The US can maintain ite superpower status with these 6 easy tips and tricks!

Let's face it - Americans are smart and are top dog. That's why they have the highest concentration of billionaires, millionaires, and are major intellectual culture and technological exporters of the world. Calling Americans dumb greatly oversimplifies the country as a whole because it's not as if all American are some blue-collar, gun-owning obese lazy people. They're a melting pot of different people and comparing yourself, most likely a post-secondary educated person, with the lower end of the bell curve tail of intelligence makes you look like a complete idiot in comparison because that's not fair.

Anyway, here are some tips and tricks Americans can do to retain its superpower status:

1. Stop glorifying the forefathers and the importance of civil liberties. People need to start prioritizing utilitarianism over individualism for their country. If getting a vaccine means you can prevent infecting 10 other people, then that's a choice patriots should be doing - this is not a hard decision because it does not involve financial or mortal sacrifices. The forefathers of 250 years ago are no longer relevant in today's society and following their directives should only be strictly ceremonial to acknowledge your historical roots.

2. Stop glorifying political violence. Yes, you all should be ashamed of the Boston tea party, civil wars, and the civil rights movement. Given the circumstances of the time, your country had no choice but to resort to those laws, but they should not be glorified. Because it has, your history has inherently taught the children that it's OK to push back against tyrants if you don't get your own way. This itself can be interpreted in dangerous ways, which has resulted in an anti-intellectualism movement in the US that has been hindering societal progress.

3. Secularize your entire state. Have independent watchdogs in place to ensure the separation of the church and state. Both shouldn't be related and if politicians are mixing them together, they can be removed from positions of power and replaced. People can keep their faith, but it must not be involved with public office because there are contradictions of Judeo-Crhstian values and individual freedoms. No, God didn't grant you your rights or liberties - government does.

4. Education investment and reform. There's such an imbalance in performance between all of your states that your federal government needs to do something. Allow states to specialize in whatever regional industries they've got going on, but ensure that a national standard is set for all people so everyone has a minimum level of education that prepares them for intellectual conversation with others. No, most people don't need a university-level chemistry or physics class to graduate, but at least make sure they understand how maths and sciences principles work in the global world and political compass orientation so people can intellectual debate politics correctly. If you can't tell the difference between fascism from communism to socialism to totalitarianism and conservatism to libertarianism, then that's a huge red flag.

5. Find loopholes and declare war on the NRA. Once they're removed as a lobby, start a gun buyback program to rid cities and towns of guns. Above a certain police staff / capita, guns are automatically banned. No semi-automatics or assault rifles automatically banned with allotment for hunting rifles and pistols for certain people (e.g., rural areas). There is no recreational need to ever shoot so many bullets in such a short amount of time unless it's for warfare. And an average Joe on the farm isn't going to war soon unless they're drafted.

6. Remove insurance companies away from medical companies and establish national healthcare plans. Sick and ill people who have the health resources they need mean a more healthier people and therefore a healthier and more productive labour force. But people are going to need to fucking accept that they'll have to pay higher taxes to support this system. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Any other questions for complex problems, ask me. I have two degrees.

What about its Jesus Christ SuperStar status tho

Okay but what about for us Canadians

I completely agree with 4, 5 and 6 (like really, that's just common sense to me but it doesn't seem to be what a lot of American think, and we'd both be called commies by some people for this...), but 1, 2 and 3 are so dangerous it makes me not want to say I agree with the post lol.

1. "Stop glorifying the importance of civil liberties"... uh, no, because that's like saying "stop glorifying freedom", and that can only lead to very bad things. It's just that getting a vaccine in a deadly pandemic isn't a question of liberty anymore: you don't have the liberty of being rather likely to cause the death of people, including your own, because that's directly against the right of not getting harmed by your fellow citizens. It's true that the "BUT MY FREEDOM!" anti-vaccine argument is bad in a pandemic, but the problem definetly isn't that civil liberties are being glorified. It's that they're being artificially extended to things they cannot be extended to for security reasons (anarchy doesn't work partially because of this).

