To think The West is morally bankrupt

[Elrae]

America democratically elects an adjudicate rapist who sympathises with racists, hates women and will do anything to hang onto power. The UK and it's lickspitrlw leader fawn over Trump and says that Israel has rhe right to cut off food and water to Gaza. Then wairs a year watching children die before saying it is intolerable. Except he is tolerating it.We all are.
The West is pumping out carbon at a vast rate and will no doubt reject the flood of refugees that this will cause.
The West takes more than it's fair share of the world's wealth. Much of the West is based on colonial exploration and murder of the global south.
I used to think we were the good guys.
We are not. We are one of the worst things ever to happen to the planet and it's inhabitants.

Again, completely untrue. In several previous posts I've mentioned the colonial abuse of Britain, France, Belgium, Spain plundering third world resources. America's interventions in other countries have largely been disastrous for them and the countries in question. The US led invasion of Iraq was a disaster for that country which has.never recovered. But of course as soon as anyone mentions Israel, that automatically becomes the one that is being singled out. Like it's so unfair to mention a regime completely trashing it's own international reputation by mass starving and murdering innocent people. You just cannot say anything at all.against Israel, ever, it's uncriticisable in the eyes of many

that's ok though x

What? Was that a personal attack because you don’t like my opinions? Maybe I know more about the conflict than what is shown in the west and maybe my family are Israeli and I have friends who were murdered by Hamas. How dare you write as though there’s a conspiracy of discussion about me among people on this forum - making judgments about me!!! I refuse to be intimidated, gaslit, censored or silenced. I’m more informed than any of you. I’ve never once said that I’m not sympathetic and appalled by what is happening in Gaza. I’m allowed to support Israel though. You may think that Zionists and Israel are the devil but that isn’t reality and I’m not here to convince anyone of that, just to keep the truth. Shame on you. You wouldn’t dare say that to anyone who supported any other country, the fact it’s the only Jewish one in the world - and you’re so willing to believe everything you see and hear - speaks volumes.

In fairness access to dental treatment is no terrible in the UK and people are pulling out their own teeth here.

I didn’t know that. How awful. Is it because it’s too expensive?

I didn’t know that. How awful. Is it because it’s too expensive?

Very expensive, shortage of dentists and hygeinists and very little provision accessible via the NHS for those on lower incomes.

Partly - it's slowly going private in a very patchy way.

Some of my family still have NHS dentists rest it's usually a monthly insurance scheme with extra payments on top as necessary with some discounts or very expensive outlays as neccessary.

Sometime it's because there is a shortage of dentists in area or they've been let go by NHS dentist but care is complex due to underlying condtions/medication and no private dentist wants to take them on - then they get left to dental hositals who mainly do extractions - that happened to my Dad.

Sometime it can be cheaper to go abroad depending on what needs doing - though that's the same for some operations with long wait lists as well.

All of my family do have dental access - just have to increasingly pay for it - but many kids in our area just don't.

The difference is as a second generation immigrant you feel free to criticise the UK whilst also absolving yourself of historical wrongs because you ‘are a second generation immigrant’. But as a second generation immigrant you also are not part of the history of historical suffering either. The very fact you refer to yourself as a second generation immigrant shows you do not identify with country’s history. Your historical association only starts in the last half century.

I used to think this. I argued with family and friends who suggested otherwise. I can see now it was "groupthink" that I picked up at university, rather than my own thoughts.
Last year I researched and bought a veritable stack of books and my thoughts now are very different. The west IS the cradle of civilisation, art, honour, beauty, innovation. Its been a huge mindset shift for me and I'm deeply thankful for the rich culture and history we have here, and how shameful, ignorant and arrogant my attitude was before.. I'm genuinely embarrassed when I think of it. Those spouting off stale sound bites like "colonisers" and "racist" honestly have no idea. Imagine if we dismissed the entirety of Africa as "genital mutilators" or the entire of Islam as "rapists". It's absolutely thick and offensive and I have no truck with it, bore off and read a book why don't you.

