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Don't be a complete Ass. The US is a a big place, really big and there are vastly different types of states and situations. Any country in the world has fucked

Don't be a complete Ass. The US is a a big place, really big and there are vastly different types of states and situations. Any country in the world has fucked up abuses of power, name where you live and I guarantee that an example exists. Comparing Maine (where I live, which has the lowest crime rate and rate of prisoners per 100,000 in the US) to Texas is like comparing Switzerland to Russia based on the size and population levels and distance between. Note that Texas has some great areas it's just to show that they are extremely different to other states and it's not a valid comparison to Russia.

scarmig 13y ago
Maine has an epidemic of prison rape, just as Texas does. Although there are many issues where it's fair to make a distinction between different localities, this is a national problem.
mcv 13y ago
Note that though Maine has the lowest incarceration rate of the US, globally they're only average. Most countries in Europe still have a lower incarceration rate, for example. And every other US state has a higher incarceration rate than Maine. Many 3 times as high, some 5, one even 10 times as high. The US as a whole has by far the highest incarceration rate of the whole world. Maybe Maine is the exception as the only sane state in this regard. As a whole, the situation in the US is attrocious.
- jaegerpicker 13y ago
  Agreed the issue needs to be fixed but my point is that the whole of the US isn't the same and painting the entire us as a dangerous place to go is ridiculous and unfair.
  - mcv 13y ago
    But even the safest state is still roughly comparable with the least safe country in Europe. Yes, there's lots of variation, just as there is anywhere else, but on the whole, incarceration in the US is just plain crazy.
- MrZongle2 13y ago
  However, Maine is home to greatest number of horror stories by Stephen King, by far. Clearly, your chances of being mauled by a rabid St. Bernard or vampire or nameless evil is far greater than in the other States. Then again, you could look at other metrics and reach a different conclusion...
pessimizer 13y ago
You're cherry picking. Maine has half the population of Chicago. More importantly, Texas is 20x the size of Maine, and represents over 8% of the population of the US.
- jaegerpicker 13y ago
  Certainly I'm cherry picking, but that's the point. It's not that Texas is inherently bad but that it's ridiculous to compare all of the US with one broad stroke. Maine and Texas and Chicago are vastly different places and the US shouldn't be painted with broad strokes.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Texas is where nearly 1 out of 11 US citizens live, and there's nothing that I see about this case that's unique to Texas. You can narrow your criticism to his house or his bedroom, and exclude Texas from blame too, if it's important to be that reductive. The unavoidable fact is that what happened in Texas happened in the US. If Texas started segregating lunch counters and water fountains again, it would be legitimate to criticize the US for that, too. edit: To be more specific, why are you blaming Texas for what happened in Travis County, Texas?
    - jaegerpicker 13y ago
      I'm not blaming Texas or anything else. I'm saying that the commenter, said that the US was too dangerous to visit because of the justice system. I was pointing out that the US has vastly different state with vastly different systems and painting the entire US as the same is an incorrect statement. Could this have happened in Maine? Sure though it's vastly more likely to happen in Texas or other state with a higher rate of in-prisonment.
      - Malician 13y ago
        When someone says, hey, the US is a really terrible place, saying "But this one (or five) states in the US aren't quite as awful!" is making their point for them. edit: I do not agree with the U.S. justice system being third world level; I just don't think the differences in states are relevant here when the average across all of them is so terrible on this particular metric.
Dewie 13y ago
It's funny how when someone lands on the Moon, then it's because of the greatness of being American. If some American person or group does something bad, it has everything to do with being such a heterogeneous country. This probably has more to do with being Human than being American. Someone would probably bring up some analogy about the Olympics and nationalism as a retort. The thing is, though, when the US wins the most gold medals during the Olympics, they conveniently gloss over the fact that it is a first world nation with 300 million people. When something bad occurs, it is precisely because they are 300 million people - "we are so many and so different", "that would never work over here, we are too many and too different"
- jaegerpicker 13y ago
  That would be valid if we were talking about some criminal justice program that Maine or any other state shared with Texas. Kinda like how the entire United States submits athletes to the make up the Olympic teams. Or how engineers and scientists from the entire country made up the Nasa team. The ENTIRE point was that Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Alaska, Florida, and of course Texas have separate, though similar Criminal justice programs. Nice straw-man attempt though.
  - Dewie 13y ago
    Fair point. I'll try to think of a more applicable example next time

scarmig 13y ago

Maine has an epidemic of prison rape, just as Texas does. Although there are many issues where it's fair to make a distinction between different localities, this is a national problem.

