Debunking the Myth of Freedom and Democracy in America

[Winston]

Hi all,
Here is a new huge essay I just finished. It's long yeah, but really worth reading with many logical valid points and arguments. I spent a lot of time on it, so please read. Thanks.


Debunking the Myth of Freedom and Democracy in America (with Facts and Overseas Experiences)

http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31a.htm

[ladislav]

The danger is that the myths extend beyond the US borders. Here are some:

1) America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Yeah, right. Go see how Gulf Arabs live. Free ( or low cost- $3 a visit) medical care! Free education. No interest loans or outright grants if you want to get married- the governments there actually encourage marriage and creation of families. They will give you MONEY so that you could go and get married!!! Can you believe that?
Also, how come that there are no illegal immigrants from Europe coming in? They do not need a visa so, one would think that millions of French, Belgians and Germans would go undercover in the USA and hide and try and marry to get green cards to have the high standard of living of the US. For some reason, they are not scrambling to immigrate. How come no Saudis or Kuwaitis are in the US trying to find jobs?

2) The whole world speaks English and if they do not they are a bunch of idiots and they should ( and WILL, one day,) learn.
Some 69% of the world, actually. still does not speak English, and many resist the "Anglo Saxon imperialism". I was in Russia now and forget about English- there were no signs in the Roman alphabet! When I asked them at the hotel why they would not have signs in Roman alphabet, the front desk girl snapped back- " This is our country! They do not make signs in Cyrillic for us when we go to their countries, do they?" Logical! In Argentina, the people are so adamant about the language that there are not even "P" ( parking) signs. Instead, there are "E" (Estacionamiento) signs.

3) Nationality is the place where you were born. Yeah, right! Just because the US has the law that if you are born in the US, you get the US nationality automatically ( which encourages anchor babies) it does not mean other countries have the same law! Most countries of the world require that at least one of the parents must be a citizen. In many countries, even that is not enough. The male parent must be a citizen, not the female. Plus in some other places, even if you are a citizen but are not ethnically and racially one of them, you are just not them. End of the story. If a dog is born in the stables, it does not make it a horse. A dog may get a paper stating it is a citizen of the stables, but still it is not a horse. Birth in a place is meaningless in most countries and does not grant you too many rights. US teachers who were teaching in Korea and who had kids there found out the hard way that, well, no, their kids are not Korean!

4) The people in the US are divided into Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, etc. hence people in other countries are divided into the same categories. Nope. US racial classifications end at the border. In Europe people are divided into ethnic nationalities- Serbs, Poles, Germans, etc. They do not think of themselves as "whites". In Africa people are divided into tribes. They do not walk around saying " I am black, I am black!" Except in South Africa but even then, it is tribal more than anything. In Asia, people think of themselves as Japanese, Koreans, etc. Not ' Asians". Here in the Philippines they have an even better system- people are identified by the language they speak. For example, I heard people calling me a "Tagalog", or saying that I was a Visayan ( Philippine ethnic groups) even if I spoke those languages with mistakes. Also, every citizen of the Philippines is a Filipino. No hyphenations.

[momopi]

Deuteronomy 15:6
For the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
http://www.goldworld.com/articles/us-national-debt/381

[polya]

Democracy is best described as 2 wolves and a sheep all voting on which one gets eaten for dinner. No wonder, the founding fathers wanted to protect us from democracy.
Also, elections are charades - both political parties are "slaves" to big business and do little to protect average citizens. Which is why it rarely maters who is President. Also, Bush & Kerry in the 2004 elections were cousins, so come on, there's no difference in the 2 parties.
I could go on about this, but I'm short of time today.
In conclusion, I agree with people like Winston and Naomi Wolf (who wrote "the end of America). The Network (1976) clip is excellent!
Good work!

[Repatriate]

The danger is that the myths extend beyond the US borders. Here are some:

1) America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Yeah, right. Go see how Gulf Arabs live. Free ( or low cost- $3 a visit) medical care! Free education. No interest loans or outright grants if you want to get married- the governments there actually encourage marriage and creation of families. They will give you MONEY so that you could go and get married!!! Can you believe that?

One thing that I will have to defend America on is that I feel it does rank pretty high if you are a new immigrant and want to build yourself up to a middle class at least. In Gulf countries if you are not born into a gulf arab family there's a snowball's chance in hell you will ever receive the sort of economic benefits that they reap from that black gold. Of course there's expats working there making decent wages such as yourself etc.. but usually the people that benefit are from developed countries offering skilled work.

The "land of opportunity" claims are exaggerated but for someone who comes to America with a good head on their shoulders and is willing to work they already have a major innate advantage over those Americans who are unwilling to expend any effort.

