Illegal border crossings decrease by 40 percent in Trump's first month, report says - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Terragen;51942432]I guess I am not understanding your point. Why would I personally bash and be totally against drugs say like marijuana when for one I don't use it or need it for medical use? I would rather take no side at all instead of saying "pots bad" and leave it at that. I will leave that argument for the people who know about it. As for the failing comment, no need to be sorry, no failing going on here.[/QUOTE] You shouldn't require a personal connection to an issue to hold a logically consistent view.

[QUOTE=Terragen;51942432]I guess I am not understanding your point. Why would I personally bash and be totally against drugs say like marijuana when for one I don't use it or need it for medical use? I would rather take no side at all instead of saying "pots bad" and leave it at that. I will leave that argument for the people who know about it. As for the failing comment, no need to be sorry, no failing going on here.[/QUOTE] Are you indifferent to being stabbed because you've never been stabbed before?

[QUOTE=kyle877;51942456]Are you indifferent to being stabbed because you've never been stabbed before?[/QUOTE] Those are two totally different things. Inflicting harm on someone else is much different from should Americans be able to smoke pot. To jump back on topic, why should we as Americans make things more easier? If things in mexico are that damn bad then why don't they work on themselves instead of us as Americans having to conform around our neighbor. Hell even I agree we should be intervening the stop of cartels.

[QUOTE=Terragen;51942466]Those are two totally different things. Inflicting harm on someone else is much different from should Americans be able to smoke pot. To jump back on topic, why should we as Americans make things more easier? If things in mexico are that damn bad then why don't they work on themselves instead of us as Americans having to conform around our neighbor. Hell even I agree we should be intervening the stop of cartels.[/QUOTE] you really do rely on ignorance as a crutch don't you

I'm sure Venezuela has also hit record lows in immigration.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;51942538]I'm sure Venezuela has also hit record lows in immigration.[/QUOTE] The US's economy hasn't gotten any worse. So I don't really understand the comparison.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;51942390]Literally never heard that before, but okay cool[/QUOTE] Okay joke aside from my earlier statement, this is a fairly common concept in historical studies that has adopted a few different names depending on what period of history you're talking about - manifest destiny for 19th Century studies being the most well known (well in reality manifest destiny is more its own thing and happened to include exceptionalism in its equation, but let's keep it simple). It does have a tendency to hold true across history, be it in ideologies, policies or just the culture and overall sentiment from people. It was also figured out by a French historian so maybe that's why our teachers fucking love to talk about it so much. Note that the idea itself does not include the notion that exceptionalism is [I]unique[/I] to the US, just that it has a specific iteration in the United States that kind of stands out enough to be called its own thing and studied as such. Kind of like the other (also French in origin) concept of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion]civil religion[/url], which also has a lot of truth to it in my opinion.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;51942560]Okay joke aside from my earlier statement, this is a fairly common concept in historical studies that has adopted a few different names depending on what period of history you're talking about - manifest destiny for 19th Century studies being the most well known (well in reality manifest destiny is more its own thing and happened to include exceptionalism in its equation, but let's keep it simple). It does have a tendency to hold true across history, be it in ideologies, policies or just the culture and overall sentiment from people. It was also figured out by a French historian so maybe that's why our teachers fucking love to talk about it so much. Note that the idea itself does not include the notion that exceptionalism is [I]unique[/I] to the US, just that it has a specific iteration in the United States that kind of stands out enough to be called its own thing and studied as such. Kind of like the other (also French in origin) concept of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion]civil religion[/url], which also has a lot of truth to it in my opinion.[/QUOTE] I have a fairly decent understanding of "manifest destiny" but that's an interesting thought. I shall read up on this "civil religion"

[QUOTE=sgman91;51942543]The US's economy hasn't gotten any worse. So I don't really understand the comparison.[/QUOTE] Political outlook is pretty bad for this country.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;51942651]I have a fairly decent understanding of "manifest destiny" but that's an interesting thought. I shall read up on this "civil religion"[/QUOTE] Basics of civil religion is, people under a common government may try to build a quasi-religious narrative around that government, notably by equating some of its personalities, stories and establishments to those of traditional religion. So for instance this theory claims that the US has kind of built itself a civil religion over time with its martyrs (JFK, MLK, Lincoln), its prophets (the founding fathers, also lincoln), its high priests (potus), its holy sites (the white house, the jefferson and lincoln memorial) and even its own mythos (the whole founding myths, the romanticized tales of the founding fathers, etc). It's also theorized that the reason it is so prevalent in US culture is because the lack of common ground in terms of traditional religion means that civil religion was adopted as kind of a way to bridge that cultural gap. Further extrapolation also establishes a paradigm in US culture by which it is more important to be religious than to follow one specific religion, which is why it is often observed that people in the US are more tolerant of individuals of a different religion than people who follow no religion at all. The fact some of the founding fathers were deist rather than follow any mainstream religion at the time is also used to explain that latter concept.

[QUOTE=sgman91;51942386]"American exceptionalism" generally refers to the fact that the US is an exception, or is different, than the nations of Europe, based on it being a "new nation" and its founding principles. It doesn't mean that the US is better than everyone else. Although, it does seem like the term is shifting meanings as people become ignorant of the original intention of the phrase.[/QUOTE] tbh the idea of "american exceptionalism" (in the way that you described, of america being historically unique) is probably the stupidest bullshit around that any historian thought up of for american history

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;51942438]You shouldn't require a personal connection to an issue to hold a logically consistent view.[/QUOTE] out of all the things to yell at him for, him saying "i don't really have any knowledge on this thing so i hold no opinion on it" is probably the worst thing to knock him for