Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
Hot off the press from Phil Hodgen!! – Is this what one would expect from a narcissist?
The Internal Revenue Code uses the word “expatriate” to specifically refer to someone who goes through a process of terminating U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status. This is what you will find in Sections 877 and 877A of the Internal Revenue Code. Yes, it is a lazy and ego-centric way for the U.S. government to approach the world: “A word means only what we say it means.”
The most reasonable, vocal, articulate,justified andmarketable – “Anti-Americanism” comes from U.S. citizens abroad isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/06/16/u-s…
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 16, 2012
In an early post: Nationalistic Narcissism and U.S. citizenship – Being a U.S. citizen is like having a narcissist for a parent – I suggested that the United States is a narcissist. On the most minimal level, narcissism includes the belief that everything and everybody should revolve around the narcissist. Anybody who has ever known a narcissist knows that narcissists do not recognize personal boundaries. To put it another way, a narcissist sees everybody as an extension of the narcissist – i.e cannot accept that other people are autonomous individuals. Although I am not suggesting that Wikipedia is extremely authoritative, I note the following comment:
According to Hotchkiss,[8]narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist will be treated as if they are part of the narcissist and be expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist there is no boundary between self and other.
As one ex put it, “If you had firm boundaries in the face of a narcissist, the relationship wouldn’t last”.[9]
Narcissistic people cannot see others as autonomous individuals. Narcissistic countries cannot see other countries as autonomous, sovereign countries. As a narcissistic country, the United States does not and cannot treat other countries as sovereign countries. There are many examples which include:
1. Sending drones into the airspace of other sovereign nations and killing people within those borders – Welcome to the world of the “Obama Kill List”
2. Citizenship-based taxation which “loots the treasuries” of other sovereign nations – for an example of “looting”, see how a PFIC works. Citizenship-based taxation may be a violation of international law.
3. The requirements of Mr. FBAR which require the disclosure of private information of both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens to the U.S.
4. FATCA which is designed to force foreign banks to comply with IRS requirements and comply with those requirements at the expense of the local bank.
5. The extraterritorial application of U.S. law to other sovereign nations – which the U.S. allows to the extent that it is authorized by Congress
A few nights I watched Piers Morgan interview former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. He made the point that under no circumstances would the U.S. allow other countries enter its airspace with drones designed to kill people within the borders of the U.S.
The conduct of the Unites States of America is premised on one simple principle:
Do what I say and NOT what I do! – AKA Hypocrisy Inc.
Amazingly – and just on cue – while I was writing this post – the following tweet appeared:
China insinuates US hypocrisy Facts agree – The United States government has continuously and unapologetically given… ow.ly/1kAV1g
— Simon Black (@thesovereignman) June 16, 2012
Sovereign Man identifies one example. There are so many examples of U.S. hypocrisy that it is impossible to list them.
How else can one explain that the U.S. imposes the tyranny of citizenship-based taxation on its own citizens, but the U.S. supports a UN resolution to sanction Eritrea for the same thing?
How else can one explain that the U.S. attempts to impose the Jackson-Vanek Act on other nations, but does not comply with it itself? (The Jackson-Vanek Act disallows normal trade relations with non-market economy countries which “impose more than a nominal tax on emigration or … on any citizen as a consequence of the desire of such citizen to emigrate”.) The U.S. imposts a massive exit tax on its citizens.
Living with the Narcissist
As many Marines would day:
“The difficult we do today, the impossible takes a little longer!”
Kris Kristofferson once said that the United States is the biggest problem in the world. A narcissist does not see others as independent autonomous beings. Since true friendship presumes respect for the dignity of the other, it is difficult for a narcissist to have friends. In the same way that it is difficult for a narcissistic person to have friends, it is difficult for a narcissistic country to have friends. There is no doubt that the U.S. is a narcissist. Although it is possible for a narcissist to be liked, it is unlikely. A narcissist would have to work extra hard to be liked.
