Do you think people should stop saying "we" when refering to US government decisions.

[HEyHEY]

I often say to people, "I like Americans, I just hate their government." And, I've noticed, since moving to China, that there is a MASSIVE difference between the people and government. I always get my back-up here when I see Americans bashing the USA and using the word "we" to talk about their own country.

Maybe you guys should start refering to the government as "they." When you say "we" it gives them a certain legitimacy. And by "them" or "they" I'm talking about the obviously disconnected people in power who don't represent YOU guys. Maybe it would make people more apt to actually challenge the government because they wouldn't feel as personally attacked or involved.... and it would let a clear class distinction be felt.

Wow, reading this myself is confusing, and I wrote it. Yay rum!

[frazzled]

1. No. We already have an expression to use when our government ...

does things that displease us: "Not in OUR name." That is an implicit acknowledgment that we are indeed the government, and we do not want it to do things in our name with which we disagree (invading Iraq, for example).

Your attempt to delegitimatize government by referring to it as "they" is a right-wing, Republican notion (never trust the government). It also appeals to faux populists and anarchists.

In a democracy we are the government. We own it, like it or not. It is us.

[HEyHEY]

2. Are you really gonna say "Not in our name" to preface every sentence?

[frazzled]

3. I don't need to

I don't disagree with everything my government does.

[Radical Activist]

9. Yet, there are left wing populists and anarchists

who don't share your warm feelings about government. It isn't a conservative/liberal issue.

Most Americans don't trust centralized power. Republicans have been very smart about convincing people that "liberal" should never be spoken without "big government" as a prefix. Associating big government with liberalism does NOT endear much of the public to liberalism.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Nonetheless, in a democracy WE are the government.

We are ultimately responsible for what the government does because we put them there.

To say 'they' about the government is abdicating our responsibility as citizens - it has nothing to do with liberalism.

[Radical Activist]

13. We don't live in a democracy.

But, this is why I never liked the slogan "not in our name." Well, yes it is being done in our name as US citizens and carrying a poster doesn't change that reality.

[JVS]

16. I trust central government more than the yahoos on state level.

This federal bullshit creates too many governments.

[treestar]

4. No. We are responsible.

We elect the leaders. It is government by the people. The Constitution starts, "We the People." It would be dodging responsibility.

[HEyHEY]

5. Good point n/t

[JuniperLea]

11. +1

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. It is cultural

The middle kingdom is separate from the people. That continues to this day.

The foundational myth of the us is that the people are th government. The day Americans stop that will be the day the country stops being a country...yes it is that deep.

[HEyHEY]

8. Yeah, but they ARE the gov-ment.

They just need to realize that they need to take it, ya know? Hence the "we" thing being done away with

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Will happen in successor states

Not in the present us.

[JVS]

18. Unless there is some Khmer Rouge kind of activity

that leaves only "We" groups within the successor states. It's just that different areas are going to have different ideas of what "We" means.

[SOS]

7. Us vs. Them

Been that way for a long time, Americans just don't realize the depth of this abyss.

The top 1%, Wall Street, corporate America and their employees aka the US Congress.

"Them" aligned against the interests of the bottom 99% "us".

[JVS]

14. It should be the other way around. The government should not be allowed to make so many decisions..

against the public will and interest.

[HEyHEY]

15. Yeah, that's the poin though

Until they stop making so many decions of that nature, not to refer to them as "we"

[donheld]

17. No it is We

[Toucano]

19. It is "We, the people..."

The government is not separate from the people. Not by design, at least.

It behaves as though it were separate because it has been allowed to become so.

If anything, those "likable" Americans you meet need to take more responsibility for their government. When they do, you won't have to say, "I like Americans, I just hate their government."

[Spider Jerusalem]

20. I've stopped saying 'we'.

But then I've been living in the UK for two years now (and will at some point in the not too distant future be a British citizen).