We keep getting angry because we keep getting shafted by those with power. You'd think we'd have learned by now.

You know who else likes America when it's angry? George Carlin (new window, haven't been able to find the actual clip, but meh).

But we get over i

as noted in a recent thread, try telling that to the Cubans.

Being passionate about your political positions is good, and healthy for democracy.

This doesn't change the fact that your political positions being as stupid as you can possibly make them, and you refusing to budge even though, as someone capable of remembering to breathe, you damned well know they're stupid, is bad, and unhealthy for democracy.

Note that this is a line that's harder to cross than you'd think. For instance, I disagree with drug warriors and anti-abortion people fairly vehemently and think that they're generally bad people with bad ideas, but in the end they still fall on the "good for democracy" side because having the conversation is a net benefit. Creationists, though? Yeeeeeah...

//Basically, its good to have your own opinion, but if you think you're entitled to your own facts you can go stick your head in a pig.

oh yeah? Come and say that to my FACE!!!!!

Jim_Callahan: Being passionate about your political positions is good, and healthy for democracy.

This doesn't change the fact that your political positions being as stupid as you can possibly make them, and you refusing to budge even though, as someone capable of remembering to breathe, you damned well know they're stupid, is bad, and unhealthy for democracy.

Note that this is a line that's harder to cross than you'd think. For instance, I disagree with drug warriors and anti-abortion people fairly vehemently and think that they're generally bad people with bad ideas, but in the end they still fall on the "good for democracy" side because having the conversation is a net benefit. Creationists, though? Yeeeeeah...

//Basically, its good to have your own opinion, but if you think you're entitled to your own facts you can go stick your head in a pig.

There is an argument to be made about the facts that matter, how they get interpreted, etc.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I'd describe Americans as kinda annoyed, maybe "more than a little worried".

Civilisations that are actually angry tend to have violent revolutions. I don't see that happening in the US, at least not anytime soon.

fusillade762: I can't hear my TV when I eat crunchy snacks and it makes me SO ANGRY!

Soggy Rice Krispies. Man fark soggy Rice Krispies. shiat pisses me the hell off...

/rage

I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

ArtosRC:
We keep getting angry because we keep getting shafted by those with power. You'd think we'd have learned by now.

Too bad your typical angry American feels cheated by life, knows deep down who is doing the cheating... and still biatches about gays and immigrants ruining their country.

Anger without any intelligent analysis behind it is just a chimp flinging shiat. Say what you will about Marxism, at least Karl Marx was an educated man who looked at how the system was screwing his fellow man, correctly identified the injustices, and proposed an alternate system he felt was more just. His solution may have been poor, but he still beats the Tea Baggers etc. who just pick a weak and easy target, and blame them for everything.

What a typical american might look like:

An American is smart. AMERICANS are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals- and you know it.

FTFA: ""Why assume that anger is always something to 'get over?"

It's only something to get over if you are Republican. The only reason Republicans are angry is because they are racist. They only criticise Obama because of the color of his skin. When a Democrat gets angry, it's only because he loves his fellow man so much that he must educate him in the way liberals see fit and take his money to pay for some fat person's healthcare and force catholic churches to pay for abortions. It's OK to be angry then, because a liberal is always on the side of good and whatever makes him angry must therefore be evil.

The half a million dead Iraqis who died in another one of americas homicidal rages got over it.

Whats the big deal.

They should be glad they weren't caught up in the Vietnam homicidal rage. We slaughtered 3 million during that massacre. When God is on your side you can really kill.

No Such Agency: Too bad your typical angry American feels cheated by life, knows deep down who is doing the cheating... and still biatches about gays and immigrants ruining their country. Anger without any intelligent analysis behind it is just a chimp flinging shiat. Say what you will about Marxism, at least Karl Marx was an educated man who looked at how the system was screwing his fellow man, correctly identified the injustices, and proposed an alternate system he felt was more just. His solution may have been poor, but he still beats the Tea Baggers etc. who just pick a weak and easy target, and blame them for everything.

