Patriotism Test

[DGS49]

Could you write a short essay on the topic, "What Makes America Special?"

Recognizing that very few of us actually have detailed knowledge of what it is like to live in another country, I still don't think it would be unreasonable to expect any well-informed American to write a short essay on the topic. (NOTE: I use "ROW" to mean, the rest of the world).

My personal essay (maybe I'll post it later) includes sections on:

Educational opportunity (anyone with sufficient intelligence and perseverance can go as far as they want educationally);

Economic opportunity (many, many fortunes are made all the time by people who start out with next to nothing, mainly through entrepreneurship and/or investment);

Technology (The US is in the forefront of technology in virtually every major field of endeavor);

Entertainment I (TV, Film, Music, gaming, electronic entertainment);

Entertainment II (Spectator sports and events: US has unparallelled variety and quality. ROW has...soccer...wake me up when it's over);

Entertainment III (Participant sports: golf tennis, bowling, cycling, skiing, etc., etc., etc., and most are much cheaper here than in ROW due to America's size);

Communications (we lead the world - for better or worse);

Freedoms (communication, artistic, behavioral, political)

Medicine (access to the best the world has to offer, though we might have to pay for it)

NOW, it is my experience, especially on the Internet, that when some people write about what makes America "special," the first things they think of are substandard infant mortality rates, math scores, and negative things like that.

But if you would like to think of yourself as a patriotic American then this assignment should be relative easy.

What makes America great?

 

[manifold]

What makes America really great is I can get on the internet and tell blowhards like DGS49 to go fuck themselves.

Sincerely,
manifold

 

[daws101]

Could you write a short essay on the topic, "What Makes America Special?"

Recognizing that very few of us actually have detailed knowledge of what it is like to live in another country, I still don't think it would be unreasonable to expect any well-informed American to write a short essay on the topic. (NOTE: I use "ROW" to mean, the rest of the world).

My personal essay (maybe I'll post it later) includes sections on:

Educational opportunity (anyone with sufficient intelligence and perseverance can go as far as they want educationally);

Economic opportunity (many, many fortunes are made all the time by people who start out with next to nothing, mainly through entrepreneurship and/or investment);

Technology (The US is in the forefront of technology in virtually every major field of endeavor);

Entertainment I (TV, Film, Music, gaming, electronic entertainment);

Entertainment II (Spectator sports and events: US has unparallelled variety and quality. ROW has...soccer...wake me up when it's over);

Entertainment III (Participant sports: golf tennis, bowling, cycling, skiing, etc., etc., etc., and most are much cheaper here than in ROW due to America's size);

Communications (we lead the world - for better or worse);

Freedoms (communication, artistic, behavioral, political)

Medicine (access to the best the world has to offer, though we might have to pay for it)

NOW, it is my experience, especially on the Internet, that when some people write about what makes America "special," the first things they think of are substandard infant mortality rates, math scores, and negative things like that.

But if you would like to think of yourself as a patriotic American then this assignment should be relative easy.

What makes America great?

[Patriotism] ...is a word which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting and re-ousting of a longline of successive "owners" who each in turn, as "patriots" with proud swelling hearts defended it against the next gang of "robbers" who came to steal it and did -- and became swelling-hearted patriots in their turn.
- Mark Twain's Notebook


Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927

 

[Gideonprime]

Let's see should it be About how exceptional we are at locking our population in prison?

How about Forprofit warehousing of the sick, old and oh yeah Prisoners?

I woudl agree there are many things that make America great. However, I do think of myself as a patriot American and assuch it is my duty to point out where we stumble and fall flat. Forto ignore such travesties is toonly make America a weaker less civil adn free place to live.

As such your premiss that only positive things should be mentioned in an essay would make the essay or the writer patriotic is utterly false and flawed. IMO.

 

[Ravi]

What makes America great: getting to pretend that people that don't agree with you are anti-American.

 

[Gideonprime]

what makes america great: Getting to pretend that people that don't agree with you are anti-american.

awesome!

 

[California Girl]

Yes, I could.

 

[initforme]

I frankly have never bought into this "exceptionalism" jargin. The US a decent place to work and raise a family just as I have done. It has its own unique culture and history just like every other country. But it has been falling flat since the late 70's. Steady decline in my eyes.

 

[Conservative]

I choose not to.

 

[Cowman]

What makes America great is that I don't have to prove patriotism, or even be patriotic.

I can love this country in my own way... and not under some silly guise of patriotism that somebody else has defined.

 

[g5000]

I can go to 7-Eleven at three in the a.m. and get a cherry Slurpee.