It follows as both a matter of logic and fact that, there are many people and countries who do not like the U.S. To be fair, every country is disliked by somebody. But, for many people and countries, it it is NOT sufficient to simply “not like” the U.S. There are many who actively hate the U.S. Now to be clear, to “not like” somebody is a thought. To “hate” somebody or something is an emotion. In the final analysis, “hatred” is a very damaging emotion and particularly damaging to the person who is the hater. It is an emotion that must be overcome. To use the language of Coretta Scott King:
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
Since 2011 the United States has been preoccupied with people who “hate” America. The U.S. is willing to spend lots of energy and money defending itself from people who (according to the U.S.) hate it. The U.S. seems to have no interest in understanding – as was analyzed by Sardar and Davies in their excellent book – Why People Hate America. Yet, the U.S.has spent untold amounts of money in wars and homeland security (whatever that is). Wars and security cost lots and lots of money. The best financial investment in the future of America would to become more liked in the world. To be “better liked” necessitates recognizing the sovereignty of other nations. The U.S. seems (like most narcissists) to believe that they are liked. Not so!!
U.S. behavior and foreign policy seems to recognize only two kinds of countries:
1. Those countries where it feels that it is to its advantage to do things to; and
2. Those countries where it feels that it is to its advantage to do things for.
The world is “black and white” and from a U.S. perspective, “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists (whoever these terrorists may be). (These two extremes are also characteristic of people suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.)
Sooner or later the rest of the world will say “enough is enough”. FATCA is a huge problem for the rest of the world. The rest of the world should simply swallow the “short term pain” of not complying with FATCA in exchange for the “long term gain” of being free of the world’s biggest narcissist! Sooner or later the link to the narcissist must be broken.
Why not start now?
This is the first of a series of posts where I will suggest how the world in general and Canada in particular should “deal with the narcissist”.
@Badger,
I am sure you probably saw my response to that post from Jack on these letter’s of warning… If you missed it, because it was buried. It was the first one.
Dear All,
Keep up the good work. I think we all “get it”. I have not been succesful in preaching to anyone but the choir.
Ask an average American, “what is the difference between a legal resident of country x and a citizen of country x”. They don’t understand the difference. I have run into that problem even with my own family in the U.S. If you legally live somewhere, you must be a citizen/resident/etc. These terms are used interchangably.
From family/friends back in the states, I get zero sympathy. “man, you pay less tax than anyone I know. Why do you complain?” (coming from someone subject to not only Federal but high state income tax).
I’m probably one of the very few posters here who actually does pay U.S. tax. Not only do I have the reporting requirements, I end up owing taxes. The other “residents” of Switzerland, with whom I compete for scarce resources, don’t. I am a second class “Swiss resident”.
The Swiss “get it”. When I tell other “residents” of Switzerland about the tax/reporting/banking/investment issues being a U.S. citizen living in Switzerland, they say, “man, that sucks, you should loose your U.S. citizenship”. “That’s an expensive hobby you have, keeping that Blue passport”.
The Swiss have been targets of U.S. bullying (also of bullying by the EU and member countries of UK, Germany, France, Italy) for a long time.
The best way of dealing with this from a Swiss point of view is to:
– stop investing in the U.S.
– look for business opportunities outside of the U.S.
There is a very big world outside of the U.S. The powers that be back in the Land of the Free don’t get it.
I wish you all well in changing minds in the U.S. Even though there is a big world outside of the U.S., the U.S. is also a big place. It would be a real loss to me personally if the USA became out of bounds.
*There are lots of US-person professionals who are subject to tax. They are in very critical areas to US interests—-and they are being backstabbed.
All of the oil producing regions receive their govt income from natural resources. Hence, there is no income tax bill. This is quite attractive for workers from all over the world, except USA. Any income over the threshold is taxed at top tax rates. It is better to stay out of those regions and not become a personal ambassador to those critical countries.
UAE, Saudi, the North Africa and Central Africa regions, Singapore. All of those areas are critical for US presence for financial and political reasons. These are very profitable businesses and potential sources of very good jobs for US professionals. An opportunity lost—Carl Lenin and Schumer like monkees with their fist stuck in the coconut.
