Why is America so awesome?

[Symp4thy]

Practically everyone carries a gun - how on Earth is that safe?

Practically NO ONE carries a gun. Yes, many people OWN a gun, but that doesn't mean everyone is walking down the street carrying a gun. You have to have a license to carry a gun, and not all states even allow that. Anyone carrying a gun without a license is breaking the law.

 

[Spleeni]

Strongest country economically, not force, and even that is debatable. But I was absolutely dumbstruck when reports came out at the end of 2007 that the american economic problems were not going to affect the EU that much... I said it back then and I say it now, you dumb $@%&)&%%()%&%)$%)@!*)@*!@$)$)_!@'s !11fourminusthree!!1!

The economy of the world is too interlinked to point out a strongest power I think. If Japan falls, everybody falls, if Germany falls, ditto, if America falls, idem, etc...

But yeah, you're big and influential and everybody fears you like the schoolyard bully. To quote the Bard:
"'Tis excellent to have a giant's strength, but 'tis tyrannous to use it like a giant."
So yeah, go you!
(This last bit is meant sarcastic as well as literal and advisingly.)

It's true that the entire world is so dependant on one another, however I challenge you to find a another country that gives out as many resources to other countries; whether through trade, or donations. America is the most connected by far. Sure, China, Britain, and Russia are all powerful in one way or another, but America is powerful in just about every way.

Our economic troubles are a recession, not a depression. Imagine what would happen if it were.

*/fear mongering*

 

[matrix3509]

Wow, way to base your entire opinion of America off of what you see in the Olympics. I bet you haven't met a single real American before have you? Else you wouldn't be talking out of your ass.

I've been there (1 year) and liked it but there is no denial that the density of superficial people skyrockets in the Us and it's those people i talk about. If you want the more inteligent part of the population to represent your country they need to get very loud since every "less educated" US citicen seems to backstabs free speech by talking without thinking first.
It is true, that nearly 50% of Americans haven't voted Bush but the fact that he was elected is not just a monty pythons sketch but reality. It shows that it is not enough to have some smart people in the country but the avarage has to have some iq too if you want to be a democracy.

Edid: i wasn't thinking about the olympics at all but since you mentioned it, that might have been another example

Everything you just said could be applied to every other country in the world. Every country has its assholes who are ignorant and proud of it. And I can think of a few leaders of other country that are as or more stupid than Bush. Okay I get it, everyone hates Bush, way to scream the same note over and over again as if it has new meaning if you scream louder. Look at the candidates from both the 2000 and 2004 election. The fact that Bush was a better choice than both those guys says something. Yeah I know its our fault for having such shitty candidates, but we are trying, which is more than I can say for other countries, who can do nothing but complain at other countries for their own shortcomings, whereas we at least have enough competence to admit our flaws.

 

[hem dazon 90]

"Tiger Woods: Who the shit cares about golf."

wow. just wow you just failed at life. insulting the greatest sport ever in the history of mankind indeed

 

[the captain]

cuz we rock!!!
nuf said.

 

[SkinnySlim]

So wait, if the US has made so many bad mistakes, then how did we get set up in such a supreme position on the world stage? You mean to tell me that we have made mistake after mistake (according to most here), yet still remain as the only military-economic-cultural superpower? I mean, what the hell is wrong with the rest of you? If you have made so many great decisions, why the hell are you playing second fiddle to a bunch of apparent gun toting uneducated fat asses? Huh, guess maybe that would be the ultimate example of incompetent idiocy, if you can't even compete with the big dumb drooling guy waving the red white and blue flag. But please, ignore me, I'm just an evil republican american, from the midwest, and a gun owner to boot! Hell, I even drink budweiser and voted for Bush...twice!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

how did we get set up in such a supreme position on the world stage? *SNIP* why the hell are you playing second fiddle to a bunch of apparent gun toting uneducated fat asses?

My answer, although I think calling yourselves a bunch of uneducated fat asses is a bit unfair, don't be so hard on yourselves

I tend to avoid these threads like the plague, but I think I will sidestep the original question and say this:

IMHO the USA is so awesome (powerful & successful) because a huge area of land, full of natural resources and sparsely populated by disparate groups of hunter gatherers was settled by the 3 major European colonial powers. The settlers were then freed from the European obligation to engage in a mass slaughter of your neighbours every few decades because they talk a bit different by France and Britains propensity to engage in a mass slaughter of each other etc etc. Freed from this they decided to work together (genius! and it would only take Europe another 200 years and lots of mass slaughter to think of that) and proceeded to take the vast bountiful land and engage in a mass slaughter of the aforementioned hunter gatherers.