mcv 13y ago

Note that though Maine has the lowest incarceration rate of the US, globally they're only average. Most countries in Europe still have a lower incarceration rate, for example. And every other US state has a higher incarceration rate than Maine. Many 3 times as high, some 5, one even 10 times as high. The US as a whole has by far the highest incarceration rate of the whole world. Maybe Maine is the exception as the only sane state in this regard. As a whole, the situation in the US is attrocious.

jaegerpicker 13y ago
Agreed the issue needs to be fixed but my point is that the whole of the US isn't the same and painting the entire us as a dangerous place to go is ridiculous and unfair.
- mcv 13y ago
  But even the safest state is still roughly comparable with the least safe country in Europe. Yes, there's lots of variation, just as there is anywhere else, but on the whole, incarceration in the US is just plain crazy.
MrZongle2 13y ago
However, Maine is home to greatest number of horror stories by Stephen King, by far. Clearly, your chances of being mauled by a rabid St. Bernard or vampire or nameless evil is far greater than in the other States. Then again, you could look at other metrics and reach a different conclusion...

pessimizer 13y ago

You're cherry picking. Maine has half the population of Chicago. More importantly, Texas is 20x the size of Maine, and represents over 8% of the population of the US.

jaegerpicker 13y ago
Certainly I'm cherry picking, but that's the point. It's not that Texas is inherently bad but that it's ridiculous to compare all of the US with one broad stroke. Maine and Texas and Chicago are vastly different places and the US shouldn't be painted with broad strokes.
- pessimizer 13y ago
  Texas is where nearly 1 out of 11 US citizens live, and there's nothing that I see about this case that's unique to Texas. You can narrow your criticism to his house or his bedroom, and exclude Texas from blame too, if it's important to be that reductive. The unavoidable fact is that what happened in Texas happened in the US. If Texas started segregating lunch counters and water fountains again, it would be legitimate to criticize the US for that, too. edit: To be more specific, why are you blaming Texas for what happened in Travis County, Texas?
  - jaegerpicker 13y ago
    I'm not blaming Texas or anything else. I'm saying that the commenter, said that the US was too dangerous to visit because of the justice system. I was pointing out that the US has vastly different state with vastly different systems and painting the entire US as the same is an incorrect statement. Could this have happened in Maine? Sure though it's vastly more likely to happen in Texas or other state with a higher rate of in-prisonment.
    - Malician 13y ago
      When someone says, hey, the US is a really terrible place, saying "But this one (or five) states in the US aren't quite as awful!" is making their point for them. edit: I do not agree with the U.S. justice system being third world level; I just don't think the differences in states are relevant here when the average across all of them is so terrible on this particular metric.

Dewie 13y ago

It's funny how when someone lands on the Moon, then it's because of the greatness of being American. If some American person or group does something bad, it has everything to do with being such a heterogeneous country. This probably has more to do with being Human than being American. Someone would probably bring up some analogy about the Olympics and nationalism as a retort. The thing is, though, when the US wins the most gold medals during the Olympics, they conveniently gloss over the fact that it is a first world nation with 300 million people. When something bad occurs, it is precisely because they are 300 million people - "we are so many and so different", "that would never work over here, we are too many and too different"

jaegerpicker 13y ago
That would be valid if we were talking about some criminal justice program that Maine or any other state shared with Texas. Kinda like how the entire United States submits athletes to the make up the Olympic teams. Or how engineers and scientists from the entire country made up the Nasa team. The ENTIRE point was that Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Alaska, Florida, and of course Texas have separate, though similar Criminal justice programs. Nice straw-man attempt though.
- Dewie 13y ago
  Fair point. I'll try to think of a more applicable example next time