2. Nah. When a government is oppressing its citizens, it can, should and will eventually be overthrown by them. It definetly is ok to push back against tyrants... if they are tyrants. Issues arise when wise governments are painted as tyrants when they aren't (like governments telling people to wear a mask). The anti-intellectualism part you're talking about is actually due to a severe lack of education; this argument is perfectly valid, but it pertains to point 4 much more than to point 2.

3. Don't do what you are criticizing religion for: being dogmatic. Yes, religion should not infringe on freedom, but freedom implies that religion is tolerated, too. "if politicians are mixing [church and state] together, they can be removed from positions of power and replaced." is a dangerous stance, because if people have been electing those who will respect their religious values, as long as the politicians don't infringe on federal rights, where is the general issue? The issues that may arise from such religious meddling should be treated on a case by case basis instead of being seen as a general issue.


Also, this is in serious discussion :P let's try to keep some seriousness in it

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Originally Posted by HentaiManOfPeace

Any other questions for complex problems, ask me. I have two degrees.

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Other questions? Excuse me, what were the first questions? For instance, did anyone ask about your two degrees that apparently confer you universal knowledge?

Most of your solutions are obvious to those who don't embody and perpetuate the problem, which by the way isn't as clear cut as "blue-collar, gun-owning obese lazy people" vs "post-secondary educated person", as you implied immediately after calling out oversimplified statements concerning the US and its people.

Your guys' trolldar is bad

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Originally Posted by BananaCucho

Your guys' trolldar is bad

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Originally Posted by BananaCucho

What about its Jesus Christ SuperStar status tho

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Being religious has no bearing on US's superpower status. From a sociological perspective, religion was necessary as a transition for different technological eras and establishments of modern society. It was used as a means to control the increasing populace of cities from urbanization of rural people by standardizing "good" morals and values to people until people were educated enough to understand and practice empathy. Now that the US mostly has that, it is mostly redundant except for fulfilling individual spirituality requirements.

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Originally Posted by Mesk514

Okay but what about for us Canadians

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Good thing I'm Canadian so I am fully qualified to answer our problems.

1. Build a national pipeline across the country coast to coast. It doesn't make sense that eastern Canada is importing crude oil from as far as the US and Saudi Arabia when it has rich natural resources out in the west and an oil refinery in New Brunswick with no physical oil pipeline feeding that plant. Yes, oil sands are GHG-heavy, but until battery and electrical car technology is more reliable enough via S-curve adoption rates, oil and gas will still be relevant for our everyday needs. So until it's outdated, let's seize on that opportunity and build the energy corridor while making the companies responsible for cleanups.

2. Unsustainable housing prices - implement regulations that real estate companies must prioritize Canadian buyers, put a heavy tax on foreigners buying real estate in Toronto and Vancouver and using those taxes to help with sustainable housing while implementing a watchdog to audit to ensure people are living in these homes, and deregulate the agricultural lobby groups that are making it extremely difficult and costly to build more houses. At the same time, encourage developers to construct more higher-density dwellings that encourage better city and transit routing.

3. Indigenous Rights - create a social program staffed with indigenous social workers, psychologists, and doctors to work together with the chiefs to better police their own people. If indigenous leaders see success of reversing incarceration, poverty, unemployment, suicide, other health problems with these government programs, the government will start gaining the trust of the indigenous people again. Once they do, we can slowly integrate indigenous society and make them more productive, which will also help combat racism too. The residential school shit probably won't be forgiven until 2080+.

4. Future of Industry - everyone can see the writing on the wall with the remnants of Alberta's oil sands and Ontario car plants. Besides conventional energy industry, Canada should focus on natural resource exports done cheaper to compete with the world. At the same time, diversify more in IT and electromechanical technologies and encourage greater entrepreneurship and innovation through government support of R&D in IT, IP protection laws, encouraging more children to go into STEM fields with more grassroots afterschool programs and tech-oriented high schools, subsidies, and tax breaks. The exact same way the Swedes did to get out of their rut in the early 1990s was because of an IT revolution - we haven't seen one since Nortel and RIM/Blackberry failed (except maybe Shopify, but that's a different story).