Then they watched in disbelief (or perhaps just weary resignation) as the European empires beat each other to death in a series of mass slaughters of biblical proportion, finally jumped in to stop Europe dissolving into a vast pile of burnt out wreckage and eternal mass slaughter (or let those bloody commies win ) and then found itself to be the only advanced nation on the planet that wasn't broke and half blown up.

Apologies for the punctuation and overuse of the phrase 'mass slaughter'.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

The creator of this topic is a genius (assuming he did this to get a badge)

 

[Moloch-De]

Everything you just said could be applied to every other country in the world. Every country has its assholes who are ignorant and proud of it. And I can think of a few leaders of other country that are as or more stupid than Bush. Okay I get it, everyone hates Bush, way to scream the same note over and over again as if it has new meaning if you scream louder. Look at the candidates from both the 2000 and 2004 election. The fact that Bush was a better choice than both those guys says something. Yeah I know its our fault for having such shitty candidates, but we are trying, which is more than I can say for other countries, who can do nothing but complain at other countries for their own shortcomings, whereas we at least have enough competence to admit our flaws.

No realy. The difference is that in other countrys the intelligent folks have about half (or more) of the stage to broadcast their opinion while in the USA the stupid folks are so loud you just can't hear the reasonable ones.
To be fair i mention i'm from germany, that way you can at least bash back...Sure we have "Bild", a newspaper that has more mistakes in it than truth and some of our politicians are not very brigth BUT they don't stage a giant show that has nothing to do with actual politics. When they wouldn't be afrait to lose their conservative votes the presidential cannidates in the Us would probably stage a yo-mama-fight on national television just to reach more first-voters...

Then they watched in disbelief (or perhaps just weary resignation) as the European empires beat each other to death in a series of mass slaughters of biblical proportion, finally jumped in to stop Europe dissolving into a vast pile of burnt out wreckage and eternal mass slaughter (or let those bloody commies win ) and then found itself to be the only advanced nation on the planet that wasn't broke and half blown up.

And now they have a military industy that is so vital to them that when they don't start a war now and than to throw all those bombs away the countrys economy would just burst...oh wait that still hapened in another way.

Anyway i criticised a few things but there is one that is above all:
On this entire planet there is not one single spot so filled with Hypocrits than the USA. You fight wars to fight terrorism but the countrys that realy finance terrorism won't get touched since they have money and trade with you.
You fought iraq because it was supposed to have weapons of mass destruction; if they had, no President would have had the guts to declare war since a stike with such a Weapon woud be such a desaster he wouldn't get reelected.
You fought a whole country (Afganistan) becouse of 9.11. what has that to do with a country? Just send in some secial forces to get the terrorist and leeave the county alone. Whenn somebody from NY flies into the Eu and steals somebodys wallet we don't start to bomb New York... that was a mehaphore but it shows about how stupid the excuses are that your politicians constantly feed everybody.
When they would just say "hey we get into all those countrys where people are surpressed and make it right" people maybe wouldn't like all the war but could accept it. Ohhh ho but that way you guys would have to liberate nations that don't feature great natural resources, wealth or strategic positions, dosn't sound like a good enough deal for democracy.

 

[matrix3509]

Everything you just said could be applied to every other country in the world. Every country has its assholes who are ignorant and proud of it. And I can think of a few leaders of other country that are as or more stupid than Bush. Okay I get it, everyone hates Bush, way to scream the same note over and over again as if it has new meaning if you scream louder. Look at the candidates from both the 2000 and 2004 election. The fact that Bush was a better choice than both those guys says something. Yeah I know its our fault for having such shitty candidates, but we are trying, which is more than I can say for other countries, who can do nothing but complain at other countries for their own shortcomings, whereas we at least have enough competence to admit our flaws.

No realy. The difference is that in other countrys the intelligent folks have about half (or more) of the stage to broadcast their opinion while in the USA the stupid folks are so loud you just can't hear the reasonable ones.
To be fair i mention i'm from germany, that way you can at least bash back...Sure we have "Bild", a newspaper that has more mistakes in it than truth and some of our politicians are not very brigth BUT they don't stage a giant show that has nothing to do with actual politics. When they wouldn't be afrait to lose their conservative votes the presidential cannidates in the Us would probably stage a yo-mama-fight on national television just to reach more first-voters...

