Will America ever become not bullshit again?

[Guaranteed]

I was thinking about this during my drive earlier, shortly after encountering crazy Freeper O'Reilly freak. Remember back when you actually had some faith in your country (I realize some here probably never did)? Alternatively, do you remember when things were at least BETTER?

I used to actually BELIEVE in my countrymen. I actually thought that, for the most part, the American people owned this country, that they would find the truth, and it would prevail, no matter what happened.

But I've been living in this Bush shithole for so long that it's hard to imagine anything else anymore.

Will this country ever return to the way things were? Will the media ever truly step up and do their jobs again?

Will you ever be able to respect your country and the vast majority of your fellow Americans again? Can you IMAGINE that ever happening again, after what our country has experienced over the past 4 or 5 years?

[TahitiNut]

1. It's entirely possible the US will become the most hated nation on earth.

The neocon/Strauss dream come true: the necessity for the MIC.

[SofaKingLiberal]

3. I think we might be already. n/t

[TahitiNut]

17. Thus far, people of the world regard the Bush Cabal distinct from ...

... Americans in general. That distinction, however, is diminishing as we fail to expel and prosecute these criminals. The continuing failure to impeach and bring these criminals to justice after the 2006 General Election will, I believe, eradicate any distinction between citizens of the U.S. and the malicious and predatory regime we permit to hold power.

Remember, it was difficult to find many ("good") German citizens who'd admit to being Nazis after WW2 ... but that didn't stop the allies from treating them all as enemies. Consider Dresden. :shrug:

[Deja Q]

18. The day that fascist inhumane China becomes more revered...

is the day each and every on e of us ought to truly become afraid.

And not necessarily for the "obvious" reason, whatever that may be.

[PatrioticLeftie]

2. There's too much pessimism

Have some faith!

[Ladyhawk]

4. During my life, I've lost faith in god and faith in my country.

After having learned about our nation's history, I think this is just an escalation of rich Americans treating the rest of the world like shit. It's just more obvious and they aren't trying to keep us happy anymore. The middle class is disappearing. What will come of this I do not know.

The United States of America is no better or worse than any other nation with a similar history. People are people. They do cruel things. They do kind things, but it does seem like those with a yearning for power tend to be cruel. :shrug:

I don't believe in heroes anymore.

I've learned some very hard lessons: question everything, trust no one and never put anyone up on a pedestal.

[NMDemDist2]

5. what LadyHawk said n/t

[Guaranteed]

9. My hope, my feeling, previously was that the education

that I got, the founding principles of our country that I was taught, were being taught to everyone. Freedom (the REAL kind, not just the word), justice, equal rights, taking care of the least of us, no first-strike aggression...

I had thought that everyone was being taught that we were the good guys, and that we should be proud only because of that, and that we had to act like it. I guess that was the naivete of a Northern California education.

I think something in our culture failed our children. There's way too much bullshit out there (and I guess there always has been), teaching people low, ignorant ideals. They don't understand what our country is supposed to be. Their minds are filled with animal garbage.

I remember (and I'm sure I've said this before), in the summer of 2002, when Bush was sabre-rattling about Iraq, telling my boss "He can't do that," incredulously. "He can't invade a country that hasn't attacked us." I actually thought that our citizens would rise up and smack him the fuck down if he tried to do that- because we were the "good guys." Of course, that's nowhere near what happened. I wish I'd paid closer attention to H.L. Mencken's views on the world.

But, you're right. Your whole post. There are so few of us that "get it"- what's right, I mean. What freedom and justice are. And that have the courage to stand up for it. The rest, most, are just operating on the typical animalistic sociologies. A lot of hate, no values.

