America - the land of opertunities - bs

Off-Topic
1

please excuse my english, it was written as a rant of frustration

:angry:

USA, The land of opertunities, for big corperate companies that is.

it literaly makes me sick to see what this country has become. It represents all that is wrong
in modern society.

America is said to be the Land of opertunities, but in reality this only counts for large
companies, f.eks VISA.
The citizens of this country are treated worse than farm animals, seriously, some times I would
rather shoot myself in the head than keep on living, not becouse I dont value life, but becouse
I’m tired of getting woken up at 7am becouse some cock of a telemarketer realy thinks I’d
love another visa card, so that my information could be sold to another million companies without my permission, only so I can get overly screwed by such lovely things as overdraft protection, and have another 100.000 telemerketers call me for every possible piece of shit service I dont want.
When did we decide that it was completely allright to let this happen?
when did we decide that it was ok for people to sell information about us? When did we decide
that letting companies toy with our privacy was ok?
In my personal opinion I dont think ANY of this is ok, but seeing as I dont run this country,
and I’m not a big company paying millions upon millions of us currency to our beloved Country, what am I supposed to do?

I moved to this country 2 years ago, I’ve lived in norway for over 20 years. Since I got here
I’ve been considering how people can lett this go on… I remember sitting at home, seeing this
kind of thing in american tv shows and movies all the time, thinking it was excagerated, but
to my horror, it’s not. It’s every bit as bad as you see on tv, and our goverment lets it
continue freely.

Not to mention big shot record companies that get away with screwing over 1000’s of people
every single year in bullshit record-deals that serve the sole purpose of screwing that person
for the rest of his or her life. And when one person gets to suing them for this straight up crime,they are allowed to close the loophole so now, no matter how much they screw you over,you cant even file for bankrupcy, while all the time, our dear beloved goverment sits on the sideline helping these companies out, jesus christ, it’s time we stand up for our rights and do something. How much longer can we sitt around watching them take our rights away? :(

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welcome to the modern world. have you really thought you have the right for anything else than being a slave? :ph34r:

3

There are lots of countries that are better to live in than USA. Actually, I would guess that most modern countries are better to live in than USA, especially Norway B)

4

marc, could you please restore your Micheal Knight’s avatar?

I loved it :wub:, and I also think it’s somehow in topic with this discussion :)

5

hehe, micheal knight the freedom fighter?

well, the webspace-for-pics provider i used seems to be gone, and i was too lazy to search for a new home for michael to live in… but i’ll see what i can do :)

6

I offer a place for him on my site :yeah:

drop me an email/message/something.

by the way, just to clarify because I think that you got my real point anyway, I think that the avatar is in topic because it shows the manifesto of what an artificial smile should be.

Parsec will surely flood this topic about it ;)

7

LOL :lol: :lol: :)
No, not at all… at least… untill you ask me to! :lol:
I will just take the topic back from where it came from… I’ll tell you a short story :rolleyes:

Remember when you were a child? I don’t know if they used to where you are… but in my school they were used to games like “The bad ones - the good ones”. When the teacher has to go away for a moment… she calls for this game and select someone to stand at the blackboard… The selected one writes down the names of everyone… putting a " - " sign on those making noise… and a " + " sign on those who keep calm… this is cumulative and in the end, the teacher, will eventually come back to the classroom and examine the blackboard…

What every child fails to realize for lack of experience… is that the game itself mean nothing at all. It’s just a “tool” that the teacher uses to obtain a quiet classroom, that’s it. The teacher always claim that the game winner will be somehow rewarded… but of course she forgets about it right after she exits the classroom. Wouldn’t you do the same to keep those youngsters calm for the time of a cigarette?
But they “buy it”! They want to be noticed and do a good job, please their teacher, please their parents and make them proud of a game-winner… so they turn very serious and faithfully “believe” that sooner or later there will be some sort of reward, somehow…

