unnamednewbie13 wrote:
UnOriginalNuttah wrote:
I'd think you were trying to be sarcastic, if I didn't know you. You are saying that freedom of religion (e.g. people being free to be Muslim if they so choose) is a threat to what exactly? Your freedom of speech? Your right to a fair trial?
When some Americans say "a threat to our way of life" I'm starting to think they talking about the freedom to drive big fucking cars with stupidly low fuel costs whilst talking on their mobile mp3 dvd player phone built by a pregnant woman on a slaves wage in country which doesn't even share their 'freedom'?
Bit of a broad opinion on Americans there.
For example, both of my parents are contractors, so they're always hauling shit around in their 'big fucking cars.' But I see no mobile mp3/dvd playing phone there...and no, they don't have the parking space or enough tax cash to buy a little car for puttering around town.
That's why I qualified it with the word
some. It seems to me as though
some Americans think they have the monopoly on freedom, and that it is an exclusively American export. Saying that Islam is a disease is basically suggesting that curtailing other people's freedom of religion is acceptable if it suits your aims. I believe in Universal Human Rights, although I understand how far we are from achieving it.
And I was refering to the general consumption of low cost electronic and other merchandise from China and other countries. I bet they have mobile phones at a minimum. This is a luxury item which is made affordable by the long work hours and low wages of someone who does not share the freedom of the end consumer.
How about not trying (and failing) to
spread freedom, but insisting ethical labour as a prerequisite for all goods which you import... It's been done for certain produce already. Sometimes it appears to me as though the 'American Brand' freedom is expensive to maintain which is why most of the manufacturing industry to countries with 'Acme Brand Freedom Substitute'.
My view is that life is full of tradeoffs and compromises. And if you ever come to grips with that concept that there is often no 'right' thing to do, then all the people who want to stick to their simplistic black and white outlook on the world will start taking issue with you. So yes, I agree with the damned if you do and damned if you don't assessment. Doesn't that pretty much sum up most of the debates on these forums, no matter which side you are on? Why wouldn't it apply to politics?