WHAT'S TRUE: President Obama said that when envir

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WHAT'S TRUE: President Obama said that when environmental destruction occurs, it's usually because we've been "lazy" and not tried hard enough to find creative solutions; in a pitch for greater engagement between the U.S. and Southeast Asia, Obama said sometimes you can feel lazy when you live in a big country and think you don't have to learn about other people.

WHAT'S FALSE: Obama didn't describe Americans as (or accuse Americans of being) "lazy."

http://www.snopes.com/obama-calls-americans-lazy/

The context shows that Obama did not accuse Americans of anything, much less being lazy, isolated, and ignorant. To be sure, he did say: "...sometimes you can feel lazy and think we're so big we don't need to know anything about other people." But to call that an "accusation" is a misrepresentation. In context, it was a folksy way of stating a plain fact: When you're a superpower it's all too easy to rest on one's laurels and pass up opportunities to engage with other countries — to one's own detriment.

"There needs to be more engagement between the U.S. and Southeast Asia" would be a fair summary of President Obama's overall message to these potential leaders of their respective nations. One need not agree with that message, but in the interests of honest debate one ought not to misrepresent it, either.

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