Add any other of your favorite dictators, thugs or murderers. Is this a good slogan for a country that is proud of its democratic tradition? Unqualified Offerings has a new tongue-in-cheek (I think) version of the pledge of allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, not as bad as Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria during World War II.
This is in response to Robin Goodfellow’s trying to make US internment of Japanese Americans look better in comparison to the afore-mentioned countries:
It’s interesting how the American internment of Japanese for 4 years during WWII is constantly used as an example of America’s unique evil and racism. When revisiting the subject rarely, if ever, is the Canadian example brought up. At least in America the internee families were kept together, in Canada (which also rounded up Japanese Canadian citizens) the men and women were separated from each other and the men were sent into forced labor. And we all know, I hope, how Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria scored on the racial sensitivity scale during WWII. I find the ability of Europe especially to “misremember” facts so as to paint themselves as lilly-white angels and the US as brutish and uncivilized thugs to be quite remarkable.
Did Robin just compare the US to the two most evil men of modern times, Hilter and Stalin? Yeah, we are better because we didn’t kill 6 million Jews??? Let me make this clear: The US internment of Japanese Americans was wrong and cause of shame for us all regardless of what the fuckers in Europe did at the time. And is it even a good idea to compare oneself to Hilter? You could be scum of the earth and still come out looking extremely good in comparison.
Let me make this clear: I think the US is the most free and the best place to live right now (regardless of the past). After all, that’s why I decided to live here (as opposed to the 90% of the population for whom it was an accident of birth. [sorry, couldn’t resist]) We are not the perfect country, but I have high standards for the US, not just being a level above genocidal maniacs. As I said in a previous post, I do hold democracies, especially the US, to a much higher standard than Castro’s Cuban fiefdom, Saddam’s Iraq or Kim Jong-Il’s North Korea. It is not that I have low opinion of the people of these countries. It is just that they have to prove themselves by creating a system that creates good conditions for themselves.
