Face it or don't but America is a corrupt and criminal shell of a country

[mullard12ax7]

We destroyed ourselves and only a few people even recognize it, and the few who do are limited to sites like this one. Mainstream "Amurika" is just fine with torture, throwing women under the bus, hating gays, illegal wars, bailing out criminal banks and lying and cheating to get ahead.

We've devoured ourselves and let ourselves become delusional and dumbed-down propaganda-reactive robots. Everybody hates each other now, gen-whatever hates older or younger people, corporations hate citizens and vice-versa, government works largely for itself and not people, intellectuals are minimalized and largely ignored, consumerism is what matters to most people.

We let criminals of all sorts go free now, as if we're a lawless 3rd-world country. Guess what? We are.

[Subdivisions]

1. One GIGANTIC Ponzi Scheme. n/t

[Initech]

4. Yup and Madoff's the only one who got caught so far.

Mark my words though - everyone of those cocksuckers will get caught eventually.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. I blame hate radio and the megachurches (sounds like a band name)

These two sources -- more than any others I can think of -- have paved the way for American acceptance of the corruption you described.

The loss of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of the Southern Baptists were probably the two key events that opened Pandora's Box.

[get the red out]

6. I absolutely agree

No one wants to look at this. All progress stopped in this nation with the rise of these two hideous entities. Both just branches of the same corporate powered monster that controls the Republican Party.

If this were another country everyone in the US would be talking about what a shame it was that that country was being destroyed in such a way, through propaganda. But it's our country and it is just about lost. These people represent a minority of the population but they wield more power than anything else, that is NOT democracy or freedom.

[paulsby]

3. i face that america is stil a great country

, while acknowledging that is has warts and all (always has , always will).

and everybody does not "hate each other now". you are just a victim of media propaganda... not surprising.

i work with dems, repubs, libertarians, etc. i don't know ANYBODY who hates somebody else because of their politics. they exist, but in the real world (as opposed to partisan zones like DU), most people don't hate based on race, or politics, etc.

my neighborhood is a perfect example. one neighbor of mine is about as "staunch" as you can get in terms of republicanism. the guy on the other side is about as left as you can get. they (and I) get along great, barbeque together, help each other out, etc.

your op imo is just rhetoric and rubbish. "corporations hate citizens and vice-versa?"

really? let's see a poll that shows that the majority of citizens "hate corporations". i strongly doubt that.

[napi21]

7. I don't think it's much different now than it ever was. WE have ups &

downs. It goes in cycles, albeit long ones. Back in the early 20's a handful of rich & their corporations controlled the country. There was a crash, and although it took a lot of years to recover, it finally did. We had quite a few years of small waves but mostly everything was ok. We're going through that cycle again.

The big diff. now is there is so much more information and so many more sources of info. we just hear a lot more.

[paulsby]

13. exactly

the big difference now is 24 hr sensationalist news, and the widespread existence of blogs, cell phone cameras, etc.

many people here even don't understand that crime rate is down drastically over the last few decades. just because stuff is splashed across various websites doesn't make it more prominent.

btw, in the 20's, a very high percentage of "average folks" were "invested" in the stock market, and i put invested in quotes because many people used massive leverage in corner bucket shops (10:1 leverage was not unheard of). one famous investor pulled his money out of the stock market because he overheard an elevator operator bragging what a killing he was making in the stock market.

talk about "irrational exuberance!"

[arcadian]

21. What is it, paulsby? Is the U.S. different or is it the same?

You claim both in your response. People that bloviate about the staus quo are doing TPTB's work for them. Status quo thinkers also tend to be conservative so your response is not surprising.

[paulsby]

22. different or the same

as what?

my point is that the US is a wonderful country, warts and all, that bubbles have happened before and will happen again (they've occurred for centuries. look at the dutch tulip bulb scandal for instance)

the US is different from most of europe, if that is what you mean. we don't have universal hc (bad), but we have much greater speech rights, RKBA, etc.

[Hannah Bell]

35. "a very high percentage of "average folks" were "invested" in the stock market"

no, they weren't.

not unless your definition of "average folks" differs from that of most average folks.

[Romulox]

25. "great" in what way, precisely?

:shrug:

[paulsby]

29. in many ways

our unparalleled respect for free speech (i have searched laws in a few dozen countries. i have yet to find one that has broader speech rights), RKBA, religious freedom, economic opportunity, culture (and i know many people here would criticize this, but i think we have a diverse vibrant inventive culture... ), natural resources and beauty, environmental diversity (hawaii, alaska, mountains, plains, desert, etc.), democratic republic structure, constitution, and of course... our people

[get the red out]

5. Yes

Not much more to say about what you wrote but "yes".

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. And the last nation-state to which this did *not* apply is...... n/t

[Echo In Light]

9. "It is nowhere written that the United States, in its guise as an empire dominating the world...

