Reply #55: I know, and there are plenty of good people in this country. There is no doubting that... [View All]

... but as I said, the real elephant in the room is that perception sometimes is there for a reason.

And we are the country which has conducted a two front of war of aggression for almost a decade. Any society, which is as good as you claim the majority of Americans are supposed to be, does most definitively not wage wars of choice. Wars in where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians die while presenting no apparent threat to us whatsoever. A society which is good in its majority does not allow over 30 million of its citizens to be uninsured, or hundreds of thousands having to choose between their health or bankruptcy, or has millions of its citizens without a roof on any given day, or still has some of its states having trouble deciding between scientific theories or religious dogma in the XXI century. And on and on.

I understand what you are trying to say. I just disagree with the denial of pretending that the perceptions about our society are some how some evil plot. We're responsible for those perceptions, now whether we like that or not is a completely different manner. And as I said, for a society which prefers perception/narrative over reality. I frankly think this is a wonderful case of how do we like them apples: the perception that other people have of us is really bad.

As I said, I think some of these attitudes of disbelief are fueled by doublethink: we are the world's bully, yet we love to play victim. Our shit stinks just like everyone else, pretending that the stench is really concentrated herbal aromas is IMHO just plain denial. We are not that good, and if we want to be taken to be as such good group of people, maybe... just maybe it is time for us to start acting as such, rather than throwing a temper tantrums when people think ill of us.