(no subject)

[prog]

A while ago I posted a hypothetical question designed to be asked at Bush-voting Americans (which I'd happily link to if LJ had a tagging feature so I could find it grumble grumble). It was, in essence, "If you could magically eliminate everyone in the world who is not American, would you?" I predicted that more than you might think would answer in the affirmative. Got some very thoughtful comments, many saying I was just riding my own cynicism to think so lowly of my countrymen.

At first I tended to agree, but I have thought about this from time to time since then, and found that I've gone back to believing that my original hypothesis would be true. I am reminded of it, time and again, in little ways. I am posting this now because I saw it again today in this Doonesbury discussion thread.

I probably first saw it years ago back when I read Lileks every day, and he went insane in this highly specific fashion. And -- it's harsh -- but I really do think that a great deal of otherwise rational Americans are completely batshit crazy in the same way.

Comments

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

Somebody we both know very slightly (no, it's not him) was unhappy a few days ago because he had gotten into an argument with four other people living in the U.S. who thought it was "okay" to torture people, and he was wondering how it had come to this opinion. But maybe only "torture-O.k." people happened to be around at the time by freak coincidence.