There is no reasoning with people who grew up with the following drilled into them daily and have little experience of the outside world:
Pledge of Allegiance
Pledge of Allegiance 2
I’m sorry, but coming from Europe the thing that most shocked me about the United States when I lived there was the extreme patriotism and corresponding inward-looking worldview. The above images look everyday or commonplace to homeland Americans, but to my eyes they look borderline totalitarian to me and this sort of stuff still gives me the creeps even after having lived in the US for five years. Consider the following:
Italian Fascist Propaganda Poster
North Korean “Cult of Leader Worship”
For the sake of starting an argument and (perhaps being somewhat controversial), where is the difference? Does anyone else see the same level of “homeland worship” espoused in all four images? These sort of images would be unheard of in most modern day European countries outside of political posters from the extreme right . Does this sort of imagery appear in Canada as well?
*@Don
You feel more strongly that I do about this. In an earlier comment, I suggested:
“I could imagine a situation as follows – day 50 years down the road:
A United States of America that is just like the North Korea of
today. All it will have is its weapons of mass destruction. Like the
North Korea of today it will still believe it is the biggest, the
baddest the best.”
You think we may be there today!
@Don Pomodoro and the writer,
While I agree with a premise of this thread, I don’t find any of the countries where I have been to be innocent.
As I crossed Thailand on a bicycle, I heard only “Thailand is best” and similar things said after the qualification, that “we are poor, but we are….
In the country where I live, I feel it every day in social and work situations. It is backed up by the media which is paid with mandatory taxation. THeir country is always best.
In the country nearby where I have worked, I have felt it each and every day in my communications. Their country and management is always best.
It is very difficult to get a management-level position in Northern Europe if you are not a native. THeir managers are always best.
When I worked in USA for companies owned by other countries, there was a feeling of discrimination every day even while living in my own country. Managers from their country were always the best.
When I visited central and northern England, there were strong national sentiments. My UK friend of color has moved away for that reason.
Certainly Canada is the best too.
MOst of the true expatriate participants in this forum have been involved at home in sh_t-talking sessions together with their immigrant friends about the country where they live–believing that their own country is best.
I admit I have chimed in also to both the article here and those sessions. The article and itself and comments remind me of the talk I have no choice but to tolerate over and again.
A foreigner is always a foreigner.
When you are sitting in your own country, you know of all of the bad things and you know that they have been there a long time and that there is little you can do to change them. When you sit somewhere else and see some new bad things, the natural reaction is always “why can’t they do it like we do it in my country?”
Many of the stones we throw are justified, but…
It gets tiring to be down in that level of discussion.
Had it not been for FATCA, I would have been a step closer to leaving all of the foreigner-ness behind me.
@Mark Twain
Thanks for your thoughts.
I agree that all countries view themselves as the best. But, the premise of the article is that most countries do NOT view other countries as an extension of themselves. Most other countries are of the view that there are ways to live that are different from their own. Most countries do NOT follow their citizens into other countries:
– attacking them; and
– attacking the sovereignty of other countries.
Narcissism is NOT just “we are the best”. Narcissism (in the context of the U.S.) is: we are all there is and everybody else must be compliant with our values (or lack thereof).
@Mark Twain
True, but I have still never seen any of the overt imagery of overblown patriotism outside of sports matches in the countries that you describe in Europe. Eastern Europe seems to be a bit more nationalistic than Western Europe in my experience. I have no experience in Asia, but my understanding is that many there are very nationalistic, especially some Chinese, so I am definitely not surprised by what you mention. I can honestly say that I’ve never had an argument with a nationalist about “which country is best”. It probably helps that a lot of people in the UK and Germany don’t even know which language to address me in when they hear that I am from Belgium 🙂
I think that what you describe with regards to management positions being reserved for natives is definitely true – In Germany a boss of mine once said (off the record of course) that he routinely dumped CVs with non-German names in the rubbish bin without even reading them. I think this is less common in Belgium since we have so many Europeans from everywhere working here. I think that there are also three tiers of workers in the EU now: natives, other Europeans and “extra-communitarians” – Euro-speak for foreigners. I think that people in the second group are, in general, more successful than those from outside Europe. To be fair, most of the top management positions in the US (outside of the tech sector at least) seem to be occupied by natives as well. This is likely a worldwide phenomena.
