10 Repulsive Things About Life in America 2006

[Lilith]

Now I know I will be criticized for negativity, so I want to assure you I am more than willing to participate in '10 Wonderful Things About Life in America 2006' if someone would like to start that thread.

Off the top of my head in no particular order:

1. Rap Music
2. Religious Right
3. Many Aspects of Pop Culture
4. Political Correctness
5. Tattoos
6. Sports figures as heroes
7. Illegal immigration (NOT legal immigration)
8. Youth search for fame above all
9. Dick Cheney
10. George W. Bush

[Brendan]

About half the points are American, the rest pretty much everywhere. But it's funny to see a fundamentalist lefty declare their hatred for political correctness.

[Lilith]

"But it's funny to see a fundamentalist lefty declare their hatred for political correctness"

I'm hardly a fundamentalist lefty - I consider myself a moderate.
Of course on this Board - with so many right wingers - anyone moderate would be classified as a left winger.

[paulb]

Its only a list of 1.
the fluffiness of the democratic mind.
Addicted to projecting its ignorance upon the republican party..

[Brendan]

I consider myself a moderate.

Keep the howlers coming Lilith! I haven't laughed so much in weeks!

[Lilith]

If I can make someone, anyone, even you - just one person- laugh in a given day, I consider that day a success.
You made my day!

[Haydnseek]

1. Streets without sidewalks
2. Strip malls and urban and suburban sprawl in general
3. Ugly freeways and overpasses going into cities
4. Poorly maintained infrastructure (roads, sidewalks, bridges, etc..)
5. Lack of genuine separate bicycle paths
6. Telephone and power lines on poles instead of buried underground
7. Badly tapped beer
8. Partisanship in the mainstream media
9. The US Senate
10. Adults who dress like Chucky from the Rugrats

[jbuck919]

The religious right and political correctness are the only peculiarly American things on your list, and a case can be made tha PC is a positive force that keeps us from countless limiting stupidities based on irrational stereotypes. Remember, many if not most Americans still harbor deep prejudices which they assume they can share with some kind of inner crowd rather than weed out for the vicious falsehoods that they are. This is particularly exemplified by single retired women living in Utah with right-wing politics who run message boards (just checking to see if she's reading). Anyway, they don't have PC in much of the world, which is why Germans don't have a problem characterizing Americans as bad drivers or, to take a slightly more extreme example, terrorists are interested in destroying western civilization.

If you want to balance your list, the US is way ahead in banning smoking in all public places. That's not to be coughed, er sneezed at.

[Brendan]

PC is hardly American, originating largely in the works of Marx (particularly The Communist Manifesto. To this day I ask lefties if they agree with this or that opinion and quote the Manifesto. Often they are very enthusiastic about the politics until I reveal the source. I've never had one know where I was quoting from) who was quite European.

The popularizing of PC when the American Academy decided to adopt French post-modernist philosophies the French themsleves considered dubious may seem peculiarly American, but the work of Heidegger, Focault and Derrida etc was all in Europe. Australia adopted the same silliness post-sixties as well, and PC is far more entrenched here than America, which has a Bill of Rights that somewhat protects the populace from government interference.

Rap music, however, is truly American. Nothing weirder or more pathetic than a middle-class white Aussie surburban lad pretending he's a gangsta from the 'hood.

[Corlyss_D]

Remember, many if not most Americans still harbor deep prejudices which they assume they can share with some kind of inner crowd rather than weed out for the vicious falsehoods that they are.

Spoken like someone whose deep prejudices are not in power any more.

[jbuck919]

Sorry, Brendan, you're not going to get PC out of high European philosophy, which may have meant something to America in the 18th century but is now here widely and I think correctly considered a stupendous irrelevance. PC comes from the legacy of slavery. How charming that other countries have their own boutique versions.

Rap music, however, is truly American. Nothing weirder or more pathetic than a middle-class white Aussie surburban lad pretending he's a gangsta from the 'hood.

It may have started here, but every other country was free to reject this pox on pop culture, though not a single one has. Like AIDS, which also originated in the US, it is now yours, mine, and ours.

[Brendan]

Well, if you wish to invent your own fantasy world, so be it. Read the Manifesto sometime: it is a pure definiton of modern PC, and most acaedemic work and sources for this stuff derive from the sources I mentioned plus others. Check Higher Superstion by Leavitt and Grosss, Against Relativism, A House Built on Sand by Keortge, Sokal's book about his famous hoax and a dozen other academic works against PC.

Sorry, but the evidence is against you as far as I can tell and have read extensively. Provide alternative sources that I can check if you wish to make a counter-point, please.

