[Bobboau]

if you don't like our culture don't buy it and it will go away

[Blue Lion]

yea, they're not forcing you to go to McDonalds, are they?

[Tiara]

Patatzaak om de hoek rules!

(Dutch ppl will understand...)

[Top Gun]

Originally posted by Blue Lion
yea, they're not forcing you to go to McDonalds, are they?

I've already said this before: They deliberately target suceptable young children (and idiotic adults with the brains of childeren) with their advertizing (the revenue for which wasn't made in the target nation which gives them an unfair advantage) and create a climate of peer pressure and pester power where individuals feel compelled to line the pocket of J. Random Megacorp.

[CP5670]

Sorry, but that is simply how capitalism works, and one of the reasons why I think it must collapse at some point in the future. That is one of the main criticisms of the whole system: it makes people think they need stuff that they otherwise would not. Whining about it from a moralistic point of view is just silly though.

It is.  

But we have most of the good universities with the math (), and so we are better!

[Blue Lion]

Originally posted by Top Gun


I've already said this before: They deliberately target suceptable young children (and idiotic adults with the brains of childeren) with their advertizing (the revenue for which wasn't made in the target nation which gives them an unfair advantage) and create a climate of peer pressure and pester power where individuals feel compelled to line the pocket of J. Random Megacorp.

So they're good at marketing, blame your stupid countrymen.

[Top Gun]

Originally posted by CP5670
Sorry, but that is simply how capitalism works, and one of the reasons why I think it must collapse at some point in the future. That is one of the main criticisms of the whole system: it makes people think they need stuff that they otherwise would not. Whining about it from a moralistic point of view is just silly though.

Which is all the more reason why the Government needs to take a tough line on it and severely limit the advertizing power of large companies (which they definitely won't do now). Some contries (mostly scandinavien (sp)) have banned all advertizing aimed at childeren, which I think would be a very good first step as well as regulating the money spent on advertizing that has not been made in the host nation.


I agree that whinging doesn't help, I've never knowingly whined about it. I'm just stating the fact that for many Europeans who, rightly, don't buy into consumerism, America is its source (and the reason for the downfall of reasonably hard line European Socialism) and thus the reason for a lot of Anti American Feeling around here.

[CP5670]

Hey I am a pro-communism guy. But if the corporations cannot advertise, they will not make any money and will thus die out, and the entire capitalism economy of today is based on corporations, so everything will fall to pieces over time.

[Top Gun]

Allowing them to get so large that they dictate government policy isn't wise either. Think of it as forest management, felling the large trees to allow the smaller ones to develop.


The way we had things in Britain worked well, with nationalized public services, (post, rail, health and education) (although I didn't support the monopoly they had) and unions strong enough to keep their employers in cheque. It's very well focusing on economic growth as an argument against it but if it only benefits a wealthy few (like in the US now) then what's the point?


P.S. This thread has drifted way Off Topic.

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by Su-tehp


I grudgingly agree with this assessment. The kamikazes weren't strictly speaking terrorists. My definition of a terrorist is someone who utilizes violence against non-combatants for political ends. The kamikazes were Japanese soldiers using suicide tactics on other soldiers with whom they were at war (and, thus, there was no political objective involved; it was a military tactic).

Still, there's no doubt that the kamikazes scared the **** out of the American sailors who were fighting in the Pacific...

The Japanese were wasteful in using the kamikazes. The japanese sacrificed countless pilots to suicide tactics and it didn't win the war for them.

Suicide for reasons of honor has only one result: fewer honorable people.

As for the 9/11 terrorists, yeah, they used planes in a suicide manuver, but they did it against non-combatant civilians in peacetime (even if the war started right after), and al Qaeda has proclaimed long and long that this was done for political purposes.

Thus, they're terrorists. Same for the Palestinian suicide bombers.

As for Israel assassinating that Shalam terrorist dude, I would have tried to assassinate him with a sniper or a covert team first. If that didn't work, then I would have sent the F-16.

Truth to tell, though, Israel did try to assassinate him through other means first, so Israel did this exactly as I would have done it.

The Palestinians are such hypocrites. They bomb Israeli civialians by the dozens (remember the Passover massacre?), then when israel justifiably retaliates in self-defense, taking extraordinary care to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties which minimizes civilian deaths to less than a dozen, the Palestinians complain of the Israeli government deliberately engineering a 'massacre' of Palestinians.

As long as there are Palestinian terrorists killing Israeli civilians, there won't be a Palestinian state. Pure and simple.

Su, it's always a pleasure to read your posts, especially when they are right on target, like this one. Thank you.

[CP5670]

Allowing them to get so large that they dictate government policy isn't wise either. Think of it as forest management, felling the large trees to allow the smaller ones to develop.

Ah, if you are referring to government policy, that is an entirely different matter, and I wholeheartedly agree there. Just as the governments are supposed to be separate from all forms of religion, they should also be completely distinct from the corporate sector in my opinion. I think this can be stopped by the thing I have been saying for some time here: make lobbying illegal. The only reasons the corporations get anywhere is because of their money, and if they could not use that then it would severely limit their role in administrative affairs.

The way we had things in Britain worked well, with nationalized public services, (post, rail, health and education) (although I didn't support the monopoly they had) and unions strong enough to keep their employers in cheque. It's very well focusing on economic growth as an argument against it but if it only benefits a wealthy few (like in the US now) then what's the point?

Wait, I have heard that the unions are too powerful in most European nations today and things are bad in the opposite direction. with the unions calling the shots. (not sure about England specifically though) Just what I have heard, though. Although even if it benefits the wealthy it would be fine if their productive output was generally equal to that of the middle and lower classes; that is not the case right now, but technology is slowly changing it.

Su, it's always a pleasure to read your posts, especially when they are right on target, like this one. Thank you.

I fully agree.