I used to think we were the good guys.
We are not. We are one of the worst things ever to happen to the planet and it's inhabitants.

Such a ungrateful sentiment to your ancestors and the sacrifice of your deceased countrymen on whose shoulders we stand. The historic contribution of Britain to the world is nothing short of extraordinary and even now we continue to be tolerant and welcoming despite it having come at great cost to the quality of life that our ancestors sweated over, for our inheritance and their posterity. I do believe you will look back in these words someday and feel embarrassed.

Thankfully these viewpoints are becoming less fashionable and prevalent, and commonsense and a regard for historical fact rather than social media hearsay, is starting to return I've noticed

That’s appalling. Dental care should be accessible to everyone, especially children.

Superb post.

The west is by no means perfect, but as has been stated the west has democracy at its heart - (though I do wonder sometimes because although we get to vote, nothing ever seems to come to fruition with successive governments and I think that will change at the next election as folk are so fed up)

Generally we are a civilised society and people have a voice. In many other countries sadly that’s not the case, especially for women. Women have no rights in many countries and that’s what im
referring to when I say civilised.

So I would argue that whilst the west isn’t perfect it’s far better than plenty of other countries that still hold medieval views that are morally abhorrent

Yes I think many go through this thinking but then realise the west offers freedoms and protections, especially for women. If you then have a dd there are countries I’d feel relieved for her to grow up in(very much so) and others the opposite. That applies to all dc actually, whether dd or ds.

I think they should be priortiing kids TBH or those like Dad left in severe pain though due to his poor health he fell between the many and increasing NHS gaps for quite a few things.

Here - my part of UK it was a known but unacknowledged by authorities issue good 5-6 years before covid lack of dental access but no NHS dentists taking on anyone.

Since covid more of our relatives in other parts of UK have found they go private or they have no dentists - and TBF many dentist will take on kids on as NHS as a loss to them because they do care but they do have to have paying customers to keep their door open as well.

I watch US citizen review this and the are suprised becuase if they've heard of the name thought were US people (even ones before their country existed) and assumed all were US inventions.

I think there should be school dentists that check children’s teeth during school time. That would help with parents who can’t or don’t have the means to check children’s teeth regularly.

I'm sorry but this just isn't true. You haven't stated which other countries you have lived in, whether you actually live in the UK now and are British. What you say simply isn't the case nowadays.

Looking at it in the round, rather than individually, it absolutely is true.

Which part of that post do you disagree with?

'Nothing comes close to the UK as far as standard of living, access to health services, education, social welfare is concerned'

This.
The standard of living and all public services have massive deteriorated over many years. I thought most people had noticed by now; it's constantly in the media.

Well our school has done ed on brushing teeth. We were given toothbrushes. As for paying someone to come in. 🙄

Many grandparents buying paper, pen, pritt sticks etc because school can't afford them. Parents give books, and all the above already.

It’s not good. It doesn’t make sense either, because it’s the same in the US and good think that children should be the priority.

Does the West not disproportionately cause carbon emissions?
Do carbon emissions not cause climate change?

Erm, no actually. China is by far the biggest emitter of carbon - and 8 of the countries in the top 10 are not in the West.

www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-by-country/

Joe Biden was president on 7 Oct 2023 when Hamas Terrorists invaded Israel and attacked civilians. So, Trump didn’t have access to that magic war stopping telephone you think the US president has … unless you think Trump, who was not president, had a magic phone at Mar-a-lago, and had authority to use the magic war-stop phone as a civilian.

Really, you seem confused. Maybe step away from MN until you start feeling less foggy about real world … and The West.

So, you going to do anything OP, or just virtue signal on the internet and maybe wave a flag a bit with a bunch of other flag shaggers?

Gonna give up any of your time/safety/stuff, or just expect other people to do it for you while you shout about how they are doing it wrong?