5. Immigrants - let in only skilled immigrants into the country and anyone else willing to work hard to raise children to be successful. No more asylum seekers for now, but increase donations to developing countries who are suffering from catastrophes. We lost a seat on the UN security council earlier this summer because of Harper's response to this. At the same time, there may be more need for local immigrant community outreach programs. For example, immigrant communities coming to schools and promoting their culture at public events to better integrate into our communities. This also goes hand in hand with reversing the rise of far right-wing groups - you have to target their children through positive education and campaigns. The adults can be forsaken and their irrelevant ideas can die with them.

6. Culture - it's about time Pierre Trudeau's multicultural policy proved its profit: putting multicultural identity and indigenous culture to work. Do you know what kind of culture Canadians and Canadian immigrants have? It's fucking lacklustre because their respective communities are still struggling with finding out who they are, whether they feel more Canadian or their country of origin, while at the same time resisting more popular American culture exports. Time to cut through the bullshit and start making our own instead of drinking the culture Canadian kool-aid of hockey, maple syrup, Tim Horton's, and Molson's, cultural icons from the 1950-1990s. Let's pit Canadian-inspired cultural exports versus Canadian-inspired fusions of different cultural exports a fit of survival to see which property sells more and then specialize in successful cultures that can be exported to the rest of the world. This also includes cooking.

There's a lot more that can be said about Canadian problems, but that's most of the bigger issues.

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Originally Posted by Marshmallow Marshall

1. "Stop glorifying the importance of civil liberties"... uh, no, because that's like saying "stop glorifying freedom", and that can only lead to very bad things. It's just that getting a vaccine in a deadly pandemic isn't a question of liberty anymore: you don't have the liberty of being rather likely to cause the death of people, including your own, because that's directly against the right of not getting harmed by your fellow citizens. It's true that the "BUT MY FREEDOM!" anti-vaccine argument is bad in a pandemic, but the problem definetly isn't that civil liberties are being glorified. It's that they're being artificially extended to things they cannot be extended to for security reasons (anarchy doesn't work partially because of this).

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In that case, there needs to be a new law that each elected representative must outline how they interpret your constitutions during elections so people can get a rough idea of what their constituents are voting for. If it turns out civil liberties are no longer a priority for a majority of the country, that symbolizes that people are more willing to sacrifice some values to focus on other ones that can better their society. Also, use referendums as an alternative and make clauses to revisit your amendments every 100 years or so. It's funny how a country full of loud-mouthed libertarians only have two realistic choices of auth-right parties.

Either way, your societies have to step in and police its own people through better education, campaigns, and workshops. If your societies can't self-police itself, then they can represent a threat to the public, which falls under government responsibility. It's not unlike jihadists with the Muslim religion. Sometimes we all have to buckle down and make sacrifices as a whole so everyone can move forward.

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2. Nah. When a government is oppressing its citizens, it can, should and will eventually be overthrown by them. It definetly is ok to push back against tyrants... if they are tyrants. Issues arise when wise governments are painted as tyrants when they aren't (like governments telling people to wear a mask). The anti-intellectualism part you're talking about is actually due to a severe lack of education; this argument is perfectly valid, but it pertains to point 4 much more than to point 2.

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Yes, believed I've touched on better education. At the very bare minimum, your entire population should have a thorough understanding about the scientific process. They need to understand that people like Dr. Fauci are independents who are reporting on proven facts and figures and have the highest ethical servants because they're qualified civil servants. I guess having a president who emphasized that would've cleared a lot of misunderstandings. No one is immune to arguing against non-biased facts and figures, so it's important to use that and honesty to teach others the cause-and-effect of public policy laws. Washing hands kills bacteria because it destroys virus cell walls, social distancing ensures your mucus pathways are less likely to contact the virus traveling through droplets, and masks keep one's droplets localized to the inducer.

As for pushing back against tyrants, the 2nd amendment should have been an emergency backup plan clause, but many people have misinterpreted the constitution to the point of fanaticism. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2nd amendment says that it grants well-regulated local militias fundamental rights to bear arms to keep the state in check. Last time I checked, there is absolutely no way a local militia would be able to overpower a federal army of trained militarypeople even with assault rifles. It was relevant at the time because guerilla warfare tactics were significant in defeating the British Empire, whom favoured outdated line warfare, during the revolutionary war. Nowadays, government is kept in check by opposition parties, journalists' free speech, independent watchdogs, and constituents who write letters. If all else fails, then guns should be used.