Then they watched in disbelief (or perhaps just weary resignation) as the European empires beat each other to death in a series of mass slaughters of biblical proportion, finally jumped in to stop Europe dissolving into a vast pile of burnt out wreckage and eternal mass slaughter (or let those bloody commies win ) and then found itself to be the only advanced nation on the planet that wasn't broke and half blown up.

And now they have a military industy that is so vital to them that when they don't start a war now and than to throw all those bombs away the countrys economy would just burst...oh wait that still hapened in another way.

Anyway i criticised a few things but there is one that is above all:
On this entire planet there is not one single spot so filled with Hypocrits than the USA. You fight wars to fight terrorism but the countrys that realy finance terrorism won't get touched since they have money and trade with you.
You fought iraq because it was supposed to have weapons of mass destruction; if they had, no President would have had the guts to declare war since a stike with such a Weapon woud be such a desaster he wouldn't get reelected.
You fought a whole country (Afganistan) becouse of 9.11. what has that to do with a country? Just send in some secial forces to get the terrorist and leeave the county alone. Whenn somebody from NY flies into the Eu and steals somebodys wallet we don't start to bomb New York... that was a mehaphore but it shows about how stupid the excuses are that your politicians constantly feed everybody.
When they would just say "hey we get into all those countrys where people are surpressed and make it right" people maybe wouldn't like all the war but could accept it. Ohhh ho but that way you guys would have to liberate nations that don't feature great natural resources, wealth or strategic positions, dosn't sound like a good enough deal for democracy.

To be honest it sounds like you've been watching a bunch reality TV shows. The U.S. does not have more hypocrits than other nations. Just the fact you use that example about dealing with terrorists shows your lack of knowledge. Every western European country has been dealing with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait since oil was discovered and yes that includes Germany. Remember Saddam Hussein? The Sarin Gas he used on the Kurds came from Germany, Britain, France, China, and the U.S. so you are no less of hypocrits than our politicians are. I will give this to you though, the problem with alot of our more stupid citizens, is that they think they are smart, and they fall for our politician's double speak hook, lline, and sinker, every time. I have never believed anything a politician has said, because I know that all politicians, especially the ones that spend all their time away from the area they are supposed to represent, are lying, cheating, and stealing, bastards. The difference between this country and yours is that your politicians are kept in check better than ours. But that doesn't mean your country is better than mine, or vice versa. I'm just saying the entire world is a shit hole right now, and I can't wait till we move to Mars, if only so we can put this, "My nation's dick is bigger than your nation's" thread behind us, and shoot it into the sun.

 

[Moloch-De]

To be honest it sounds like you've been watching a bunch reality TV shows. The U.S. does not have more hypocrits than other nations. Just the fact you use that example about dealing with terrorists shows your lack of knowledge. Every western European country has been dealing with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait since oil was discovered and yes that includes Germany. Remember Saddam Hussein? The Sarin Gas he used on the Kurds came from Germany, Britain, France, China, and the U.S. so you are no less of hypocrits than our politicians are. I will give this to you though, the problem with alot of our more stupid citizens, is that they think they are smart, and they fall for our politician's double speak hook, lline, and sinker, every time. I have never believed anything a politician has said, because I know that all politicians, especially the ones that spend all their time away from the area they are supposed to represent, are lying, cheating, and stealing, bastards. The difference between this country and yours is that your politicians are kept in check better than ours. But that doesn't mean your country is better than mine, or vice versa. I'm just saying the entire world is a shit hole right now, and I can't wait till we move to Mars, if only so we can put this, "My nation's dick is bigger than your nation's" thread behind us, and shoot it into the sun.

Hehe but the thread is named "why America is awsome" ^^

The terrorism point was not about actually dealing with terror or to stop evil in the world. Germany dosn't do as much as it could to aid that effort BUT what i was talking about was that we and our politicians don't tell that we do. If the USA wants to fight their wars than the politicians should just be honest and don't tell false reasons.
Another example is Guantanamo Bay: It is a complete violation of human rights but most us citicens agree that it is nessesary; Then be straight and allow torturing in your country because there is no virginity left to save.
I guess of all bad habbits its just hypocrits the are the ones i can tollerate the least.

See you on the shuttle to mars

 

[Pietho]

A very good thread, my congratulations.

As an American whose actually traveled outside my countries borders, I don't understand the attitude of most of my fellows. I've been to France (twice), Tunisa, Morocco, Italy (three times), Sicily, Israel (Twice), Brazil, Cuba, UAE and Spain. I did this while in service with the US Navy, so I assumed I would have gotten a poorer reaction than a civilian tourist, but that was not my experience.

