If we're "the greatest", why are tens of millions of us suffering so much?

[Attero Dominatus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2918587

sicksicksick_N_tired  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 09:15 PM
Original message
If we're "the greatest", why are tens of millions of us suffering so much?
   
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Our country produces tens of millions of improverished people, has oppressed democratic ideals for power by every means possible, has an embarassing rate of domestic and child violence, imprisons more of its population than any other on the face of the earth, is more in debt than numerous countries combined, has waged more wars than any nation, has created refugees with no war on its territory, has an infant mortality rate below its condemned enemy (Cuba), has destroyed most entrepreneurs' chance of survival, has weakened its own people by enslaving foreign human beings,...

I don't know?



Maybe, we're just fabulous at making pain and struggle and suffering,..."look good" (I am);

OR, maybe, we are particularly determined to HIDE the pain and struggle and suffering;

OR, could be, we are too proud to confront the pain and struggle and suffering;

Or, we simply HAVE to survive as best we can through the pain and struggle and suffering;

OR, our pain and struggle and suffering isn't acknowledged so it doesn't matter;

OR, pain and struggle and suffering has no place in "the greatest" realm;

OR, who cares?



I want to know how people reconcile the differences between what's real and what's fiction. Those defense mechanisms could be helpful,...to all of us.

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DUmbass, you would not be saying that about America if you had to live in Cuba or Venezuela or China. 

msongs  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 09:18 PM
Response to Original message
2. one wonders why so many people are trying to get here & so few leaving? nt
   
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Angry Mollusk  (59 posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 09:25 PM
Response to Original message
5. It's because the right wing are staunch Social Darwinists- and feel only the strong should survive
   
The radical right are Social Darwinists and feel only the strong should survive. They have no interest in helping anyone but themselves.
They feel we are the greatest nation because ours is a nation who favors the wealthy, and mechanisms are in place to keep the poor and the disenfranchised oppressed, and thus out of their sight.

And this makes me wonder- why do these right wingers profess to worship Jesus- since Jesus spoke of compassion and engaged in charity- which are all the things the right wing hates?

America is a nation that has great potential to be the greatest nation, but has never reached it's full potential.
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And your precious communism favors the government at the expense of the masses.

sicksicksick_N_tired  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 09:46 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. I definitely think there is a separation between the RW economic wing and RW profit-televangelists.
   
Their drives are different, albeit with common threads: one is purely profit/power-mongering via "style of living" manipulations, the other seeks power through religious/moral impositions.

Jesus would (DID) condemn both as has all religious/spiritual figures, all of whom would be oppressed or imprisoned, assassinated or sentenced to death in modern times.

But, so what?

OURS was a country founded by those seeking to FREE THE PEOPLE FROM BOTH the foregoing oppressors.

Here we sit in the hive of both.

Yet, neither of these historically-proven EVILS OF MAN are getting their asses chaffed, AS THEY DESERVE.
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blues90  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 09:57 PM
Response to Original message
8. I don't feel we are the greatest country any longer
   
we had a chance but we blew it . I see what's going on , always have . I just try to survive in this madness . I care and it hurts to care when I can't do anything to change the suffering . If there is anything I can do to help with what I have I do so but I don't have much at all .

As long as people put others on pedestals for entertainment we are lost forever .

 

Jeffro40  (58 posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 11:04 PM
Response to Original message
11. Ever seen some of the OTHER countries?
   
We ARE the greatest - as sad as that is.

MOST of the world sees us as Disneyland - and they're right.

Even supposed "1st world" countries like Spain, countries in S America, etc are far worse off than we are - and have worse governments. Yes, we can do better - and we could do a whole lot worse.
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[franksolich]

What is this "millions of us suffering so much" shit?

The primitives don't know shit about suffering.

[djones520]

Come on Frank.  You know that going a day without cheeto's is worse then bamboo under the fingernails to these guys.

They don't know what suffering is.  I wonder if we can get a petition to gather the dummies up, fly them to Kenya, and just dump them off for a few months.  I bet they'll shut up then.

[jtyangel]

Those "10's of millions" are often suffering at their own hands. That is the difference between here and say, oh, Uganda. People have a choice to dig their grave or get themselves out of it. THAT is what makes it great: oppurtunity.

[franksolich]

Hell no, forget the immense suffering in the third world; that's a given.

How about looking at all the suffering taking place in the second world, even in Europe?

The primitives got nothing to complain about, compared with the lot of the average, and even above average, Ukrainian, Russian, Moldovan, Belorussian.

When the primitives feel starvation, suffer untreated medical conditions, get oppressed by the jackboot, lack even the most rudimentary justice, denied opportunities, cheated by the system--and this is the second world; the third world is even worse--then the primitives might get a slight smidgeon of a microscopic notion of what "suffering" is.

Bah, humbug.

The primitives can go **** themselves.

[jtyangel]

Hell no, forget the immense suffering in the third world; that's a given.

How about looking at all the suffering taking place in the second world, even in Europe?

The primitives got nothing to complain about, compared with the lot of the average, and even above average, Ukrainian, Russian, Moldovan, Belorussian.

When the primitives feel starvation, suffer untreated medical conditions, get oppressed by the jackboot, lack even the most rudimentary justice, denied opportunities, cheated by the system--and this is the second world; the third world is even worse--then the primitives might get a slight smidgeon of a microscopic notion of what "suffering" is.

Bah, humbug.

The primitives can go **** themselves.

Oh my! And I agree with you, Frank. Many of the 'suffering' DU wants us to hear about seem to have ipods, cell phones, and cable. Liberals have a very spoiled notion of what 'hurting' is. Amazing how the standard of living here affords them this notion of suffering--the standard of living their loath shapes their very mindset of what suffering is. It would be comical except for the fact they try to shape both social and economic policy based on the wants of a very high standard of living.

