Cynicism is never healthy. What's needed is coherent criticism.

Hehe what I meant is that Obama is going to continue with the same kind of problems that got us into this problem in the first place. Overspending over inflating and protecting the very people who cause the problem. His stimulus package and the recent bailouts will do just that overspend, over inflate, and protect the people who caused the problem while at the same time ignoring the root of the problem and thus its solution-------> which is less government less nonsensical regulation less spending less imperialistic foreign policy.

You are right though that I have become jaded and am judging a man who has only been in office for two weeks. I don't expect the world to change over night but when the man is literally proclaiming such solutions as if they are actually solutions or any sort of change is pure bullshit. I guess I am judging not on what he has done because its only been a couple week but on what he is saying he wants to do which are things I fundamentally think are wrong.

Concerning his statement about ending DEA raids I do think it will happen and am hopeful there will at least be a small change in that arena. I just think every day and every person who gets arrested is one person too many and sorry if I get mad about that but I am sure you can understand. SWIM voted and expect results or else the heat stays on

There is no torture in the UK or germany. In western europe, we don't have far right politicians like rumsfeld, who've penetrated the center of the political establishment. The UK independent party is a totally insignificant faction, so is the french front national and even the belgian vlaams belang, the dutch PVV and TON will never get a majority of votes, ever. The only western european countries that have the far-right equally penetrated in society and politics, are spain with it's partido popular (franco's party) and italy with berlusconi's political vehicle's.
The problem with americans is that they so desperately want to believe that neo-nazi's are a european phenomenon, while we europeans in this perspective have nothing on a guy like rumsfeld. There are no european leaders who really love warfare, torture and killing, as much as the people from bush-II administration. We europeans where all against this war in iraq, remember? and you americans all hated us for it (remember your 'freedom fries'?) and said we where insignificant because we don't have as much nuclear warheads as you americans have. I rest my case.

hey hey hey!! how can you say 'you americans all hated us' did you ever ask me if i hated you...and freedom fries...who did that..it was the government..it was retarded..childish and stupid..that wasnt 'voted' in by americans..i could care less what you call fries..and I dont have ANY warheads..nor do i want one..and i personally dont think anybody should any...so when you say 'you americans' perhaps you should think a little bit about that..because its not the american people that have the warheads..

and i didnt support bush or the war..i dont support torture...so dont blame the americans..blame the people that actually did that shit..it wasnt us..most of us didnt support bush or the war...notice that bush didnt even get the popular vote..he didnt get more votes than gore...so as you can see...we..the american people..did not actually want bush president...

granted there are some people that did..but to lump us all together because we happen to live in the same country is silly

i kinda take offense to your post..because you are pointing your finger at people that had nothing to do with all that shit you just said..

seriously..think a little harder before posting non-sense like that

True. But i said it because i think self criticism is something, at least a majority of americans seem to lack. Many europeans as well, ofcourse. But what i mean is; patriotism sounds nice, maybe. But in this 21th century world, every form of chauvinism is retarded. We are all more or less the same, so anybody saying 'we are special and better than everybody else' is not only making a mistake, but also hindering a joint aproach to today's challenges.

I always thought "Freedom Fries" were fucking stupid.



FUCK AMERICA!

*Please Note*- I am American and I live in America. I am also an Anarchist!

Oh, I'm sorry I forgot the europeans are perfect and they would never do any of the terrible things that america does.

America was one of the first nations in the world to be founded on the idea that people deserve to be free and live their lives how they want. At first this did not include women or native americans or blacks but it still was a first. Now the american constitution is completely disrespected by the vast majority of politicians and even american citizens. If they did there wouldn't be any of this empiralistic foreign policy and violence.

European nations are guilty of just as much blood shed as america. Just about every nation in the world is. Pointing fingers doesn't solve anything. We need more freedom not more international governance like the UN. Bah.

Yeah that's all I'm saying, is that all countries are corrupt as one another. I guess from my perspective, as an american, it seems like we have a bad reputation as the only one's that engage in illegal and inhumane activities.

I would say the human rights situation of china and switserland are not quite the same. You cannot just invade nations for the sake of fun (because it was all about getting rid of some post 911 frustrations anyway), and then keep on saying; all the other nations are just as bad as we are.
When everything goes well, then it's nothing but 'oh, we are the greatest nation, blahblah', but when some warcrimes here and there leak out, then it's suddenly 'oh, we are just the same as everybody else'.
Bottom line; national pride is for totally retarded morons who have nothing to be proud of in their own misserable lives and need the accomplishments of others, whether it's armies, national footballteams or olympic athletes, to boast with.

Just because the UK has not put under immense stress that is required to make it commit terrible acts, that doesn't mean that it wouldn't. I wonder if the UK would go to war and torture is someone annhilated the Palace of Westminster.

This thread sure got off topic and ugly really fast.

we are all humans..quit bickering

Anyways, I think its a great step for the president to publicly show disapproval of the DEA's main foothold in violating our rights. That's fantastic. We should jump for joy. I would consider it a civil rights movement if one day the DEA were eliminated.

That would be a great day when plants that actually help you are no longer banned. It doesn't matter now how much any of us believes or feels they've been helped by a DMT or aya journey. The law is deaf to whatever reasoning we might have.

indigenous groups may not be officially considered a nation but the native knowledge and organization had incorporated a much more real freedom and democracy (and sustainability and so on) way before america.

I mean, even ancient greece was before america with their model of democracy (but they also excluded loads of people from having the social rights)


in any case, definitely as you said what we need is a broader view of organization, no nationalism, localism or any other of these 'isms' which I see as diseases, resulting from the abstract identification with some or other concept of a group, a division of 'us and them', exophobia and so on.

I'm very sorry for this. And i certainly don't hate america or americans. But i don't like to pretend if nothing has happened for the past 8 years. And saying 'america did no more bad things then any other nation did for the past 8 years', is a total denial of everything.
And if many americans are in denial, there's no guarantee that we're not gonna see Jeb becoming the third bush in the white house someday.

Something i think most americans, europeans and many other people agree on.

There are unfortunately some places on earth where exceptions to this rule are quite common; like for jews, christians, muslims, atheïsts, homosexuals, women, blind or deaf people, uneducated poor people, human right activists, users of psychedelic substances, black/white/brown/yellow people, etc.

One of the reasons why democratic nations should be more coöperative in protecting human rights instead of operating unilaterally out of misplaced feelings of superiority.

^^Agree with you last statement there for sure. Sorry if I get aggressive when I talk politics its just been such a depressing topic for so long.

I'm sorry too. Peace and humanity for all.