Preach it, brother.

fusillade762: I can't hear my TV when I eat crunchy snacks and it makes me SO ANGRY!

Have you postged this to myroughlife.com yet?

ronaprhys: There is an argument to be made about the facts that matter, how they get interpreted, etc.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Issues like abortion hinge on a classification, which is going to be based in fact but come down to a judgement call on what the significant criteria are (essentially, is anything with a complete, reasonably unique human genome a human, or is there an amount of independent viability as an organism required, and if so, how much) or even whether the overall concern is moral or practical (the contraception issue that's come up a few threads in the past week, for instance-- the Catholics fall entirely on the 'moral consistency' side, basically everyone else in the universe prioritizes the practical aspects of the problem to one degree or another).

Contrast those kind of policy arguments with the creationism thing, which hinges on the fact that Evolution doesn't exist. That fact is just, well, flat-out wrong, as Evolution has been directly observed thousands of times now, and indirectly observed a couple million times. This has been pointed out to the people on the wrong side of the argument, and they refuse to budge. Thus, they graduate from ignorant to stupid and the argument itself graduates from 'valuable so that ideas are fleshed out' to 'completely pointless waste of resources for everyone involved, and harmful to discussion in general in that it's considered worth discussing at all'.

Another good example of the type 2 discussion would be most open advocacy of actual racism, since the fundmental assumption of racism (that race inherently correlates to behavior or other mental qualities) is demonstrably factually incorrect. Thus, arguments where one side supports it as the core of their ideas are counterproductive and stupid rather than philosophically useful.

ArtosRC: No Such Agency: Too bad your typical angry American feels cheated by life, knows deep down who is doing the cheating... and still biatches about gays and immigrants ruining their country. Anger without any intelligent analysis behind it is just a chimp flinging shiat. Say what you will about Marxism, at least Karl Marx was an educated man who looked at how the system was screwing his fellow man, correctly identified the injustices, and proposed an alternate system he felt was more just. His solution may have been poor, but he still beats the Tea Baggers etc. who just pick a weak and easy target, and blame them for everything.

Preach it, brother.

Karl Marx brought us such wonderful things - it's too bad that Americans are too fat, lazy, and racist to see that:







/no true scotsman

beta_plus: When a Democrat gets angry, it's only because he loves his fellow man so much that he must educate him in the way liberals see fit and take his money to pay for some fat person's healthcare and force catholic churches to pay for abortions. It's OK to be angry then, because a liberal is always on the side of good and whatever makes him angry must therefore be evil.



In these parts, this sticker can be found plastered on to one in every three Volvos.

We'll get over it as soon as that rabbit brings back out Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

of course we do. just ask the south about the civil war. see? they're over it.

Stupid people shouldn't be biologically able to get angry because they never really understand their anger, what is making them angry, or what to do about it. The anger switch should only flip when the IQ is at least in triple digits.

nmemkha: If civil war comes to America, you have two sides:

A) Progressive intellectuals and artists. The true "creators" in the economy who will not want to live under the theocratic fascism.

B) Old people, corporate sociopaths who used to make money off A, racists, fascists, and unthinking religious fanatics.

I wonder which side will prosper ...

You might take into consideration which side enjoys gun ownership . . .

Bob16: The half a million dead Iraqis who died in another one of americas homicidal rages got over it.

Whats the big deal.

They should be glad they weren't caught up in the Vietnam homicidal rage. We slaughtered 3 million during that massacre. When God is on your side you can really kill.

Actually, the vast majority of dead in Iraq and Vietnam died by the hands of their fellow Iraqis/Vietnamese. And seeing the way world events are going today, pretty soon there will be plenty more mutual heathen slaughter to amuse us.

Schadenfreude--the American way of getting over anger.

Funny how the writer didn't mention any of the OWS protesters or the union thugs that took over Madison, WI a year ago today.

Yup, once the previous generation dies off AND we have good economic times.

Hell, I think a good chunk of the anger at the government is from people that have fallen into the safety net when they never in a million years thought they would need food stamps and medicare/medicaid to survive.

