[GPSCC-chat] HBO Tirade from "The Newsroom" Mini-Series

[Brian Good]

Here's the video:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YI7Oq8y-jXA
Jeff Daniels plays the ranting news anchor in this ten-episode HBO series.  In a panel discussion a 
college sophomore asks him to say "why America is the greatest country in the world,"  he snaps:



There is absolutely no evidence to support the 
statement that we're the greatest country in the world. 
We're seventh in
 literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth
 in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median 
household income, number four in labor force, and number four in 
exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of 
incarcerated citizens per capita, number of 
adults who believe angels 
are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 
twenty-six 
countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of 
this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, 
but you, 
nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the 
WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, 
so when you ask what makes 
us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the fuck you're talking 
about?! Yosemite?!!!


  
We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral 
reasons, we passed and struck 
down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars
 on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about 
our 
neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our
 chest. We built great big 
things, made ungodly technological advances, 
explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's 
greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the 
stars, and we acted like men. We 
aspired to intelligence; we didn't 
belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify 
ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare 
so easy. And we were able to be all these things and 
do all these things
 because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first
 step in solving 
any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not 
the greatest country in the world anymore.
 		 	   		  
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