I will be 42 years old next month and voted once in my life. I don’t even remember which year it was and I only did so because my then-girlfriend/wife wanted to vote that night and dragged me along. I’ll likely never vote again.
From eighteen to 21 years old I was aloof to how the world works. So I thought it was inappropriate for me to vote. At 22 I developed an interest in the world and how it works and quickly realized mass democracy is a scam.
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I hate to break it to you all, but America is not an empire so why all of the comparisons to past empires? We are more like the Roman Republic than the Roman Empire.
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I’ll also add that a Soviet-style snitch/rat system would inherently be utterly abusive because people who like such a system would like to see people’s lives ruined and are often utterly hypocritical in their political correctness. There are even people on these forums who express how opposed they are to racism, discrimination of all sorts, and ethnocentrism, only to later show that they are indeed, racist, discriminative, and ethnocentric, even calling other countries “s— holes” and providing unrelenting criticism to a particular race and particular religious adherents.
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That same republic did morph into an empire, no? Internal rot leading to the conversion, then collapse after too many barbarians within and without the door.
I can see similarity of following a constitution, with representatives being stymied by an increasing power grab of the Federal government. The Executive branch has grabbed enough, that it is only waiting for an American Julius Caesar to pop onto the scene.
Seems like a replay in condensed timeframe.
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For some unknown reason I feel like there is still hope. I think there are plenty of good people around that will fight for a better society when push comes to shove.
I only have hope in that after a civil war and Balkanization there will be a long period of peace. When people cannot get along for whatever reasons, irrational or rational, and after decades of failure in trying to do so, then a divorce is needed. That divorce can be peaceful or violent. Yugoslavia had a violent divorce. Czechoslovakia didn’t.
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I’ve called out countries in this manner dozens of times on here. To note, if a country is steeped in mass poverty, sky high rates of violent crime/sexual assault and brazenly violates human rights I don’t believe referring to said country as a “shithole” is racist or ethnocentric.
Various middle eastern/Islamic countries practice female genital mutilation to deter women from cheating on future spouses as sexual interactions will no longer be pleasurable (on the contrary, it’ll be painful). At this point religious custom be damned, such a practice is barbaric and from my point of view cannot be justified; ESPECIALLY when the procedure is conducted when a woman is in her teens.
From my point of view when I make these distinctions regarding various societies it isn’t coming from a place of racial prejudice, it’s legitimate concern and what I perceive to be well founded criticism.
Why should I cater to or tolerate a religious/cultural custom that intrinsically and irreparably imposes suffering upon large swaths of people? Freedom of religion I advocate for, but I can’t advocate for “cultural practices” that involve taking the prospect of “choice” away.
I can’t get behind or tolerate child marriage either regardless of the context by which it is performed under. Discrimination would infer I harbour unjust prejudice on the basis of sex, race, gender, ethnicity etc. I believe discrimination is well founded if a vested culture or country is systematically corrupt or discriminatory in itself.
I’m not trying to be disingenuous nor am I implying you’d support these practices, rather I’m stating criticisms of various western and non western countries are frequently justified.
“She’s a witch”
“Alright, if you say so… Sentenced to death!”
Salem witch trials victim 102039291919
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We get it. you worship Marx.
Unfortunately its looking more like a Yugoslavian direction at the moment.
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An Australian civil war between opposing populations would be grisly… few guns = hand to hand combat (joking obviously, but could you imagine!)
Could you extrapolate? Sure, politicians don’t tend to have the peoples best interests at heart and corporate lobbying can influence political outcomes and whatnot. But in the end having the ability to vote between “person A with various policies and ulterior motives” vs “person B with different policies and more ulterior hidden motives” seems superior to “this one dude is in power for decades and can do whatever he wants, if you don’t like it… too bad”.
Hard to imagine an Aussie civil war. Despite the Anzac spirit we are too law abiding.
To a point. We listen to higher authority when referring to regulatory standards, but when it comes to degeneracy/hedonism a surprisingly large swath of Australian’s become quite mischievous after dark.
We also have a ‘small’ issue wth youth gangs, youth violence and antisocial behaviour (hooning, graffiti and the likes). I’d speculate it depends on the laws/rules we speak of as to how closely they’re adhered to.
Australia certainly has it’s problems, but they pale in comparison to many other developed and underdeveloped countries. For a country as strict as it is; you’d think more people would be “in line”… but alas, it doesn’t usually work out that way and now we have a huge, ever growing problem with mass incarceration as a result of how strict we tend to be.
To note, adolescents going around beating people up without provocation probably should be in juvie (depending on circumstance)… Incarceration ought to be reserved for those who represent a danger to society. I think someone who goes around looking for unprovoked fights or stabbings easily fits this category
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Pretty ironic considering that Australia as we know it started off as a penal colony 
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To be fair, the Roman Empire was way bigger than the United States. MapFight - Roman Empire (117AD) vs United States size comparison
And the United States doesn’t have military bases spread out even further. And the U.S. doesn’t have any influence in Canada or any other country.
Which lasted longer than the Republic.
So what you just posted shows you’re not a hypocrite. You’re saying something like, “I don’t like X country and its ways of doing things for XYZ reasons,” and that’s it.
Long after you and I are dead their impact on the course of human history will remain that’s for sure. One of my favorite areas of historical reading.
And as you mentioned soft power - I think they have perhaps perfected that practice through history about as much as it is capable of being refined (recent history and bungling aside). Simply off the top of my head I’m not sure if I can think of any other empire that had as many trade routes and political influence spheres NOT held strictly at the tip of the spear (or gun).
Not that they were short of those either.
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No they aren’t, but this PC bullshit will make them so. Self fulfilling prophecy. It’s been pushed by well meaning but stupid people. I don’t share 2 jar’s feeling that the motive is mendacious (at least not by the vast majority of these fringe crazy people), but outcome is the same.
If you never learn to deal with serious adversity you never become strong. That doesn’t mean being mistreated is right or should be encouraged in a Sparta style system. But it does mean that the only way to refine steel is through fire.
It does. It’s a money/power grab using the “for the children” smoke screen.
Yes on all levels
We tried that with the war on drugs, I really REALLY suggest you guys don’t go that same route lol.
We could always try executing suppliers.
Too draconian?