United States is no different from a third-world nation

[Shinova]

As for the original post, I'd like to see what context this was said in.

Well of course from my point of view there are no good politicians in the US and Arnie is no exception.

When I was younger I always laughed at those democratic third-world countries in Asia and Africa where only movie heroes could become president because they were the only people everyone knew about.

Then again the US is not that different from a third-world nation

[CelesKnight]

On a similar note, how smart is someone if that person got a 142 on the IQ test?

(said person is the same person who said the US is not much different from third-world countries)

100 is the average for the world as a whole. If he actually had a real test (not an internet one) that put him at 142, he would be in the top few percent of the world. However, over the years, various groups I'm in will have an internet IQ test posted, we'll all run off and take it, and 140 is about the average for the group--dumb people tend not to hang out in group like this too long--so it's not like he's above anyone else.

The more important issue is what is his education background. For example, an eighth grader may be smart, but odds are he's not able to analyze economic, political, foreign policy, etc data for form such an analysis, and hence is just wanking off to David Duke or Noam Chomsky or the like. You can probably guess this is true if he didn't provide any reason for such a statement. You can also probably guess if he gave his IQ as backing to his claim. That is unprovable and irrelevant to the point at hand--it would just be designed to intimidate and impress.


Moving on...
From an old social studies course, I remember the three world classification as
1st world=developed democracies,
2nd world=commies,
3rd world= everyone else (typically underdeveloped dictatorships).

1st and 3rd world are differentiated from each other by wealth and political systems. The 2nd world is a general label for all communist countries regardless of any other concerns. As such, North Korea, likely the poorest most repressed hell hole outside of Hell itself, would be a 2nd world country.

[Shinova]

Just so that everyone knows: I've taken your suggestions into consideration but won't be actually doing them.


Why? Simple reason being that they've been all done many, many times before and I don't feel like getting into another 10+ page debate with this person.

[Peregrin Toker]

Well of course from my point of view there are no good politicians in the US and Arnie is no exception.

When I was younger I always laughed at those democratic third-world countries in Asia and Africa where only movie heroes could become president because they were the only people everyone knew about.

Then again the US is not that different from a third-world nation

What he means is that Arnie got elected by virtue only of being a celebrity. I'm not too much into 3rd world politics to say if that makes USA similar a third world nation. (In any case, this would mean that California, not the whole of the US, is akin to a third-world nation)

[Spyder]

Did he say what makes him think the US is third world? I'd say it's more then likely just an error in terminology then anything else.

[Uraniun235]

Didn't Shakkara say this at Spacebattles? This sounds very familiar.

Anyway, given that we define the poverty line in the US at a level of income that billions of people could only hope for, I don't think the statement holds.

[Shinova]

Didn't Shakkara say this at Spacebattles? This sounds very familiar.

I might as well.



*DING, DING, DING!!*



Yes, that statement was by Shakkara, the embodiment of anti-American sentiment, hardcore radical liberal, and anti-capitalist.


Shouldn't be surprising for those who know her.

[Uraniun235]

Did she somehow get reinstated at SB? Is this from a different forum she posts at? Or is it just a question you've had brewing since her stay there?

[Shinova]

Did she somehow get reinstated at SB? Is this from a different forum she posts at? Or is it just a question you've had brewing since her stay there?

It's from a different board, and yes, she was reinstated but then after a little this and that got banned again. Now registrations are admin-approved.


Though I fear that she MAY have re-registered under a different username (look at the user "Tiara" when you have the time. It might be her).

[His Divine Shadow]

Well comparing the US to say other european countries(Germany, UK, Sweden) one would see that the rich/poor differences vary far more wildly to the extremes in the US, and the US has got areas that are quite under-developed also.

[Symmetry]

On a similar note, how smart is someone if that person got a 142 on the IQ test?

(said person is the same person who said the US is not much different from third-world countries)

<shrug> My IQ is 155, and I'd also have to ask him what he meant by that. In some ways its quite true that we're driven by similar forces, but in the US (and the west in general) social norms appropriate for interconected society have had a chance to get entrenched-making the result quite different.

[Symmetry]

There are others with higher scores. I've gotten a 160 on an internet-based IQ test before (which is a decent bit above my real IQ...I know I'm not that smart).

I believe there are three types of IQ tests in use, all centered at 100, but one has a standard deviation of 20 rather than 15.

[Shinova]

<shrug> My IQ is 155, and I'd also have to ask him what he meant by that. In some ways its quite true that we're driven by similar forces, but in the US (and the west in general) social norms appropriate for interconected society have had a chance to get entrenched-making the result quite different.

The person (Shakkara) is a she and if you really want to know, you could try http://www.starport33.com/ib


She's a really strange person.

[Symmetry]

Andy Rooney did a funny bit comparing the US to a "Banana Republic" back when Bush first got elected.

Bush got elected under questionable circumstances by winning a state governed by his brother. He's also is the rich son of a rich man who had been President, Vice President, and before that been the head of the CIA.

Rooney explained it much better and in a much funnier way but if we saw something like tha going on in another country we couldn't help but think "that only happens in third world dictatorships/olagarchies" etc...

He has a point that we shouldn't take democracy for granted, but if you count people from better represented states more (eg. RH), Bush won just like the framers intended. I think things have actually gotten a lot better since the days of Kennedy and Nixon.

[Symmetry]

Sure that makes sense. Apart from the fact the US can project military power to any part of the planet. Also, one of the largest economies in the world. As soon as there are third world nations with similiar characteristics, then we can say the US is no different from a third world nation.

But do those things make us "that" differnet?