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hey, thanks man, i’m sure davie will always love you for that (and i do too :))

well then i have missed your real point… i misundererstood it more in a way that parsec described in his thrilling story (if i interpetated it right (have i ?)).
like, uhm, micheal knight, hero of the typical completely meaningless and brainless tv show (though i do was a knightrider fan at the age of 10), being a part of that big faceless machine the entertainment industry which helps keeping people quite cause they have too much to do with watching such crap or chasing behind the newest dvd-player or glass-walled fitness-center or [insert product here] that they don’t have any time to think and don’t notice in what a stupid way of life they get pressed. :)

oh now that i write this i realize it is exactly what you meant with artificial smile… but no, i wont delete my lines any more, i’ll post all this blabla just for the sake of redundancy :)

ok. bye, i’ll go now on a little half-week trip (not acid, i mean travelling the usual way)

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Personnaly, I’m french living in France. I’ve been wanting to leave France for many reasons for many years now. Once upon a time I dreamed of moving to the USA. I lived there for 1 month in almost real conditions, and I realized how much I was wrong. I went to Japan recently in similar “real life conditions” (which means no hotels, not much money, living with the average inhabitant the way they do, except you don’t work :)). I fell in love with that country and will do everything possible to go there now… Although it also has problems like evey country, it really fits me well :)

I agree most modern countries are certainly a better place to live in than the US, but I would add that the US is certainly the WORST to live in, in my humble opinion.

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hm… sounds like norway… <_<

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:( …not to talk about Italy…

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I see you perceive the whole situation from the side of the “fooled”… <_<
The Matrix has you.

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Uncle Sam :

All of this happening is not your fault but the one of your leaders.

But you participate to it seeing everything from the inside, by bringing back everything to “eat burgers and speak english”, by swallowing the poor info you get from your country as “knowledge”.

You participate to it all by thinking of any complaint about the USA as simple “jealousy”.

You also say:
“there obviously are many benefits to living in the United States of America that outweigh those of living in Norway”

We now wonder what they are, what you know. … Just quote one please.

Now I think everyone here would also like to know what countries you’ve been to, how long, in what conditions. I think since you’re American, everyone would like to know about your experience in these countries and what you’ve learned from them.

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@ Guest:
I’m so sorry you didn’t signed your post :(
It seems so far (I haven’t understood it all) the post of someone who knows what he is speaking about… it should be signed proudly.

@ Uncle Sam
You didn’t told us anything new, didn’t ya? “Speak italian and eat pizza”

Yes. The opinion of the one who’s been fooled.

I know… I know… from the inside it must look like it’s well reasonable.
Problem is… to certain people your opinion sounds like “Hey… here’s another” and that would certainly mean something you should better not understimate. Your opinion contains common misunderstandings + a lot of well known pre-cooked ideas.

To people outside of your cultural position it’s clear that your opinion is influenced. You completely ignore your country politics, their movements, their manipulating, the way they use media, their economic interests.

There is no trace of consciousness about such topics in you… It’s people who likes american culture? Or it’s America who economically needs people to like american stuff to all costs? (That includes faking, lies, deceptions… like in the Enron business… you remember the Enron business, don’t ya?)

You’ll see… Iraq will now misteriously start to like McDonald food all of a sudden… and you’ll be satisfied with this.

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Parces, that’s interesting because that’s exactly what I would describe your (and others here) points of view. It seems Europeans in general look down on US and everything originating there. That’s just so narrow-minded and childish!! You talk about American culture… well I don’t like American politics, media and so on and I really liked “Bowling for Columbine”. But culture is about people too. And Americans are amongst the friendliest and easiest people I’ve met. I think we have a lot of learn from them.

I want to know why Uncle Sam have to defend himself for beeing American and which countries he has visited while noone has asked Parsec et al how many times you have been America and if you really have tried to look at US with an open mind from different perspectives?! Maybe you have (like Nino Mojo) and then I give you all my respect. All I’m saying is because some things really sucks in USA doesn’t mean everything does. And it would be childish to think and say so.

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Woho! I want to be childish. Look at this excellent pic of the president of united states :)

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He just shouldn’t. Infact nobody attacked him… therefore there’s no need to defend. But of course… if you’re used to perceive any critic as an attack to your position (that’s childish indeed) then you’ll end up feeling like the whole world hates you/hating the whole world…

… :rolleyes: infact I never said that everything in USA sucks… and I even thought that the first post was slightly exagerated.