That's what makes Merka exceptional.




In NYC, I cannot get a Slurpee larger than 16 oz.

That's what makes Merka like Yurp.

 

[Douger]

Bath Water, meth and semi-literacy ! The most serial killers of all nations combined ! The #1 CONnedSumers of cocaine on the planet ! The most prisoners per capita ! The most food borne disease occurrences anywhere ! The most cases of obesity !
Gawd Blast murka !!!

 

[g5000]

Generous to a fault in providing aid to other nations.

Protected Yurp from the commies on our own dime.

Paid for the rebuilding of Yurp and Japan after blowing them up for pissing us off.

Invented 'puters and iPods and Slurpees and Coca-Cola and the Constitution and jazz and Kim Basinger. Winchester, Smith & Wesson, nuclear powered submarines.

People from around the globe are scrambling to come here by the tens of millions. And it ain't for the meth!

 

[Steelplate]

What makes America great? Let's see......the fact that us Americans can publicly bitch(protest) about things we don't agree with and not get thrown in a gulag somewhere. The fact that a man who was from a single parent, middle class upbringing CAN become POTUS. Whether you agree with Obama's ideology or not....only in America could this happen....ok...perhaps in a handful of other countries too...I don't know for certain. The Entrepreneurial spirit that we have...someone is always trying to build a better mousetrap here and it's one of the things that have made us such a successful country. Football...not namby-pamby soccer...but real football...Pittsburgh Steelers Football(noticed your location...Go Steelers!). Music...as a musician, that's important to me. America sets the standard around the globe for variety, quality, and passion.

Those are just a few off the top of my head. Git shit to do, but I'll be back later.

Now...that being said,

 

[g5000]

Some French royal dude said what was exceptional about America better than I can. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

For God's sake, read it. It should be mandatory.


What's great about America? Well, you can Heil Hitler in Skokie. You can worship Jesus, the sun, Allah, Shiva, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Kim Bassinger. You can bike naked in Portland Oregon with 14,000 of your closest friends. You can stand your ground in Florida. You can email the President and tell him he's nothing but a Kenyan-born Muslim traitor bastard. You can vote for whoever you want, and nobody has to know who. You can protest the murder of the unborn or the removal of public employee pension collective bargaining. You can run for President and get all the free vag you can handle. You can drink alcohol on Sundays. You can't be forced to bunk soldiers in your apartment. You can commit a crime and nobody can make you talk about it. You don't have to endure the same guy as President for more than 8 years. You can't be forced to pay to vote.


But what makes America particulary exceptional is that all of these things are true at the same time.

 

[Gadawg73]

What makes America great?
Protecting and demanding equal rights of those I may despise the most.

 

[Gadawg73]

And of course Georgia football, cold beer, G. Loomis rods, Shimano reels, dogs, raw oysters at Indian Pass raw bar, Glock and Ruger, and southern women.

 

[PratchettFan]

Could you write a short essay on the topic, "What Makes America Special?"

Recognizing that very few of us actually have detailed knowledge of what it is like to live in another country, I still don't think it would be unreasonable to expect any well-informed American to write a short essay on the topic. (NOTE: I use "ROW" to mean, the rest of the world).

My personal essay (maybe I'll post it later) includes sections on:

Educational opportunity (anyone with sufficient intelligence and perseverance can go as far as they want educationally);

Economic opportunity (many, many fortunes are made all the time by people who start out with next to nothing, mainly through entrepreneurship and/or investment);

Technology (The US is in the forefront of technology in virtually every major field of endeavor);

Entertainment I (TV, Film, Music, gaming, electronic entertainment);

Entertainment II (Spectator sports and events: US has unparallelled variety and quality. ROW has...soccer...wake me up when it's over);

Entertainment III (Participant sports: golf tennis, bowling, cycling, skiing, etc., etc., etc., and most are much cheaper here than in ROW due to America's size);

Communications (we lead the world - for better or worse);

Freedoms (communication, artistic, behavioral, political)

Medicine (access to the best the world has to offer, though we might have to pay for it)

NOW, it is my experience, especially on the Internet, that when some people write about what makes America "special," the first things they think of are substandard infant mortality rates, math scores, and negative things like that.

But if you would like to think of yourself as a patriotic American then this assignment should be relative easy.

What makes America great?

Patriotism is not finding ways to show how great America is. Patriotism is finding what you can do to make it better.

 

[jillian]

What makes America great: getting to pretend that people that don't agree with you are anti-American.

 

[Ravi]

Freedom Fries make America great.