OT: Disney imagineers building Americana park
Some former Disney Imagineers have been contracted to build an "Americana-themed" 125-acre amusement park off of Route 66 in Oklahoma.
American Heartland will have 6 distinctly themed areas that each tell a different part of "the American story."
Maybe I'm underestimating the South but why on earth would anyone want to visit this place? For one, you could just actually tour AMERICA if you're already here AND how the fuck do you talk about the American story without acknowledging how deeply fucked our history is?
I can't imagine that they'll have a zone about slavery, or colonization, etc. Maybe they can have a theme with Washington crossing the Potomac, but, again, you can go fucking see the Potomac - it's IN America, lol. Seems a little odd to me, but then again that Noah's Ark park is still open and operating in Kentucky so I'm sure the park will do well. Maybe they can get Garth to promote it. 
This (https://buroaksfarm.com/red_popcorn) is really tasty:
Buddy it's Oklahoma, there's nothing else to do
My recommendation might be to invest in their own current existing population instead of a $2B propaganda park, but 🤷
How could crooked politicians make money on that?
Comments like this are always funny to me. How do you think this $2B park is going to impact their economy?
If this park is a success, won’t that be good for their population? It would presumably create jobs and boost their tax base.
We have a French friend who visited three years ago, who said she never saw so many flags. She kept laughing and asking whether people needed them to know where they were? I think that because we're so diverse we--or some people--use them to try to compel certain behaviors and allegiance/obeisance. There's a reproach in our use of it that begins to feel anything but celebratory; and I'm sorry that it's gone that way. At this stage half the country feels that's pretty primitive; the other half wants to shove it down our throats. And though you say 'South,' I see it as more urban/rural. Almost as many California counties went for Trump as went for Biden/Clinton; VT has a Republican governor.
Another way to look at it, though, is that these people now have their own pop culture, and stuff to buy. I think that plays into this more than is recognized; feeling like you belong to something, anything, in such a diverse and far-flung place may be more important for lots of people than the political underpinnings. Than health care or good teeth. At least when that's not on offer for anyone, it's a consolation. I live in Tallahassee, the most liberal town in Florida. Every now and then there's a big rally at the capital where guys ride around and gun their truck engines, and--pretty obviously--feel powerful/intimidating. You know they don't feel that most of the time.
Not necessarily the origin of the idea, but I recall this being widely discussed nearly twenty years ago:
https://www.thestranger.com/news/2004/11/11/19813/the-urban-archipelago
The Onion was in on it, too:
https://www.theonion.com/yee-haw-my-vote-cancels-out-yalls-1819584076
I grew up in poverty in rural Ohio and then got a Michigan degree and it took me places I could never have imagined, so I know what you mean there.
I think you're onto something with the sense of belonging piece. It's like an overcorrection against criticism of the U.S. or something. I'm not saying America has nothing to celebrate, but it being America isn't the thing that makes it good. Idk, it's hard to describe, but I just think a lot of ppl miss the entire point of a nation based on laws that can be changed by its own people.
So you were born in poverty and attended one of the best universities in the world, and America doesn't get any credit for that? Was that sort of class mobility a common thing throughout human history?
I'm not sure what that has to do with a theme park, but where would I place the credit?
In socialism - the system that subsidized the cost of my education.
America fundamentally hates subsidizing costs for its people, so no, America gets no credit for that.
Ohhhh I get it. This is that game where you bring up something inflammatory, and when someone objectively refutes it, you say "stop changing the subject." You must know my ex.
You asked, man. Tax revenue and Michigan paid for my education. That is socialism.
You don’t sound like you are putting that UM degree to good use, my friend.
You can call it socialism if that makes it feel better, but the fact that your degree was paid for by taxpayers who didn't go to college is still a benefit of living in America. Some gratitude goes a long way, my man. You might find that you're a generally happier person if you practice it.
The joys of the socialist. None.
Nothing that agrees with my views matters and is fundamentally wrong anyway. Even if I don't understand what has happened in the first place. I hate myself, my surroundings, where I'm from and what I do and I want everyone else to hate it too.
