h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lentilla, you are indeed responsible for bombing Cambodia. Now, as an American it’s quite likely that your intellectual equipment may not be up to the task, but please try to follow this.

It’s a matter of history that the bombing of Cambodia was a gross act of war criminality committed by a power-mad US administration, destabilising Cambodia and probably directly leading to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and millions of deaths.

It’s also a matter of historical fact that the US president responsible is Richard Nixon, an acknowledged criminal and perhaps second only to George W Bush in his capacity for evil.

It’s also a matter of history that Nixon was a two-term president. He was actually re-elected in 1972.

That’s the crux of the matter and one of the major factors that allows megalomaniac US leaders to do the damage they do. The majority of Americans are too bogged down in blind, stupid patriotism and are simply unwilling to believe their country can do wrong beyond a certain superficial level. It’s the worst kind of jingoism and it has frightening implications for the future. America had no excuse for not knowing what kind of a man Nixon was, other than the unwillingness to see. And sadly thirty years later, nothing has changed in that respect.

You typify this state of denial as much as anyone else.

So, yes, it’s pointless making any distinction between you and the generation before you, who allowed (and therefore tacitly approved) the bombing of Cambodia.

ES

I think I'll have to call you Susan.
On the Saddam/Bush thread you've recently proved you're capable of civilised discourse even with Dave at least for short periods. Why all the bile directed at Lentilla, who from her posts seems critical of Bush, and why blame her for the misdeeds of all U.S. governments, even ones she didn't vote for or support.

Read my post above, Blackberry, I explained everything you just asked me.

Perhaps you don't read the posts at all. Are you a skimmer?

Actually, there is a big difference between spreading the Vietnam War into cambodia and what's just happened in Iraq. The bombing of Cambodia started off as a secret, that is the Americans back home knew nothing about it. Bush at least gave us all pleanty of warning that he wanted to get the man who tried to kill his daddy, oh and all the oil aswell.


Also, If you're going to blame all Americans, despite the fact that Bush, chaney, Ass-croft et al have torn up the bill of rights making critisising the government as risky as it was under McCarthy and Stalin, then why not blame the generation from the 1940's for the mustard gassing of brittish and other allied troops in italy, when an american ship carrying the illegal weapon was hit.

Personally I like to point out that America sold weapons to Napoleon during the Napoleonic War*, Stalin during WWII and Sadam during the Iran/Iraq war and that they suply Isreal with a lot of the weapons used against the Palestinians. However this doesn't mean every American is an evil money grabbing b@st@rd, just the ones in charge.

"Bush at least gave us all pleanty of warning that he wanted to get the man who tried to kill his daddy, oh and all the oil aswell."

Only because he's so arrogant and had so much faith in the gullibility of the public, that he didn't consider it necessary to do it in a clandestine way.

"If you're going to blame all Americans, despite the fact that Bush, chaney, Ass-croft et al have torn up the bill of rights..."

What a cop out. A threadbare excuse if ever there was one.

"However this doesn't mean every American is an evil money grabbing b@st@rd, just the ones in charge."

I return to my point that if corruption in public office is not able to be identified and prosecuted, then American democracy is inferior to most others. If the public choose to do nothing, they are complicit.

"What a cop out. A threadbare excuse if ever there was one."

No, there aren't that many people who are brave enough to stand up to a government. Espaecially when that government can find out what you've said to your docotor, including your medical history, what you've bought, when and from where, who you phone and what you say to them, who you've written to and what you wrote what books you've read and borrowed from the library all of which they can stop people from notifying you about under threat of prossecution and who can come into your house and search it without a warrent and without you knowing about it. A government you can prevent people from flying because of the political party they belong to, or who can slap you in jail without charge and perform sleep deprivation techniques on you, ie hourly checks on you, constant lighting etc, without the option of a fair trial. A Government who will send agents into a school to cease a student's art project.

Opposing governments like that isn't just the job of the people of that nation, you wouldn't blame the russians for Stalin or the Iraqis for Saddam, it is also the job of every free nation on earth. The American people were lied to by their government, and the american media, who now try to keep them scared in order to keep power. I could liken this to a european government who also used the power of fear to control the populace and gain and keep as much power as possable.

Yeah sure, now that Americans do, or at least should, know the truth about Bush then they should be able to do something about it, either by getting him into court, or by getting rid of him in the next election. If they don't then I agree that the idea of America as a democracy is flawed.

Dave said "And as that new study shows, having a majority of the population overweight is NOT a specifically american problem."

And I agree with him.

In fact, the UK's biggest strain on the healthcare system stems from people being fat. 20-25% of all English people are classed as overweight or obese.

In America, it's not much more: something like 25-30% - still the largest problem, but by no means the only.