[Lord Undies]

This DUmbasses are thrilled to think people are "sufferring", and they know it's not reality.  Not in the United States of America.  The least well off among us are still some of the luckiest people in the world.  

Whenever you see DUmbasses wringing their hands and mustering a tear for whatever malaise they are trying to sell, you can bet they are jumping up and down with glee on the inside at the mere thought of such a situation being real.   Remember, a DUmbasses goal is to get as many people as possible to believe the opposite of reality is actual reality.  Without that goal, liberalism/socialism is dead.    

[Chris_]

Hell no, forget the immense suffering in the third world; that's a given.

How about looking at all the suffering taking place in the second world, even in Europe?

The primitives got nothing to complain about, compared with the lot of the average, and even above average, Ukrainian, Russian, Moldovan, Belorussian.

When the primitives feel starvation, suffer untreated medical conditions, get oppressed by the jackboot, lack even the most rudimentary justice, denied opportunities, cheated by the system--and this is the second world; the third world is even worse--then the primitives might get a slight smidgeon of a microscopic notion of what "suffering" is.

Bah, humbug.

The primitives can go **** themselves.

Frank!  Such language!

I get the feeling you are starting to lose patience with the primitives.

[franksolich]

Frank!  Such language!

I get the feeling you are starting to lose patience with the primitives.

I know, I know, it doesn't look good for me when I cuss like that.

But damn it, the primitives are so pitifully stupid, so wilfully ignorant, so socially illiterate.

Damn it.  God made stupid, really stupid, people for a reason, and I wish I knew what it was.

[redwhit]

Frank!  Such language!

I get the feeling you are starting to lose patience with the primitives.

I know, I know, it doesn't look good for me when I cuss like that.

But damn it, the primitives are so pitifully stupid, so wilfully ignorant, so socially illiterate.

Damn it.  God made stupid, really stupid, people for a reason, and I wish I knew what it was.

To test the faithful.

[Splashdown]

Heh. "suffering."

The Census report also compares, from 1992 through 1998, people's perceptions of whether basic needs were being met. More than 92% of Americans below the poverty line said they had enough food, as of 1998. Some 86% said they had no unmet need for a doctor, 89% had no roof leaks, and 87% said they had no unpaid rent or mortgage.

link

According to the article, 93 percent of American houses have a microwave. 98.2 have a color TV. 60 percent have computers.

These people don't know the definition of "suffering."  

[Chris_]

Heh. "suffering."

The Census report also compares, from 1992 through 1998, people's perceptions of whether basic needs were being met. More than 92% of Americans below the poverty line said they had enough food, as of 1998. Some 86% said they had no unmet need for a doctor, 89% had no roof leaks, and 87% said they had no unpaid rent or mortgage.

link

According to the article, 93 percent of American houses have a microwave. 98.2 have a color TV. 60 percent have computers.

These people don't know the definition of "suffering." 

"Suffering" is running out of Cheetos and Mommy is at the laundrimat.

[Chris_]

Frank!  Such language!

I get the feeling you are starting to lose patience with the primitives.

I know, I know, it doesn't look good for me when I cuss like that.

But damn it, the primitives are so pitifully stupid, so wilfully ignorant, so socially illiterate.

Damn it.  God made stupid, really stupid, people for a reason, and I wish I knew what it was.

To make you cuss :)

[Rebel]

What is this "millions of us suffering so much" shit?

The primitives don't know shit about suffering.

I like this side of Frank. 

[Flame]

Those "10's of millions" are often suffering at their own hands. That is the difference between here and say, oh, Uganda. People have a choice to dig their grave or get themselves out of it. THAT is what makes it great: oppurtunity.

[Rebel]

Why are there 10s of millions risking life and limb to come here then?

[Chris_]

Why are there 10s of millions risking life and limb to come here then?

They like suffering, I guess.

[jukin]

Don't the DUmbasses say they travel and see the world?

This thread proves they do not.

[Chris_]

Don't the DUmbasses say they travel and see the world?

This thread proves they do not.

They think going from the man cave to the refrigerator for more Pepsi is "traveling."

[DixieBelle]

America produces millions of people who are suffering? Cool! Where do I sign up to work at that govt agency?

[Splashdown]

America produces millions of people who are suffering? Cool! Where do I sign up to work at that govt agency?

It's the department of gloom, dispair and misery.

[DixieBelle]

America produces millions of people who are suffering? Cool! Where do I sign up to work at that govt agency?

It's the department of gloom, dispair and misery.

Oh you mean the DMV?

[Airwolf]

Frank!  Such language!

I get the feeling you are starting to lose patience with the primitives.

I know, I know, it doesn't look good for me when I cuss like that.

But damn it, the primitives are so pitifully stupid, so wilfully ignorant, so socially illiterate.

Damn it.  God made stupid, really stupid, people for a reason, and I wish I knew what it was.

He didn't make them that way Frank.they chose to be that way so as to serve as a warning to the rest of the world how not to be.

[Attero Dominatus]

What is this "millions of us suffering so much" shit?

The primitives don't know shit about suffering.

Nope, not at all. They never lived in China or North Korea or Cuba. And they should consider themselves lucky for that. But no, they will continue with "America is a 3rd world country!" bullshit.

[Atomic Lib Smasher]

We're the greatest because even our "poor" here have things that not even in the poorest parts of Spain, France, etc. have.... microwave ovens, telephones and cell phones in some cases, air conditioning, color TVs, etc.