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zorba1010

(8 posts)
9. AMERICAN EXCEPTUALISM
Tue Feb 14, 2012, 12:01 AM
Feb 2012

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Just what does American Exceptionalism mean? Personally, I have no idea; however, some of my conservative friends do. They cite the ravings of Beck, Limbaugh, and politicians like Romney and Pawlenty as they rail against Obama for apologizing to countries for crimes we have committed against those countries. Never mind what we had done in the past to the American Indians, to the African Americans, to the Chinese who built our railroads, and to the Mexicans. Let's just go back to 1953 and 1954 when we backed a coup in Iran and imposed a brutal dictator on the Iranian people, which lasted for nearly 27 years. About that time we sent troops into Vietnam and called them ''advisors''. By the end of that conflict 58,000 Americans had been killed. But there also were three million Vietnamese who were killed, in their own land. Because of our actions in Laos and Cambodia, more than a couple of hundred thousand of their people also died. We backed a military junta while they killed thousands of their own people in Argentina, and led the coup against a democratically elected President, Salvador Allende, in Chile. And again, we saddled a country with a vicious dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who tortured and killed thousands of Chileans. Saddam's gassing his own people was fine with the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations, so we continued to support him until he invaded Kuwait. But let's attack Obama for exhibiting compassion and decency! "We are Americans. We don't apologize''. I write, because I am speechless.
I once admired the stupid for following leaders who were smarter than they were, but the stupid have drifted to the right and now follow the more stupid. As an example, let's take Bill O'Reilly. About two months ago, he engaged an atheist in debate on his show. As serious as a small pox epidemic, looking the atheist in the eye, O'Reilly blurted out, "Tide in, tide out!" The atheist was stunned, as was I. O'Reilly continued, ''No one can explain ocean tides." O'Reilly was right about that. No one can explain ocean tides--except every elementary school student on the face of this planet. But Bill wasn't finished. ''Who put the moon and the sun up there?'' He expected the atheist to fold under that brilliant logic. Let me put my two cents in here: I say it was the tooth fairy who put the sun and the moon in into orbit. I challenge anyone to disprove it. No one can. Think I'm crazy? Try to disprove it. You see, I am the one who must prove that the tooth fairy achieved that miraculous feat. It is not the atheist who must disprove that God created the sun and the moon; it is O'Reilly who must prove it. It was his assertion. What is terrifying is that O'Reilly is the most sane and intelligent anchor on Fox--with a huge following!
My advice to you independents is this: never, never vote for anyone who does not believe in evolution, for the evidence is everywhere--in the size of the people, in the diversity of races, and even in viruses that change to resist antibiotics. If you vote for another bible-thumper, you will get, and deserve, another George W. Bush and all the crime and incompetence that will be brought to the Presidency. These ''thumpers'' are not good people. They are afflicted with an evil sickness. Last month, my 20 year old niece sent me a video on Face Book of a young woman saying that Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami because Japan is not a Christian nation. She then said to American atheists that God loved them, but if they did not go to him, they will experience a similar fate. This mentality is not uncommon with Christian Conservatives. There are millions of them who believe this drivel. If these are the people you will find in Heaven, I will take my chances with the character in the red suit who has horns and a tail. Thank you, niece, for sending me the video.
Donald Trump was running for President. He waned to see Obama's birth certificate. I want to see his, because I have never seen a head like that in my life. Look closely at Trump's head. Is that not the head of an alien? Three or four wives, bankruptcies, undeserved arrogance, and he wants to be President? I have only one more thing to say about Trump: be wary of the man who wields superlatives. If you don't know what that means, then I'm quite sure you are a conservative. Is Trump smart, or just rich? I know he's rich, but don't know much about his intellect. I do know what an intelligent person is. It is someone who can incorporate knowledge with logic. Does anyone know of a conservative who possesses both of these qualities? I doubt it. The definition of the word ''conservative'' implies stupidity. You don't believe it? Open up your dictionary--''status quo, resistance to change''. Now what else can that mean? I worry about my conservative friends when they enter a revolving door. "Resistance to change'', I think. ''How will they find their war out''.
In the last forty years we have had only one intelligent republican President--Nixon, and he was a criminal. The rest of them were either average or below average. Nixon thought Reagan was not smart enough to be President. Reagan's own aids said that he was disengaged and knew little about history. He knew just enough, though, to commit the Iran/Contra crime, and lie about it. He knew enough to invade Grenada because there were Cubans on the island, but not enough to invade Cuba where ten million Cubans lived. He knew enough to deregulate the Savings and Loan industry, opening it up to all sorts of fraud and collapsing the industry, causing one of the great stock market crashes in history. He knew enough to take advice from his wife, who took advice from astrologer Joan Quigley three times a week--in the White House! He knew enough to believe in Armageddon, which scared the hell out of his aids. Yes, he knew enough, but none of it made any sense. The conservatives made Reagan their greatest hero. I do know that conservatives ''think''. They think that reason is a dried grape. In their minds, who needs logic.
I have three conservative friends who belong to unions. Because of their membership, they have some security and pension benefits. They see what is going on in some states where republicans are trying to bust the unions, and still they vote for the right-wingers. They will receive checks from their unions when they retire, checks from social security, and they will have Medicare. One of my friends is a tea-bagger! Who do they think fought and won these benefits for them, Joe the plumber?
Allow me to return to American Exceptionalism. About forty years ago in Vietnam, Lt. William Calley led his platoon to a killing spree. They murdered old men, women, children and babies--more than five hundred of them. The only weapon the Vietnamese had was one butter knife, unsharpened. If it were not for an American helicopter captain, they would have slaughtered the rest of the village. The captain landed his helicopter between Calley's men and the villagers and ordered the butchers to lay their weapons down, or he would fire on them. The cowards laid their guns down. We did not apologize for that massacre. Not one of these men did one day in prison. Calley served three years under house arrest and then released. The American captain received hate mail and death threats from Americans! In 1988, the U.S.S. Vinscennze shot down an Iranian airliner with 290 on board--thirty of them children. The Vinscennze lied about why it shot the plane down. This happened while the airliner was taking off from its own airport. Conservatives think that we are special, and don't have to apologize. Yes, we could be the greatest country on earth again, if we can convince the neo-conservatives to migrate to Texas and the rest of the bible-belt. We'll even throw in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Until we behave in the interest of humanity, and not just our own, we will never be exceptional.

