Reply #25: There are many things wrong with the UK,

[mr blur]

but we do have, for example, a (Socialised) Health Service. Set up by a left-wing government, because all citizens should have access to health care and medicine; it's one of the responsibilities of a government, to _care_ for its citizens. Yet this is one of the things that US right-wingers often sneer at, as if it were somehow a sign of inferiority or shame to be poor and in need of medical treatment. I just can't understand this point of view.

We have a bad history of invading other countries and cultures, leading to, in extreme cases, slavery. We have learned from these mistakes - it would be good to think that others could look back and learn from them too. Yet I look at the American administration and I see the same old building-an-empire/ruling as much of the world as possible crap. It's easy to justify vicious interference in another country if you are encouraged to think/believe that everyone else is inferior and that you know better than they do what's good for them. Hence the "We'll bring democracy to them" justification for recent events. What if they don't want it? What if their complex, very old (in American terms) culture makes them see life in a very different way which you can't possibly understand? If you make no effort to understand other people then you are just imposing your view of what they need onto their culture. Then they _will_ fight back and when that happens it's just not good enough to call them terrorists and make up pathetic hate-slogans like "They hate us for our freedom".