What Happened to Our Sense of Humor?

IS it just me or does it seem that with every passing day the United States is becoming more and more a Fascist country?

And if you're not from the U.S., please tell us your thoughts as an "outside observer". After all, to all those of you in other nations, aren't you a little sick of our fearless leader telling you how the "United States is the greatest nation on earth" all the time.

And to our friends in China, thank you for not foreclosing on the U.S. before the Holidays? We appreciate it.

Tags: Sexism, States, United, affairs, correct, culture, politically, world

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Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on December 27, 2007 at 2:18pm

I am not leftist.
I do not carry any ACLU card.
I'm sorry we blew up Vietnam. Personally I was against it.

I care about our civil liberties eroding. I didn't compare the U.S. to anyplace else on earth, except to the U.S. that used to exist a few years ago.

I am concerned about what people outside of the United States think about Americans, the American lifestyle and our governement.

All of this has a great bearing on the way we live, work, interact and our futures.

Thank You to those of you who chose to get up on your soap box and in doing so also felt compelled to "label" me in some convenient fashion. Thank you to those of you with the courage to answer honestly.

SO, back to my original question, "Anybody else feel like the Uniterd States is becoming more facist of a country?"

For those of you who like to dive in to these things, I'll provide a generally recognized definition for you.

Fascism
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
Oppressive, dictatorial control.

Come on, even you namby, pamby politically corect folks out there must see the point.

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Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on December 27, 2007 at 4:19pm

Not nebulous, just
a) clarifying the position of he who created the thread
b) trying to bring the thread back to what I had intended.

And I guess if I'm not left wing, I might be right wing, when in fact I could be a goalie or a forward.

I say more facist in the same way I might say more fat or more docile or more annoying.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck.

I also said "becoming". One doesn't suddenly wake up an old man. It is a progression that takes time over the years. In addition, there would be some argument among varying people as to what an old man might represent in years, although probably little argument over the term "growing older".

Neither right nor left, but perhaps a bit worn out, it simply seems the "distinctions between facism and the state we have now", becoming less and less.

And while the brunt of eroding civil liberties, privacy and other rights may not hit home directly, it certainly enters into daily life in so many ways.

However, it is nice to know things are just fine and dandy in some people's private Idahos.

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Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on December 27, 2007 at 5:23pm

Thanks for that Josh.

I guess for starters, if you're willing to go take a look at this little article, you might hear some compelling arguments from people who are actually a lot wiser and smarter than me, regardless of their ages.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html

It's just one of many sources for what is essentially the same information.

There are enough people concerned by what our governement has been doing that I had to take notice. Especially when these people do not represent the far left or right, although there are plenty of those folks in there too.

And as a global society, I can't help but pay attention to commentrary from abroad. Does the brand "U.S." have any value any more?

I could go on, but this whole thread is starting to take on the appearance of me having one large rant.

We have Americans on here who were or do work abroad and I would love to get their take on what the global perception of the U.S. is.

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Permalink Reply by Tom on December 27, 2007 at 7:24pm

>>>IS it just me or does it seem that with every passing day the United States is becoming more and more a Fascist country?<
Just you, but be careful anyway. If you're right, they read these blogs looking for heresies and lunacies.
>>>And to our friends in China, thank you for not foreclosing on the U.S. before the Holidays? We appreciate it.<
Old biz line, but it's repeated it again here: "If you someone a little bit of money, they own you; if you owe a really big shitload of money, you won them."

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Permalink Reply by Fredrik Olsson on December 28, 2007 at 4:21am

Back to the subject humor: I read today that it will take ten, yes TEN, fingerprints to cross american borders.
That´s really funny.

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Permalink Reply by micky zilbershtein on December 28, 2007 at 4:27am

look at the bright side, they could have asked for 11 fingerprints.

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Permalink Reply by micky zilbershtein on December 28, 2007 at 11:52am

finaly humor . good reply better then my 11 fingers

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Permalink Reply by Sunny Cervantes on December 28, 2007 at 6:19am

I just want somebody to do something about the dollar's continuous dive. Any more dollar diving and I'll end up with a brain tumor. Huhuhu.

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Permalink Reply by Narendra Keshkar on December 28, 2007 at 9:28am

Actually the question is NOT that the United States is becoming more & more a Fascist country! the question is why you & many people are thinking that !
But as an Indian I just didn't interested ever in politics but If u asked then I am giving the answer that
I think during these 7 years US image has been changed so much ! I don't know about reasons but I think that in this period in which US has changed its image. Today's condition has changed, international politics, inter-state relations & other topics are responsible for this change.

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Permalink Reply by philip chudy on December 28, 2007 at 2:52pm

The only way to sustain being powerful is to balance it with appropriate levels of responsibility and stewardship. Science and technology has unleashed a considerable deal of power across the social/class/national spectrum and we are faced with a mountain of challenges if we are to balance it out (and not destroy the planet).

Technology was initially thought to be a wholly centralizing force - suitable for the budding Fascist but it also produced surprises (the PC versus the mainframe for example). Fascism is a political term but I wonder whether 'the fear of' expressed here is related more to the potential for centralized social control as expressed by technology rather than whether leaders are becoming more evil (or whether they will soon control our most private thoughts).

I think that the Euro view of the US over the decades has been shaped by the perception of Americans being 'stupid/dumb/uninformed/uneducated/lacking sense' rather than evil. This is partly because the more culturally homogenous societies have found ways over the centuries of silencing or demoting those amongst them who might damage their particular cultural brands. That 'democracy', as opposed to 'Euro sophistication' (and so on), has been the prime US 'brand' id for some time, it seems logical that your regular US dumb ass must be given time on the stage and access to the microphone (at least till they get shouted down). The Euro view of this (lacking reserves of any sense of humor in this respect) has been complete horror and fear.

The existence of humor in sufficient quantity serves to signal that a given scenario is not actually as threatening as it might appear at first. Is what is being referred to as possibly being in deficit in the US of the moment? Personally I find that there are pockets of considerable humor and creativity (here in the Bay Area for example) and this compares extremely well with anything I have experienced anywhere else in the world.
Whether the level of humor is sufficient to mollify the level of fear - we can but wait and see, but if we see the waning of US dominance, then we have a deal more to worry about in other quarters. Where I come from (Zimbabwe), there is nothing left for many but humor. Of their local situation, they say “the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off till further notice”.

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Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on December 28, 2007 at 7:20pm

Thank You Phillip for your reply and all of the rest of you. I will concur that Phillip hit the nail on the head and I seem to actually feel a little bit better.

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Permalink Reply by Tom on December 28, 2007 at 7:38pm

Wait a second here.
You can't get away with this.
The topic seemed to be that the premise was that Fascism was incompatible with A Sense of Humor...and that a perception by the author of a loss of that sense was leading him to the conclusion that this country was becoming Fascistic.
Seems like more of a topic for the Huffington Post which daily demonstrates that a lack of sense of humor is both a left and right trait.