Yeah, Hans and Lh’owon have the right idea. Even if the USA could be considered unequivocally the #1 nation, there’s so many obvious things to be fixed.
That said, there are a great many things to love about this place, not the least of which is this:
Yes there is… You guys just stole more of it than most other Nations could.
It isn’t our fault you Scandanavians couldn’t hold on to England.
Or Greenland for that matter.
hahahahahah…
Naw, Norway has its fjords, Switzerland has the Matterhorn, may places have something unlike everywhere else.
I just happen to prefer the American Southwest for some odd reason. :)
The US have certainly been producing the greatest patriots for some time now.
If only Norway and Switzerland weren’t so cold and uncomfortable for nearly the entire year. Switzerland is quite interesting because qualified persons are rare at the moment and for the foreseeable future. They say expert plumbers are able to make > CHF/ $ 10.000,- per month for example.
Really?
In practice, it seems like USA is one of the least secular countries in the west, it’s not even close to being at the top at press freedom* and the individual constitutional freedom is pretty much the same as in any modern western country**; except that, as you said, it seems like in US the top political leaders can go against it as much as they want without any consequences.
So I really don’t understand how you can say US is being “best” in these things.
*Freedom of the press, Top 10:
Rank Country Note
1 Finland 0,50
USA is at 17.
** TOP 10
Rank Country
1 Estonia
2 Ireland
3 Canada
4 Switzerland
5 Iceland
6 Bahamas
7 United Kingdom
8 United States
9 Cyprus
10 New Zealand
Yea I should have stressed more that I meant on paper, not in practice. But I could well be wrong about that too in some cases.
I do think you can’t get much more explicitly secular than the United States - on paper! - given the First Amendment, and you’d be surprised how rare that is among western nations (I think Finland has a Lutheran state church?). The prevalence of religion there only makes it more impressive to me, though in practice it’s not followed as closely as it should be.
As for press freedoms you are absolutely right that currently the US has a scandalous record when it comes to arresting / litigating against journalists. But, perhaps idealistically, I think those are abuses of the First Amendment (bloody good one that) and the law in theory guarantees press freedom. Stuff like the Pentagon Papers seemed to uphold that, but these days… possibly wishful thinking on my part :(
Yes it’s pretty hard to rate individual freedoms and I certainly wouldn’t rank the US highest in practice at the moment.
This is something I find strange.
Not only does Finland have a state religion, you actually have religion classes in school and you go to church occasionally - but the classes are very neutral, and you don’t have to go to church if you don’t want to. Separation of church and state is de facto, as is religious freedom. This is the only place I’ve ever seen Romani in traditional garb, on the streets.
The United States, on the other hand, is super-vocal about religious freedom, but it’s very clear who the majority is. “In God We Trust” on the money, etc.
So far my only explanation has been that Finns are just better at these things, but that seems a little racist.
Ayep.
I think it’s a standard human trait to think, when you’re on top, that you were meant to be or deserve to be there. Sort of how kings used to justify their superior position to the peasants- if I wasn’t meant to be king then how is it that I am?
So sure, Americans, having been the dominant superpower for the last fifty years or so, think the same thing on a national scale. How is it that we are the last standing superpower if we don’t deserve it, haven’t earned it, or aren’t just that special?
The thing is sometimes you get somewhere because you earned it, sometimes you get there for reasons that have nothing to do with you. The US, when born, had some huge advantages. These are things no one planned for, much less earned, much less deserved. Huge amounts of land no established world powers could defend(across a large ocean) from us as well as oceans that protected us from easy invasion, equally huge amounts of natural resources of the exact type we’d later need. We, as a nation, were born on third base but act like we hit a triple.
The founders of this nation, as brilliant as they were, would have lived to see it all be for nothing except they rolled sevens on literally everything you could want when starting a new country. If you happen to start a new Civ game on a large landmass with no other major power there, and you have large amounts of iron, coal, and oil there does that make you a great Civ player? Or do you take a screenshot and post it online so other players can envy you?
Wait, I’m confused. In your wisdom, will you indulge me? If Norway is so great, why are there more people of Norwegian descent living in the US than Norway?
When your neighbours are Frost Giants, sometimes the best thing to do is just move on.
The Lutefisk is better here, and it is farther away from Sweden and their Surströmming.
Preach it, Hannity!
Because most emigration from the Nordic countries took place before 1930, when the great social welfare projects started.
That’s the Yellow River exiting the loess plateau in northern China, isn’t it? I can tell!
AOL!!
Wow! So it’s almost like… you could afford to pay for your poor people once you shipped them all off to the States! These findings really throw a new light on the true beneficiaries of Amerikkkunt Imperialism. Would Eurosocialism be viable if it hadn’t been for the massive sponge of expropriated Native land in the Americas?
Look, we already know that you’re an irredemably evil right-wing religious nutcase. You don’t need to continue to remind us of that fact over and over again.
Why quote him? I’m sure he’s on most people’s blocked lists by now.
