Oliver Stone's untold history of the USA

[treetop]

Fantastic series. Not really anything new for many but really nice to see a respected US patriot and film maker taking off the rose colored glasses and facing us all up to some monstrous US foreign policies since WW2.

The series begins in the lead up to WW2 and runs all the way through to Obama.
It is very compelling and absolutely terrifying in places. Surprisingly it totally skips over Kennedy assassinations and conspiracies instead relying on actual media coverage and documents, diaries and interviews of the time as well as what has been declassified over time.

My conclusion from the series......

How long are the good and honest people of the USA (99% of them) going to tolerate being used by a bunch of psychotic right wing thugs?


10/10

[gromit]

oliver stone sucks michael moores dick,..........

[Nimrod]

The United States of America has much to be ashamed of. Pretty much from day one.

Lots of self-justification for doing what they thought it took to build a new country. I'm talking about all the told and untold horrors put upon the Native Americans. Promises broken and lives taken, for the convenience of it all. Shameful.

Post WWII is when life in the U.S. seemed to change in a most sinister way, imo. The government seemed to acquire an agenda. Goddamned Illuminati.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's, but I would have loved to have been an adult in the skinny tie, high heeled, martini sipping, pointy breasted, convertible top, 50's. I would be dead by now, and not have to fret about the wietpas.

[TwoCanucks]

Tried watching this series a couple times, but Stone's voice puts me to sleep.

He peaked with Platoon and Wall Street and had a murmur of relevance with JFK...but has been like that crazy uncle who insists the cia has his phone tapped ever since.

[USbongLord]

The United States of America has much to be ashamed of. Pretty much from day one.

Lots of self-justification for doing what they thought it took to build a new country. I'm talking about all the told and untold horrors put upon the Native Americans. Promises broken and lives taken, for the convenience of it all. Shameful.

Post WWII is when life in the U.S. seemed to change in a most sinister way, imo. The government seemed to acquire an agenda. Goddamned Illuminati.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's, but I would have loved to have been an adult in the skinny tie, high heeled, martini sipping, pointy breasted, convertible top, 50's. I would be dead by now, and not have to fret about the wietpas.

And WE did what?..not our fault...dead people did these things..the past is over...I'm not ashamed of a thing ..ya know why..I didn't do none of it....just move on..it's nice outside

[weoftenscore6]

And WE did what?..not our fault...dead people did these things..the past is over...I'm not ashamed of a thing ..ya know why..I didn't do none of it....just move on..it's nice outside

A good point about not feeling a sense of personal guilt and you're right of course - dead people did those things (nice turn-of-phrase by the way).
And, on the flipside, I always find it funny when people claim personal glory for the actions of generations previous. A classic example of this is Americans coming up to British people with the statement “Well you’d all be speaking German if we hadn’t saved your ass in WW2”
Now despite the questionable validity of that statement, I always find it funny. “Oh thank you! I didn’t realize it was YOU who saved the United Kingdom from the invading Nazi hoardes.. I mean you’re 19 years old, so it’s very impressive that YOU were garroting Krauts in the trenches! So Danke Schoen for your help!”


However, it should be noted, that one shouldn't forget the actions of their forefathers. Every nation should shoulder some responsibility of their past, for no other reason than ensuring that any horrors are not repeated.

[treetop]

The best reason for any kind of open, honest and critical review of past policies and actions of a nation is to make sure the same mistakes never happens again.

'Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it.' (Edmund Burke)

I think it is important for American people to know that in the past their leaders have lied to them in order to start wars against poor people all over the planet. Their leaders have done so for cynical reasons. They have allied and supported some of the most evil and tyrannical regimes the world over for those same cynical reasons.

Politicians lie because they can. It works. History has shown that.

Time to stop believing the hype. America is not a shining light on a hill. Not a beacon of hope for the world. Just another country with a massive army and enough weapons to kill every person on the planet many times over. A country that has proven again and again it is more than willing to unleash that terrible killing power against anyone, at any time, for any reason. The leaders make a speech justifying the killing. The people believe the leaders and everyone goes around like nothing has happened (apart from the dead people).

The only people in the world who do not begin to see this truth revealed by history are the American people. Tragically they are the only people who can do anything about their pitiful leaders.

[USbongLord]

fuckin yawn..

[Slip & Sal]

Japanese, German, English, Spanish, Mid Eastern, French, Mongolian, and Many Native peoples have had massive, cruel wars. Why blame the Americans? Everyone is to blame if that is the case. Every race/nationality has done it at some point in time. Maybe we should just blame humanity.

[treetop]

fuckin yawn..

I think you are my favorite conservative.

[Marco]

Japanese, German, English, Spanish, Mid Eastern, French, Mongolian, and Many Native peoples have had massive, cruel wars. Why blame the Americans? Everyone is to blame if that is the case. Every race/nationality has done it at some point in time. Maybe we should just blame humanity.

Because it is easy for lazy brains

[tot ziens]

fuckin yawn..

or, big words make my head hurt where is the spoon

[redeyezman]

Yeah big words put together incoherently. Leaders justify their killings? Really? Did I miss Obummer justify the drone attacks in Pakistan that have killed 500+ kids? Or what about slick willy Clinton? Has he justified keeping Iraq sanctions in place that the first Bush administration put in place? Nope he kept those sanctions in place all 8 years resulting in half million children dead. So take that I'm liberal, compassionate, AND intelligent nonsense back to cable TV.

Won't someone PLEASE think of the children.

EDIT: To be fair to TT, I watched the "premiere" only so far, and wanted to share what I took away with it.....The state run school didn't teach me shit. Why do we pretend like we can cramp the world's knowledge in 12 short, early years? Monetizing skill sets should be the focus. We all have different ones. IMO, we're born with equal rights, NOT equal ability....so saying all me are created equal can be misleading if misunderstood. Should some guys spend money on higher education? Yep. Should some guys be good doing trade skills? Yep. Should some guys just enjoy life, smoke some kind buds, say fuck work, and just get by? Yep.

[treetop]

Yeah big words put together incoherently. Leaders justify their killings? Really? Did I miss Obummer justify the drone attacks in Pakistan that have killed 500+ kids? Or what about slick willy Clinton? Has he justified keeping Iraq sanctions in place that the first Bush administration put in place? Nope he kept those sanctions in place all 8 years resulting in half million children dead. So take that I'm liberal, compassionate, AND intelligent nonsense back to cable TV.

Won't someone PLEASE think of the children.

EDIT: To be fair to TT, I watched the "premiere" only so far.

He slaughters Clinton and Obama. Obviously not quite as badly as he did with Nixon and Bush 2 but pretty scathing nonetheless.

[redeyezman]

Oh, so its a rerun? 1913 Federal reserve implementation should have been start of story if you really want to educate people where is REALLY started to go wrong, but then we would just keeping going further back in time, and wouldn't we, and stone's wallet would be lighter wouldn't it? He profits from glorification of violence IMO.....which aint much better than violence itself, is it?..........