I came back from my travels and realized that most Americans have no clue what they are talking about when it comes to other countries.

I met Russian sailers and they didn't try to kill me or embroil me in espionage. Once they found out I liked vodka I was accepted readily.

I met Israeli soldiers who wanted nothing more than to help me when I was lost (Haifa still has the best pizza I've ever eaten, hands down.).

I've wandered through the streets of Napoli and wasn't harassed, mugged or arrested. The people were some of the most friendly and gracious I've ever met.

I spent two weeks in Sicily and spent most of it wandering through the small towns and eating at peoples houses. I believe that if there is a secret agency in Sicily (as Hollywood gangster movies would have us believe), it's centered around a fear that skinny people are actually starving because they were very insistent that I eat.

In the UAE I was treated with distant respect.

In Tunisa the locals ignored me.

In France they were pleasant, if somewhat stand-offish (I was young, but not stupid, I know the reputation of Americans overseas). By the way, I had my first pressed sandwich in Toulon and I've been eating them ever since.

I met some English soldiers during the Gulf War. They didn't refer to my country as "The Colonies", they didn't look down their nose at my manner of speaking, nor did they apologize for their own. They were very interested in the carton of Marlboros I had, and I really liked the bosun's whistle. It was a good trade.

In all my travels I did not witness any of the activities that my countrymen keep yelling about. No one spit on me, or tried to rob me, or kick me out of an establishment because I was an American. I was never arrested and held without bail, I wasn't protested against and I didn't even meet a law enforcement officer of any kind. I saw just as much prosperity, poverty and regular folks getting along with their lives as I see in the US.

The food was great, the people were... well people and the prices were reasonable. Given my experience I don't see the logic or even rationality in complaining about other countries or touting my own. Any fool with half a brain can just skim through the news reports of the last decade and see that the US is far from perfect (We put the "fun" in dysfunctional, as a shipmate of mine once said). But no country is, was, nor ever will be so.

Every time I hear someone complain about another country, its usually someone whose never been there. They don't know the people, the culture or the political system. They judge based on what the media tells them (a slanted view), and back that up with what their friends tell them (a slanted view, twisted and given second hand) and I can guarantee that not one of them has made a call to the country in question to get the official stance. Hey, they can even call the embassy if they can't figure out how to dial internationally.

I think that not knowing first hand harms us as a country, but not being willing to find out makes us both arrogant and rude.

All I really know is that I've only been spit on once while wearing a uniform; and that was an American member of Greenpeace when the National Guard (Where I joined after my Navy hitch)was called on by the governor of Washington State to ensure that the treaty between the US Government and the Makah Tribe was enforced; specifically so that the natives could hunt a whale.

 

[Pietho]

The creator of this topic is a genius (assuming he did this to get a badge)

... And even if he didn't

 

[elmaxx]

Not a US citizen, but i do come from an American country, America as a continent is awesome because of the diversity, south of the US border there is a whole continent filled with beauty, art, entertainment and tons of places to visit.

Now, the US, yeah it is awesome, lots of good and loving friends, but it lacks 2 things that you can find in every other American country:
1)Rum and tobacco at...
2)decent prices.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

My opinion isnt really valid(I have never been to America or met many Americans), but I think the reason the U.S gets this stereotype is because their idiots are so much more noticeable.I'm sure there are intelligent people living there, but they dont seem to get the spotlight often enough.True,America HAS made mistakes,but so has every other country,and thats the way life is.

 

[Nevins]

My opinion isnt really valid(I have never been to America or met many Americans), but I think the reason the U.S gets this stereotype is because their idiots are so much more noticeable.I'm sure there are intelligent people living there, but they dont seem to get the spotlight often enough.True,America HAS made mistakes,but so has every other country,and thats the way life is.

Thank you for one of the only sensible posts made in this thread.

 

[BGinsanity]

Well considering our fucked economy at the moment "best" really isnt isnt the term to be used.

Im an American and I absolutely love my country to death, do i think we are the best......no

I think that is more than a bit egotistical to say that but I believe its because its mainly because people here have incredible pride for their country, sometimes too much pride obviously.

So friends from other countries dont hate on us too much. Not ALL of us are complete assholes. There are plenty of decent people here.

 

[God's Clown]

America is awesome because we have females of all races. That's what my male part of me says anyways. Honestly, outside of that I got nothing. I'm a bad American it seems.