[Adama]

The danger is that the myths extend beyond the US borders. Here are some:

1) America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Yeah, right. Go see how Gulf Arabs live. Free ( or low cost- $3 a visit) medical care! Free education. No interest loans or outright grants if you want to get married- the governments there actually encourage marriage and creation of families. They will give you MONEY so that you could go and get married!!! Can you believe that?

One thing that I will have to defend America on is that I feel it does rank pretty high if you are a new immigrant and want to build yourself up to a middle class at least. In Gulf countries if you are not born into a gulf arab family there's a snowball's chance in hell you will ever receive the sort of economic benefits that they reap from that black gold. Of course there's expats working there making decent wages such as yourself etc.. but usually the people that benefit are from developed countries offering skilled work.

The "land of opportunity" claims are exaggerated but for someone who comes to America with a good head on their shoulders and is willing to work they already have a major innate advantage over those Americans who are unwilling to expend any effort.

Not to mention small business loans, tighter family units, tighter ethnic ties, stronger worth ethics.

I used to work in my state for a company started by a family from the Balkans. Slowly I came to find out that their community has their own phone book. They dont call the "gringos" to come fix their appliances. They call those of their nationality. When it comes to hiring in their small businesses (harder to do with larger businesses if your nationality isnt inclined to study for that field), they hire their distant cousins, wife's brothers, etc.

They even make small loans to each other for businesses and feel confident they will get the money back. Hehe. I hear it is similar in American Korean communities.

But regular Americans? Forget it.

[Repatriate]

The danger is that the myths extend beyond the US borders. Here are some:

1) America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Yeah, right. Go see how Gulf Arabs live. Free ( or low cost- $3 a visit) medical care! Free education. No interest loans or outright grants if you want to get married- the governments there actually encourage marriage and creation of families. They will give you MONEY so that you could go and get married!!! Can you believe that?

One thing that I will have to defend America on is that I feel it does rank pretty high if you are a new immigrant and want to build yourself up to a middle class at least. In Gulf countries if you are not born into a gulf arab family there's a snowball's chance in hell you will ever receive the sort of economic benefits that they reap from that black gold. Of course there's expats working there making decent wages such as yourself etc.. but usually the people that benefit are from developed countries offering skilled work.

The "land of opportunity" claims are exaggerated but for someone who comes to America with a good head on their shoulders and is willing to work they already have a major innate advantage over those Americans who are unwilling to expend any effort.

Not to mention small business loans, tighter family units, tighter ethnic ties, stronger worth ethics.

I used to work in my state for a company started by a family from the Balkans. Slowly I came to find out that their community has their own phone book. They dont call the "gringos" to come fix their appliances. They call those of their nationality. When it comes to hiring in their small businesses (harder to do with larger businesses if your nationality isnt inclined to study for that field), they hire their distant cousins, wife's brothers, etc.

They even make small loans to each other for businesses and feel confident they will get the money back. Hehe. I hear it is similar in American Korean communities.

But regular Americans? Forget it.

"New" immigrants such as Koreans, Chinese, etc.. are just doing what Jews, Italians, etc.. did in the past. It's a survival mechanism for all new immigrants to America. They are forming ethnic communities first and then the people that are able to attain wealth or at least a middle class lifestyle out of selling to their own communities can then send their kids off to good schools and hopefully attain "mainstream" future success by the 1.5 generation.

However, If there's one major advantage your average middle class white American has over new immigrants is the ability to excel much farther in all social areas with less initial social and political obstacles. There are different occupations that are still very "protected" in America. Plus America is segregated along racial lines so the newer "non white" communities may be less likely to want to integrate into majority anytime soon.

[ladislav]

One thing that I will have to defend America on is that I feel it does rank pretty high if you are a new immigrant and want to build yourself up to a middle class at least. In Gulf countries if you are not born into a gulf arab family there's a snowball's chance in hell you will ever receive the sort of economic benefits that they reap from that black gold. Of course there's expats working there making decent wages such as yourself etc.. but usually the people that benefit are from developed countries offering skilled work.

The "land of opportunity" claims are exaggerated but for someone who comes to America with a good head on their shoulders and is willing to work they already have a major innate advantage over those Americans who are unwilling to expend any effort.

Definitely! And I do not think anyone here on this board has ever tried to contest the fact that the US is a great country for professional development especially for those with technical skills and some business acumen. It has strong anti discrimination laws as well so people who are minorities or women in their own country do get a great chance to succeed. You can get a degree with student loans and grants and become a middle class person so much easier than in so many other places. Then you can expatriate as a US citizen and live an even better life than you would be in the US.

