistic now.

However, there is real hope and optimism for a more fair tomorrow. This year, the Obama campaign decided not to take government funding, and can therefore raise as much money as it wants, while McFuckStick can only spend a limited amount. Therefore, in this case at least, rah capitalism.

As far as IQ, I'm not sure. I'd like to believe that more intelligent people would vote more intelligently, but I always think of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice. If you're unfamiliar with it, I highly recommend it. If you're a European, it's probably common sense. If you're an American, it should *become* common sense.

Cheers,

-ix

</soapbox>

[b0unce]

jesus !!!!!!

like fatrabit said there all over, i live in irl and there are some serious racist priks here
and i grew up in australia and there all over there as well.

the best line i eva heard is "I'm not racist I just hate assholes"

the video you're commenting on is of an organised rally, obviously enough I think.

To make a fair comparison you should be drawing on experiences of organised protests/rallys here in Ireland. Whilst it's not hard to find a piss-head bigot here, you just don't find them gathering on the streets with placards ....in full sobriety. The people who take to the streets here do so in righteous morality. In the name of social justice and equal rights. They protest against war, against mass lay-offs, against education cuts, against health-care cuts, for the rights of asylum seekers & refugees. I've never seen nor heard of a protest here in Ireland that's based purely on prejudice or bigotry.

[Moody]

careful what you wish for -- in the US, such a requirement might not play out the way you expect.

well the US is a different thing, to be honest: One president, picked "democratically" from an amazing pool of... two people... to run what is clearly a hopelessly divided country is not even close to what can be called a functional democracy, if you ask me.

And I do believe that the "elite" or so-called >103 iq crowd is generally left-biased.

I find it easier to believe that universities attract *intelligent* people rather than believing that they attract *leftist sympathisers* etc.

Now, as an aside, I may be totally out of my element here, but *what the FUCK is wrong with being socialist?* I'm hoping some americans can shed some light on this.

This would be a great chat over a beer at some point. Let us start with this bit of information. It is the 10th amendment to the US Constitution.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

So, there is no quarrel with the idea that socialism is either bad or good and in my humble opinion I think socialism works great when it stays within these boundaries. So, the problem lies in the idea that the country itself takes on a socialist frame work allowing delegation over the states outside of what is constitutional. This is the problem and what divides so many people. Hope that makes sense.

[deva]

careful what you wish for -- in the US, such a requirement might not play out the way you expect.

well the US is a different thing, to be honest: One president, picked "democratically" from an amazing pool of... two people... to run what is clearly a hopelessly divided country is not even close to what can be called a functional democracy, if you ask me.

And I do believe that the "elite" or so-called >103 iq crowd is generally left-biased.

I find it easier to believe that universities attract *intelligent* people rather than believing that they attract *leftist sympathisers* etc.

Now, as an aside, I may be totally out of my element here, but *what the FUCK is wrong with being socialist?* I'm hoping some americans can shed some light on this.

Universities (in some measure) attract people that do not fit in the corporate world and its rat race...

Nothing is wrong with being socialist. Big business here has done an amazing PR job convincing working people that the tools at their disposal to prevent the powerful from preying on them are bad and to be avoided. Many workplace laws that benefit people would not exist if not for socialists. 40 hour work week, overtime pay, worker safety laws, employee healthcare, etc etc etc...

One of the biggest con jobs in history, which can be perpetrated because we do not know our history.

[Machinate]

Nothing is wrong with being socialist. Big business here has done an amazing PR job convincing working people that the tools at their disposal to prevent the powerful from preying on them are bad and to be avoided. Many workplace laws that benefit people would not exist if not for socialists. 40 hour work week, overtime pay, worker safety laws, employee healthcare, etc etc etc...

One of the biggest con jobs in history, which can be perpetrated because we do not know our history.

yeah, our brains were jam-packed with stories about communal farms, the first dairy coops, womens lib and so on. The "social democratic" parties in europe... guess what? They're largely considered centrist. I personally vote quite a bit to the left of the soc.dems...!

[Pitch Black]

Republican Cos-play spotted today in Washington State...

[mikemc]

I wish we could send all of these people to a deserted island. There combined IQ is probably 3.

England tried that already.

The result was forge

[forge]

I wish we could send all of these people to a deserted island. There combined IQ is probably 3.

England tried that already.

The result was forge

wakka wakka wakka