....must go on forever. The blowback from the second half of the twentieth century has only just begun." ~ Chalmers Johnson, Sorrows of Empire

[cali]

10. sigh. face it, you're merely presenting an opinion not a fact.

This country is a mixed bag. Always has been.

Your ignorance, shiny and on display in your dismally intellectually bankrupt op, is hardly something to be proud of.

[Naturyl]

11. We are the very best third world nation on Earth.

[Echo In Light]

12. Especially b/c so few realize it! The best type of slave is one who fails to realize his lot in life

[Naturyl]

14. Bingo.

Although actually, the best type of slave is one so brainwashed they will actually *defend* their own enslavement - and America is full of those.

[Echo In Light]

15. _

Gas Station Proprietor: "I didn't put nothin' up."

Anton Chigurh: "Yes, you did. You've been putting it up your whole life, you just didn't know it."

[Naturyl]

17. That's a great movie.

That guy re-defines badass.

[Romulox]

26. I prefer to think of us as the worst of the developed countries.

I guess yours is the glass-half-full POV. :shrug:

[taught_me_patience]

16. I have no doubt the American Empire is on the decline

However, empires can be on a decline for a long time. The roman empire was on the decline for over 400 years. The British empire ended pretty quickly, but Britian still seems like a pretty nice place to live.

[Cleita]

18. It is among the power brokers or elite of this country.

On the other hand we, the unwashed masses, must obey the law or end up in jail. We need to overthrow these crooks somehow. I'm not into revolution in the strict sense. I saw too much of that when I lived in South America and somehow the same crooks always managed to get back into power each time after a few token lamp pole executions. I also feel our Constitution is still the best. We need to add a few amendments to it to update it but that will never happen until we get rid of the rot at the top. We need to run them out somehow and make sure they never get back into positions of power again. I say we start going after them with RICO and topple them one by one. The rest should go running to a safe haven like Dubai by the time they see we mean business.

[keepthemhonest]

19. that sounds about right. nt

[dem mba]

20. yea right

because America was so harmonious before these last few years.

women were already under the bus until suffrage, civil rights and the women's lib movement. we've had numerous illegal wars and "military excursions" over the past 200 years. capitalists and barons of various industries have ALWAYS run this piece. we had a fucking brother vs brother civil war and Alexander de Toqueville noted America's anti-intellectualist tendencies in the 18th century, not to mention Mencken and Twain.

it's the same corrupt shell it always was, and always will be. but let's not pretend the US is an aberration. every government in every country on this planet is like this to some extent.

[crazyjoe]

23. your right, there is no point in going on...... mr drama.

you first

[Vidar]

24. Agreed & recommended.

[blues90]

27. America has always in one form been corrupt

Actually in many forms. It was not so out on the table as it is now nor was it so open. Think of Three Days of the Condor.

We know torture exists and we know we have been lied to in so many ways it cannot be ignored with any reason applied.

I see a real difference in peoples attitudes these days.

I don't know much people will take before they explode once they take all that's going on in.

There was a time when people from either party could talk and a time where religion was not everywhere other than where it belongs in ones home or church. We were not so divided and we had an economy that people sat back and allowed it to be shipped away instead of standing together to stop it.

The steering wheel came off the bus, the driver bailed out and here many are still looking out the windows at the view.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

28. Yes, I too long for the good old days of Teapot Dome and the Stonewall riots. n/t

[branders seine]

30. capitalism is crime

this is the land of the free (market, that is)

[donheld]

31. As long as corporations own the government Yes it's corrupt!

[BrklynLiberal]

32. The truth is very painful...

[HamdenRice]

33. "let ourselves become delusional and dumbed-down propaganda-reactive robots"

I've noticed that a lot around here lately, but unfortunately in terms of political affiliation, it's an equal opportunity syndrome.

[sudopod]

34. Fixed that for ya.

Humanity is just fine with torture, throwing women under the bus, hating gays, illegal wars, bailing out criminal banks and lying and cheating to get ahead.

We've devoured ourselves and let ourselves become delusional and dumbed-down propaganda-reactive robots. Everybody hates each other now, gen-whatever hates older or younger people, corporations hate citizens and vice-versa, government works largely for itself and not people, intellectuals are minimalized and largely ignored, consumerism is what matters to most people.

[sendero]

36. Yep....

... and we haven't hit rock bottom yet, but it won't be that long.

Then we can start over.

[info being]

37. Shit...we aren't even any good at consumerism anymore

It is obviously a fat, sick, stupid, increasingly worthless culture which does too much talking and too little thinking and feeling.

I've lived abroad for 4 years and I can tell you that nobody even talks about American anymore. Irrelevant.

[tom_paine]

38. Said with brevity and clarity - K & R

[Greyhound]

39. K&R. Keep watching this one. n/t

[Kablooie]

40. But some of us are really, really, really rich so that makes it all worthwhile.