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3. Don't do what you are criticizing religion for: being dogmatic. Yes, religion should not infringe on freedom, but freedom implies that religion is tolerated, too. "if politicians are mixing [church and state] together, they can be removed from positions of power and replaced." is a dangerous stance, because if people have been electing those who will respect their religious values, as long as the politicians don't infringe on federal rights, where is the general issue? The issues that may arise from such religious meddling should be treated on a case by case basis instead of being seen as a general issue.

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I mean people can practice their religion privately. If religious freedom is inherently protected from public laws, then there is no incentive to vote for a politician whose notable feature is being pro-religious. The religious values and laws should not influence modern laws and public policies. Major examples with mixing church and state is regarding LGBT, abortions, and other Christian sins - you're right that everything should be done on a case-by-case basis.

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Originally Posted by Sylvanas

Other questions? Excuse me, what were the first questions? For instance, did anyone ask about your two degrees that apparently confer you universal knowledge?

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First off, it is customary to offer invites for questions if audiences need more information. Take it as a friendly gesture.

No, I wasn't asked about my two degrees, but it identifies me as a highly educated person and was mostly a lighthearted fun because my degrees are nothing related to political sciences or law.

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Most of your solutions are obvious to those who don't embody and perpetuate the problem, which by the way isn't as clear cut as "blue-collar, gun-owning obese lazy people" vs "post-secondary educated person", as you implied immediately after calling out oversimplified statements concerning the US and its people.

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If it was clear, why is your country a mess and the laughingstock of the world right now?

Also, weren't you the person who asked why human bodies used water to regulate their body temperatures instead of a different fluid despite forgetting that water is both plentiful, can dissolve many solutes, and is an excellent thermal reservoir?

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Originally Posted by BananaCucho

Your guys' trolldar is bad

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Not trolling. Also, fix your country.

Obvious trolly smurf is obvious

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Originally Posted by BananaCucho

Obvious trolly smurf is obvious

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If you're not interested enough to engage in discussion, I'm afraid I don't understand why you keep derailing the thread.

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Originally Posted by HentaiManOfPeace

2. Unsustainable housing prices - implement regulations that real estate companies must prioritize Canadian buyers, put a heavy tax on foreigners buying real estate in Toronto and Vancouver and using those taxes to help with sustainable housing while implementing a watchdog to audit to ensure people are living in these homes, and deregulate the agricultural lobby groups that are making it extremely difficult and costly to build more houses. At the same time, encourage developers to construct more higher-density dwellings that encourage better city and transit routing.

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I agree with this point somewhat from an Australian perspective. We have ~1 million empty homes for a variety of reasons, 43% of those homes are empty because the resident is "absent". This absent resident category doesn't factor in if it's a holiday home which itself has its own category which contributes to 22% of the empty houses. It's no secret that foreign investors are buying houses as a honey pot here which tend to sit empty. This is while we are having a 'housing affordability crisis'. I have no idea what will fix this, but the idea that non-citizens can purchase new buildings or build a house without even setting foot in the country is a bit silly. I'd like to see foreign owned houses that are vacant forced to be on the market.

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Originally Posted by rumox

I agree with this point somewhat from an Australian perspective. We have ~1 million empty homes for a variety of reasons, 43% of those homes are empty because the resident is "absent". This absent resident category doesn't factor in if it's a holiday home which itself has its own category which contributes to 22% of the empty houses. It's no secret that foreign investors are buying houses as a honey pot here which tend to sit empty. This is while we are having a 'housing affordability crisis'. I have no idea what will fix this, but the idea that non-citizens can purchase new buildings or build a house without even setting foot in the country is a bit silly. I'd like to see foreign owned houses that are vacant forced to be on the market.

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https://i.imgur.com/tWtU1Nn.png

It's a double edged sword though. If we regulate foreign investment in the housing market more, this may turn away these investors which in turn eliminates construction jobs.

Big ol web of fuck, but something needs to be done.

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Originally Posted by BananaCucho

Obvious trolly smurf is obvious

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Please keep the discussion civil and on topic (that's the reason why this section exists).