[jbuck919]

Remember, many if not most Americans still harbor deep prejudices which they assume they can share with some kind of inner crowd rather than weed out for the vicious falsehoods that they are.

Spoken like someone whose deep prejudices are not in power any more.

You know perfectly well that I was kidding you and that I mean other kinds of deep-seated prejudices to which political correctness was a, well, correction (I won't say over-reaction because I'm not convinced of that). I didn't mean political opinions, but uninformed bias, prejudice, and bigotry, evil forces in our history to which PC has been if anything a tonic restoring us to health. By the way, did you once have red hair?

[jbuck919]

Well, if you wish to invent your own fantasy world, so be it. Read the Manifesto sometime: it is a pure definiton of modern PC, and most acaedemic work and sources for this stuff derive from the sources I mentioned plus others. Check Higher Superstion by Leavitt and Grosss, Against Relativism, A House Built on Sand by Keortge, Sokal's book about his famous hoax and a dozen other academic works against PC.

Sorry, but the evidence is against you as far as I can tell and have read extensively. Provide alternative sources that I can check if you wish to make a counter-point, please.

I do not feel any particular impulse to refute through alternative citations someone who thinks any contemporary movement of the western world has its origins in the works of Marx.

[Brendan]

I do not think "any modern movement" has its origins in Marx, but I do think so for PC, directly from reading the academic sources cited plus many others. (Remembered the Sokal book title: Fashionable Nonsense.)

That you have no research for your opinion and cannot cite sources is not a plus for you or your lack of argument.

[Fugu]

"But it's funny to see a fundamentalist lefty declare their hatred for political correctness"

I'm hardly a fundamentalist lefty - I consider myself a moderate.
Of course on this Board - with so many right wingers - anyone moderate would be classified as a left winger.

You got that right Lilith.

[jbuck919]

I do not think "any modern movement" has its origins in Marx, but I do think so for PC, directly from reading the academic sources cited plus many others. (Remembered the Sokal book title: Fashionable Nonsense.)

That you have no research for your opinion and cannot cite sources is not a plus for you or your lack of argument.

Do you actually intend to make this an argument based on alleged original sources? Believe it or not, I actually read the Communist Manifesto in a mad moment in high school. Do I remember anything except "Workers of the world, unite"? Of course not. Should I care? Of course not. What possible relationship could the disjecta membra of a world of thought long relegated to (forgive me for whom I am quoting) the ash heap of history have to do with anything any moder person would care to discuss?

[Brendan]

If you have nothing to say as you are clueless about the matter, why say it with such venom? If you haven't read the Manifesto since high school and cannot remember it, then your opinion about it and its influence is less than relevant.

Just Google "Political Correctness Marx" and watch the thousands of sites appear. Some even claim it was British propaganda in WWII that started it all off: http://www.students.org.au/political/correctness/.

[jbuck919]

I do not think "any modern movement" has its origins in Marx, but I do think so for PC, directly from reading the academic sources cited plus many others. (Remembered the Sokal book title: Fashionable Nonsense.)

That you have no research for your opinion and cannot cite sources is not a plus for you or your lack of argument.

I do not need to cite sources for something that is on the surface of it absurd. Political correctness is scarcely ten years old as a movement; in that ten years and much before nothing of more than purely academic interest is owing in any way to Marx. It is as inconceivable that PC owes anything to that far-gone alleged thinker, and I don't care what umpteen academics trying to make their careers say, as that the awareness that the Earth orbits the sun is owing to Aristotle.

[Brendan]

That you refuse to do research on the subject shows your ignorance and lack of curiosity, not how absurd the well-documented and researched premise is.

PC and Marx go way back. Just Google-search and see: http://www.freecongress.org/PC_Essays/B ... er_one.pdf

"But what exactly is “Political Correctness?” Marxists have used the term for at least 80 years, as a broad synonym for “the General Line of the Party.”"

As you can see, "political correctness" is in fact a term invented by Marxists for Marxism.

[Corlyss_D]

Political correctness is scarcely ten years old as a movement;

Hardly. If you look at a collection of books on Amazon with Political Correctness in the title, many date from the early 90s, so the term to describe the behavior has been around for a period before that.

It is as inconceivable that PC owes anything to that far-gone alleged thinker,

You know when you make such flat statements they get you into trouble. I think it was originally a sarcastic reference to the thought control in the Soviet Union, whose governing philosophy owed something to Marx.

[Brendan]

Actually, the original definition of Political Correctness was: "The General Line of the [communist] Party".

[jbuck919]

That you refuse to do research on the subject shows your ignorance and lack of curiosity, not how absurd the well-documented and researched premise is.