They resent that the government is there to help them and while they are deserving, it's all those other lowlifes that are leeching off the government teat. To put it bluntly, they are self-hating temporary welfare recipients.

Add in the lack of government preventing the excesses of Wall Street (methods for dealing with said excesses vary wildly from left to right on the political spectrum) and encouraging the housing bubble to lift us out of one recession only to plunge us into a worse one, and I can see where the anger comes from.

WorldKnowledge: nmemkha: If civil war comes to America, you have two sides:

A) Progressive intellectuals and artists. The true "creators" in the economy who will not want to live under the theocratic fascism.

B) Old people, corporate sociopaths who used to make money off A, racists, fascists, and unthinking religious fanatics.

I wonder which side will prosper ...

You might take into consideration which side enjoys gun ownership . . .

[doctorbulldog.files.wordpress.com image 504x432]

Lots of liberals own guns. We tend to stay away from gun shows because it is clear a liberal gun owner is not welcome.







//They're surveyor's marks...

No Such Agency: Karl Marx was an educated man who looked at how the system was screwing his fellow man, correctly identified the injustices, and proposed an alternate system he felt was more just. His solution may have been poor, but he still beats the Tea Baggers etc. who just pick a weak and easy target, and blame them for everything.

The government is a weak and easy target? Tell that to the SWAT team the FBI sends to kick in your door for possessing eagle feathers.

Don't poke America.

;)

All that anger probably explains why heart disease is a major killer in the US.

/That and all the fatty, fatty, fat fats we have walking (some of the time) around.

SN1987a goes boom: All that anger probably explains why heart disease is a major killer in the US.

/That and all the fatty, fatty, fat fats we have walking (some of the time) around.

Yeah, they're like cord-wood for winter, yo...

One cannibal-joke too far?

Come on, this is like the worst of the worst human fear.

Mmmm, fatty, fatty, fat fats...

;)

/Yeah, Canada is practically part of the U S of A.

In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth and have begun striving for ourselves.
~The Buddha

beta_plus: FTFA: ""Why assume that anger is always something to 'get over?"

It's only something to get over if you are Republican. The only reason Republicans are angry is because they are racist. They only criticise Obama because of the color of his skin. When a Democrat gets angry, it's only because he loves his fellow man so much that he must educate him in the way liberals see fit and take his money to pay for some fat person's healthcare and force catholic churches to pay for abortions. It's OK to be angry then, because a liberal is always on the side of good and whatever makes him angry must therefore be evil.

Republicans get angry at egalitarian justice. Democrats get angry at egalitarian injustice. Let's argue that one, my friend.

Kuta: [www.sfcritic.com image 600x337]

/Yeah, Canada is practically part of the U S of A.

What happened with him? I heard people were kinda pissed at deadmau5, calling him a Gaga wannabe.

mcjam: In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth and have begun striving for ourselves.
~The Buddha

Buddha says, "Bud...ah..."

;)

P.S. Or was it, "Bud, Ha!"

Indubitably: Don't poke America.

;)


So I think we need a new plan. Next time a country wants to take us on, 'stead of sending bombs, let's try this: send everyone in the country a color television and a satellite dish. And give 'em the basic package, not HBO - screw those people. And before the war starts, we make them all sit down. "Okay, we'll go to war with you. You want a piece of us, fine, fine. Before we go, I want you guys to understand us a little better, so you have to sit down and watch ESPN2 for 24 hours. 'Cause you watch ESPN2 for a full day, you're gonna understand America a lot better. 'Hi, we're America! We build monster trucks for fun! We developed the top fuel dragster, zero to three hundred thirty miles an hour in under five seconds, cause, pfft, we were bored. Piss us off, heh, and see what we build! And we may feel bad about it later! Ask Japan. But before we feel bad...we're gonna jack you up! And then we're gonna send you FOOD! 'Cause we're America; we're schizophrenic. Don't mess with a nation that needs medication!'"- Christopher Titus