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You seem to put the well-being of the State as an independent entity over the well-being of its citizens (if civil liberties are no longer a priority for the citizens, they're screwed lol). That looks dangerous to me, because it's rather close to authoritarianism, and even potentially leading to fascism. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling you a fascist (in fact, you seem to be rather left-wing), but rather saying that your ideas remove extremely important barriers that prevent the rise of authoritarianism.

I mostly agree about your stuff on Canada, as far as my knowledge of that country goes. My only real objection here would be that building a huge pipeline is only patching the huge, worldwide issue of the lack of renewable energy sources. Taking some money to actually fund research on this field would fix a lot of issues. You can even fund the oil extraction companies conditionally: give them a lot of money, and make sure that they significantly fund research on renewable energy sources with their profits from oil extraction, and then allow them to be the transition between oil and renewable energy. This way, the economy isn't really hurt, the companies aren't either, and the environmental benefits are still there.

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Originally Posted by HentaiManOfPeace

Good thing I'm Canadian so I am fully qualified to answer our problems.

1. Build a national pipeline across the country coast to coast. It doesn't make sense that eastern Canada is importing crude oil from as far as the US and Saudi Arabia when it has rich natural resources out in the west and an oil refinery in New Brunswick with no physical oil pipeline feeding that plant. Yes, oil sands are GHG-heavy, but until battery and electrical car technology is more reliable enough via S-curve adoption rates, oil and gas will still be relevant for our everyday needs. So until it's outdated, let's seize on that opportunity and build the energy corridor while making the companies responsible for cleanups.

2. Unsustainable housing prices - implement regulations that real estate companies must prioritize Canadian buyers, put a heavy tax on foreigners buying real estate in Toronto and Vancouver and using those taxes to help with sustainable housing while implementing a watchdog to audit to ensure people are living in these homes, and deregulate the agricultural lobby groups that are making it extremely difficult and costly to build more houses. At the same time, encourage developers to construct more higher-density dwellings that encourage better city and transit routing.

3. Indigenous Rights - create a social program staffed with indigenous social workers, psychologists, and doctors to work together with the chiefs to better police their own people. If indigenous leaders see success of reversing incarceration, poverty, unemployment, suicide, other health problems with these government programs, the government will start gaining the trust of the indigenous people again. Once they do, we can slowly integrate indigenous society and make them more productive, which will also help combat racism too. The residential school shit probably won't be forgiven until 2080+.

4. Future of Industry - everyone can see the writing on the wall with the remnants of Alberta's oil sands and Ontario car plants. Besides conventional energy industry, Canada should focus on natural resource exports done cheaper to compete with the world. At the same time, diversify more in IT and electromechanical technologies and encourage greater entrepreneurship and innovation through government support of R&D in IT, IP protection laws, encouraging more children to go into STEM fields with more grassroots afterschool programs and tech-oriented high schools, subsidies, and tax breaks. The exact same way the Swedes did to get out of their rut in the early 1990s was because of an IT revolution - we haven't seen one since Nortel and RIM/Blackberry failed (except maybe Shopify, but that's a different story).

5. Immigrants - let in only skilled immigrants into the country and anyone else willing to work hard to raise children to be successful. No more asylum seekers for now, but increase donations to developing countries who are suffering from catastrophes. We lost a seat on the UN security council earlier this summer because of Harper's response to this. At the same time, there may be more need for local immigrant community outreach programs. For example, immigrant communities coming to schools and promoting their culture at public events to better integrate into our communities. This also goes hand in hand with reversing the rise of far right-wing groups - you have to target their children through positive education and campaigns. The adults can be forsaken and their irrelevant ideas can die with them.

6. Culture - it's about time Pierre Trudeau's multicultural policy proved its profit: putting multicultural identity and indigenous culture to work. Do you know what kind of culture Canadians and Canadian immigrants have? It's fucking lacklustre because their respective communities are still struggling with finding out who they are, whether they feel more Canadian or their country of origin, while at the same time resisting more popular American culture exports. Time to cut through the bullshit and start making our own instead of drinking the culture Canadian kool-aid of hockey, maple syrup, Tim Horton's, and Molson's, cultural icons from the 1950-1990s. Let's pit Canadian-inspired cultural exports versus Canadian-inspired fusions of different cultural exports a fit of survival to see which property sells more and then specialize in successful cultures that can be exported to the rest of the world. This also includes cooking.