PC and Marx go way back. Just Google-search and see: http://www.freecongress.org/PC_Essays/B ... er_one.pdf

What has happened to you? In our last two exchanges I have found myself most unpleasantly in a debate of false premises and misunderstood repartee. I have always thought of you as an astute observer of, well, everything, within the limits of normal disagreement and thoughtful discourse.

"PC and Marx go way back" supported by your link is the statement of someone who is not, frankly, quite in his right mind. No sensible modern thinker would in his wildest imagination make that connection, which it would be polite to call dubious. I don't know how we got here, but I regret it.

[jbuck919]

We seem to be in two worlds here. If PC means think like the party, I could care less. PC as you're going to get in trouble if you use the word "cripple" and want to hold office is another matter, and more what I thought we were talking about.

[Brendan]

That you can't face documented facts and researched history will always cause an issue. Your cheap insults without apology have also not gone unnoticed.

[jbuck919]

Political correctness is scarcely ten years old as a movement;

Hardly. If you look at a collection of books on Amazon with Political Correctness in the title, many date from the early 90s, so the term to describe the behavior has been around for a period before that.

So I was off by five years. Sue me.

It is as inconceivable that PC owes anything to that far-gone alleged thinker,

You know when you make such flat statements they get you into trouble. I think it was originally a sarcastic reference to the thought control in the Soviet Union, whose governing philosophy owed something to Marx.

I do not give a fording fart if flat statements get me into trouble. The modern concept of PC has nothing to do with totalitarian-tending thinking (it has rather to do with a rather liberating concept, which is ironic when you think how many times it has been the other way around), and I think Brendan needs to loosen up unless it just happens unbneknownst to me that Australia is in danger of a totalitarian takeover.

[Fugu]

It does surprise me that Brendan contributes anything about America seeing he's not American and has probably never been here.

[Corlyss_D]

It does surprise me that Brendan contributes anything about America seeing he's not American and has probably never been here.

So what's your excuse?

[Brendan]

I started school in America when we lived there, and was beaten up about once a week for refusing to pledge allegiance to your flag. Nonetheless, I respect the nation and admire its people, and have visited many times since living there, and have many American friends.

From The Origins of Political Correctness: http://www.academia.org/lectures/lind1.html.

"If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious."

[jbuck919]

I started school in America when we lived there, and was beaten up about once a week for refusing to pledge allegiance to your flag. Nonetheless, I respect the nation and admire its people, and have visited many times since living there, and have many American friends.

From The Origins of Political Correctness: http://www.academia.org/lectures/lind1.html.

"If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious."

As I was trying to imply, as it were, until Corlyss well, sorry, dear, butted in, there is nothing historic about this. I really did not want to make a point here. It was just forced upon me.

[Brendan]

If you cannot comprehend the well-documented connections between Marxism and PC there really is nothing to discuss. The history is there, whether you like it or not.

From The Historical Roots of Political Correctness, a description of PC as a "system of beliefs, attitudes and values that has become known as “political correctness.” It seeks to impose a uniformity in thought and behaviour among all Americans and is therefore totalitarian in nature. It has its roots in the ideology of Marxism, which requires a radical inversion of the prevailing traditional culture by cultural Marxism in order to achieve a social revolution."

Link: http://scot.altermedia.info/general/the ... htmlprint/

[Fugu]

There is also a principle called religious totalitarianism whose roots are based on Christian fundamentalism and that's a basic principle of the religious right in America.

[Fugu]

It does surprise me that Brendan contributes anything about America seeing he's not American and has probably never been here.

So what's your excuse?

Unfortunately, for most of us your excuse is you own this board. We're forced to put up with you.

[Auntie Lynn]

10 Worst Things - PARKING X 10

[Ted]

I have reviewed this thread as is my wont, aye my god-given duty—I am now prepared to pass judgment:
John-I understand where you’re coming from(And I don’t mean Deutschland)
On the other hand, Brendan has always been a rather disciplined debater
However, in this case….Brendan—You need to throw a Shrimp on the Barbie
Cheers
t

[paulb]

How do you guys feel about the growing epidemic of jealousy and envy?
Throw some hate into the deal if you wish.

[paulb]

The latest thing I despise about america is that that force you to take off your shoes at airport's for a possible bomb you might have in your shoe.

UNREAL! Unreally stupid.

Not a day goes by now I witness the crumblimg of this world.
I use to read the book of revelation back in 1980- and couldn;'t figure out the time scale of those events.
Now the whole apocalypse is unfolding right before me. UNREAL!