IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, LEAVE

What does one say to pro-war people who tell one that "if you don't like it, leave"?

First of all, it seems to me to be impossible to leave America in the first instance. America rules the world. Its products can be seen everywhere, its military might is unchallenged, it invades countries at will. But the America that rules the world does not do so as the country whose national anthem is sung at baseball games, nor is it the America that created a democratic space, a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. It's not that America that rules the world. No, the America that rules the world is a proxy for corporate financial interests. The America that rules the world is an America that drives countries (like Argentina, but Argentina is just one example) into bankruptcy and paralyzes them through fear of realities even worse. The America that rules the world threatens the world's democracy with its military power; if yod don't elect the people we like, we'll invade your country and slaughter you by the thousands. Or we'll pay for some proxies to do it for us.

So how would moving to another country allow us to escape America? No, America must be confronted wherever one is, right there. Those of us who love the world and its people cannot be bludgeoned into silence before a world-destroying "patriotism" that is a mere placeholder for corporate profit. Remember, "supporting the troops" does not mean supporting a President who cut the benefits of veterans living on food stamps.