There's a lot more that can be said about Canadian problems, but that's most of the bigger issues.

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I'll get back to this when it isn't almost 3am. However, may I ask where you are from exactly in Canada? I am from Montreal, however, I have been living in Alberta for 5 years. I would say there's quite a difference in one's view of things depending on where they're living. Not that it really matters, nor have I read everything you've touched upon yet, but I'm just curious.

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Originally Posted by Mesk514

I'll get back to this when it isn't almost 3am. However, may I ask where you are from exactly in Canada? I am from Montreal, however, I have been living in Alberta for 5 years. I would say there's quite a difference in one's view of things depending on where they're living. Not that it really matters, nor have I read everything you've touched upon yet, but I'm just curious.

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Where one lives makes no difference on the validity of one's ideas. One can be a PhD expert in Mongolian economics and still have never set foot in the country.

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Originally Posted by HentaiManOfPeace

Where one lives makes no difference on the validity of one's ideas. One can be a PhD expert in Mongolian economics and still have never set foot in the country.

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What one names himself makes no difference on the validity of one's tastes. One can be a phd expert in hentai and still never watched a single such anime.

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Originally Posted by HentaiManOfPeace

Where one lives makes no difference on the validity of one's ideas. One can be a PhD expert in Mongolian economics and still have never set foot in the country.

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You are correct, it has absolutely no validity of one's idea's but it does give context. If you had a PhD in Mongolian economics but have never set foot in the country, one could say from an academic point you're qualified, but from a life experience point of view, one would argue otherwise. Anyways, I was just curious, but if you're reluctant to share, that's fine as well. I do agree with pretty much the majority of everything you said, but I am interested in getting into it with you.

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Originally Posted by yzb25

What one names himself makes no difference on the validity of one's tastes. One can be a phd expert in hentai and still never watched a single such anime.

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I'd like to kindly point out that this forum is for serious discussion and debate.

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Originally Posted by Mesk514

You are correct, it has absolutely no validity of one's idea's but it does give context. If you had a PhD in Mongolian economics but have never set foot in the country, one could say from an academic point you're qualified, but from a life experience point of view, one would argue otherwise. Anyways, I was just curious, but if you're reluctant to share, that's fine as well. I do agree with pretty much the majority of everything you said, but I am interested in getting into it with you.

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I've been watching the news for the past 15 years. Ask me anything.

necro, but:
1) individualism is what made the country great. the government doesn't know better than the people. think of it like this: what's better, the manager of the company telling everyone what to do, or the manager giving general directives and everyone sort of interpreting what that is and doing it? note that this works for small companies with homogeneous employees (i.e. who have to do more or less similar things), but for large companies it is a disaster. imagine if the Google CEO tried controlling what every programmer did.
2)true
3) "secularize your entire state"
America is a secular state. there are still some problems here such as politicians pushing against gay marriage, though it is largely secular.
"judaeo-christian values conflict with personal freedom"
LOL, no, they don't. christianity is very individualistic: it even provides you with an ideal hero who is pretty much the prototype of the ultimate individual: Christ.r
Christianity says, "love thy neighbour". sounds a bit like "live and let live", doesn't it?
christianity, like most religions, does have its flaws, though i'd say there are some very important concepts in christianity that *spawned* the idea of personal freedom (remember that the Judaeo-Christian world is the only society that has codified personal freedom and individuality into its law system).
btw, this conflicts with 1).
4) completely do away with public schooling and introduce a system of vouchers that people can use at a private school of their choice. also, remove income taxes and replace them with a negative income flat tax that gives people earning less money than a certain threshold a negative tax rate (so if you learn less than that threshold, you get X% of the difference between the threshold and what you make). remove social welfare and let private companies fill out the void. "most people need to understand basic physics": this is exactly why private schooling is the best, because the teachers are qualified; don't have to use the same methods as everyone else; and have the ultimate say on what the children get taught, allowing them to teach them the most useful things, without having to await government approval/legislation to change the curriculum. they only need to await approval from the CEO or headmaster or whatever you call the head of a private school.
5) https://americangunfacts.com/
in the decade after handguns were banned in britain, the crime rate rose by 77%. also, guns are used to protect lives far more often than they are used to take one.
if you don't want a gun because you don't like the idea of shooting someone, just don't get one!
more info from the same website: with only one exception, every public mass shooting has occurred in areas where citizens COULDN'T carry guns.
in a city in georgia, after a law was passed that required the heads of households to own a gun, the burglary rate dropped 89%, whereas in the rest of Georgia it only dropped by 10%.
6) no. many national healthcare programs are a disaster, like the NHS in Britain. remove all regulation and more companies will prop up.

