Americans a broken people?

[Heafodban]

If you do not have the legal power to do something, then using that power you don't legally have to make it "legal" to do the illegal thing you want to do - is not legal. You're the one proposing a paradox here.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

I haven't read the thread, but I'd like to point out that through our history the "American character" has been chiefly defined by racism and money. To deny that would be naive in the extreme.

 

[Elenmmare]

I haven't read the thread, but I'd like to point out that through our history the "American character" has been chiefly defined by racism and money. To deny that would be naive in the extreme.

And God.

 

[The Shadow]

Americans, are not a God fearing people. 

Hey, a school in MA apparently banned the words "Merry Christmas" because it was offensive to some people.

A public, government school.  That violates the so called 'Bill of Rights' (First Amendment.)

 

[Sir Lulzalot]

Americans, are not a God fearing people. 

Hey, a school in MA apparently banned the words "Merry Christmas" because it was offensive to some people.

A public, government school.  That violates the so called 'Bill of Rights' (First Amendment.)

I think the "PC" term is Happy Holidays but I've never given two ****s about being politically correct. Seems a lot of people do though, sadly.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

I haven't read the thread, but I'd like to point out that through our history the "American character" has been chiefly defined by racism and money. To deny that would be naive in the extreme.

And God.

God actually came later. It played a role during the second great awakening, but that was only important because of racism, and became an excuse for racism with the whole "Manifest Destiny" deal. When the 50's rolled around, sure, but not all that much before.

Americans, are not a God fearing people. 

Hey, a school in MA apparently banned the words "Merry Christmas" because it was offensive to some people.

A public, government school.  That violates the so called 'Bill of Rights' (First Amendment.)

Since when have people cared about enforcing laws they didn't like? There were civil laws protecting African Americans in place since the end of the civil war, but no president for nearly a hundred years had the balls to enforce them since the Hayes crap.

 

[ealabor]

Americans a broken people?

No.

Our spirit of independance and freedom lives on in many forms, one today namely the Tea Party movement.


Certainly many people are braindead, content with their bread and circus's, though there are many whom pride the values on which our country was founded, and fight them tooth and nail. The overgrowth of this government and it's out of control spending has only served to increase the pool of the latter, by awakening the former mentioned peoples.


Fun times ahead..

 

[mdk31]

Americans a broken people?

No.

Our spirit of independance and freedom lives on in many forms, one today namely the Tea Party movement.

Lol.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

Americans a broken people?

No.

Our spirit of independance and freedom lives on in many forms, one today namely the Tea Party movement.


Certainly many people are braindead, content with their bread and circus's, though there are many whom pride the values on which our country was founded, and fight them tooth and nail. The overgrowth of this government and it's out of control spending has only served to increase the pool of the latter, by awakening the former mentioned peoples.


Fun times ahead..

 

[Elenmmare]

God actually came later. It played a role during the second great awakening, but that was only important because of racism, and became an excuse for racism with the whole "Manifest Destiny" deal. When the 50's rolled around, sure, but not all that much before.

That's quite funny seeing as your constitution is riddled with mentions of God, and your entire country was in fact founded by religious wingnuts that other religious wingnuts didn't like.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

God actually came later. It played a role during the second great awakening, but that was only important because of racism, and became an excuse for racism with the whole "Manifest Destiny" deal. When the 50's rolled around, sure, but not all that much before.

That's quite funny seeing as your constitution is riddled with mentions of God, and your entire country was in fact founded by religious wingnuts that other religious wingnuts didn't like.

I believe the US was founded by Atheists or deists, they only appeared to be scantly religious when engaged in politics.

Americans a broken people?

No.

Our spirit of independance and freedom lives on in many forms, one today namely the Tea Party movement.


Certainly many people are braindead, content with their bread and circus's, though there are many whom pride the values on which our country was founded, and fight them tooth and nail. The overgrowth of this government and it's out of control spending has only served to increase the pool of the latter, by awakening the former mentioned peoples.


Fun times ahead..

I hope you're using that knowing it's a hypothetical political party.

 

[mdk31]

God actually came later. It played a role during the second great awakening, but that was only important because of racism, and became an excuse for racism with the whole "Manifest Destiny" deal. When the 50's rolled around, sure, but not all that much before.

That's quite funny seeing as your constitution is riddled with mentions of God, and your entire country was in fact founded by religious wingnuts that other religious wingnuts didn't like.

Not really. God, Jesus etc. isn't mentioned at all in the Constitution, except at the end when it says "In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven", and that's only there because it was a common way to express the year.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

God actually came later. It played a role during the second great awakening, but that was only important because of racism, and became an excuse for racism with the whole "Manifest Destiny" deal. When the 50's rolled around, sure, but not all that much before.

That's quite funny seeing as your constitution is riddled with mentions of God, and your entire country was in fact founded by religious wingnuts that other religious wingnuts didn't like.

Actually, God isn't mentioned once in our constitution. The country was not founded by people seeking religious freedom either. The Puritans (the separatist puritans that is) came here when Holland didn't work out, but they had biblical law in their government when they were here. Freedom of religion was used in just a few of the colonies, and mostly because it was a politically and (more importantly at the time) economically smart move. That held over, but religious persecution wasn't as big a deal as middle school history would like us to believe.

 

[Elenmmare]

Yeah, my bad. I had thought the national motto included in the Constitution. I was thinking of 'In God We Trust.'

My opinion still stands - whenever America does a great undertaking, God is dragged into it; be it the Second World War, or a 'crusade' into Iraq, the poor old beared man is needed to win over half of the population.

Edit Interesting though, that the motto was originally "One from many". They changed it to fit the Star Spangled Banner in the 19th century, however.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

God is prevalent in our modern society because of the happenings in the 20th century, but it isn't a defining characteristic of America.

 

[mdk31]

Yeah, my bad. I had thought the national motto included in the Constitution. I was thinking of 'In God We Trust.'

My opinion still stands - whenever America does a great undertaking, God is dragged into it; be it the Second World War, or a 'crusade' into Iraq, the poor old beared man is needed to win over half of the population.

But that can be said of any society. In WWII, German soldiers bore "Gott Mit Uns" (God is with us) on their belts. The will of god was invoked by every side in the war, as a way of unifying the people against the opposing nations.

And "In God We Trust" wasn't made the official national motto until 1956.

 

[Elenmmare]

God is prevalent in our modern society because of the happenings in the 20th century, but it isn't a defining characteristic of America.

No, it is. North America is ridiculously more religious than other Western countries, even if you just look at the %age of athiests per country. And I am discussing modern America, not the past.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

Modern America and "the American character" are two different things, so we aren't exactly disagreeing.

 

[Mage246]

We're definitely not as religious as Mexico or the rest of Latin America, so with regard to our actual geographic neighbors we're hardly extreme.

 

[mdk31]

We're definitely not as religious as Mexico or the rest of Latin America, so with regard to our actual geographic neighbors we're hardly extreme.

Our people aren't, but so far as I can tell, the way our government panders to the fringe right-wing religious is unknown in other developed countries.