America sux! Everybody is crazy...except us!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

babylonsister (147,238 posts)

America...what the hell is wrong with us?
 
 http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Americawhat-the-hell-is-wrong-with-us.html

America...what the hell is wrong with us?

snip//


Over the weekend, residents in Hailey -- people who actually know the Bergdahls -- were ecstatic over news of the release of the town's native son. Now, the victory celebration is canceled, but the ugliness doesn't stop there:

Drussel said many of the calls are cancelling trips to the town of about 8,000. "Well, number one is, how dare we as a community support someone who in their mind they’re thinking of as a 'deserter,' a traitor. That they had plans to come here on their vacation, they’re no longer coming, they’re cancelling their reservations."

"I just find that shocking," she said. "You know, we’re Americans, and we need to act like Americans, and to me that’s un-American. Let things play out, and if there needs to be action taken, I’m sure it will be taken. But that’s not the city of Hailey’s responsibility."

This is a whole disgusting level below the normal day-to-day hypocrisy of American politics. These responses are the product of a moral sickness -- and most pathetic are the ones who call themselves pro-life or who obsess over what they say is the loss of freedom in this country, yet they'd rather see their fellow human Bowe Bergdahl lose his freedom or even die all because of their blind hatred of the man in the Oval Office. Look, if the Army wants to investigate the facts surrounding Bergdahl's disappearance then they should do that (I doubt it would result in more than a slap on the wrist in the reality-based world, but we seem to be losing our grip on reality...so who knows).

But the bottom line is that if you see a woman standing in the middle of the road and a Mack Truck bearing down on her, you don't stop to grill her on whether she just used heroin or left her child on a stoop somewhere. You pick her up and swoop her out of the street, and deal with the rest later. So should it be with saving Sgt. Bergdahl. For God's sake, where's the humanity? A couple of decades ago, two Inquirer reporters wrote an award-winning series and book called "America: What Went Wrong?" Today it's more appropriate to ask, America...what the hell's wrong with us?

Here's what one fairly knowledgeable chap said about the Bergdahl affair earlier today. “We don’t leave Americans behind. That’s unequivocal.” That wasn't some knee-jerk Obama apologist in Congress, that was former Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Bergdahl's supreme commanding officer when he was captured in 2009, and -- if you recall -- not a big fan of the president. But he does know right from wrong. As noted here the other day, Israel traded more than 1,000 prisoners, including a sizable number of Palestinians detained for alledgedly murderous acts of terrorism, to win back just ONE of its citizens. Say you will about the Israeli government's policies, but the Israeli citizens value human life. I don't know what America values anymore.

Did Bergdahl make a horrible mistake in judgment, or worse, when he left his base? Probably. Did some American troops die in combat because of the search for Bergdahl or related events. Possibly. But we should also talk about the fact that we sent thousands of American soldiers into a war that has lasted a remarkable 13 years, and the longer that a war lasts, the more heartbreaking, soul-crushing things are going to happen. It's even more tragic when our leaders can't even articulate why our troops -- Bergdahl, the ones who went looking for him, the ones who will be there even after the war was supposed to end later this year -- are even in Afghanistan anymore. Today, Pennsylvania lost one of our own -- Capt. Jason B. Jones of Orwigsburg in Schuylkill County, killed by small arms fire in Jalalabad. Please take a moment and honor Captain Jones' sacrifice -- if you can hear yourself think over the sick cries of political blood lust.

Emphasis original.

n2doc (32,184 posts)

1. It is hard to not think of a substantial proportion of my fellow Americans

as Evil. Maybe Evil dupes, but Evil nonetheless. These are the same folks who would vandalize your car or house for having the 'wrong' bumper sticker or sign, who would threaten you and swear at you in front of children if you don't go along with the vile propaganda, and who apparently have no independent thought capability at all.

csziggy (15,925 posts)

5. I think they are mentally ill

It's irrational to think as they do, contrary to any proof against their tightly held beliefs on war, public assistance, economy, global climate change, and so many other subjects. Their paranoia about anything different and about their fellow citizens is telling - it is not rational to think they must carry guns every where, for instance.

I wonder if they react so strongly to people like Bowe Bergdahl BECAUSE he gained a bit of sanity about our war in Afghanistan. I think it frightens to see someone raise issues they don't want to consider so they attack rather than attempt to understand.

Demeter (72,992 posts)

10. And yet, there are so many of them

Can mental illness be contagious? Is it a product of wrong-headedness, or a larger social conflict? What gives these people (or any people, even the 1% Elitists) the presumption that they are in charge of everything, including other people's lives and happiness, freedoms and decisions?

