It obviously isn’t the greatest for standard of living.
But it certainly is in soft and hard power towards the world (closely followed by china).
Honestly though, as a german, I would much rather be controlled and spied on by the United States than China.
You do you, but I don’t think the two are even remotely comparable. I’d much rather live in a country run by marxist principles than one serving capital interests. The rise of China and simultaneous decline of US hegemony is one of the main sources of hope for a better future for humanity in these times, imo.
Isn’t China practically state capitalism and not very marxist nowadays after the days of Deng Xiaoping, or did I just fall for the propaganda memes? (no downvotes please, just a legit question)
…but it kinda doesn’t tho? Also dropping a 7000+ word article without context of my question doesn’t really mean anything. Its a trend I’ve noticed a lot with communists: asks simple question, drops a really wordy article that doesn’t answer the question. That article has an estimated reading time of over 26 minutes. Aint nobody got time for that.
You’re asking a genuine question, I’m providing you with an elaborate answer, and yes, it does answer the question. I could have also summarized the situation and said: “yes, China is still building socialism guided by Marxist-Leninist principles, using state capitalism as a tool with which to boost their productive forces in order to eventually reach ‘real’ socialism”, but then all you’d have is my word without any explanation or substance. The fact that you deem it “too long” isn’t my problem :)
In my opinion it is very unrealistic that “real” communism will ever work, because of how humans are and behave. Unfortunately I think capitalism is currently the only answer if you desire a high standard of living.
If communism didn’t work on its own, capitalist countries wouldn’t need to constantly sanction and strangle those societies, whose goal is implementing it.
If it was a failure, they’d just let it fail on its own. But they never do that.
The only reason the American capitalists fight it so hard, because its success exposes their failure at home.
I don’t want to start a debate here and you are free to believe whatever you want. I am not saying I am right, this is - as stated - just my personal belief and opinion. Maybe you are right, but you should be careful to not be indoctrinated into a certain mindset. Try to keep an open mind at all times and don’t give in to confirmation bias, while creating an echo chamber around you. It is always important to hear people thinking differently than you.
I have no idea what “greatest” means. It’s a superlative word, but implies no meaningful measurement that can be tested and verified.
Also the word “believe” is problematic. “think” might be better. Or “hold the opinion”.
Both of these points support the idea that you’re asking about an emotional state, rather than a intellectual position. Basically you’re asking “why do people like the place that they live and mindlessly cheer for it when sociologically appropriate moments for such displays become available”. That’s a question that answers itself, is it not?
OPs question is not about whether you can objectively define that a country is ‘’great’’ but rather what is it that constitutes their country as ‘’greatest’’ or exceptional in the (subjective) minds of many Americans nowadays?
OPs question is not about whether you can objectively define that a country is ‘’great’’
No, but its formulation seems to imply that there is such a definition, that the US obviously don’t satisfy it but that a lot of americans mistakenly believe that it does.
Also, feels a bit strange that you address that response to the one comment (ok, one of the two ) that address that point rather than to any of the ones who assume that the US are objectively not a great country.
No, but its formulation seems to imply that there is such a definition, that the US obviously don’t satisfy it but that a lot of americans mistakenly believe that it does.
Right, maybe the question does make sense, but can we agree that it is very charged towards the opinion that holding the opinion that US are a great country is a mistake, hence pretty much delegitimizing any answer that would give legitimate reasons why americans could genuinly that their country is a great one, in favour of emotional answers like “because propaganda” and “because patriotism”?
English is not my mother tongue and as a rusty learner I can say that at least for me the question is pretty straight forward. Judging by your comment you have a way more level than the required in order to understand it
I’m trying to point out something to you that you may never have realized. Certainly, no one else seems to notice it either.
The word “great” is a meaningless word unless it is used carefully. It has no semantic content whatsoever when used in OP’s context. To use it in the question strongly implies that the question is asking about some emotional state. At which point, the question is “why do people like their homes”.
That has more to do with monkey psychology than anything else, and is a dumb, nonsense question if you do understand it’s about monkey psychology and a dumb, nonsense question even if you don’t understand that.
Other problematic words in the question also support my assertion.
It may be that you’re lacking common sens
What’s “common sense”? From the standpoint of sociology, that’s nothing more than universally accepted norms/belief systems. I’d be flattered to be told I lacked those, if only you were clever enough to have meant it.
I live in the US. Half this country is completely delusional. The other half feels that doing anything to improve the situation is socialism™ or communism™. So we better not improve anything.
There are only a couple hundred countries, and only one can be “the greatest”. You’ll get different answers based on which metric you pick, but clearly the right metric is “quality of US-style BBQ restaurants”. And that’s why the United States is the greatest country in the world.