R.T.

Yah, You Betcha! astral May 2011 #1
It's fun for me. OswegoAtheist Dec 2011 #2
Post removed Post removed Jan 2012 #6
Before you can debunk it, someone has to bunk it. postulater Dec 2011 #3
But with all the bunkers hunkering down in their bunkers, that's a difficult thing to do. Squinch Jun 2013 #28
It's a bunk. Funtatlaguy Aug 2019 #47
There is almost too much propaganda that needs debunking to deal with. JDPriestly Dec 2011 #4
AMERICAN EXCEPTUALISM zorba1010 Feb 2012 #9
I have been reading a book entitled "The Middle Sea." JDPriestly Nov 2012 #21
after 20 years reading about the diadochi wars i can just about rampartc Oct 2018 #44
Spam deleted by NRaleighLiberal (MIR Team) SandyLouis Jan 2013 #24
The sad part is that Manifest Destiny Dec 2014 #35
It's about lying SheriffBob Jun 2016 #40
My Recommendation For Addressing overwhelming amounts of propaganda toddmiller Nov 2012 #20
One more thing Lefty Nast Jun 2013 #25
pipeline jobs are mostly temporary. Maxheader Jul 2021 #48
Here's one fprefect Jan 2012 #5
link does not work. chknltl May 2012 #12
Just posted a whole thread dedicated to debunking of Tea Party agitprop. AverageJoe90 Feb 2012 #7
The Hatred I Hear From the Right-Wing Nuts Charming Feb 2012 #8
Just about every commercial on TV is propaganda these days 4dsc Apr 2012 #10
John Lennon explained it in SheriffBob Jun 2016 #41
I hope someone reads this. MynameisBlarney Apr 2012 #11
call this idiot out by asking for proof chknltl May 2012 #13
Dubya spent more vacation time than any other President in history Lefty Nast Jun 2013 #27
check this white cloud Aug 2012 #16
They will never listen to facts...humor is the best weapon Lefty Nast Jun 2013 #26
Good place to check facts Snopes.com MarvelUs Aug 2012 #14
Also white cloud Aug 2012 #15
Many thanks white cloud. Ghost Dog Aug 2012 #17
Snopes jonpaulprime Oct 2012 #19
Here is why Biden didn't close the FINAL punch. Hopefully Obama will. **PLEASE LISTEN** ConcernedCitizen111 Oct 2012 #18
thread a few years old rampartc Oct 2018 #45
Post removed Post removed Dec 2012 #22
One Big Bit of Propaganda is that the Bankers shouldn't go to jail billy_j Dec 2012 #23
If it sounds like RW talk, pass it off as RW talk, do sone research to debunk Thinkingabout Apr 2014 #29
Message auto-removed Name removed Aug 2014 #31
propaganda zach.magee May 2014 #30
Human beings did not coexists with dinosaurs blueboy2727 Nov 2014 #32
Well, that's part of the creationist's propaganda toolkit progree Nov 2014 #33
Oh, I know blueboy2727 Nov 2014 #34
Yellow cake Chimeradog Feb 2015 #36
Yeah Ghost Dog Feb 2015 #37
thanks Chimeradog Mar 2015 #38
What Democrats and Republicans Actually Believe http://chuckingrocks.com/uspolbeliefs/ chuckingrocks Nov 2015 #39
Troll farms ParanoidFactoid Feb 2017 #42
A New Toy Proposed: Lying Donald Bretton Garcia Jul 2017 #43
Every time I see blatant propaganda on Twitter ... cgralow Jan 2019 #46
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