HOWEVER. It seems to be something to do with the growth of cultures. I won't say "Americanisation", because it feels unfair to accuse America of infecting the world. Every country has an individual responsibility to it's citizens. Instead, I would say it's down to convienience culture, the growth of leisure time at home, and just plain laziness. We aren't doing what we should to stay healthy. And America, with it's culture, and it's terrible food (and having been involved in another thread on another board about this topic, I KNOW this now), is the one at the top of the list. I don't think it's an issue of them being the Great Satan.

Empty Sky, you really need to come back down to earth from that lovely delusional cloud you are sitting on.

You accuse Americans of blind patriotism...but you are just as bad. You accept that anything remotely right-wing is evil, and you won't dare to think different. Americans are fat, conformist losers...and nothing anyone can say will change your mind.

Are you racist too?

Sexist?

Do you oppose people making a success of their lives?

Do you oppose people living their lives the way they wish?

Why do you accuse others of what you perpetrate? That is: blindly obediant to your "alternative" (read as: unpragmatic and cliched), bigoted, arrogant and uneducated view?

I'm starting to get sick of reading the bile that's pouring out of your fingers onto the computer screen. If you are so right, why don't you do a little more to change the world to how you would like it to be?

Oh. You can't? You won't? You haven't got the time?

Sounds about right. So come down to the rest of this forum's level, listen to what people are saying, and CONSIDER that there is another way of looking at things. It's fun. Trust me. And people like you better.

ES

You haven't explained it to my satisfaction and a few other posters too. I've read yours and Lentillas posts then read them again to see if there was some point to what you were saying. I couldn't see any.

I don't accept the notion of collective guilt. People are responsible for their own actions, not those of others. Since Lentilla hasn't supported Bush I can't see why you despise her unless it is just because shes a U.S. citizen. I get annoyed when accused of anti-Americanism when I criticise the U.S. government but its because of people like you that opposition to U.S. policies can be dismissed as just anti-Americanism.

<>
Peanut butter cookies - that's just wrong on so many levels!
(Peanut brownies, with nice round roasted peanuts poking out of the chocolatey goodness of nice crumbly biscuit - that's lovely!)

no, peanut butter cookies are lovely. Marshmallow and Chocolate Spread pizza, with a sweet base, is wrong. However that didn't stop me from eating as much of one as I could before I started to feel just slightly nauseous .

"Empty Sky, you really need to come back down to earth from that lovely delusional cloud you are sitting on..."

Saturnine, that'a lot of meaningless nonsense and amounts to making a personal attack rather than addressing the issues.

How about making an effort to answer just ONE of the points I made? If you feel confident to do so.

ES

"Saturnine, that's a lot of meaningless nonsense and amounts to making a personal attack"

And of course you'd never dream of doing that

Certainly not. Everything I've said is accurate.

"Lentilla, you are indeed responsible for bombing Cambodia. Now, as an American it’s quite likely that your intellectual equipment may not be up to the task, but please try to follow this."

The above seems to me to be not only a personal attack* but also a racist one.






*of course I must be wrong as you never make personal attacks.

PS I do tend to feel kind of smug because, unlike most americans, I know why the Whitehouse is white

"I do tend to feel kind of smug because, unlike most americans, I know why the Whitehouse is white"

Hmmm, are you implying that most Americans are ill-educated? Sounds like a racist attack to me.

ES - I was making a personal attack, because you seem hell bent on making this thread all about personal attacks. I stand by what I said. I don't see the point of making contributions to this thread if no one is taking you seriously...eventually people will stop listening.

As for points...what points? All you have done is throw about what basically amounts to stereotyped abuse, which I find offensive because they are so obviously ignorant. Feel free to list your "points"...

I would also like to know how far you have travelled in this world, how much literature, art and music you have been exposed to, and just generally what life experience/knowledge you have to make these assumptions about a population of 260 million people.

No, I am, however, stating that most Americans don't know that when US forces tried to 'liberate' Canada from the evil British the combined Canadian and British forces defeated them and made it to Washington DC, where they burned the US capitol to the ground, and that the White house was painted white to hide the scorch marks. I will also state quite happily that most British people don't know of this marvelous victory either. I only found out by chance when I went to Canada, and by then looking it up in my, American, encyclopedia. I try very hard not to judge people by their ethnicity, because I'd have to conform to an untold number of steriotypes, some of which are contradictory, in order to not seem like the worlds biggest hipocrit. As I stated before, My cousins are American, my brother was conceived there, and they are none of them thick. However they did not know why the Whitehouse is white.

Also, it would not be a racist statement if I did say tha Americans, and by this I mean US citizens, are poorly educated. It would be an attack on the US education system and it's near terminal lack of funding, because unlike your post there was nothing in mine saying, or implying, that Americans are thick.

I knew that, about the Whitehouse. Very funny, I think. Still, it's a magnificient building because of that paint, so some might say Canada did them a favour.