You’ll get different answers based on which metric you pick, but clearly the right metric is “quality of US-style BBQ restaurants”.
If only it were true. I suspect that while we’d still win, that would be a narrow victory over the koreans or possibly the south americans. Argentina and Chile both apparently have a really strong bbq culture.
No, the true contest would be for deep-fried novelty foods. There, it’s just down to us and Scotland, and they’re not even their own country yet.
Years of internet social media has disabused many of that idea, whether orchestrated by an outside entity, or simply via intermingling with other peoples. The backlash is the rampant nationalism that is sure to take over next go around.
It’s the most lobotomized society in the world. As a Cuban soldier (close to Fidel) once told us:
It is a country with all kinds of technological development, comparable to other first world nations, but take away the high technology, especially weapons and you will notice that its social and political system is only comparable to those of third world nations.
The elites apply the most brutal chauvinism on their own population, to justify all kinds of crimes within their borders and in the world.
I think that you can be patriotic without being a complete ignorant or/and a jerk. Like you can love your home, your culture & whatever. But the “patriotism” that we see nowdays coming from extremists and really closeminded ppl is just toxic and repulsive.
I don’t think there’s too many that do anymore. The sense that I have is that everyone feels a sense of pessimism and decline. Hell, the whole MAGA movement, make America great again, is based on the sentiment that America is not what it used to be, and it won in 2016, against “America is already great,” the slogan of elite liberals. And things have gotten more pessimistic since with COVID, inflation, political violence. There are some people who believe in anything but I can’t say I know anyone who could say America is the best in the world without a tinge of self doubt. Personally, I see myself as a pessimist in the short term, optimist in the long term.
I get that the states are big and have a lot of their own drama, but I gotta say it comes accros as fairly up-ones-self for adults to be so ignorant of the rest of the world.
It obviously isn’t the greatest for standard of living. But it certainly is in soft and hard power towards the world (closely followed by china). Honestly though, as a german, I would much rather be controlled and spied on by the United States than China.
You do you, but I don’t think the two are even remotely comparable. I’d much rather live in a country run by marxist principles than one serving capital interests. The rise of China and simultaneous decline of US hegemony is one of the main sources of hope for a better future for humanity in these times, imo.
Isn’t China practically state capitalism and not very marxist nowadays after the days of Deng Xiaoping, or did I just fall for the propaganda memes? (no downvotes please, just a legit question)
https://redsails.org/china-has-billionaires/ describes the situation well.
…but it kinda doesn’t tho? Also dropping a 7000+ word article without context of my question doesn’t really mean anything. Its a trend I’ve noticed a lot with communists: asks simple question, drops a really wordy article that doesn’t answer the question. That article has an estimated reading time of over 26 minutes. Aint nobody got time for that.
You’re asking a genuine question, I’m providing you with an elaborate answer, and yes, it does answer the question. I could have also summarized the situation and said: “yes, China is still building socialism guided by Marxist-Leninist principles, using state capitalism as a tool with which to boost their productive forces in order to eventually reach ‘real’ socialism”, but then all you’d have is my word without any explanation or substance. The fact that you deem it “too long” isn’t my problem :)
In my opinion it is very unrealistic that “real” communism will ever work, because of how humans are and behave. Unfortunately I think capitalism is currently the only answer if you desire a high standard of living.
If communism didn’t work on its own, capitalist countries wouldn’t need to constantly sanction and strangle those societies, whose goal is implementing it.
If it was a failure, they’d just let it fail on its own. But they never do that.
The only reason the American capitalists fight it so hard, because its success exposes their failure at home.
I don’t want to start a debate here and you are free to believe whatever you want. I am not saying I am right, this is - as stated - just my personal belief and opinion. Maybe you are right, but you should be careful to not be indoctrinated into a certain mindset. Try to keep an open mind at all times and don’t give in to confirmation bias, while creating an echo chamber around you. It is always important to hear people thinking differently than you.
Based
^
because we have the most well-funded propaganda apparatus in the history of forever
removed by mod
I have no idea what “greatest” means. It’s a superlative word, but implies no meaningful measurement that can be tested and verified.
Also the word “believe” is problematic. “think” might be better. Or “hold the opinion”.
Both of these points support the idea that you’re asking about an emotional state, rather than a intellectual position. Basically you’re asking “why do people like the place that they live and mindlessly cheer for it when sociologically appropriate moments for such displays become available”. That’s a question that answers itself, is it not?
Wordplay 👏 weaseling 👏 expert 👏
I thought the question was very easy to understand and answer.
