HuffingtonPost Writer Scribbles About Militant Atheists

ShadowofGod wrote

Truly, capitalism may be working out fine for some people in the west, but your luxuries are fully dependent on the overwhelming poverty of 2/3 of the world. If it wasn't for the near slave labour that goes on in countries like mine, you think you would be able to have anywhere near the life style that you have, even if you are at the bottom step of your social ladder?

In my country, people work 10 hours a day making shoes they can't afford to buy, waiting on people whose very suits cost more than six months of their wages, and in preposterous situations like the fruit picker picking 40 figs a minute on a daily salary that could afford to buy maybe ten and nothing else.

We, the third world countries, are the busy little elves that work for ginger bread so you could have your shiny toys.

When i say "corporations", i'm talking of the system that would be happy with the current status quo for ever. I'm talking of the system that has more influence in our "democratic" countries than any other single group, including the voters.

Religion may hold us back, but corporations and their trappings hold us dead still.

Yet, if those evil corporations had never come to your country in the first place, thus providing stable jobs, what would those low wage earners be doing today? What was the primary activity in your country before the jobs came along? Agriculture? Living at one with nature? Fishing? I'm just curious, really...what did your fellow countrymen do before the factories were built? And if it was so idyllic, why doesn't your culture go back to doing that rather than working for "ginger bread", as you put it? Not nagging, I'm just curious. You have choices, I have choices. I choose not to buy most of those "shiny toys" except for the ones I need or truly want, like my car, an MP3 player, a toaster, a microwave, and a TV...oh yeah, my shoes and clothes, but that's about all the "luxuries" that I own except for some ancient artifacts from Mesopotamia that I love to collect (see my avatar). Other than that, I leave a fairly small footprint on the planet, probably a smaller one than the factory you are talking about in your own country. When you presume to speak for the entire third world, you take on a heavy burden...do all workers in those factories hate their jobs and loathe the income they provide? Again, just curious.

I have to ask you, ShadowofGod, whether you think money or happiness is more important. Because in most worldwide surveys of happiness, Brazil doesn't do too badly. The World Values Survey (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/) ranks Brazil below the US, but above Germany! Nigeria ranks equal with the United States, and Venezuela ranks above it! So if the goal of economic aid is to improve peoples' lives, maybe Venezuela should be paying aid to the US, and Brazil should be paying it to Germany? Unless you think money is more important than happiness, that is.

Also, the US did not become the most powerful country in the world by outsourcing production, since that began a while after WWII. When the US entered the war it was already, by far, the most powerful country in the world, and had been for two decades. What is the secret to a powerful country? If it's natural resources, how do you explain the world-spanning empire of isle-bound Britain, and the titanic economy of Japan, where only a third of the land is arable and there is hardly any iron?

No, the secret is culture. A culture of people who value hard work, compromise, self-sacrifice, and pragmatism is the only secret to an economically strong country. What more proof can be needed than the fate of the Australian criminals exiled to a resource-starved desert continent? Those exiled men started with nothing but the shirts on their backs, some hand tools... and their Anglo culture. Now, Australia is an advanced first-world country. Their culture is definitely not the best for people's happiness, as can be seen from the surveys above. But for economic strength, it is incomparably mighty.

[Choobus]

Ickybod wrote

You sure are. Everybody loves being told who and what they can and cannot do.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

southern_freethinker wrote

Yet, if those evil corporations had never come to your country in the first place, thus providing stable jobs, what would those low wage earners be doing today?

Oh, i'm not criticizing the fact that they came, i'm criticizing the fact that they leave as soon as the region becomes less miserable, because the people will work now for 2 pittances instead of just one. I'm criticizing the fact that the richness of your country and others like it depend on poverty in countries like mine, and that makes it in the best interest of the corporations, it's lobbyists and thus the government to keep it that way.

What was the primary activity in your country before the jobs came along? Agriculture? Living at one with nature? Fishing? I'm just curious, really...what did your fellow countrymen do before the factories were built? And if it was so idyllic, why doesn't your culture go back to doing that rather than working for "ginger bread", as you put it?

Straw man alert!

I'm not some nut who looks back fondly. I look back and i see shit for my people, and others like them. I look forward, and i see shit for my people and others like them.

When you presume to speak for the entire third world, you take on a heavy burden...do all workers in those factories hate their jobs and loathe the income they provide? Again, just curious.

