Usa! Usa! Usa!

[Tigron-X]

If someone gave you a winning lottery ticket would you celebrate? You didn't accomplish anything. Actually though, there is a lot to be proud of. America is not some nebulous external entity, it is "We The People" so any contribution, large or small is part of what makes America. I welcome others to be proud of their country; I'm pretty sure everyone can find SOMETHING to be happy about.

I wouldn't feel a sense of pride for winning the lottery. I would feel a sense of relief.

Pride is a feeling of importance, a feeling of a high degree of self worth.

How does being American make you important? How does being American define your self worth?

So you can only like a country if you used to be in a different one? I'll grant you that immigrants may appreciate America more, but there's no reason a natural-born citizen can't like it as much. If all you consider countries to be are lines on a map then you're glazing over the much more important cultural aspects.

That's not what I said. I didn't want someone arguing something like, "My father was an immigrant and he worked to get here. So he should be proud."

What I was pointing out was that this sense of pride can be experienced anywhere, so why is being American any more special than being <insert country>?

You really should stop with these terrible analogies. I'm beginning to think you have no idea what the 4th of July is actually about. I guess I should have gotten a red flag when you called it a statist holiday.

I would've called it happy farm day, but you wouldn't have gotten the metaphor. In other words, each country is like a farm extracting a human resource.

George Washington, B. Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, etc are all statists.

Your straw men are killing me, but I'll address them anyway. Since when is it a rule that you can only celebrate things that other people don't have? You're also confusing what we're celebrating about with how we're celebrating it.

No, I'm not making the confusion. I've asked for specifics and I've gotten blanket statements and booze on Sunday as an answer.

I don't know how you came up with me imposing such a rule.

Since you're labeling my points as straw men arguments, it makes me wonder if you truly understand what it is I'm asking you.

Honestly, I think you may never understand. And for that I feel sorry for you.

Don't feel sorry for me because I don't hop on the band wagon. I like knowing what it is I'm celebrating. I don't like going with the crowd just because I fear becoming a social pariah. I don't like doing things because, "They're tradition," or "It's part of our culture."

It's a false sense of pride then.

[Tigron-X]

I figured I'd have to walk you through this one. Thankfully at least Jerome got it. You go around to a bunch of threads saying "STATISTS ARE THE PROBLEM" much like Hitler went around Germany saying "JEWS ARE THE PROBLEM". Hijacking discussions to spout your tangentially related rehetoric? Congratulations on taking that one right out of the statist playbook! You should probably stick to that though because your analogies are awful :|

With a filter as wide as yours, are you suprised that you have to step me through? I mean, you might as well have said, "Hitler ties shoes. So do you. So you're like Hitler."

Now, if I start advocating the establishment of a new government with a new order, one that holds racial superiority as one of its credences, then you can start linking me to Hitler.

What you've done here, though, is successfully claimed that it is immoral to point out problems.

The problem I've pointed out is the belief that government is a solution to social problems. Waving a flag around is indicative of government.

my country, thats what patriotism is if you were previously unaware

Responses like this tell me you really don't know.

Do you respect people that say "I like Easter because of the candy"? While that's all well and good, if it's what you're focusing on you missed the point completely. I don't care what I sound like to you or if you respect me because I don't even think you understand what I'm trying to get at here.

Yeah, because it's at least honest. Now, I don't agree with their position. But, from there one can point out that one doesn't need to celebrate Easter to have candy or enjoy candy.

I ask you questions, and you give me blanket answers. So, no, I don't understand what you're trying to get at. Explain it to me.

[Tigron-X]

one thing that makes me sad when dealing with anarcho-capitalists is the ironic ignorance of the human condition. you spend all this time waxing poetic about individualism and freedom, and yet any expressions of individualism which do not size up to your logical conclusions is rendered nonsense. a little less ayn rand & glenn beck, a little more murray rothbard & frederic bastiat, please!

