Are you saying that Americans are somehow different than everyone else on the planet in that Americans can channel empathy towards their fellow citizens, whereas no one else can?
No. In fact I often bring up how similar I feel most cultures are, particularly the US/Canada and Western/Northern Europe, an idea that sometimes meets resistance here.
I'm actually shocked by the comments in this diary that are stated similarly to yours. Here is what WC said:
But for me this is a sad reminder of where we are as Americans, or certainly where Daily Koz is. those of you who have read my comments must know how hard it is to write the title, "sometimes sorry to be an American". But obviously we are having our troubles. And anger spills over in some horrible ways, where the compassion for individuals,,,,,,.
those of you who have read my comments must know how hard it is to write the title, "sometimes sorry to be an American". But obviously we are having our troubles. And anger spills over in some horrible ways, where the compassion for individuals,,,,,,.
He's lamenting the state of this country. It's a common theme here - we're lamenting the state of country X constantly. Why is it a problem now? How does this get read as nationalism? I can understand the head scratching over why we should care about Snow, but the American-centric charge has me puzzled.
And I don't think anyone directly brought up Irak, and I see in your doing so a bit of misplaced defensiveness.
It was brought up by DoDo here and it was mentioned in the quoted story that upset WC. In Migeru's comment that I originally replied to he wondered why Snow's cancer of all things was what gave WC pause. I mentioned Iraq because it is at the far end of the spectrum in terms of death, horror, and failure, and in that regard is what you might expect someone that wants less suffering in the world to be given pause by first. I then stated why I think WC was given such pause by what is ultimately "just" one person's suffering, someone with a lot of blood on his hands at that.
you are the media you consume.
I'm actually shocked by the comments in this diary that are stated similarly to yours.
Maybe there is a cultural difference here? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I'm actually shocked by the comments in this diary that are stated similarly to yours. Maybe there is a cultural difference here?
Maybe there is a cultural difference here?
We're certainly disagreeing on intellectual matters. In terms of how people actually live, I don't see a big difference.
In the US, how many children without access to healthcare (via insurance) does the average American tolerate?
Compare and contrast to the rest of the industrialized world.
Keep in mind that the answer to this is more or less one, statistically-speaking, of life and death. If that isn't a difference in how we live, I'm not sure what is.
We could run down all the other items on the list which detail, in anecdotal terms, what the differential in gini coefficients between the US and most of the rest of the industrialized world expresses in statistical terms.
But I guess if you mean do middle class people in both parts of the world eat the same sorts of food, watch the same television programs, enjoy similar fashions, have similar aesthetic sensibilities and dring the same colors of wine, I suppose you're right - there are more similarities than differences.
Let's lay it on the line, without wanting to provoke unnecessary rancor: the European social model is superior, it is above all more moral, than the social darwinism which obtains in America (and is, alas, quite bipartisan). And indeed, the "intellectual" disagreement of which this is symptomatic is very much an existential disagreement. It isn't simply a figment of Starbucks discussionary imagination. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
How does this get read as nationalism? I can understand the head scratching over why we should care about Snow, but the American-centric charge has me puzzled.
It didn't get read as nationalism, at least by me. The "as an American" part was quite confusing to me, though. It in fact made no sense to me, and I say that as a (half) American. So I can see where others would be confused as well.
And I'll go further. In my case, there's no head-scratching whatsoever viz Snow. When I see these obsequious declarations of sympathy, many couched in religious terms, for someone who yesterday was a not particularly admirable adversary, on the part of what bills itself as the left in America, I don't scratch my head, for I understand precisely what is going on. We're seeing well-meaning (but persistently ineffectual) US liberal ideology on display here. Be good, be charitable, kind, reasonable, and tolerant to all, and all will be well. Never mind ideology, after all, we're all Americans.
And guess what? nearing 40 years of no real progress in America.
None.
So for my part, I see such obsequious displays of affection for a liar, bad faithed lickspittle for the rich and powerful in America as a sign that there's still no there there when it comes to a spine in the American left, and it depresses me.
It (Irak) was brought up by DoDo here and it was mentioned in the quoted story that upset WC. In Migeru's comment that I originally replied to he wondered why Snow's cancer of all things was what gave WC pause. I mentioned Iraq because it is at the far end of the spectrum in terms of death, horror, and failure, and in that regard is what you might expect someone that wants less suffering in the world to be given pause by first.
I think that cancer research in the US costs taxpayers something like $5 billion a year. What is that? A week in Irak, I think.
Aside from that, I'm not sure, personally, how the two are connected, nor did I see a connection in the thread the way you would have it, but all are open to their own interpretations, I suppose.
I then stated why I think WC was given such pause by what is ultimately "just" one person's suffering, someone with a lot of blood on his hands at that.
Understood, well understood. I would simply point out that whatever the reasons, I still find it odd that such a contemptible public figure would be the object of such heartfelt reflection in response to such personal experience.
For my part, that personal experience was quite radicalising, and I prefer to limit my contemplation to, say, children who pass from stage one to stage four cancers, without diagnosis, due to poor access to healthcare in America, and who die needlessly therefrom, which I have seen with my own eyes (as opposed to some lickspittle clown on TV).
When those children start getting the same respect from the TV-gazing American left as Tony Snow, we may actually get somewhere. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
