U.S. Hegemony on the Decline

@Bauber

Would you put complainers into two categories?

I think there are complainers who who rail against America because they think, like several politicians and celebs have stated, “America was never great,” although they as boomers experienced a time of prosperity history never saw before.

Then there are those who, like myself, complain about what is being done and actually happening to what I think was a once-great nation and could’ve continued to be great. There are people destroying it, and some fall into the first category.

Like you, I don’t plan on leaving. I believe it is possible to love what your country was, the accomplishments of amazing people who once inhabited it, and what it stood for and hope to see that once again. It’s also possible to love one’s country and hate his government.

What do you think, Bauber?

Inb4 anyone says “You’re romanticizing the past; things were never perfect.” I know this.

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Not @Bauber, but I’d say most all just fall into one category of lacking perspective.

I suppose what I am thinking by “complainer” is not someone who has differing opinions about politics, or where the US is heading, but someone who has a very low opinion of the US, thinks it is a shitty country type of thing.

Those are the sort that would be mad driving a Lambo once their neighbor got a Bugatti. They lack perspective. They compare the US to only a few select countries while ignoring the vast majority of other countries. They are capable of obtaining a top 1% lifestyle, but are upset they can’t be 0.01%.

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Hmm. I am in the second category. The US has degenerated in several areas and I have frames of reference for that, a perspective.

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I’d put you here:

So not really a “complainer”, or at least I wouldn’t label you as one. I as well would pick a different direction to go in. However, I think you and I also are in the same boat in regarding the US as one of the better places to be in this world?

This is a tricky one for me. I think of the past as probably different than it was. It is tough to understand what things were really like. We also see the most extreme positions amplified the most with the internet, 24 hour news, etc. That makes what I think of a time like the 50s seem a lot different than now. If we subtract the extreme views we see amplified, and adjust our rose tinted glasses of the past, it may not be that different? IDK really.

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Ok, I get it now.

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I’m one of those who doesn’t have rose-tinted glasses, as said by my inb4 statement.

I don’t even have rose-tinted glasses for the entire world. The world is a hostile and dangerous place, yet it is also a beautiful place.

There are actually frames of reference that have nothing to do with people’s views or the 24-7 news cycle. One can even just use violent crime and the state of our cities and schools as frames of reference. There are others. I really don’t know why people dismiss this. I’m not saying you are as you’ve left room for speculation as indicated by your IDK statement, but I’ve routinely noticed this.

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Unless you have power and money it is a shitty country for a lot of people. Being ruled by puppet politicians for the benefit of the oligarchy is shitty.

Except it is YOU that agrees with the mainstream orthodoxy.

Enlighten me. Which questions haven’t I given an answer to?

One can educate themselves no matter where the are.

Wow, what an ignorant statement.

No of course not. Tell me, what percentage of blacks make up the lower class or poor?

A lot of them are living poverty-stricken lives.

Just how much would those slave owners have if not for free labor? Not to mention the physical abuse they endured.

So others who have traveled to a part of the planet that you haven’t don’t have valid viewpoints of that particular area?

So what gives you this thinking?

And what would this prove?

So how would one eat and have shelter? Did I have something to do with establishing our crumbling economic system?

And what does this have to do w/ anything?

Raise consciousness. Understand it so you have a more educated view and people will take you more serious and give them something to contemplate that they’ve never thought about before, except the sophomoric argument that since they haven’t done the job their ancestors did when they were slaves why should any compensation be given?

I’d probably add one category.

The castoli category.

Otherwise I agree. I fall into the second as well, but I still think it is better than anywhere else.

And I’ve been about everywhere.

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By moving and living in a system you love so much…try it first, then come back and tell us how you did

Your reply here makes no sense.

My statement means if you have traveled somewhere and experienced it and think it’s a better fit for you based on first hand knowledge - I understand that decision.

Reading comprehension 101.

But sitting in your bubble, like you, never having traveled anywhere while making judgements about how other places are so much better is laughable and ignorant.

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Keep telling yourself you have the secret knowledge. Whatever makes you happy dude.

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