Jeez man, fucking straw man again. Where did i say this? Where did i even suggest it? I'm not bashing foreign investing by multi-nationals, i'm not even bashing your country, all i'm saying is, the current form of capitalism show all the signs of a psychopathic parasite entity.

You have choices, I have choices. I choose not to buy most of those "shiny toys" except for the ones I need or truly want, like my car, an MP3 player, a toaster, a microwave, and a TV...oh yeah, my shoes and clothes, but that's about all the "luxuries" that I own except for some ancient artifacts from Mesopotamia that I love to collect (see my avatar). Other than that, I leave a fairly small footprint on the planet, probably a smaller one than the factory you are talking about in your own country.

Your luxuries are a car, an mp3 player, a tv? For a fourth of all humans, having their child live to see six years of age is a luxury. Having a job is a luxury. Not starving to death is a fucking luxury.

I remember listening to americans complain about how disturbing some commercials on tv for a charity were, because they showed starving african children. This is the perfect analogy for the ego-centrist middle class, i thought. A person complaining about their disturbed sensibilities when shown some small part of the awful reality of a good portion of their own species. I've been to africa, i've been all over central and south america, and the things i saw should not happen to human beings EVER.

We live a dream, an unsustainable dream, that endures reality because the truth is being swept under the rug by the first world countries and it's driving motor, the capitalist ideal. We aspire to have a quality of life like yours, and you aspire to keep it while getting richer. Who will win if the two are mutually exclusive?

Gathercole wrote

I have to ask you, ShadowofGod, whether you think money or happiness is more important. Because in most worldwide surveys of happiness, Brazil doesn't do too badly. The World Values Survey (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/) ranks Brazil below the US, but above Germany! Nigeria ranks equal with the United States, and Venezuela ranks above it! So if the goal of economic aid is to improve peoples' lives, maybe Venezuela should be paying aid to the US, and Brazil should be paying it to Germany? Unless you think money is more important than happiness, that is.

How much of the population in germany is considered below the poverty line?? Because in brazil it's 20%, almost 35 million people. I consider the ability to pursue hapiness more important than hapiness, i guess, and people who starve or are violently killed have no chance at all at it.

Also, the US did not become the most powerful country in the world by outsourcing production, since that began a while after WWII. When the US entered the war it was already, by far, the most powerful country in the world, and had been for two decades. What is the secret to a powerful country? If it's natural resources, how do you explain the world-spanning empire of isle-bound Britain, and the titanic economy of Japan, where only a third of the land is arable and there is hardly any iron?

I'm no history buff, but one thing i saw right away about your examples, japan, britain and the u.s. is that all three have an awful history of imperialism and by extension the subjugation of other cultures. Japan had china and much of eastern asia under it's heel, america imposed it's values on the rest of the western hemisphere, killed an entire continent of natives and enslaved millions of people, and britain killed more people and anhilated more cultures than it's within my ability to understand. Another thing they had in common was that their "empires" lasted till the 19th and early 20th centuries.

No, the secret is culture. A culture of people who value hard work, compromise, self-sacrifice, and pragmatism is the only secret to an economically strong country. What more proof can be needed than the fate of the Australian criminals exiled to a resource-starved desert continent? Those exiled men started with nothing but the shirts on their backs, some hand tools... and their Anglo culture. Now, Australia is an advanced first-world country. Their culture is definitely not the best for people's happiness, as can be seen from the surveys above. But for economic strength, it is incomparably mighty.

Most of Australia was never a penal colony, and the transportation of criminals ended almost 200 years ago, less than 100 years after it was mapped by James Cook. During much of it's history it was a settlement colony, and one thing i can't deny is that britain knew how to go about that. It also had the advantage of being the colony of the premier empire at the time. And the only colony where the natives were not severely abused was New Zealand. All the others have genocide in their past.

Portugal, the colonizer of my country, went about it differently. We were a cash crop, and had no other use besides that. Look at countries that were not colonized, but exploited, by your "superior anglo culture" like nambia, botswana, kenya, zimbabwe, pakistan, jamaica, guyana an many more. All miserable.

Maybe if the british empire was not at it's apogee during most of the colonization of countries like new zealand, canada, australia, than history would've been different for them.

ShadowofGod wrote

I've been to africa, i've been all over central and south america, and the things i saw should not happen to human beings EVER.