I’m indeed used to move in defense of the US people when I’m speaking with someone who goes like “if you’re from the US you’re automatically an idiot because blah blah” It’s true… it’s american people voting for US government… but still… I’m used to remember them that in Italy there was fascism and it wasn’t everybody’s fault… And, yes, I’m used to speak about all the good friends I have down there… reminding that a certain stupid behaviour can’t be related to a geographical position. Infact the No-Global movement itself was born in Seattle if I’m not wrong, isn’t it?

When I speak about “your culture” I don’t mean at all to say "You culture and only your.
So if I say you’re being “blind” to the influence of your own culture… I hope you realize, I’m definitely not saying that “influence” happens in the US only.

I just decided to take part to this when I saw

This is such a masterpiece of blindness that I couldn’t help but write… I hope you get what I mean…

I don’t want to be too hard on this… the point is that everything comes down to the informations you receive and believe, as our Nino stated more than clear with

There is a wide difference between the Image and what’s happening… so the dreamy vision Uncle Sam speaks about…

This simple vision makes little sense if you know what the word “propaganda” mean: In germany, at that time, nazist party was elected with a democratic system… and most of the people was unaware of the real shit going on.
They received infos they believed.
They probably would have spoken like Uncle Sam… in defense of a system they were lead to believe in.

18

ah the good ol’ us of a. now i’d make a long ranting post about how much i hate the us and think that they are the worst country in the world but i’ll only point out a few reasons why not to live there,

  1. the patroit act - retarded and demeaning.

  2. no free health care - rediculous considering they are the richest country in the world.

  3. the war on drugs - i personally don’t do drugs, but if i choose to i should be able to do what i want to my body as long as i dont hurt anyone else. yes some drugs make you go insane but so does booze and if youre going to respond with ‘but drugs are highly addictive’ then stop right there. because nicotine is 10x more addictive then heroine.

  4. peoples attitudes - most people tend to shun thier noses if you are not a us citizen, which is just stupid. not to mention alot of us citizens think that they deserve that they be treated better when they are abroad.

if anyone was going to move to the states i would suggest canada instead. sure the dollar isnt worth more, you pay a bit more in taxes, and it gets cold in the winter. but youll be able to afford medicine, see doctors for free, and do most anything else the states does. plus soon weed will be decriminalized, so if youre into that kinda stuff have fun :P

all in all, canada is alot safer, nicer, and cleaner.
/end anit-american rant.

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or they start an illegal war against a nation, claiming they have womd while all the time keeping the media from telling everyone that usa was the country that provided the womd in the first place.

  1. did you know that in some states there have been laws passed that say you need to schedule protests a month in advance or face 25 years in prison if you show up. nice for a country based on free speech.

  2. it’s not that easy to ‘go back to where they came from’ if they have no money. would you pay for a one way ticket out of the country for them? i don’t think so.

i don’t speak english because i want to be american, i speak english because i was born in canada. people learn english because it’s the most popular lanuage in the world (besides a form of chinese), so do not assume that someone learns english because they want to be more ‘american’.

please read my ‘better then you’ point in my other post. please dont deny it because ive worked in a toronto tourist attraction, and being there i have learned that many amercians are like that.

ie. where is my food? if i was in america we’d already have it by now! or my personal favourite, ‘i demand you give me a discount!’ ‘why’ ‘because i’m an american thats why! my moneys worth more then this paper so i should get a discount on my food!’ ‘sir, with the exchange rate you already get a substantial discount’ ‘but i want a better one! in america they’d give me a better rate’ ‘then i suggest you go back to america’. granted those events happened rarely, but stuff like that happens aroudn the world everyday.

most people are still under the illusion that the united states is a good country to move to. little do they realize that when they get there they will work at mcdonalds or clean toilets for most of thier lives.

last but not least, if youve been around the world and see that you are in a terrible country then i feel sorry for you my friend. keep living your life out in a demoralizing country as a lemming. unless of course youre wealthy and make more then 6 figures a year. if thats the case then have fun living out your existance with tax cuts to the rich and f**** yous to the poor.

also in respone to your post, no ive never been to amsterdam but i know about the drugs. ive been to portugal and its the same deal, cept for the hookers. those are still illegal to my knowledge.

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:D This was ironic… With a post like that you only prove that you look down on Americans.