New Australian oil find

[Dominarch's Hope]

Of course they do, we're your friendly neighborhood democracy! A little drunk, but most definately friendly!


And hey, with Global Mass Media, its inevitable anyways. The sooner you join us, the easier the transition. Join us. Join us. Join us.

[Metahive]

Your democracy is fundamentally broken, your mass-media is almost pure Bread&Circuses and you are beholden to rich fucks bribing politicians with less shame than ever. Thank you, but we don't need role models to emulate third-world standards.

[Dominarch's Hope]

Im sorry but what nation are you from that is both so incredibly superior and relevant on the world stage as to have any right whatsoever to "Smug out" in such an obviously pissy little manner? A Nordic country with populations the size of our larger cities, China/India with an actual majority of the population living in 3rd world standard or worse, Russia with its outright rejection of Western Democracy and a potential to be great again and energy independet, or Britain with its little Commonwealth? Are you even from France?

What about Canada?


I was joking around and it was fairly obvious, but if you want to get all mad like that, I hope your country is fairly awesome, or youre just being whiny.

[Metahive]

I'm from the Greatest Nation there is, the Imperious Republic of Pureawesomnistan! We have thousand times as much nuclear weapons as you, ten gazillion heavily armed super-special freedomarines ready to kick ass at a second's notice, a fleet of 20 million Super Duper Ultra Star Destroyers and 500000 Final Death Stars with a combined firepower of infinite gigamegahypertons at our disposal. Ooo, what's that wizzing sound, is that your dick shrinking in despair at the sound of this overwhelming power? You mustn't be ashamed of that, that's what happens to all people who come from lesser countries.

...ahem.

On a more serious note, just consider this: I don't have to be a five-star cook to notice that your restaurant is serving dogfood. Period.

[Stark]

Did he seriously just ask you to justify your nationalist rhetoric? That he inadvertently reveals his massive racism/elitism is frankly the best thing I've seen all day.

ALL YOU OTHER COUNTRIES SUCK STOP BEING SO MEAN TO MY FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN BY DESIGN TEAM

[Korto]

Since Dominarch's had his tongue planted pretty firmly in his cheek for most of this, I think we could probably afford to grow a sense of humour. Yes, the US has 2nd rate health care (for one thing) and in some ways their democracy is worse than ours, and yes my daughter is saying some words with a goddamn yank accent.
Stark, up north in summer, would you rather go swimming in the sea, or the rivers?

Although the spelling "Ozzies" is just plain annoying. Stop it.

[Stark]

In a pool. Ocean's prolly safer in flood season though. Sorry I'm not filled with terror by pictures of nasty jellyfish. Australian culture was destroyed decades ago.

And people might start giving old DH the benefit of the doubt when he stops being a giant fuckhead.

[weemadando]

It's time to play everyone's favourite game: Ignorant 16yo or Troll.

[Dominarch's Hope]

I understand what tongue in cheek refers to, but I have never understood the expression itself. What facial expression does it mean?

Oh and the Health system is only 2nd rate if youre poor. But if you got good insurance or just plain have the money, its the best in the world, bar none. Especially for certain types of specialist treatment.


The real issue is stupid shit like the drug war. Its just gotten old and pointless and selfdefeating. If pot was legal, the pot trade would collapse overnight, because most potheads would just grow their own.


The culture joke is mostly a joke. But the fact is, the USA is massive, and its Mass Media dominates, especially Hollywood and such.. Its such a damn huge market that it warps that of other nations to feed it. The cultural dominance of the US isnt a new thing and is in fact something of severe contention in places. Although that ties into dislike of the Anglosphere in general with America being seen as the current center of its gravity.


About the only other nation to export its cultural arts and memes to the same degree and scale is Japan.

And frankly, the internet has made both worse/better.

[Stark]

I understand what tongue in cheek refers to, but I have never understood the expression itself. What facial expression does it mean?

You can't be serious. Have you tried science?

I mean have you tried not being a huge fuckwit also.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Oh and the Health system is only 2nd rate if youre poor. But if you got good insurance or just plain have the money, its the best in the world, bar none.

Which means a 3rd rate system designed around social darwinism. Europe had such a system as well, but the 20th century rolled in.

[Korto]

Oh and the Health system is only 2nd rate if youre poor. But if you got good insurance or just plain have the money, its the best in the world, bar none. Especially for certain types of specialist treatment.

"Not knowing what you said, you said it"
Any country in the world can offer excellent healthcare to those who have the money to pay for it, even if the cost includes a plane ticket to another country. The benchmark now for a national health system is how well does it care for those who can't afford to pay for it.

As for the tongue in cheek thing, I'm not really sure but it may have come from the way you flex and stretch your cheeks trying to get rid of that insidious little grin that always seems to creep on when pulling a joke on someone.

[Terralthra]

Putting one's tongue into one's cheek used to be a sign of contempt. Later, it shifted meaning to refer to biting one's tongue to keep from laughing.

[Metahive]

I understand what tongue in cheek refers to, but I have never understood the expression itself. What facial expression does it mean?

