Why does The USA get to be called "America" ?? America is two continents. South America and North America. So, am I not american, if I am canadian?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 3 2007, 12:16 am by O)Matt_Burch.

That's ignorance right there. First of all, I'm assuming these 'other countries' you mention are European ones. They wouldn't be ruled by Hitler; if anything they would be Communist as it is possible that the USSR would have defeated Germany had the US not entered the war. By the way - the US didn't enter the war on the side of Europe - it declared war on Japan to protect its interests in the Pacific. Germany then made the senseless gaffe of declaring war on the US, which brought them into the European war.

I don't hate the USA. I think its foreign policy is terrible, its people worryingly nationalist and that it has an easily-corruptible electoral system. I also think its institutions are slightly racist and xenophobic (biased towards white protestants) and that it cares little for the individual. This is a typical European point of view. Our perspective was changed radically by WW2 and the post-war period. The US has been isolated from this - the mainland never saw war like we did. Ideas such as nationalism and the 'every man for himself' philosophy become hollow in the aftermath of the death and destruction suffered across Europe.

The US, however, is a beautiful place and the people are very friendly. I have American relatives and we have family friends in Massachusetts. I have been to the country three times and each time was great. It is unfortunate that being the number one country in the world, you are far more thoroughly scrutinised and therefore criticised.

CaptainWill says it perfectly

But really, America's image is widely varied becase America really is widely varied. I mean New York City, Chicago, and their suburbs are truly great places to live, but Europe is preferrable to the semi-rural areas in the south.

As for the nation as a whole, America really should not have gone to the middle east. It was either a greed for oil, which is bad, or a sad attempt to fix the area's political system through militaristic means, which is worse.

A world ruled by Hitler would, in my thoughts, be COMPLETELY HORRIBLE on the way there, but COMPLETELY PEACEFUL once it was reached. Hitler viewed an Earth inhabited by his form of a perfect man. He wanted to unite the Earth under his banner, which is actually a good idea (however corrupt his ideas were). This should not be achieved by militaristic means, and not for the reason of "a perfect man." The Earth should be united as one, with one government discerned "best of them all" by a vast majority of men. Thusly, there would be nothing to criticize besides yourselves. Personally, i do not believe that an Earth based off of the U.S.A. would be the best Earth. ...i see it like in civilization IV: all the fun is when you start your civilization and there is almost nobody else that you know of, but then you expand and eventually the world runs out of land and everyone starts to hate each other and criticize each other.

A world ruled by hitler would be peaceful, sure, but Germans will account for a 1/3 of the world's population and the rest will be used as slaves.

And as for Earth as one, united under one government, that is basically global communism which probably won't fare better than every communist nation ever attempted.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 3 2007, 3:14 pm by M s4.

Right, Hitler would end the Holocoaust and and everyone would all be fine and happy about it. Nobody would start an uprising over his fascist views and their lack of freedom.

he was planning on destroying everyone but the people who followed him... his "perfect people"... and im not saying a global communism, but something similar to a global democracy, or whatever form of government, discerned best by a majority of the people.

I live in Sweden, if you were serious now: What is making the nordic countries perfect compared to the US?

I don't really have any opinion about the issues within US or any views on how US is working at all. But it seems like this country cares too much about things they don't have to care about - USA has to have a piece of every cake.

America isn't a douche bag country. If it was a douchebag country, there would be at least 100 stars on the flag by now.

It's mostly just sitting there chillin keeping an eye on things. Making sure there isn't a WWIII. because unlike WWI and WWII, WWIII is just bad for business.

I don't have much to say on America. I've lived here, on the East coast, my entire life. It's fine I guess. Except most people's general attitude towards America. The people cannot be judged based on the actions of their leaders. Sure we "vote" for our leader. But its not like we really choose who leads the country. We basically have a choice between two people, either a rebuplican, or Democrat. Of course there are other parties, but they never have a chance at winning an actual election. The thing I hate most is when I hear "Stupid Americans" just because of the action of ONE american. I'm personally tired of all the problems this country really does have. We use up so many of the resources, and it feels like so much information is really being kept from us by our government. I don't know, I'm moving to Canada as soon as I get the chance. Its cold the way I like it, and they just sit up there and chill. Don't really bother anyone... eh.

I was referring to MillenniumArmy's comment that no economic/political system is comparable to the United States. His statement is obviously highly opinionated.

One big piece of evidence is that some of the Nordic countries are consistently ranked as the highest standard of living in the world. I would think its the unique mix of socialism in these countries.

lol, fortunately not a problem that affects me currently and not likely to ever affect me. (sort of a history of thin people in the family, and I'm one of the thinner ones)

Bad for business indeed. That's an ironic and accurate thing to say, now that I think about it.

I'm sure we all agree the interests of oil companies didn't have any kind of hand in the middle east or anything. I think businesses will rule the world eventually. By proxy, of course. If not already.

I finished reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle recently and I think America is not as bad as it could be, or has been.

Tux, though, that's a funny idea. There are just too many businesses in the world for that to really be a possibility, and how many do you actually think want to control a country?

Google and Wal-mart want to take over the world.

If oil companies control America, as so many of you believe, then why do we still tax them?

Maybe it is a cover up?

I like America except for the fact we as a nation don't care enough about politics and such until it affects our life in a bad way. Most people didn't care about Bush winning his first presidential election until all the 9/11 stuff happened, but seriously if people are going to complain about Bush they had every chance to vote for someone else in both of his elections. It is also the duty of a citizen to be informed, ignorance is not an excuse.

I too fall into the category of the uninformed but I see why it is important that I should be.

lol I always thought they should stop calling US america because as said above there's north america and South America. I thought they should be called Ustrians instead of americans.