It is also a great country for people whose priority is to get away from Communist or Fascist countries where these people are oppressed. Or just very poor other countries with limited opportunities for advancement and all kinds of discrimination against people at the bottom.

I am a prime example of how America can help someone build a normal 'professional' life and even enable me to live an international life after that. Where I was born, because of twisted residency laws and my ethnic background, I had no permit to live in the city/country where I was born and I had to get out. I still do not qualify for citizenship there. I was not able to get into school because I was not good enough student for them. In the US, I was able to get residency and citizenship, my grades were good enough for college and I was able to get student loans, grants and get my BA and MA. I was ble to get an apartment and a car. Also, there are no residency permit requirements and one can live anywhere in the country one wants to live.

Here in the Philippines I watch how things are and see why so many Filipinos scramble to get to the USA. They have to pay money to finish high school and to get a job. Their laws do not protect people from work related discrimination. A naturalized citizen here for example cannot be a policeman. Then on their job applications they ask such personal questions that you can be disqualified instantly. They advertise for jobs and ask for people's age and all. I' d hate to think what it would be like to say, immigrate to the Philippines as a poor person. Or just be a poor Filipino.

In America many Filipinos would bloom professionally and that is why they are happy there.

However, while it is easy for a Filipino to make money in the USA and send home $500 -1000 a month, that kind of money is peanuts for people who live in the USA and have to save money there.

[ladislav]

"New" immigrants such as Koreans, Chinese, etc.. are just doing what Jews, Italians, etc.. did in the past. It's a survival mechanism for all new immigrants to America. They are forming ethnic communities first and then the people that are able to attain wealth or at least a middle class lifestyle out of selling to their own communities can then send their kids off to good schools and hopefully attain "mainstream" future success by the 1.5 generation.

Exactly, and they do not seem to suffer much from social exclusions and ice barriers because their priorities are different. Many were poor in their countries so America is a boon for them. And their kids will have a better future at least money wise and they can emigrate with US passports and do what Winston is doing. So, for poorer people from the third world, yes, America still holds the professional and the political freedom promise. The social integration is not on their priority list.

However, If there's one major advantage your average middle class white American has over new immigrants is the ability to excel much farther in all social areas with less initial social and political obstacles. There are different occupations that are still very "protected" in America. Plus America is segregated along racial lines so the newer "non white" communities may be less likely to want to integrate into majority anytime soon.

Less likely to WANT? Like it is their choice. How about not being ABLE? Generally, if you do not come from a white 1st world country and are not a gorgeous young woman, the American social mainstream is pretty much closed to you. That means- no friends, no dates, etc. Non 1st world white people have to take one more generation to integrate, non white people may take another hundred years. It is a lonely place because of the racial/ethnic discrimination and exclusivity with a smile.
Many Asians and Latinos start hating white people and the segregation gos on and on.

So, everyone else creates their own smaller mainstream and swims in that. That is called multi culturalism. I call it Apartheid.

This board is mainly dedicated to how one can improve one's social life by expatriating or self-multi-nationalizing. The professional and political benefits of America are known and appreciated by all here, I guess. But what use are they if you have no friends and no love? Life is just incomplete and you are miserable. It is not life at all. And having to live in ethnic ghettos is outrageous.

Sure, it is an improvement over being an ethnic Serb in Bosnia being shot at, but, after the initial euphoria, your life still yearns for eventual completeness. Something that the US still cannot provide unless you combine it with a couple of more countries. And that is what I am doing.

[globetrotter]

[ tighter ethnic ties, stronger worth ethics.

I used to work in my state for a company started by a family from the Balkans. Slowly I came to find out that their community has their own phone book. They dont call the "gringos" to come fix their appliances. They call those of their nationality. When it comes to hiring in their small businesses (harder to do with larger businesses if your nationality isnt inclined to study for that field), they hire their distant cousins, wife's brothers, etc.

They even make small loans to each other for businesses and feel confident they will get the money back. Hehe. I hear it is similar in American Korean communities.

But regular Americans? Forget it.

Only White European Americans do NOT do this. Koreans, Chinese, Muslims, Balkans, Ethipians, Somalis - most other nationalities keep money inside their group to raise the standard of living of the group. Makes sense. Earn money from white Americans outside your group, but spend it only INSIDE. This raises your standard of living very quickly.

Only Americans compete against each other in this cuthroat fashion, tearing each other down. One of the main benefits of working contracts outside USA is that the assholes who would have sold you into slavery for a cup of coffee back home become fairly decent human beings one can be friends with outside the USA.
The US is good for services, banking (although lately I wonder...) and technological infrastructure. Other than that, go elsewhere.

