George Carlin on America, Blessing and False Pride

Run time: 10:03 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aLkKtBZHi4   Posted on YouTube: March 22, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 05, 2008 By DU Member: Vyan Views on DU: 6453

 
In this section from his recent HBO Special, comedic legend George Carlin does an amazing job of putting all of this "God Bless America"/"Proud to be an American" Crap in exactly the perspective it needs to be.

Here are some excepts:

I saw a slogan on a guys car that said "Proud to be an American" and I thought "What the fuck does that mean?"

I'm fully Irish, and when I was a kid I would go to the St Patrick's Day parade and they sold a button that said "Proud to be Irish", but I knew that on Columbus day they sold the same button only it said "Proud to be Italian", then came Black Pride, and Puerto Rican Pride. And I could never understand national or ethnic pride, because to me Pride should be reserved for something you achieve on your own.

Being Irish isn't a skill, it's a fucking genetic accident.

You wouldn't be proud to be 5'11". You wouldn't be proud to have a pre-disposition for colon cancer.

And then he gets to the entire "God Bless America" thang.

Here's another slogan you run into all the time, "God Bless America".

Once again, respectfully, I say to myself "What the Fuck Does that Mean?"

"God Bless America?" Is that a request? Is tht a demand? Is that a suggestion? Politicians say it at the end of every speech, as if it was some sort of verbal tick that they can't get rid of.

I guess they figure if they leave it out someone is going to think they're "bad Americans". Let me tell you something folks, God Does not give a flying fuck about America, ok? He doesn't care. He never cared about this country. He never has. He never will. He doesn't care about this country any more than he cares about Mongolia, Transylvania, Pittsburgh, the Suez Canal or the North Pole. He simply doesn't care, ok.

Listen, there are 200 countries in the world, do these people honestly think God is sitting around picking out his favorites?

Why would he do that?

Why would God have a favorite country? And why would it be America of all the countries? Because we have the most money? Because he likes our national anthem? Maybe it's because he heard we have 18 delicious flavours of classic Rice-O-Ronie?

It's Delusional Thinking.

If these people believe in God, they must have heard that God Loves Everyone, and he loves them equally. So why would these people ask God to do something that goes against his own teaching? Maybe they ought to check with that Jesus fella. They're always talking about "What would Jesus do"?

They don't want to know so they can do it, they just want to know so they can tell other people to do it.

Personally, I think he has a point.

Vyan

n/t

you should shut off your mind, stop thinking critically and "love" the United States no matter what.

It's the first step toward nationalism then fascism.

Tex Shelters

Hits it right on the head.

:rofl:

Carlin rocks. Thanks for sharing.

k&r

doing everyday chores.

on a table at all times, while he was standing. Talked about suicide a lot and there was sort of a pall
over the audience - not the usual George Carlin stuff at all. He said that he'd been sober for 9 months straight,
which was the longest he'd ever gone since he was 14.

I told my friends that he seemed much healthier and happier when he was drinking...

Anyway, glad to see that he seems much more robust in this video. Any idea of when this was made?

He said,he was working with all new material,and asked us to "bear with him". He was,as you said,having to steady himself by leaning on a table,he also had to keep referring to his notes. At one point,he lost his train of thought,and immediately apologized. He picked back up and finished to show. He seemed to be upbeat but also a little unsteady.

why can't it be a sharp, funny,old fuck like Carlin, instead of a boring, senile old fuck like McCain?

we said ya.... to everything carlin brought up. it may seem groundbreakig to some, but in this house been there, done that and are beyond

I haven't played the video yet, I'm just about to put it on for me and my 10 y.o. I want to make sure he gets a well rounded education about America.

been doing it for 40 years, remember his albums from the 70s

...in exceptionalism is the epitome of self-absorption, in my opinion. It's saying that your country of birth is somehow better because of your birth. Clearly, it's always about validation. "I've made the right decision. I live HERE."

Put him in the cabinet meetings, just so he can sit there and say "It's bullshit, and it's bad for ya" to every watered-down conservative appeasing compromise that the dems have buckled under in the last 20 years.

great advice:

QUESTION EVERYTHING.