[KoKo]

12. Hey....believe it or not my early education was in SC before it became a

"RED STATE." I grew up with enlightened people in a coastal port city which was very ecumenical and tolerant of all religions. We had the first Synagogue in the US...back in 1600 and something. The date is disputed by another state but we are the second if not the first. We had thriving Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal with all the religions inbetween.. We had German Immigrants who escaped the Nazi's and we had lots of folks inbetween. We had a Black Community that was working for cultural recognition and equality. It wasn't all great with race relations...there was alot of bad stuff there, but it wasn't like the stuff you hear on Fox news. And I saw the same bad race relations in the supposedly more "enlightened Northeast" where it was "swept under the rug" because the races lived in separate parts of town, too.

I don't recognize my Birthplace State anymore....so how can I recognize America? We weren't gun toten', Confederate Flag Waving, Hound Dog in the back of the "Truck" folks back then....but something bad happened along the way. Maybe I idealized SC because the folks I grew up with weren't what's portrayed today by C-Span Callers and in the Polls...but it wasn't like what I see today, back then.
Having lived in the Northeast for a very long time, I find that what's going on with "Intelligent Design" being in discussion for public schools in Pennsylvania and Joe Lieberman's War Lust in Connecticut (where I lived for a good long time) and the weirdness in New Jersey (where I also lived for awhile) makes me say that America is suffering from a terrible illness that maybe we've gone through before and survived...but I don't see any spot to get away from the terribleness that's taken over. Maybe another Civil War? This time over Human VALUES!!!

Maybe we Americans just have to blow off steam with wars ...it's in our nature most of us descended from Immigrants who must have been fiesty and of an agitating nature to have even left where they lived to come here.

:shrug: Just my 2cents...

[Guaranteed]

13. Liberty and blood. nt

[stillcool]

6. the only constant is change...

and things can never be the same again...for me... the amount of mind-blowing realities i've been subjected to have crushed my rose-colored glasses beyond repair.

[LiberalPersona]

7. I'm going to be honest here

I believe that America is very soon to become the same kind of history as Ancient Rome. I have many reasons to believe this, but I'm not going to write about it here.

[Guaranteed]

10. You should.

I tend to agree. I think we're falling apart from the inside. We've lost our sense of purpose.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

8. Same shit, different day

Been happening since the first fish crawled out of the ocean and was blessed by FSM.

[FlemingsGhost]

11. America has been "bullshit" for quite awhile now ...

How far back do you want to go, anyway?

Let it die, my friend. The condition is terminal.

Revolution will provide a rebirth.

[meganmonkey]

14. My 95 year old Pop-pop says it's all going to be okay,

that things will change and get better again because they always do. I figure he has seen a lot of things so I tend to believe him. And he may be old but he is smart as hell and he pays attention to what is going on.

I remind myself of his words almost every day.

I love my Pop-pop.
:loveya:

[Guaranteed]

15. There's a very strong part of me, looking a history, who believes your Pop

-pop.

But the thing is that history tends to show that some really, really nasty stuff has to go down before people "wake up."

I mean nasty enough for people to become totally ENRAGED about.

[Chipper Chat]

16. Deflation may be the final piercing arrow in the USA's heart.

Money is the bottom line of everything. And this final bush taxcut for the rich could be the beginning of the end. How many Americans are like me right now? I'm sacrificing better cuts of meat (or sometimes just meat)to save for energy costs. My Christmas list is whittled down to "kids only." I will be keeping my 1998 vehicle until it dies. It's Community College for the kids instead of prestigious universities. HBO is no longer on my cable lineup. The yard wont get those Dahlias and Hibiscus next spring. And on and on. So when 95% of household are like this one, who's gonna shop at Walmart? Who's gonna buy GM cars? Who's gonna fly Delta? Who's gonna rent at Blockbuster? What happens to Starbucks when we can only afford Kroger coffee? The wealthy 5% will have everything. The economy will be on life-support. Then the Chinese will come in and offer 10 cents on the dollar for what remains of our infrastructure.
End of mini-rant.
Am I being too pessimistic?

[manic expression]

19. Was it never not BS?

Give me any administration that didn't do something completely unjustified in the world. I can think of the Carter admn, but he was hated for not doing that.