I'm trying to like the USA
Dec 19th 2012, 11:56 pm
#1
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Posts: 860
I'm trying to like the USA
Help me out.
Tell me what's great about this country and why I should stop being such a left-wing twat and like it.
Tell me what's great about this country and why I should stop being such a left-wing twat and like it.
Dec 20th 2012, 12:03 am
#2
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Re: I'm trying to like the USA
You know perfectly well that nobody can tell you how or why you should like the US.
You either do or you don't and someone else telling you why they like it isn't going to help.
The only constructive thing that I can suggest is that you get away from the attitude that this is a clear cut issue where the answer is that the entire US is either "good" or "bad". It doesn't work that way. Some things are good, some are bad and lots are somewhere in between.
Dec 20th 2012, 12:10 am
#3
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Joined: Dec 2006
Location: WA
Posts: 18,837
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
As you say you are of the left then celebrate the long history of the American left. John Reid, Wobblies, Emma Goldman.....
A book helped me partly feel like I belong
The 'S' Word: A Short History of an American Tradition… Socialism.
by John Nichols
I made a thread about it last year
(removed review, best not read, if the book is to gee you up for American Socialism - which is the books point)
Don't stop being a lefty, just stop letting people say it is an outlanders way. It is American, argue as an insider.
A book helped me partly feel like I belong
The 'S' Word: A Short History of an American Tradition… Socialism.
by John Nichols
I made a thread about it last year
(removed review, best not read, if the book is to gee you up for American Socialism - which is the books point)
Don't stop being a lefty, just stop letting people say it is an outlanders way. It is American, argue as an insider.
Last edited by kimilseung; Dec 20th 2012 at 12:23 am.
Dec 20th 2012, 12:14 am
#4
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 41,518
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
*sigh*
You know perfectly well that nobody can tell you how or why you should like the US.
You either do or you don't and someone else telling you why they like it isn't going to help.
The only constructive thing that I can suggest is that you get away from the attitude that this is a clear cut issue where the answer is that the entire US is either "good" or "bad". It doesn't work that way. Some things are good, some are bad and lots are somewhere in between.
You know perfectly well that nobody can tell you how or why you should like the US.
You either do or you don't and someone else telling you why they like it isn't going to help.
The only constructive thing that I can suggest is that you get away from the attitude that this is a clear cut issue where the answer is that the entire US is either "good" or "bad". It doesn't work that way. Some things are good, some are bad and lots are somewhere in between.
"One instinctively knows when something is right."
Dec 20th 2012, 12:16 am
#5
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Joined: Feb 2012
Location: Purgatory (PU, USA)
Posts: 860
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
*sigh*
You know perfectly well that nobody can tell you how or why you should like the US.
You either do or you don't and someone else telling you why they like it isn't going to help.
The only constructive thing that I can suggest is that you get away from the attitude that this is a clear cut issue where the answer is that the entire US is either "good" or "bad". It doesn't work that way. Some things are good, some are bad and lots are somewhere in between.
You know perfectly well that nobody can tell you how or why you should like the US.
You either do or you don't and someone else telling you why they like it isn't going to help.
The only constructive thing that I can suggest is that you get away from the attitude that this is a clear cut issue where the answer is that the entire US is either "good" or "bad". It doesn't work that way. Some things are good, some are bad and lots are somewhere in between.
Cut the BS and just tell me what YOU like about the USA. I am currently being shafted by it and would like to read some positive things.
Cheers
Dec 20th 2012, 12:16 am
#6
Joined: Sep 2012
Location: Dancing round my handbag
Posts: 2,673
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
There is a lot I find very difficult about the culture of the States but the scenery is spectacular. I know I live in a beautiful part of the country and sometimes I look at the mountains and they do nothing for me at all. Other times they appear to be magnificent. Same mountains, different day. Same me, different attitude.
It's not always what you see, but how you choose to look at it. Oh, I can be so Boulder it scares me!
Dec 20th 2012, 2:50 am
#8
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Posts: 2,043
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
Drive through ATMs...
Dec 20th 2012, 3:09 am
#10
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Re: I'm trying to like the USA
OK - you asked for it - I have an answer for you, but you're not going to like it ...
I like the USA - or, more accurately, the part of Northern California in which I live - because I feel "at home" here - I feel that I "belong" here in a way that I never felt while I lived in the UK (and I have felt that way ever since my first visit to the US back in 1985).
Of course, the fact that I have been lucky enough to have had good, well paying jobs for the entire time that I have been here (over 25 years now) does help but that alone wouldn't be enough - the bottom line is that I like the place because I just like living here
(and, yes, there are things that I don't like but you didn't ask about those and for me, at least, the "good" things far outweigh the "bad")
I like the USA - or, more accurately, the part of Northern California in which I live - because I feel "at home" here - I feel that I "belong" here in a way that I never felt while I lived in the UK (and I have felt that way ever since my first visit to the US back in 1985).
Of course, the fact that I have been lucky enough to have had good, well paying jobs for the entire time that I have been here (over 25 years now) does help but that alone wouldn't be enough - the bottom line is that I like the place because I just like living here
(and, yes, there are things that I don't like but you didn't ask about those and for me, at least, the "good" things far outweigh the "bad")
Dec 20th 2012, 3:24 am
#11
Account Closed
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 760
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
OK - you asked for it - I have an answer for you, but you're not going to like it ...
I like the USA - or, more accurately, the part of Northern California in which I live - because I feel "at home" here - I feel that I "belong" here in a way that I never felt while I lived in the UK (and I have felt that way ever since my first visit to the US back in 1985).
Of course, the fact that I have been lucky enough to have had good, well paying jobs for the entire time that I have been here (over 25 years now) does help but that alone wouldn't be enough - the bottom line is that I like the place because I just like living here
(and, yes, there are things that I don't like but you didn't ask about those and for me, at least, the "good" things far outweigh the "bad")
I like the USA - or, more accurately, the part of Northern California in which I live - because I feel "at home" here - I feel that I "belong" here in a way that I never felt while I lived in the UK (and I have felt that way ever since my first visit to the US back in 1985).
Of course, the fact that I have been lucky enough to have had good, well paying jobs for the entire time that I have been here (over 25 years now) does help but that alone wouldn't be enough - the bottom line is that I like the place because I just like living here
(and, yes, there are things that I don't like but you didn't ask about those and for me, at least, the "good" things far outweigh the "bad")
Dec 20th 2012, 3:32 am
#12
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Joined: Feb 2012
Location: MA
Posts: 111
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
..I like the Braille writing on the buttons..given the state of New Englander's driving skills I wouldn't be surprised if there were legally blind people driving!
Last edited by _Clueless$y$t€m_; Dec 20th 2012 at 3:36 am.
Dec 20th 2012, 3:50 am
#13
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Re: I'm trying to like the USA
Dec 20th 2012, 3:52 am
#15
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukie, Oregon
Posts: 9,965
Re: I'm trying to like the USA
Good hard working people
Wide open space
Big cheap SUVs
Guns
Decent health care
Friendly People
Jam free roads
Wide choice of food
People dress to be comfortable, not to impress
You don't have to wait for the latest TV shows to reach the UK
Big houses
Cheap gas