We live a dream, an unsustainable dream, that endures reality because the truth is being swept under the rug by the first world countries and it's driving motor, the capitalist ideal. We aspire to have a quality of life like yours, and you aspire to keep it while getting richer. Who will win if the two are mutually exclusive?

I will not address the bulk of your rant...it has its points, which are debatable, but I'll let them rest; however as to your last point, I do not believe our two ways of life are mutually exclusive. I believe the old adage that a rising tide raises all boats. I'd love to see the Third World pull itself out of poverty and corruption by it elites, as I think it would be a boon to all mankind. And I agree that the things I too have seen in Central America and South America should not happen; but the fact is that they do. I blame part of it on human nature, but I also blame a large part of it on the lack of basic institutions that don't allow Third World countries to prosper. Lack of investment by the rich of their own country, corruption at many levels of government, lack of contract enforcement, stock markets (where they exist) that cannot be trusted, an uneducated workforce...I could go on but why bother? Perhaps the Anglo model for society and business cannot be copied elsewhere, I don't know. Yes, capitalism may be (to paraphrase Churchill speaking on Democracy) the worst economic there is... except for all the rest. Try it, you might just like it.

[Choobus]

southern_cumdrinker wrote

I will not address the bulk of your rant..because I cannot ....... I believe the old adage that a rising tide raises all boats. I'd love to see the Third World pull itself out of poverty and corruption by it elites, as I think it would be a boon to all mankind.

What an unbelievable smeghead

[Sternwallow]

Choobus wrote

What an unbelievable smeghead

It is like Ronald Reagan said. He wanted to associate with rich people and that was all right because he wanted all people to become rich.

Choobus wrote

What an unbelievable smeghead

Tedious as usual. Are you saying you do NOT want to see the Third World climb out of poverty? Or are you saying the Third World is not led by corrupt leaders and has not the capacity to develop the institutions I cited? Um, just what ARE you saying? Are you familiar with "Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith?

Choobus wrote

What an unbelievable smeghead

And another thing, Choobus, are you in the habit of inserting words into someone's statement and then "quoting" it for your own purposes? WTF, asshole? Note that I did not say in my original statement "because I cannot", you apparently inserted that, then "quoted" it. Jesus Fucking Christ, what a cheap trick! I'll use your own terminolgy, you're a smeghead.

You know what I will do with my future earnings? Nothing. I won't be spending it all on a bunch of stupid crap like most Americans do. I will live below my means and deposit the rest into an account. Perhaps I will donate my money to college students. Capitalism is the best economic system I have seen - it operates on human nature.

[Choobus]

southern_freethinker wrote

And another thing, Choobus, are you in the habit of inserting words into someone's statement and then "quoting" it for your own purposes? WTF, asshole? Note that I did not say in my original statement "because I cannot", you apparently inserted that, then "quoted" it. Jesus Fucking Christ, what a cheap trick! I'll use your own terminolgy, you're a smeghead.

I quoted a fictional asshole called southern_cumdrinker. Unless you claim this name for yourself (which, given your propensity for cousin rimming and cum chugging, you certainly could do) you have no basis for your pathetic whining. Therefore, I suggest you shut the fuck up you shitsucking retard.

[Choobus]

myst7426 wrote

You know what I will do with my future earnings? Nothing. I won't be spending it all on a bunch of stupid crap like most Americans do. I will live below my means and deposit the rest into an account. Perhaps I will donate my money to college students. Capitalism is the best economic system I have seen - it operates on human nature.

Myst, as stupid as you are, your future earnings are of interest to nobody but your pimp.

Choobus wrote

I quoted a fictional asshole called southern_cumdrinker. Unless you claim this name for yourself (which, given your propensity for cousin rimming and cum chugging, you certainly could do) you have no basis for your pathetic whining. Therefore, I suggest you shut the fuck up you shitsucking retard.

No I have a better idea, cumwad, why don't YOU shut the fuck up. "People" like you (and I'm not really sure you are a person...monkeys have been taught to type) are the problem with the world today, you and Xians and Muslims. So go fuck yourself, you whiney little retard...go suck a cock in a back alley, since that seems to be your main obsession. :lol::lol::lol:

[Choobus]

southern_freethinker wrote

No I have a better idea, cumwad, why don't YOU shut the fuck up.

Shit, I was planning on pointing out what a bigoted unintelligent southern racist arsehole you are, but if you have come backs like that I guess I should stay away. I can't compete with a genius of your level.