Right wing idiocy: Equality is not American, it's European

[Ravi]

Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.


Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media. Equality is ‘not an American value’: Righty tub-thumpers stump for Minnesota Republicans​

 

[Andrew2382]

ok and?

All that says is that Americans have been brainwashed with this European rhetoric

The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

I agree.

Europe- Regardless of what you contribute or ho whard you work the man next to you deserves as much as you

America- Live in a land where depending on how hard you work the bigger the rewards you will achieve.

I like to live in a place knowing that someone who is lazy and doesn't work as hard as me isn't going to reap from the benefits from the contributions of my hard work.

 

[Ravi]

 

[Turboswede]

Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.
​

This guy should go back and look at the Declaration of independence where it states

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

At the very least, equality of opportunity is clearly an American value.​

 

[Ravi]

And there's always that bit about equal protection under the law in the constitution...these people crack me up.

 

[Turboswede]

And there's always that bit about equal protection under the law in the constitution...these people crack me up.

Oh, and France has Rich people too.

 

[Ravi]

OMG, and the French actually based their revolution on ours!


Does anyone know what the distinctive Republican values are since I take it they do not include equality, that poofy French notion?

 

[AllieBaba]

Ravi, your stupidity is astounding.

And yet your bigotry and ignorance outshine it.

 

[Ravi]

aw...shucks...

Can you answer my question?

 

[Diuretic]

It really does seem to me that there is a palpable difference. It's a cultural thing. American culture values the individual and individual liberty and eschews any sense of collectivism beyond getting enough people together for a pickup basketball game. There seems to be no sense of justice or injustice on a day to day level, or concern for others. Many times I've been surprised by the raw honest here of posters who are quite happy to say that all they are concerned about is themselves and everyone else can look after their selves. It's interesting. It's quite different from the prevailing ethos in my country for example. The differing attitudes are clearly writ when social policies - eg health care - are examined.

 

[Andrew2382]

Equality meaning that everyone deserves respect and have the chance to succeed regardless of race, religion or sex

Not equality that everyone deserves a slice from the pie regardless of the work you put in.

Why should I have to work as hard as I do to support someone who doesn't work as hard as myself and does not contribute nearly as much to that pie?

We are coming on November now and Thanksgiving is around the corner.
Do you know the true meaning of Thanksgiving?

Do you actually think it was a bunch of pilgrims who landed and the Indians came and gave them turkeya nd showed them how to put cheese on broccoli and what not?

Wrong?

Read this article, sms up where Thanksgiving truly comes from

There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the people responsible for the American Thanksgiving tradition. Contrary to popular opinion, the Pilgrims didn't wear buckles on their shoes or hats. They weren't teetotalers, either. They smoked tobacco and drank beer. And, most importantly, their first harvest festival and subsequent "thanksgivings" weren't held to thank the local natives for saving their lives.

Do you know there are public schools in America today actually teaching that? Some textbooks, in their discomfort with open discussions of Christianity, say as much. I dare suggest most parents today know little more about this history than their children.

Yet, there is no way to divorce the spiritual from the celebration of Thanksgiving – at least not the way the Pilgrims envisioned it, a tradition dating back to the ancient Hebrews and their feasts of Succoth and Passover.

The Pilgrims came to America for one reason – to form a separate community in which they could worship God as they saw fit. They had fled England because King James I was persecuting those who did not recognize the Church of England's absolute civil and spiritual authority.

On the two-month journey of 1620, William Bradford and the other elders wrote an extraordinary charter – the Mayflower Compact. Why was it extraordinary? Because it established just and equal laws for all members of their new community – believers and non-believers alike. Where did they get such revolutionary ideas? From the Bible, of course.

When the Pilgrims landed in the New World, they found a cold, rocky, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, Bradford wrote. No houses to shelter them. No inns where they could refresh themselves. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims died of sickness or exposure – including Bradford's wife. Though life improved for the Pilgrims when spring came, they did not really prosper. Why? Once again, the textbooks don't tell the story, but Bradford's own journal does. The reason they didn't succeed initially is because they were practicing an early form of socialism.

The original contract the Pilgrims had with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store. Each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community. Bradford, as governor, recognized the inherent problem with this collectivist system.

"The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years ... that by taking away property, and bringing community into common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God," Bradford wrote. "For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense ... that was thought injustice."

What a surprise! Even back then people did not want to work without incentive. Bradford decided to assign a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of free enterprise. What was the result?

"This had very good success," wrote Bradford, "for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."

As a result, the Pilgrims soon found they had more food than they could eat themselves. They set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London much faster than expected. The success of the Plymouth colony thus attracted more Europeans and set off what we call the "Great Puritan Migration."

But it wasn't just an economic system that allowed the Pilgrims to prosper. It was their devotion to God and His laws. And that's what Thanksgiving is really all about. The Pilgrims recognized that everything we have is a gift from God – even our sorrows. Their Thanksgiving tradition was established to honor God and thank Him for His blessings and His grace.


Even back then they knew that socialism didn't work, and it worked when people worked for themselves and then they began to prosper.

 

[Dr Grump]

You think Europeans like lazy people? You think a lazy arse in England is worth as much as the person who works their butt off? If you believe that shit, I got a bridge to sell you in Alaska....

 

[Ravi]

It really does seem to me that there is a palpable difference. It's a cultural thing. American culture values the individual and individual liberty and eschews any sense of collectivism beyond getting enough people together for a pickup basketball game. There seems to be no sense of justice or injustice on a day to day level, or concern for others. Many times I've been surprised by the raw honest here of posters who are quite happy to say that all they are concerned about is themselves and everyone else can look after their selves. It's interesting. It's quite different from the prevailing ethos in my country for example. The differing attitudes are clearly writ when social policies - eg health care - are examined.

What I find really bizarre about it is the most deeply religious seem to be the one's that are the most selfish.

But for the most part I think it's just short-shightedness. About half of our population thinks that they really don't benefit from being Americans--they don't see that public schools, clean drinking water, roads, the military, etc., are the things that allow them to thrive and flourish.

 

[Gem]

I think that they might be referring to the concept of "forced" equality...that all men are created equal and entitled to a job, a house, a wage, healthcare, etc. etc. etc. The type of equality that causes riots in France when employers suggest that it might be nice to be able to fire people for not working....not the concept that all men are created equal...nor equal protection under the law...

 

[Ravi]

The riots in France, if you mean the ones in the Muslim population, actually stem from inequality. In other words, the people that rioted are not allowed to be French citizens and are in fact stateless people.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Americans want equal opportunity, the EuroGheys want equal results.

Two completely different things.

 

[Ravi]

That's not what the dolt said though, is it?

 

[Annie]

Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.


Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media. Equality is ‘not an American value’: Righty tub-thumpers stump for Minnesota Republicans​

Agreed. The French and American Revolutions were very different. The French Revolution epitomized Plato. The American Revolution, Aristotle. Which would you wish to have backing you?

 

[Diuretic]

Americans want equal opportunity, the EuroGheys want equal results.

Two completely different things.

No you don't. Look at the screams of outrage when attempts are actually made to institute equality of opportunity. There are whole mutliple page threads on it.

 

[JBeukema]

'Equality is not to be understood as a principle of the equal value of individuals, but as the equal right of each individual to be allowed to develop his ability'