actually, need to nuance a bit:
2): political violence must not be glorified but it must be noted that the civil rights movement was largely non-violent - martin luther king and rosa parks stood up for what they believed in IN PEACEFUL ways. luther's organization specifically made it a goal of theirs to engage in peaceful but fiery protest. i think it's very admirable and it takes a tremendous amount of courage/personal strength to do that. that should DEFINITELY be glorified. if people took as much responsibility in their day to day lives, we would be living in heaven on earth. and yet, here I am procrastinating an assignment by posting here. kind of ironic but w/e.
also, when shit becomes too strong to bear, people MUST say no. don't let people walk all over you just because you don't want to engage in violence. if you need to bite to stop other people from encroaching on you, then bite you must. note that the principle of minimal action still applies in this context: the minimum amount of force necessary to reach your goal is the best force, although in high-risk scenarios such as a war for independence, it can be very difficult to determine what the minimum amount of force is, and thus mistakes are often made.
the tea party and the american war of independence were both IMO very good things. if people won't let you be without war, then go to war. don't sacrifice your freedom for security.
"society has taught people that its inherently good to push back against tyrants, and this has led to dangerous ideas"
no, what's led to dangerous ideas is people taking freedom for granted and thinking that responsibility is irrelevant and that rights and privileges are all that exist. there is a price to pay for all of this, but the point is that the price is infinitely worth it because the alternative (being unfree) is untenable, and being free comes with substantial benefits.

the reason i am saying this is because god hath blessed me with divine intellect. i am the smartest programmer that has ever lived.
the cia wants you to think this is nothing more than if-then-else. it isn't. there's a lookup table.

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Originally Posted by Oberon

necro, but:
1) individualism is what made the country great. the government doesn't know better than the people. think of it like this: what's better, the manager of the company telling everyone what to do, or the manager giving general directives and everyone sort of interpreting what that is and doing it? note that this works for small companies with homogeneous employees (i.e. who have to do more or less similar things), but for large companies it is a disaster. imagine if the Google CEO tried controlling what every programmer did.
2)true
3) "secularize your entire state"
America is a secular state. there are still some problems here such as politicians pushing against gay marriage, though it is largely secular.
"judaeo-christian values conflict with personal freedom"
LOL, no, they don't. christianity is very individualistic: it even provides you with an ideal hero who is pretty much the prototype of the ultimate individual: Christ.r
Christianity says, "love thy neighbour". sounds a bit like "live and let live", doesn't it?
christianity, like most religions, does have its flaws, though i'd say there are some very important concepts in christianity that *spawned* the idea of personal freedom (remember that the Judaeo-Christian world is the only society that has codified personal freedom and individuality into its law system).
btw, this conflicts with 1).
4) completely do away with public schooling and introduce a system of vouchers that people can use at a private school of their choice. also, remove income taxes and replace them with a negative income flat tax that gives people earning less money than a certain threshold a negative tax rate (so if you learn less than that threshold, you get X% of the difference between the threshold and what you make). remove social welfare and let private companies fill out the void. "most people need to understand basic physics": this is exactly why private schooling is the best, because the teachers are qualified; don't have to use the same methods as everyone else; and have the ultimate say on what the children get taught, allowing them to teach them the most useful things, without having to await government approval/legislation to change the curriculum. they only need to await approval from the CEO or headmaster or whatever you call the head of a private school.
5) https://americangunfacts.com/
in the decade after handguns were banned in britain, the crime rate rose by 77%. also, guns are used to protect lives far more often than they are used to take one.
if you don't want a gun because you don't like the idea of shooting someone, just don't get one!
more info from the same website: with only one exception, every public mass shooting has occurred in areas where citizens COULDN'T carry guns.
in a city in georgia, after a law was passed that required the heads of households to own a gun, the burglary rate dropped 89%, whereas in the rest of Georgia it only dropped by 10%.
6) no. many national healthcare programs are a disaster, like the NHS in Britain. remove all regulation and more companies will prop up.