@Renounce
I don’t think that the US is quite at the level of a true totalitarian regime yet. What I have witnessed, however, is that on paper at least it seems to be moving in a direction that does point to a longterm decline in freedoms and the ability to express one’s opinion. Some of the follow come to mind:
North Korea is a horrible country and regime with, what I imagine, is quite possibly the most narrow-minded and internal worldview around. The difference though is that they are a weak country with a faltering economy and are not pretending to be ‘leading the free world’ and acting as a global hegemon like the US currently is. Do I think it is worrying that the country which views itself as the most powerful county in the world is run by civil servants and politicians who have been brought up thinking that they are the best, that America always wins no matter what and that they can always get their way? Yes, I do worry very much about this and do worry about the future ahead, though not just in the US – We seem to be losing our freedoms worldwide nowadays. Just look at ACTA as an example of a worrying trend.
Thanks @Just Me, re the restatement about the option of being issued only a ‘letter of warning’ – available to the IRS to use instead of a penalty, if they choose to. I must have missed your earlier comment about it in amongst all the threads.
@Don, I see the parallel you’re drawing, and I think the root of the images and the disease are the same. Propaganda designed to bypass, subvert, and shut down legitimate and reasoned inquiry and analysis. Where people are told and indoctrinated that their country is ‘exceptional’, then it distracts the general populace from scrutinizing their government and leaders. The other side of unthinking nationalism is the suppression of dissent and active questioning ex. ‘Love it or leave it’. That is why it makes me very wary – in whatever country or form it manifests itself in.
I think that the treatment – and definition of US ‘persons’ is narcissism – refusing to see that we are not essentially creatures and belongings of the US. We deserve to have the same rights to self-determination that most others in the world without US citizenship have, and be able to exercise a right to shed US citizenship without unreasonable, punitive and onerous conditions if we so choose. Otherwise, we do not own our own persons – and neither do our children. A narcissist could never enter into a true social contract. “”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…”
Declaration of Independence, United States of America, 1776″
I see no mutual or consensual social contract or ‘consent of the governed’ evidenced in this situation at all.
@badger…
You missing them is ok, but what is worse is me forgetting them! LOL I lose track.
Warning letters should have been more than enough for minnows, if compliance was the sole objective. It should have been SOP as part of this OVDI program, with a front end process to screen out minnows, if they really expected everyone to join as their warnings imply. Actually the 2009 OVDP, FAQ35 allowed that, until they pulled it out midstream.
However, now, the only way to get a “warning letter’ instead of an ‘in lieu of penalty” is at the back end of the process, after a person decides to Opt Out. But to Opt Out, they have to overcome their fear of all the hyperbolic IRS FBAR penalty threats.
I am beginning to like the “30 year IRS Vet” approach, of calling their bluff in a noisy disclosure. That direct, “show me your cards” or “put up or shut up” approach might just result in these “warning letters” instead of severe penalties. That is the discretion the IRS already has, if they would just apply it. Big IF, but common sense would dictate it.
I have to note thought, it has been 3 years, and they still haven’t come around to the common sense approach, but maybe 30 year IRS vet’s answer will shake some of that loose. We shall see.
At least for me, anti-Americanism is a form of self-loathing
and if I want to to maintain my sanity, it’s an unsustainable frame of mind. As a US person living
abroad and one who takes issue with my treatment by the US
government, I really only have two choices that would ‘cure’ me of this self loathing: to see positive changes or to renounce. For me, I feel that these policies that hurt me as a US citizen hurt all US citizens, but when those of us who exercise our right (or for some of us our duty) to effect change, we’re told to
stop complaining, ‘to love America, or leave it’, while at the same time told
that if we feel something is really wrong, America’s freedoms allow us to speak
out! We even hear these conflicting attitudes embodied in individuals (Whoaitssteve). Without the
hope of positive change, my future as a US citizen is damned, because my mental
health is worth more than a blue passport.
@Mooley
Good to see a new perspective and a new commenter. Welcome abroad.
I sent this post to my friend in NZ, who I call Farmer John. He had just got back from dangling his line in the water on a flat calm day, and after 5 hours only getting one snapper. His comment was…
Welcome @Mooley, glad to have your perspective and experiences to mull over – the more permutations we come to know about, the better picture we have of the complexities of the issues.
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