When did America become a nation of cowardice?

[Sorrow]

All the crap about oil and pollution, it's really just more to worry about.

It's not like global warming will affect you in your lifetime.

but at least he is being creative, and not worrying about it.

but all I know is that there are scientists trying to figure it out.

I know I've picked the best parts sorry, but lol, you're saying that because it "presumably" doesn't affect us in our lifetime we should just stop worrying...?

[Athlete{UK}]

Pollution isn't an arguable thing and it will and is effect(ing) us in our life time. Even if it didn't nubs standpoint is so short sighted it makes me cringe.

Global warming is a different thing. Nothing has conclusively linked it to pollution however there is a strong case for a link.

I don't think pollution is having that much of an impact on global warming and certainly didn't start it.

For those of you who I haven't told a million times before. We're still in an ice age and as such we're still coming out of it. (we're warming up.) If you look at cycles through millions of mellenia you see the same stuff happening. But this is besides the point.

I've read through a lot of the responses here and see two problems.

Most of the Americans are having the large ego which comes with being the most powerful nation in the world bashed to fuckery.

Most of the rest of you are being hypocrits.

The problems I see with America isn't so much it's America. It's that they're the main player on the world stage at the moment and as such is a focal point for the inadiquacies of modern capitalist culture (no i'm not going for a capitalist vs communist argument here that has nothing to do with what i'm saying.)

The problems with having a culture and goverment built up around a set of idea which advertantly or inadvertantly give the rich more power then the poor are more obvious in America because of 2 reasons.

1-America has more power and money so the problems are generally larger then most other countries. Same thing happened to the UK with its empire while Germany and France had the same problems with theirs they were tiny in comparison just as their empires were.

2-We're all watching America because we love to see them slip up. It's the same reason people read things like Heat and Vogue magazine to see which celebs have disgraced themselves by shitting themselves in a nightclub. It brings the (percieved) "all mighty" powerful ones down to our level. The same thing happens with America on a global scale.

Now this isn't a cue for the Yanks to say "yeah you whiney Euros can't say anything." Because the problems outlined in their posts still stand absoloutly it just needs to be understood that these problems are (mostly) none exclusive to the USA.

A problem you all seem to suffer from though is you feel you're word is law and everyone else is trying to push their word as law. I've encountered this a few times and its generally why I dislike having dicussions of this kind on the internet. It's like talking to a Brick wall with a lot of you completely closed off to anything.

This is serious discussion not serious arguments.

Now I have my own views on governments being essentially self serving. Developed capitalist systems being run more and more by corporations and business men(no i'm not a commie) and my views on the Bush administration in terrms of people and policies.

I'm not going to post them though because whilst I felt this slight derailment was needed it's gone on for a while and I don't want to extend it with more things which are only vaugly related to the topic.

That and like I said I dislike having indepth political discussion on the internet because they're boring and so one way (mostly.) You can think i'm backing out if you want. You're all just a bunch of words on the internet to me .

[Sacul15]

Well, in real truth, a lot of Americans have no damn idea what is going on in the world. They get affected by all the shit happening and that's why they feel victimized. I, being an American, don't really even know what to feel. All the crap about oil and pollution, it's really just more to worry about.

I agree with you in that most Americans don't understand the world, but I also think that it would be reasonable to say that people in most other countries are the same way. If you are a teenager, which I am and I assume you are too, then you are either too concerned about other things in your life like school and friends or you just don't care what's happening on the other side of the world because it doesn't concern you. If you are an adult, then it does concern you, but you are either focusing on paying for college or trying to pay your mortgage, taxes, etc, and you simply don't have the time to worry about it.

[Dead-Inside]

However that is false.

[nub]

I meant global warming.


Yes, I haven't made my way through High school yet. And I am sure that once I am out on my own, I'll have to worry about everything then. Even though I may have a brother in Iraq, I don't worry about it because I know he isn't going to die or something. I doubt anything will happen to him at all. He should be back by October this year..so they say, but usually the presumed deadline is always extended. Anyway, I have no worries about him. He can take care of himself.

Other than that, if I said that pollution was not affecting us, I didn't mean to say that. I meant to say that about global warming. I'm not sure how true that is though, as I said earlier, it's what I think.

To me, I think this thread should be locked or something because this topic is always over-sensitive, and usually leads to arguments; ultimately trashing the thread and making it useless.

[Athlete{UK}]

It stays open for now because there is no point in the serious discussion forum if we deem them to be too sensitive.

If however we degenerate into flame like so many other have it'l be locked.

Back on the topic now everyone.

[dragonfliet]

The problems I see with America isn't so much it's America. It's that they're the main player on the world stage at the moment and as such is a focal point for the inadiquacies of modern capitalist culture (no i'm not going for a capitalist vs communist argument here that has nothing to do with what i'm saying.)

Indeed. There were lots of other good points, but I thought this most succinctly sums up a lot of your argument very well, plus it's a great quotable.

~Jason

[YokaI]

My main issue is the fact that a war against "terrorism" is supported by making the public fear of the consequences of not supporting the war, in which the U.S. Government is fighting terrorism by using terrorist tactics, more or less. This article is starting that if we become afraid of terrorist acts, we are limiting our freedom just like they want us to. Meaning, more or less they have done what they wanted to do, limit our freedom with their violence.

This forum is more or less about how the us is taking terrorist acts and how it is either effecting us positively or negatively.

[-[Getty]-]

Obviously Getty missed the point of trying to raise support for a cause as a valid option, instead of say "taking action" by randomly shooting people at a university.

So your saying I support the psycho responsible for the Virginia Tech shooting? If so, you are quite ignorant.

No, but taking action is a VERY fucking loose term.

The thing is, that really didn't have anything to do with my original post. That shooting, and most other school shootings, have NOTHING to do with political believes or the hate for our country/government. Most likely it was because they were having psychological/social issues.

[Dead-Inside]

So rather than specifying what "taking action" is supposed to mean, suggest or imply, you go on ramping about what I insinuated?

That really helps me a lot, thanks.

[-[Getty]-]

I had no intention of helping you. But any semi intelligent person could come to realization that when I say take action I obviously don't mean go shoot a bunch of people for some social problems you have or anything even remotely close to that. There are so many other things you could do about it other than complain in an online blog that I intentionally left it vague because I didn't really think it necessary to go into more detail about it.

Global warming is a different thing. Nothing has conclusively linked it to pollution however there is a strong case for a link.

I don't think pollution is having that much of an impact on global warming and certainly didn't start it.

For those of you who I haven't told a million times before. We're still in an ice age and as such we're still coming out of it. (we're warming up.) If you look at cycles through millions of mellenia you see the same stuff happening. But this is besides the point.

I agree 100% with you. People don't seem to realize that the planet goes through natural warming and cooling trends over many many many years and although pollution is a serious problem, it cannot be directly linked to the so-called "global warming."

[Mr. Happy]

I agree there partially, but still, if global warming isn't affected by pollution, then what is happening to all the infared radiation that is being trapped by our atmosphere? You can't argue the fact that the refraction index of many chemicals we dump into the air sends infared radiation back towards earth.

Anyway, show me an atmospherologist that disagrees with the principles and I'll show you a doctor whom says smoking is beneficial.