You're on the frickin' internet, where answers to such questions are one line in google search away, and still ask questions like this? Do you also need someone to remind you to inhale and exhale every few seconds? I'm not kidding, I really wanna' know!

Oh and the Health system is only 2nd rate if youre poor. But if you got good insurance or just plain have the money, its the best in the world, bar none. Especially for certain types of specialist treatment.

What did I say about nations not needing role models for third world standards like only taking care of the rich and affluent obviously is? BTW, you're wrong, if you're poor in the US you don't get 2nd rate healthcare, you get nothing. You're left out to hang.

The real issue is stupid shit like the drug war. Its just gotten old and pointless and selfdefeating. If pot was legal, the pot trade would collapse overnight, because most potheads would just grow their own.

And give you a way to addle that scrambled brain of yours any further? No thanks.

The culture joke is mostly a joke. But the fact is, the USA is massive, and its Mass Media dominates, especially Hollywood and such.. Its such a damn huge market that it warps that of other nations to feed it. The cultural dominance of the US isnt a new thing and is in fact something of severe contention in places. Although that ties into dislike of the Anglosphere in general with America being seen as the current center of its gravity.

Meeeeeeeeh, mah nashuns got ah big dick, suck it woooald!

What are you, five years old?

About the only other nation to export its cultural arts and memes to the same degree and scale is Japan.

And frankly, the internet has made both worse/better.

Dummyass Pope! King of the Irrelevancies! Prince of the Poorly Thought Out Posts! All hail to thee.

[Alkaloid]

Did he seriously just ask you to justify your nationalist rhetoric? That he inadvertently reveals his massive racism/elitism is frankly the best thing I've seen all day.

It would have been funnier if he didn't reveal it every other post, but yeah.

[Dominarch's Hope]

Left out to hang? What do you all Emergency Room Care? When have they told gunshot victims to fuck off and die? When have they refused treatment to someone dying in the ER on basis of no medical insurance when care could be prpvidely fairly simply?


And are these incidents the vast majority and thus not honestly notable in anyway?

[Aaron MkII]

Of course they don't refuse treatment, you just get to live under a tonne of debt.

[Dominarch's Hope]

Of course they don't refuse treatment, you just get to live under a tonne of debt.

Yes? And how does Obama's tard law change that? It should have been Medical Food Stamps but applied to everybody.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Left out to hang? What do you all Emergency Room Care? When have they told gunshot victims to fuck off and die? When have they refused treatment to someone dying in the ER on basis of no medical insurance when care could be prpvidely fairly simply?


And are these incidents the vast majority and thus not honestly notable in anyway?

Oh, sure, the ER won't let you die if you come stumbling in shot or stabbed, but then they'll send you a huge bill that you probably can't pay, and on the other side of the coin, if you have something that's not immediately life threatening you're told to fuck off until you do. You can't go to the ER for any kind of preventative measures.

Something like 45,000 people a year die in the U.S. because they don't have insurance and can't pay. Medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., accounting for around 60%.

So, yeah, our healthcare system is garbage, even if we have some very good medical facilities.

[Dominarch's Hope]

No, the actual system is top of the line. Its just horrendously discriminatory and greed driven. Side effect of a heavily capitalist based society. Its just that people are getting tired of the negatives. Mostly because the positives are becoming less available to the populace.

[Terralthra]

That's akin to saying one car is an excellent public transportation system because it gets the people in it from wherever they are to wherever they want to go. Yes, it does, but what about all the people it doesn't carry? Access is a key component of a system's quality.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

No, the actual system is top of the line. Its just horrendously discriminatory and greed driven. Side effect of a heavily capitalist based society. Its just that people are getting tired of the negatives. Mostly because the positives are becoming less available to the populace.

Do you read the things you type? "The system's not broken, it just doesn't work for a large and and growing number of people."


Umm, no, Dipshit, that means that system is not top of the line. In fact, that means the system is pretty well fucked, and needs to be fixed/rebuilt.

All of this is a derail, though

[Stark]

You don't understand. He's measuring something about his society based on its performance at the very top and wondering why you think this is not meaningful. Its a fundamental misunderstanding.

Perhaps its a side-effect of scifi vs 'feat based' debates. MY TEAM CURED CANCER ERGO GOOD MEDICINE!

[LaCroix]

No, the actual system is top of the line. Its just horrendously discriminatory and greed driven. Side effect of a heavily capitalist based society. Its just that people are getting tired of the negatives. Mostly because the positives are becoming less available to the populace.

Please explain that to me - how can your system be 'top of the line' when other countries give the same treatment that only rich people can afford in the US, to everyone, even the poor. And don't present huge bills to them.

You see, to me it was always clear that

GREAT MEDICAL CARE FOR EVERYONE, PERFECT MEDICAL CARE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO PAY A BIT EXTRA
is better than
PERFECT MEDICAL CARE FOR 0,1%, FUCK THE REST.

[Alkaloid]

He just fails to realise that 'you can get awesome medical cared if you can pay for it out of your own pocket' describes literally every other country on the planet. This makes the only reasonable metric to compare the ability to get medical treatment you can't pay for out of your own pocket, and in this area the US sucks donkey balls.