No, it’s very difficult to understand. It’s basically brainless. Too many ambiguous words.
For instance, can you define what it means if a country is “great”, or if it is the opposite of “great”? Would your definition match anyone else’s?
OPs question is not about whether you can objectively define that a country is ‘’great’’ but rather what is it that constitutes their country as ‘’greatest’’ or exceptional in the (subjective) minds of many Americans nowadays?
No, but its formulation seems to imply that there is such a definition, that the US obviously don’t satisfy it but that a lot of americans mistakenly believe that it does.
Also, feels a bit strange that you address that response to the one comment (ok, one of the two ) that address that point rather than to any of the ones who assume that the US are objectively not a great country.
The definition doesn’t exist, but yet, yes, many Americans do believe it still.
Right, maybe the question does make sense, but can we agree that it is very charged towards the opinion that holding the opinion that US are a great country is a mistake, hence pretty much delegitimizing any answer that would give legitimate reasons why americans could genuinly that their country is a great one, in favour of emotional answers like “because propaganda” and “because patriotism”?
English is not my mother tongue and as a rusty learner I can say that at least for me the question is pretty straight forward. Judging by your comment you have a way more level than the required in order to understand it
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I’m trying to point out something to you that you may never have realized. Certainly, no one else seems to notice it either.
The word “great” is a meaningless word unless it is used carefully. It has no semantic content whatsoever when used in OP’s context. To use it in the question strongly implies that the question is asking about some emotional state. At which point, the question is “why do people like their homes”.
That has more to do with monkey psychology than anything else, and is a dumb, nonsense question if you do understand it’s about monkey psychology and a dumb, nonsense question even if you don’t understand that.
Other problematic words in the question also support my assertion.
What’s “common sense”? From the standpoint of sociology, that’s nothing more than universally accepted norms/belief systems. I’d be flattered to be told I lacked those, if only you were clever enough to have meant it.
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deleted by creator
I live in the US. Half this country is completely delusional. The other half feels that doing anything to improve the situation is socialism™ or communism™. So we better not improve anything.
There are only a couple hundred countries, and only one can be “the greatest”. You’ll get different answers based on which metric you pick, but clearly the right metric is “quality of US-style BBQ restaurants”. And that’s why the United States is the greatest country in the world.
Very true, and to judge, one would therefore also need to have a fairly good overview perspective and context of all those countries…
If only it were true. I suspect that while we’d still win, that would be a narrow victory over the koreans or possibly the south americans. Argentina and Chile both apparently have a really strong bbq culture.
No, the true contest would be for deep-fried novelty foods. There, it’s just down to us and Scotland, and they’re not even their own country yet.
I actually heard the South Korea’s got a pretty good one. 🤣
Years of internet social media has disabused many of that idea, whether orchestrated by an outside entity, or simply via intermingling with other peoples. The backlash is the rampant nationalism that is sure to take over next go around.
It’s the most lobotomized society in the world. As a Cuban soldier (close to Fidel) once told us:
The elites apply the most brutal chauvinism on their own population, to justify all kinds of crimes within their borders and in the world.
Patriotism
I think that you can be patriotic without being a complete ignorant or/and a jerk. Like you can love your home, your culture & whatever. But the “patriotism” that we see nowdays coming from extremists and really closeminded ppl is just toxic and repulsive.
I mean sure, but that goes far beyond nutomic’s question.
Super patriotism
I don’t think there’s too many that do anymore. The sense that I have is that everyone feels a sense of pessimism and decline. Hell, the whole MAGA movement, make America great again, is based on the sentiment that America is not what it used to be, and it won in 2016, against “America is already great,” the slogan of elite liberals. And things have gotten more pessimistic since with COVID, inflation, political violence. There are some people who believe in anything but I can’t say I know anyone who could say America is the best in the world without a tinge of self doubt. Personally, I see myself as a pessimist in the short term, optimist in the long term.
Stage 1: Denial.
Though some of them have moved on to Stage 2, Anger.
Yep, Winning a competition of 1 participants.
I get that the states are big and have a lot of their own drama, but I gotta say it comes accros as fairly up-ones-self for adults to be so ignorant of the rest of the world.
I really love when I heard someone saying that Mexico and Spain are the same, or something around those lines.
Fair enough, they do pretty much border each other /s
Because most of them think the entire world is America.
Nope, America is a continent ;-)
It’s a disgusting mindset but it’s not entirely their fault considering their educational system.
The education system is worse than that mindset.
And I can bet that to some extent is responsible for people thinking that (literally any country aside of the USA) is a “communist™” non free regime.
Because some people in the US don’t even leave their county, let alone their state, and therefore never experience any culture outside their own.