Does not the world envy the United States of America??

[Dr. Funkenstein]

Originally Posted by chaos

and has a foreign policy that draws people to us and makes us the envy of the world again.

People often hate you BECAUSE they envy you.

[Cynno]

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

People often hate you BECAUSE they envy you.

Says the stupid NeoCon who actually thinks like this.

[Dr. Funkenstein]

You're right. It's well known that people love and respect those they envy.

[Lejina Bloodbath]

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

People often hate you BECAUSE they envy you.

Help me out here. What am I supposed to envy?

When I look at the USA, I see a fucked up economy, a fair amount of glaring poverty, a social backwater highly influenced by religion and a population divided on imaginary political differences.

Don't say that Im envious of the beacon of culture the USA are, cuze Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the gangsta rap music, fan I am not.

[aychamo_aycono]

Originally Posted by Lejina Bloodbath

Help me out here. What am I supposed to envy?

When I look at the USA, I see a fucked up economy, a fair amount of glaring poverty, a social backwater highly influenced by religion and a population divided on imaginary political differences.

Don't say that Im envious of the beacon of culture the USA are, cuze Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the gangsta rap music, fan I am not.

What country are you from?

[Lejina Bloodbath]

Your friendly northern neighbour. Not that it should matter, whenever I hear the "they envy us" argument, it's always the entire world vs the USA. It's as if there's the USA and then everything outside the border is 3rd world territory with Bartertown somewhere around Moscow, zombies in South-Africa and rabid dogs with bees in their mouth in Australia.

The recurring need for home protection weaponry always make me wonder too. Wtf is up with that.

[Itzena]

Penis replacements.

[Lithose]

Originally Posted by Lejina Bloodbath

Help me out here. What am I supposed to envy?

When I look at the USA, I see a fucked up economy, a fair amount of glaring poverty, a social backwater highly influenced by religion and a population divided on imaginary political differences.

Don't say that Im envious of the beacon of culture the USA are, cuze Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the gangsta rap music, fan I am not.

Thats a nice conservative government you guys just elected.

Hmm, it appears we are the first one to have an executive branch lead by an African American liberal.

Hmm.

Also, I'm pretty sure at least a few of your magazines makes a list every year of why Canada is better. Really, the "envy", or rather, justification of how awesome you are, isn't hard to see.

Seriously, what would you call that when your country's media compares itself to us to justify how cool it is to live there? Even your own post doesn't talk about the strong points in Canada, it attempts to display the U.S. weak ones, why compare to us every time? Why not just say "We have this and this, I'm happy"..Thats right, because we are the standard, and your basis for being good is only found in comparison to us.

P.S..I don't expect a serious response, because, well, your broad, inaccurate and stupid assessments are just as bad as what I said (Which is a joke, by the way.). Canada has its own issues with plurality tearing at its political system, but any attempt to explain them in a 5 line post is going to come out as over-generalized, stereotype based talking points, much like your post.

[Tuco]

Lithose, is work that boring that that is seriously what you start off the work week arguing about? Whether Canada is envious of America?

Come on, that is ridiculous, stop this nonsense.

[Lithose]

Originally Posted by Tuco

Lithose, is work that boring that that is seriously what you start off the work week arguing about? Whether Canada is envious of America?

Come on, that is ridiculous, stop this nonsense.

what I said (Which is a joke, by the way.)-Lithose

Yes, work is that boring, but no, I'm not seriously going to argue about the envy of Canada. If anything, I am envious of Canada for quite a few reasons. The joke was just showing how someone with a little knowledge can tear down a country with really stupid talking points.

Its really silly for any western nation to be jealous of another, when the reality is that the differences between them are pretty minor and due mostly to social norms (Obviously there are some big ones, like health care.). We may think their big, but to the rest of the world, not so much.

[Tuco]

I'm jealous of Sweden btw.

[findar]

why be jealous of canada? you pay $10 more for everything.

plus, newfies.



fuck newfies.

[Lejina Bloodbath]

Lithose, I wasn't talking of Canada but rather of the US because I was replying to the argument that "they" (the entire fucking world) is envious of the USA. Point being, the USA isn't the shining beacon of all awesome that some blindly believe it is and broadly stating the USA makes everyone envious is rather comical. I won't even bother touching the envious=hate argument, that one is even more retarded.

Oh, and I never said Canada makes everyone envious either. I wouldn't say that kind of nonsense because I don't believe it true one bit. Hence why I didn't bring Canada in the discussion, because that's just plain off topic.

Notice that my original post was a question too. What am I supposed to be envious of exacly?

[Eomer]

Originally Posted by Lithose

Thats a nice conservative government you guys just elected.

They've been in power for a couple years, and for the most part don't rely on the culture war tactics that the Republicans do. They've cut taxes for everyone (although economists have argued that cutting the sales tax instead of income tax was a bad move designed to be popular as the GST is hated), haven't really made any major changes on social issues (they stopped the decrim'ing of pot), and overall have been a pretty balanced government.

Given the sad sstate the Liberal party has been in for almost 5 years now, I'm fine with the Conservatives governing as they've shown they're pretty responsible and not extremist. That said they've been minority governments, so who knows what could happen in the future?

The anti-intellectualism that's prevalent in a lot of the US and one of the things I find most distasteful with current American politics is fairly non-existent here. Fairly.

P.S..I don't expect a serious response, because, well, your broad, inaccurate and stupid assessments are just as bad as what I said (Which is a joke, by the way.). Canada has its own issues with plurality tearing at its political system, but any attempt to explain them in a 5 line post is going to come out as over-generalized, stereotype based talking points, much like your post.

The point Lejina was trying to get at is that it's incredibly fucking obnoxious the way there's this idea in the US that everyone else in the world is jealous of it. That's just not the case. Ask most Western Europeans or Canadians if they'd want their country to be just like the US and they'd emphatically say "no way in hell." Are there some things to be admired about the US? Sure! Are there some things to look down on? Sure!

But the point is, the whole world doesn't walk around all day saying "fuck, if we could just be more like the US life would be grand!"

Overall it seems we agree on this, though. Mainly I'm responding to Dr. Funkenstein, who holds the whole "everyone hates us because they love us" bullshit worldview.

[Tuco]

That's absolutely ridiculous, Funkenstein. Other western countries may or may not like the US, but their pride in their country is founded in its own characteristics, not the US's. And many countries have every reason to dislike America due to some of her actions in the last several decades.

However, the world celebrates as it looks upon America with the hope that we can take it into a better direction.