Oh, I thought Scandinavians were the world's happiest people. This is so poorly written that I wouldn't try to sort out its logic anyway, but you must live in a pretty narrow echo chamber if you think that you can assert that socialists are unhappy or angry as basic truth. You're talking about a large percentage of people in the world, speaking from the one country that has been the idea's sworn enemy for a century. It's just possible that you're the one who's indoctrinated and narrow.
Funny, though--in a broader sense: This board, which was once full of progressives, is now full of right-wing yahoos. It's football, and the midwest, and who cares really. But what it says about my beloved city of Ann Arbor and the u of Michigan, where my grandfather and every member of my immediate family went to school, is a little bit disheartening. Not much more than tired cliches being circulated up and down the board for this one.
Oh no, the loss of a leftist echo chamber that was mgoboard, the horror! Fear not UofM and Ann Arbor still doesn't tolerate breadth of thought so maybe you can sleep soundly tonight.
You think u of m and Ann Arbor are intolerant of different opinions?
Anyone who disagrees with Socialism is a “right wing yahoos”. It’s a bit disheartening for me, a person born in Ann Arbor and raised in the area, to see left wing yahoo ignoring the fact that it was capitalism that made what he allegedly loves, possible.
Scandinavians have capitalistic economics and are overwhelmingly white and tiny. Norway has a $1 trillion sovereign fund that largely comes from selling North Sea oil.(Fossil Fuels! The horror!)
People/countries who have used socialism or socialist policies: Bismarck, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Vietnam, East Germany…it appears that socialism doesn’t make societies more just or fair based on this. Rather, it seems like socialism is the preferred choice of despots who use populist rhetoric and programs to buy the compliance of the populace while his paramilitary forces apply and maintain the shackles. The nouveau Enlightened Despot.
Of course, capitalism has its own lengthy bloody, brutal, and evil history to contend with. The US, UK, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium,France, Italy, and Germany are responsible for tens of millions of deaths over the centuries. Truly horrific.
The left-right arguing over socialism vs capitalism is missing the forest for the tree and history bares this out. Rather than brawling over grievously flawed ideologies how about we work together to build a better humanity?
Why did you bring up that Scandinavians are white…? What does that have to do with anything?
and also I do think it would be great if people came together and worked to improve life for their fellow human beings, unfortunately there are a lot of people in this country who are obsessed with what other people do in the privacy of their own homes and hate people based on who they choose to fuck. So yeah we kinda can’t all come together when a lot of people are hateful shit bags.
I think the point was more about how homogenous the population is, rather than the fact that it's specifically white, per se. America is massive and the most diverse place on Earth, while Sweden (for instance) is basically just a couple Minnesotas. Hard to compare the two.
Not to mention the other objective fact: capitalism created the middle class, and is therefore responsible for the greatest rise in human living conditions in the history of humanity.
Well, you could argue that the rise in unionism, the post WW2 passage of the GI bill and many social programs greatly broadened the middle class and, over the last several years, unchecked capitalism is doing its best to diminish it.
You could also argue that Santa Claus is real but nobody beyond a naive child would take you seriously.
And yet the invisible hand is infallible, right?
The robber barons of the 19th century were capitalists. How'd that work out for the middle class?
I think a couple of those things helped. But to say that capitalism is "unchecked" is pure fantasy. Never in the history of capitalism have there been more more regulations, more laws than right now, today
You need to look up socialism, that is not even close to it. There is a huge difference between social programs intended to give equal opportunities and socialism.
There's a huge bunch of politicians who also need such a lesson.
Instead, they prefer to use it as a favorite buzzword because they know it'll rile up a largely gullible target audience.
You teach’em rob
I have never seen a single politician from either party do anything of the sort!
Unfortunately, the average American thinks the definition of socialism is any time the government does something.
Tax revenue paid for my education. I then repaid it several hundred-fold in taxes on wages earned due to that education. I’m unsure if that’s socialism or capitalism at its finest.
