USA USA USA

[n2doc]

We as Americans are fortunate.

We live in a country with more freedoms than many and a vastly higher standard of living than most in the world. We waste more resources than many people have the opportunity to use, we have more cars than drivers, and we turn food crops into fuel while people go hungry. Our priorities are based on convenience and our leaders appear to make decisions based on financial and political gain. We as a disgruntled public stand by and allow it. We need to do something other than watch.

My goal for this pamphlet is to honor the legacy of printers and activists from the past, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, who saw issues of the day and did their part to bring them to the attention of others. This information isn't new. It's readily available. These sobering facts and figures are thoroughly researched and cited. Originally, this pamphlet was planned as a satirical statement about the issues of our day, but in the end, the weight of this material was far too great to treat lightly. My hope is that it promotes a discourse with the readers and the desire to learn more and become more involved. Our democracy only works as well as the people involved in it. We as Americans have the responsibility to live up to our claims of being the greatest country on earth. If we don't step up to the plate, then that's not a claim we have the right to make.
AMERICA
#1 COUNTRY IN THE WORLD


BUT ARE WE REALLY?
Our leaders love to pontificate about America being the greatest country on earth, and we the masses love to wear our foam finger proudly and shout “We're Number One!” to the rest of the world. But what are we really?









much more

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/09/american-manifesto.html

[abelenkpe]

1. K&R

[snagglepuss]

2. k and r

[woo me with science]

3. Outstanding. nt

[malaise]

4. Frightening indeed

Rec

[Voice for Peace]

5. Excellent presentation, well worth sharing.

I expect most of us here on DU are already aware of
the info therein; but amazingly, majority of people
in this country have NO idea.

[littlemissmartypants]

12. Doesn't this make an excellent teaching tool? eom

[lunasun]

23. You are correct on that . Most think we are number one at all the good

And only others are number one at bad
I was talking to someone I had to interact with and they were going on about oil consumption in India and China these days
I replied yes they are growing but we are still the biggest oil consumers and more than twice as big as even the second inline
. When I started giving more facts you could tell they were disappointed in my not joining in on their Other countries =bad America = good routine
USA rah rah types can't handle the truth and do not want change
Real lovers of this country want to see it at it's best for real
and know it will take change !

[tea and oranges]

6. Kick

[DocwillCuNow]

7. The truth is oftentimes a bitter pill, better to take it with a spoonful of sugar. Excellent and

sobering. Kicked and Recced.

[G_j]

8. K&R

[Laelth]

9. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[littlemissmartypants]

10. I LOVE this!

But I am wondering if there is a possible relationship between the 4% use of porn and 5% male obesity, beside the juxtaposition on the infographic. We burn more calories doing it than watching it fellas, hint, hint. J/K

I want pamphlets. Are there pamphlets?

Thanks for the post, n2doc. Your posts are always thought provoking. This one I LOVE. Bookmarked.

Peace, Love and the Righteous Fight.
littlemissmartypants

[sabrina 1]

11. #1 in military spending and oil usage.

#51 in life expectancy!

USA! Numero Uno!

That should be printed out and distributed in public places across the country because we will never see it on the Corporate Media.

[littlemissmartypants]

13. And we are a privileged few that are able to access the Internet and see it.

Considering time, money and the constraints of access this is just the thing I need for my voter drives. I may have to make myself a poster and some pamphlets.

Love, Peace and the Righteous Fight.
Lmsp

[silverweb]

14. Well done!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I wish everyone would read this!

A good deal less hubris would be a wonderful thing.

[WillyT]

15. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[cantbeserious]

16. Thank You For Sharing

eom

[awoke_in_2003]

17. only #4 in porn?

Seriously, we are a dying empire

[whatchamacallit]

18. We're assholes and that's the way we like it

Right now the media is cowing us into moral, and actual bankruptcy with convenient new atrocities and boogymen. If DU represents the the smarter half of the country, we're fucked forever.