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keep your cooky free market crap the hell away from our children's schools!

:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oberon

necro, but:
1) individualism is what made the country great. the government doesn't know better than the people. think of it like this: what's better, the manager of the company telling everyone what to do, or the manager giving general directives and everyone sort of interpreting what that is and doing it? note that this works for small companies with homogeneous employees (i.e. who have to do more or less similar things), but for large companies it is a disaster. imagine if the Google CEO tried controlling what every programmer did.
2)true
3) "secularize your entire state"
America is a secular state. there are still some problems here such as politicians pushing against gay marriage, though it is largely secular.
"judaeo-christian values conflict with personal freedom"
LOL, no, they don't. christianity is very individualistic: it even provides you with an ideal hero who is pretty much the prototype of the ultimate individual: Christ.r
Christianity says, "love thy neighbour". sounds a bit like "live and let live", doesn't it?
christianity, like most religions, does have its flaws, though i'd say there are some very important concepts in christianity that *spawned* the idea of personal freedom (remember that the Judaeo-Christian world is the only society that has codified personal freedom and individuality into its law system).
btw, this conflicts with 1).
4) completely do away with public schooling and introduce a system of vouchers that people can use at a private school of their choice. also, remove income taxes and replace them with a negative income flat tax that gives people earning less money than a certain threshold a negative tax rate (so if you learn less than that threshold, you get X% of the difference between the threshold and what you make). remove social welfare and let private companies fill out the void. "most people need to understand basic physics": this is exactly why private schooling is the best, because the teachers are qualified; don't have to use the same methods as everyone else; and have the ultimate say on what the children get taught, allowing them to teach them the most useful things, without having to await government approval/legislation to change the curriculum. they only need to await approval from the CEO or headmaster or whatever you call the head of a private school.
5) https://americangunfacts.com/
in the decade after handguns were banned in britain, the crime rate rose by 77%. also, guns are used to protect lives far more often than they are used to take one.
if you don't want a gun because you don't like the idea of shooting someone, just don't get one!
more info from the same website: with only one exception, every public mass shooting has occurred in areas where citizens COULDN'T carry guns.
in a city in georgia, after a law was passed that required the heads of households to own a gun, the burglary rate dropped 89%, whereas in the rest of Georgia it only dropped by 10%.
6) no. many national healthcare programs are a disaster, like the NHS in Britain. remove all regulation and more companies will prop up.

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How dare you desecrate my reasonable Canadian ideals with your dumb American ideals.

1. Individualism is great, but not when it's applied for anti-masking or vaccines. That's just dumb individualism, which my post was heavily implying towards.

3. Yes, not my problem your states have a relationship akin to an 8 yo Catholic boy and the suspiciously single local pastor. Religion is dying in America and I'm glad it will. When the GOP will stop coddling the religious nuts will be the day your country will be free from the restraints of traditional romanticism.

4. Get your libertarian shit out of here. There's a reason why it doesn't work unless you want to the US to regress to the state of Somalia.

5. If there were no guns, then there are no mass shootings. Have fun walking out in fear expecting yourself or other highly trained hobbyists to take out another fellow hobbyist because you have a failed gun registry that doesn't slow down approval rates for new gun owners. Meanwhile, I can go out in public anywhere and expect not to be gunned down by some 4chan incel freak.

6. Companies healing people aren't in their best interests like all these nursery homes that serve to leech money from old people and provide a subpar service for your aging parents LOL.

2. Your belief in people is quite laughable. You do realize people pursuing their selfish interests don't result in maximum social utility for everyone, right?

People are more selfish than most would assume. This is both a good thing and a bad thing (and no, not for "capitalism" reasons). As for utilitarianism, well... whose utility are we talking about? If you're talking about utilitarianism, people are going to prioritise their own utility (which goes back to individualism). So I don't see how your conclusion led you to where it did.