Please allow me to estimate the hyperbole of your claim. Per pupil spending in K-12 education is ~$15k. Assuming you graduated from high school, the public paid around ~$200k for your education. Add another $50-$100k if you went to a public college. But I’ll stick with $200k for this analysis. You claim you have repaid the public’s investment “several hundred-fold.” Siri says several is more than 2 or 3, so let’s be conservative and go with four hundred fold. 400 times $200k is $80M. And that’s just the taxes paid on your wages. Assuming a high tax state, state and federal combined are ~50% of income. If your claim is true, you’ve earned $160M in your life. Congratulations, that’s quite the accomplishment.
P.S. I went through your posting history and realized you are one of the better posters. I was just having some fun, no ill will intended. I agree with you that public investment in education has an incredible return on investment, just perhaps not several hundred-fold. I would call it democracy. We are voting to tax ourselves for the betterment of society.
Assume he meant several hundred percent, which would be several-fold.
No, ST3 is correct. I should have learned long ago to never do math in public.
Justice for comrade Dennis!
The technical actual definition of socialism is an economic system where the means of producing goods (think factories and farms) and the means of distributing goods (think restaurants and stores) are not privately owned but owned by either the government or worker collectives.
The government supporting scholarships or fire departments is technically not socialism in and of itself.
P.S. Washington crossed the Delaware River for the famous attack to save the Revolution, not the Potomac.
Thank you dunesman. We are in an era now in which socialism is simply 'anything the government does'. And if you think corporations should maybe pay more than 0% in taxes, you're a communist.
didn’t you get education from public school supported by local taxes, or pre-schools/schools run by religious organizations, both are as American as they can be.
and education being part of government’s core function has been around as far as government was first formed.
education being part of government’s core function has been around as far as government was first formed.
Ha! Yeah, this is completely wrong. Public education provided by government is a innovation that is about 200 years old.
Unfortunately you must have flunked any Government classes if you feel that you education was because of Socialism. Democracy and capitalism can have taxes and subsidies as well but with the benefit of freedom of expression that socialism does not offer.
Isn't socialism more of an economic structure where the work is controlled by the people who do the work and not by wealthy individuals, companies or corporations? It's a way of redistributing the wealth so that rich people don't own or control the means of production, like they do in capitalism. It really has nothing to do with freedom of expression. Communism has a similar ideology but at least in practice in the past, in countries like China and the Soviet Union, the individual practically ceases to exist in that system, which would mean they have no individual rights like freedom of expression. Communism is a failed philosophy whereas Socialism has thrived in certain countries that also have capitalist elements, like the Scandinavian countries. There's both democratic socialism and social democracy, which is closer to what Denmark and Sweden have.
Wait, wait. You're Dennis, from Monty Python, the 37 year "old woman" confronting Arthur, who must be a king because he "hasn't got shit all over him", right?
Now I get it. You're the executive officer of the week, right? Being repressed! This is the anarcho-syndicalist schtick from Monty Python. Railing against "outdated imperialist dogma". Funny character. Funny bit, thanks!
Well, better to have "outdated imperialist dogma" than to expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you.
So university’s begged the gov to subsidize student loans, raised the tuition, dorm and cost of attending to the breaking point for anyone. Created degrees that have little return on investment if any other than its a degree. And now are lobbying the American PEOPLE to subsidize the loans for people they took advantage of. Thanks and you’re saying socialism would have worked….
No offense but that sounds like some fucking commie gobbledygook
“I'm not sure what that has to do with a theme park”
Now that’s some funny shit right there. Did you read your own OP?
I'll give the OP our "deeply fucked" history if he acknowledges that every single country on earth, without exception, was born out of conquest of someone else. It's so tiresome
I think the main point of the OP and others is that we like to base our greatness on the notion that we are 'exceptional'.
I'm not going to say you are wrong. I'm also not going to say that the other side is wrong. It's an interesting debate to have. I just wish we could have it without both sides resorting to ad hominem attacks (not saying you did this).