No, no, no! I would LOVE to agree to disagree. However, that's not possible as long as someone is willing to pick up a gun and put it to my head and tell me what I can and cannot do.

You didn't point out how anarcho-capitalists ignore the human condition. I was under the impression they embraced it.

the american revolution was a brilliant experiment. it was a first. it was the first time that the state was rejected as an eternal leviathan and made way for the brilliant thinkers who could, for the first time, envision society and the state as two different things and make a case for the individual's ultimate sovereignty. they may have ultimately designed a flawed system, but it was a valiant attempt and the one thing they did preserve is the streak of individuality and love of liberty that still has an impact today.

Yes, it was a brilliant experiment. One that has failed!

you shouldn't tell someone from the South that being proud of one's geographic location is nonsense. well really, you shouldn't tell anyone that, because it is nonsense. being proud of some abstract notion like our federal government is nonsense, but being proud of your culture, your city, your state - it's all part of being human. it's what makes your magic anarcho-capitalist society work.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that the individual doesn't feel a sense of pride. I'm questioning why such feelings arise. What is the cause of this emotional response?

Saying things like, "my country" is a blanket statement.

Pride is a feeling of importance, a feeling of a high degree of self worth.

How does your culture, city, state, or country make you important? How do such things define your self worth?

[Galleleo]

Fit just made me climax

[kthx]

Yeah killing turtles and birds is similar to killing millions of jews and trying to wipe out an entire race of people. I mean the germans were literally trying to make the jews extinct atleast in America we gave those wild injuns a few acres here and there to skin the whites and stuff in. All they had to do was walk down the trail of tears and they could barely handle that, shitty excuse for a populace anyways. Anyways America is the best civilization that has ever existed on planet earth, and if and when it should ever be gone consider the world fucked because its probably Armageddon anyways. I don't really care if you don't like America because you <3 animals or whatever faggot shit but realize that we are the most important civilization that has ever existed and you can' really do much about it, so go suck a dick you American hating douchebags.

[curse]

I love and hate stuff at the same time!

sup america!

[TagMor]

eh. im starting to think you're just trolling. no one can honestly compare the gulf oil spill to the holocaust. its just ludicrous.

Actually I was comparing the ability of the American people to ignore all of the atrocities and social injustices perpetrated by their government, with that of Nazi Germans.
The chaos that is happening in the Gulf is just a fresh example of this.

[Tigron-X]

[saetep]

Funny how your artificially-induced patriotism blinds you to the fact that the U.S will go down as one of the most heinous civilizations in human history.
You are like the Germans in the 1940s: Straining to smile as you frantically wave your flag in an attempt to subdue the stench drifting in from the deathcamp just outside of town.

eh. im starting to think you're just trolling. no one can honestly compare the gulf oil spill to the holocaust. its just ludicrous.

[Vatican Assassin]

you guys are right america is awesome

thisthisthis fyuck you fit of rage faggot you can say this once we get the point stop orgasming

[the_paul]

If there is a deathcamp why has no one put you in it yet?

This needs to be rectified

[TagMor]

Funny how your artificially-induced patriotism blinds you to the fact that the U.S will go down as one of the most heinous civilizations in human history.
You are like the Germans in the 1940s: Straining to smile as you frantically wave your flag in an attempt to subdue the stench drifting in from the deathcamp just outside of town.

[project dragon]

Corndogs for D1st0rt

[Fit of Rage]

who cares about what that faggot thinks

thisthisthisthisthisthisthisthisthis

[the_paul]

d1t0rt wins, too bad that was wasted on someone who probably won't even read it. Or, if he does, it'll just be to dissect it to try and push his agenda some more. This guy is like the anti-kthx, an american trolling about why america is so bad. Tiggy, I like you bud, but if you don't like it then get the fuck out.

Honestly, I think you may never understand. And for that I feel sorry for you.

Pretty much sums it all up.