[Cha]

19. Yeah, that's what so many of us are fighting against.. I love so much about my country and my

home and am willing to fight to change what I don't like. Not rag and hate on my home all the time and wish I lived somewhere else. Like it's so great in Fucking Russia for an example.

[Uncle Joe]

20. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[Zorra]

21. ^

[swilton]

22. Well said!

The great S. Brian Willson in his autobiography Blood on the Tracks - well worth a read - argues not to wait for the revolution with the capital R. There are things each and every one of us can do to change our society - for example not becoming a pawn of mass culture.

[BelgianMadCow]

24. Blam! Bookmarked

thanks for posting, n2doc!

[niyad]

25. k and r + a gazillion.

[indepat]

26. Holistically mind-numbing and mind-boggling are the fruits of a right-wing corporatist

society. Go, USA, and do what you always do best.

[MoonRiver]

27. K&R for sickening truth.

[blkmusclmachine]

28. ,

,

[Takket]

29. our carbon footprint is #10???

who could possibly be ahead of us, other than maybe China?

[Louisiana1976]

30. Excellent post. K&R

[greiner3]

31. I remember groing up in OH in the 60s and 70s;

And OH was supposed to be #1 in so many things; manufacturing of many products, the growing of certain crops, etc...

This state is now a joke and Kasich is way ahead in the polls.

Fitzgerald has run his campaign as if he were a GOP mole.

[Kablooie]

32. And we live over 5000 miles from where the trouble is so we don't really have to worry about it.

[rhett o rick]

33. But, but we have the best basketball in the world. nm

[emsimon33]

34. K&R

[Martin Eden]

35. Over-Consumption Increases the GDP

So does the prison industry and many other negative aspects of our society.

Methinks we need a different metric for economic health ... and better yet, for the health of the citizenry.

It's a matter of values.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

36. K & R

[antiquie]

37. What can you and I do? -- from the link

Firstly, we need to base our decisions on sound logic.
Take pollution for instance. Why pollution has become a political issue gets at the bewildering degradation of our environment. Profits now, exhausted earth later. In a recent election, a popular candidate repeatedly spoke of getting rid of the EPA. He came dangerously close to being elected. Do we not recall when America had rivers that caught fire? When the symbol of our country, the American Bald Eagle, was endangered due to the spread of the pesticide DDT traveling up the food chain? How could this candidate be in contention? Environmental regulation helps ensure protection.

Secondly, we need to consider where we get our information.
Many media outlets are extremely biased and have been proven so. For instance, it was shown that people who watched Fox News were more likely to believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, and that the more often they watched, the stronger their beliefs became. Polls by media- monitoring groups studying fairness in reporting show the bias of this network, yet those who watch it believe there is none. Just because an email traverses the internet saying that so-and-so is a socialist does not make it so. We need to stop being so gullible. We choose to believe what we want. We tend to listen to programs that support our own views rather than listen to a variety of viewpoints and then think critically for ourselves. We choose to be passive. We choose to vote based on a single topic of our ideology, abortion for example, instead of a potential leader's entire platform. We blame our problems on others, often of differing race or socioeconomic class, rather than look deeper into the root of the problem.

Thirdly, we need to get involved.
Yes, it’s hard to believe that one small voice can hardly make a difference, but it can. Change starts with individuals believing in a dream and working hard to realize it. Where would we be today without the efforts of individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Adams, John Dewey, Upton Sinclair, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Betty Friedan, Harvey Milk and many, many more.

Do what you can with what you have. I have printing presses and I have a voice. My hope is that putting this book out into the world will make a difference.

Thank you,

Todd M. Thyberg
February 2014

You can order a hard copy of this manifesto—use the promo code BoingBoing to get $5 off.

[Liberal_in_LA]

38. excellent presentation

[Enthusiast]

39. Kicked and recommended! The corporate rule thing must end.

[daleanime]

40. K&R....

[n2doc]

41. kick n/t