You don't have to pull things out of your ass to make a point, you know. This goofus has been hammered by multiple liberals in this thread, including myself. Yet you can't help yourself, Trader_J. You still have to spew the expected crap, even when you don't have to... or I should say that spewing this kind of BS is what you live for here. Heaven forbid that you take a position also taken by liberals and admit it. Your personal hell would freeze over. D&D. Attempt Civility! Impeach Bush for Creating Idiots.
Your idiocy is the current white man's burden. ... And therrrrrrrressssss Deckard! the amazing self-appointed emissary of the D&D just stirring up more **** for T_J to feed upon. Good lord I hardly even come here but the fact that you guys still try to engage him in argument form is hilarious. Talk about beating your heads against a stone wall. High-larious.
Don't kid yourself. I know exactly why Trader_J comes here. Some of us "engage him" because not everyone realizes the guy is simply a joke. Besides, it can be fun. D&D. Attempt Civility! Impeach Bush for Holding Hands with an Idiot.
Alright, aside from the bad writing and somewhat offensive overtone, the guy actually has a semi-argument going. He seems to be advocating a policy of isolationism where we "ming our own business" and nothing else. He seems to think that the "White Man's Burden" is still in play as far as 'civilizing' the 'lesser' cultures and 'showing them the way' to salvation. Although overstated, there is definitely some element of that in our foreign policy and has been over the last century or so. More recently, there is the "promote democracy and freedom because all men are born free/yearn for freedom" preaching by the current administration. Spreading democracy is certainly a form of promoting our cultural values abroad (in some cases, forcing our cultural values on others in the process of nation-building). So aside from piling on the guy (legitimate as it may be), what do you think of the 'merits' of the above argument? Disclaimer: I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that the above is what he meant to say.
tiger, if I ever make an incoherent, bigoted post to start a thread, will you come in and attempt to clean things up for me? Pretty please?? D&D. Attempt Civility! Impeach Bush for Holding Hands with an Idiot.
tigermission, well done...*that* I understood. and funnily enough, I agree While I can feel bad for folks in second or third world countries for not having the benefits we have here, I also feel it isn't our perogative to go force feed it to them. Lets try to communicate and have good relations with the other countries that are important parts of the world economy, and let the other nations come to prosperity in their own time, under their own volition. Support organizations that go and help out distressed people like the Red Cross adn other similar charities if you want, but lets keep our government out of their affairs. we can barely manage our own.
The White Man's Burdon: 1. Public sanitation : garbage services, sanitary sewers, clean water supply 2. Medical Services: Sterile germ free enviroments, medical research 3. Democratic tradition: free and fair elections 4. Individualism and work ethic. The White Man's Curse: 1. Greed 2. Intolerance (religious and cultural) 3. A total lack of humor, rhythm or joie de vivre. 4. A total lack of self-doubt or healthy introspection (as a race, not as individuals)
The argument is that we have no obligation to help those less fortunate than ourselves, more than that, it is somehow bad if we choose to do so. Suffice it to say that I disagree.
How do you know they are less fortunate? Are they less fortunate by your (our) standards? Their own? Some ratings that an organization gives? How do you know that they are not content with their situation?
It's because I have eyes. I am not blinded by the veil of cultural relativism. I have no trouble recognizing that America is better than Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Congo, etc. A bum can be content with his situation, but that doesn't mean he isn't less fortunate than me. Unless you recognize facts and stop thinking everything is subjective, you will never understand this philosophy. I would say it is more like the international equivalent of charity, as no one is forcing the giver to provide the aid and the people receiving it do not have a sense of entitlement. The UN is international welfare.
Don't be jealous, Jorge. You are still the undisputed king of racist posts on this board. No one can take that away from you.
Is anyone content with starving to death? On a moral plane, we as a rich nation have an obligation to help those in need. 3 billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day. Is there any doubt that these people would be happier if they had more money, more food, better housing, and more accountable governments, saying nothing of freedom, democracy and peace? Also, American aid serves as a tool of foreign policy. We use aid to gain international good standing, win friends (both military and economic) and uphold America's position as the "good guy" of the world. Arguing that isolationism would help the United States is purely bogus. Think of how much benefit we receive from trade with other nations. Not only do we reap economic benefits, we also don't run the risk of having nations attack us. Would China ever attack us? Hell no, they are far too dependent on us economically. Nobody with any sense of America's place in the world would advocate isolationism.
Or Bill Cosby. I can talk about Whitey because I am whitey. The Anglo/Christian ethic is responsible for a lot of the technical and social advancement of mankind. The kind of things I wouldn't want to live without; like elections, soft toilet paper and TV. But the prosperity of western societies, all the way back to the Greeks was built on the exploitation of other peoples : Greek slaves , Roman Slaves, Spanish exploitation of the New World, Anglo extermination of the indigineous North America peoples, British exploitation of India and South Africa, Black Slaves transported to North and South America, exploitation of the Irish during the Great Famine (well, they were Catholic) Jim Crow Laws, Lax enforcement of immigration laws to allow the exploitation of Hispanics. The justification is often the guise of bringing the true religion to the people but the truth is it is really about greed; exploiting the less powerful to enrich the more powerful. Now, how could societies sanction this behavior if they truly examined their actions? It takes a real stretch of dehumanization for Christian religions to enslave people. How much hubris would it take to declare a policy of Manifest Destiny over a continent. Humor, generally arises as a weapon of the weak to stike out against the stong. If you want to maintain an aura of strenth, you don't make fun of yourself. Joie de vivre generally arises out of the acceptance of the inevitable. Anglo/Christian societies beleive their reward for hard work and piety comes after death. That's not exactly basis to party hearty. Rythmn?......please!
We elect people to make those choices for us. Being in office is all the mandate our elected officials need to act as they see fit. If you don't like the choices that are being made, vote for someone you think will make different choices. Sometimes your guy will win, other times not. It sucks that the country is not run the way I want it run, but that is Democracy for you.
if you are white you don't understand what it's like to be discriminated by an entire system, ok you were poor too, you have social issue too, the system is ruled by you still, when it comes down to it racism is a big factor in social desparity, it gets frustrating that's all god's son is sayin this is a cleverly disguised thread to expose racists