America is NOT the greatest country in the world. Not any more...

[QueerDuck]

This impassioned speech challenges the notion of American exceptionalism. A panel discussion sparks a debate on national identity, using statistics and historical context. Expect a powerful, thought-provoking discourse on societal values.

Will: It’s NOT the greatest country in the world, professor. That’s my answer.

Moderator: …You’re saying?

Will: Yes.

Moderator: …Let’s talk aboutWill: Fine. Sharon, the NEA (National Education Association) is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paycheck, but he gets to hit you with it any time he wants. It doesn’t cost money, it costs votes; it costs airtime, column inches. You know why people don’t like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fucking smart, how come they lose so goddamn always?

Sharon: Hey-!

Will: And with a straight face, you’re gonna tell students that America’s so star-spangled awesome, that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. So 207 sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.

Moderator: All right –

Will: And yeah, you, sorority girl. Just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know, and one of them is, there’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number 4 in labor force, and number 4 in exports. We lead the world in only 3 categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined. 25 of whom are allies.

Now, none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student. But you, nonetheless, are without a doubt a member of the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period, so when you ask, “What makes us the greatest country in the world?” I dunno know what the fuck you’re talking about! Yosemite? It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons, we passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons, we waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in our last election, and we didn’t, we didn’t scare so easy…Huh. We were able to be all these things, and to do all these things, because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered.

First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Enough?

– Jeff Daniels (written by Aaron Sorkin, HBO)

[Tripper11]

1. I would argue, one of the best TV speech's out there

When I first saw this, I was blown away. And pathetically it still stands. As a matter of fact, gotten much much worse

[progressoid]

2. Sort of.

It's a great diatribe. But IMHO Sorkin seems to view some of our history through rose colored glasses.

Arguably, most of this part is just the propaganda created by white CIS males that we were taught in the end of the last century.

We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons, we passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons, we waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in our last election, and we didn’t, we didn’t scare so easy…Huh. We were able to be all these things, and to do all these things, because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered.

Never mind the cheap shot at "the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period."

[aggiesal]

3. That was the opening scene of the series "The Newsroom" on HBO. You can still watch the series on HBOMax ...

That scene was so awesome, I had to watch the whole series, back when it was aired weekly on HBO with no streaming available.

[czarjak]

4. HE said...

“The American Dream Is Dead!”
It was a threat, folks. Of course, I hate to tell people I told you so! Being correct about this shit is disgustingly depressing!

[BarbD]

5. Where did the statistics come from?

And what year? And, aren't we first in number of guns per capita?

[QueerDuck]

6. I do not know. If there had been links and footnotes I would have included them too... however...

... the only thing I can tell you is that this dialog is from the opening scene of the HBO drama The Newsroom, which premiered in 2012. Whether it's wiki-accurate or not probably doesn't matter much with regard to the overall gist of what he's saying and how it is a wake-up call (then and now) to the "we can do no wrong" jingoistic American-exceptionalism crowd.

Not that it would make any difference to them anyway. Rather than looking inward at themselves and the lies they tell themselves, the try to blame the messenger with accusations of being unpatriotic and a part of the "blame America first" crowd.

Sigh.