Reply #13: Hey it's the antipodean thread! [View All]

[Djinn]

I started coming to DU first to remind me that Bush is not supported by all or even most Americans, and this is by far the most polite political forum I've been on - so far no-one's called me anything nasty and the "dean sux" "clark sux" toing and froing seems to be as harsh as it gets. So this is what I keep in mind when someone (usually influenced by little john or the mad monk) tells me that my opposition to PNAC, the war in iraq and Bush & Co is purely caused by "anti-americanism" which is a fashionable term of abuse right now.

It's a weird one because presumably all the AMERICANS who also feel this way should be called anti-americans too - or maybe they're "self hating americans" so I try to remember that I'm pro american, FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, the new deal, a bill of rights, free speech provisions, the simpsons, the dead kennedys, bagels and cream cheese, DU, eminem, noam chomsky, edward said (RIP)buffy the vampire slayer, Michael Moore - are just some of the good bits and that not agreeing with Bush is not the same as diagreeing with americans.

For the aussies: while I also catch myself saying come back paul all is forgiven (esp in relation to refugees and aboriginal disposession) but then I take off the rose coloured specs - Keating was one of the most right wing PM's we ever had and it was HIS government that first introduced mandatory detention of asylum seekers.