Instead of just jogging along, trying to jump-start a dead economy burdened with parasites and a dead democracy burdened with fascists, we need to sort things out.

And that is what this Administration has manifestly failed to do. Instead of going to the mats for people, it's gone to the wall for Corporations. Criminal Banksters, especially.

csziggy (15,925 posts)

14. On one level, yes I think mental illness can be contagious

Certainly a warped perspective of reality is - look at the witch trials, the French Revolution, the Joe McCarthy era in Congress.

Today it's Obama Derangement Syndrome. Think of all the things that the Obama administration has done that if a Reagan or a Bush administration has proposed or done, the right wing nuts would have applauded. Instead they scream, "Impeach!" and froth at the mouth.

To a lesser extent there is ODS on the Democratic side, especially the more liberal edge - Obama hasn't done enough to save the country, hasn't performed miracles by getting the right wing nuts to pass needed legislation, and hasn't gotten everything done we had hoped for.

I don't think anyone could make everyone happy, and Obama has managed to piss off both ends of the spectrum.

Viva_Daddy (555 posts)

2. Clearly, hatred of the President has metastisized to infect the whole system.

Even if everything said about Sgt Bergdahl is true (and I'm sure it's not), extending the criticism to the parents is entirely off-base and disgusting.

Stargazer99 (1,106 posts)

3. 8 years conservative Republicans (Bush years) self-centered and Godless manipulated mess

We as a nation have become heartless to the poor, powerless and lower-classes because the common man does not think for himself or honestly relate to God. The human must deal with his lower nature by choice or he becomes on the level of an animal (dog eat dog).
Those who die spiritually eventually kill a nation.

Blaukraut (3,704 posts)

7. With all this hatred ginned up, Bergdahl's and his family's lives could be in danger

This daily drumbeat of deserter, war criminal, etc has to stop. It is irresponsible and dangerous.

White Hispanic George Zimmerman called to say, "Go **** yourself."

Iliyah (4,392 posts)

8. And you can thank fake news and their crazed allies alongwith corporate media

fake news didn't mind putting abortion doctors in danger did they.

Uben (7,058 posts)

13. Republican death panel....
 
...looks like they want to decide who lives or dies when we send our soldiers to war.

RIP Capt. Jones, American hero.

City Lights (23,126 posts)

17. We are a nation of (mostly) uncaring idiots. nt

deutsey (17,954 posts)

19. "When will enough people say, ‘Stop this madness; we don’t have to live like this?’"

When the anguished father of one of the recent mass shootings said this, I agreed with him about the gun culture he was lambasting.

But on deeper level, what he said resonated with me in terms of what we've allowed this country to become.

His question should be a rallying cry to confront and push back the ugliness that defines who we've become:

Stop this madness; we don't have to live like this!

You don't have to live, period.

And maybe 1 of the 5 Taliban just released by your president will aid in the endeavor.

totodeinhere (7,978 posts)

23. I feel very sorry for the Sgt. Bergdahl and his family.

They probably are not ever going to be able to lead normal lives. I imagine that the family's joy at having Bowe finally released is now tempered with anguish over what has happened since. I wish Bowe and his family the best. How they are being treated now is a national disgrace.

We don't deserve you.

You, the Bergdahl's and your fellow Proglodytes should leave and form your own country. You can call it The United States of No Wealth or Military Socialist Awesomeness.

Do it! Do it! Do it!


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025052843

[Dori]

Hmmmm....

People are cancelling trips to Idaho and protesting the hero's welcome.

Let me think, has the left ever done anything like that before?

[Carl]

These are the people that demand the government incarcerate/attack/kill those who politically disagree with them right?

[Rebel]

Maybe they don't want to be forever known as the town that gave a parade to a ****ing deserter, and possibly a traitor who trained the Taliban in our tactics, DUmbasses. 

[Rebel]

Check out this stark contrast, folks:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002442611

Bowe, who deserted his post, and possibly committed treason, is a "national hero" to them, yet Lynndie England, who did some f'ed up shit to our enemies at Abu Ghraib, well, she can just be waterboarded and "rot in hell".

Or...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x536168

Possibly hung.

Here's the full list



Funny how they change their tunes depending on who's in office. These people have some seriously ****ed up priorities.

[JohnnyReb]

So that's the new normal, huh.

[thundley4]

I for one am glad that Bergdahl was returned to the US. Yes, the price of freeing 5 high terrorists was too high, but...


If Bergdahl stayed in Afghanistan with the Taliban there was zero chance of the military prosecuting him for desertion.  At least now there is a minuscule chance of him being prosecuted and facing justice.