[ladislav]

Within the context of a majority, a group that finds itself unhelped by that majority, unites. Some more ,some less. So, again within the context of the US the Chinese would unite or all Asians would become a monolithic group vs. the whites. And so on. In China they would be at each other' throats and white Americans would network and kind of help each other a bit more. But still not enough. White Americans abroad often like to sit around and brag how they have made it in the country and how much the locals adore them and love them. Some would help you but some would feel you are infringing on" their territory".

The Balkan people are united in the US but they ethnically cleanse each other in their homelands.

Groups who find themselves in the minority status can also swing the other way, form mafias and feed off of their own people and cheat and exploit them like the majority never would. Think- Chinese Snakeheads. Seen it so many times- those who came earlier treat newcomers like dogs and even if they help them, the help is squeamish and condescending. And there is a favor debt hanging over the person who has been helped.

Personally, I like to help myself as much as possible and others and try not to depend on groups or be selective as to who I trust. Most people I have met in my life have been a##holes and parasites and liars. A small percentage have been good. So, I have learned to depend on me as much as possible. It is a tougher, lonelier road and it takes longer but I do not owe anyone anything in the end.

But, granted, ethnic yellow pages provide lower prices on goods and services, quicker channels through immigration and a bit more support than the majority jungle.

[zacherystaylor]

Hi I found this article while preparing my own post about the subject. I hope you don’t mind but I used a couple of your pictures with return links. It is about what I consider the Semi-Secret Fundamentals of Democracy because the version of democracy that is being presented to the public is as you said or implied based largely on indoctrination, by repeating the claim that this is democracy over and over again without actually responding to the will of the people.

I have clearly explained why I don’t believe this is truly a democracy any more than you. The biggest reason is that in order to have a sincere democracy we need to have a better education system and it needs to be available to all. The vote also needs to be available to all and people should be encouraged to use it as much as possible. Since you first posted your essay there have been many more efforts to suppress voting in the USA and you probably know that it is getting much worse this year.

One thing that I disagree with you on is the claim that the ancient Greeks tried a true democracy; I don’t consider their system democratic either since many people weren’t allowed to vote and those that had access to the ballot were often subject to demagoguery and they often didn’t have access to the education they needed to preserve their democracy which is why it fell apart and it is why ours will also fall apart unless we learn how to reform it and soon judging by the things that are happening now.

[Winston]

Hi I found this article while preparing my own post about the subject. I hope you don’t mind but I used a couple of your pictures with return links. It is about what I consider the Semi-Secret Fundamentals of Democracy because the version of democracy that is being presented to the public is as you said or implied based largely on indoctrination, by repeating the claim that this is democracy over and over again without actually responding to the will of the people.

I have clearly explained why I don’t believe this is truly a democracy any more than you. The biggest reason is that in order to have a sincere democracy we need to have a better education system and it needs to be available to all. The vote also needs to be available to all and people should be encouraged to use it as much as possible. Since you first posted your essay there have been many more efforts to suppress voting in the USA and you probably know that it is getting much worse this year.

One thing that I disagree with you on is the claim that the ancient Greeks tried a true democracy; I don’t consider their system democratic either since many people weren’t allowed to vote and those that had access to the ballot were often subject to demagoguery and they often didn’t have access to the education they needed to preserve their democracy which is why it fell apart and it is why ours will also fall apart unless we learn how to reform it and soon judging by the things that are happening now.

Welcome Zachery. Well I'm not an expert in Greek history. I was just citing what I heard from other videos about why America is not a democracy. Whatever the case though, the elites that run America are never going to allow a true democracy. No way. Why would they? It would not work in their interest at all. Why would they support something that costs them their power?

In simple terms, there is no democracy in America because the majority have virtually ZERO control over the way the country is run and in domestic and foreign policy too. So there is no basis at all for the existence of a democracy in America. I don't see why that would change though. Besides, there is no evidence that a true democracy would necessarily be a good thing anyway. A libertarian style government is best, logically speaking.

Sure you are welcome to quote my article and pictures and backlink to it. Thanks.

[cubeangel]

Hi all,
Here is a new huge essay I just finished. It's long yeah, but really worth reading with many logical valid points and arguments. I spent a lot of time on it, so please read. Thanks.


Debunking the Myth of Freedom and Democracy in America (with Facts and Overseas Experiences)

http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31a.htm

Winston, it seems like you love to conform to something and that is free thought.

[Jester]

Hi all,
I spent a lot of time on it

Indeed. Many of the ideas reflect what you've written about before, but there is good new stuff as well. Thorough analysis, but also tight. No rambling or repetition. You should be proud of it and publish it anywhere you can.