Defense Distributed Is The Greatest

[HoreTore]

No he's half right. It went both ways. But this entire discussion is a microcosm of a huge issue: No matter where you are in the world or your station in life, your perspective is still colored by local versions of history. Europeans deny their horrible history even better than we do. But of course we learned from the best

What I find most intresting is the "national myth" we all have. For example, in Norway it's the image of the "independent farmer"("storbonde" in norwegian, not sure how to translate it properly) as the foundation of our nation. We have a romantic image of the farmer who grew his potatoes, managed his sheep and so on. The manliest of men who managed his life without outside influence. Of course, a quick look at the map tells a different story: we have one of the longest coastlines in the world. The waters outside are filled with fish. Rather than being funded on agriculture in the inner regions, we've been funded on fishing along the coast. Our wealth has come almost exclusively from our merchant navy, indeed those farmers would never have survived if they had not been able to transport wood down the rivers and onto the ships.

I believe the US claim that "an american wants the state to go away" belongs in the same category. It can only be true if you choose to ignore huge parts of your history and population.