I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in?
Damn kind of thought this would be an uplifting post.
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Let me tell you the good news: we've always been fascist, racist, bullies. This admin is just not covering it up at all. Glad you're awake now my guy.
yea that was really good news. I ment so a small part of me can be proud again to be American?
Despite having done things that seem dated in other countries, you guys did plenty of good
Just look at all the technological innovation coming from your country that saved a ton of lives (yes you have a shitty healthcare system, but these innovations will help humanity for the rest of its existence, they cannot be taken away)
Yeah like tomahawk rockets
Don't forget the Big Gulp
And RoundUp!
Yeah, Bayer owns that one now though. No good things come when Germans start borrowing bad ideas from the Americans.
Can we keep the topic to countries that have committed and are committing genocide in the last 50 years?
We're finally learning that it indeed sucks to suck
If you're a birthright citizen, why would you be proud over something you did nothing to achieve? It's also not your fault, so there's nothing to be ashamed of either.
It shakes out a little differently if you're naturalized, but only marginally. That naturalization test isn't much of a barrier.
No reason ever to be.
You don't think there are any good reasons to be proud of being an American? Why not?
Usually it’s considered pretty stupid to be proud of things you didn’t have a hand in. Why be proud of where you were born, when it was just random chance? I can see being happy or feeling privileged to be an American - that at least suggests what you’re appreciating is that it benefits you. Saying you’re proud implies that being from the USA is some sort of moral success and it’s just not.
I don’t know if you want to call it something other than pride, but I’ve never learned another word for what I would feel if John Brown had been my grandfather. It’s not my achievement, nor would I feel entitled to it in any way, but it would make me feel warm and grounded. My actual grandfather was a wife beating alcoholic, and I feel shame about him, even though he died before I was born and I had nothing to do with this.
I think that’s pretty common, even if it’s not logical, which happens a lot with feelings. I know several people whose parent(s) died when they were teenagers and in a period of tension with each other. All agree that the others shouldn’t feel any guilt for being normal teenagers when their parents died, and that the other parents knew they were loved, but most of them still feel as though they themselves had wronged their parents because of their teenagedom.
I'm sorry but this is incorrect.
Pride is not necessarily personal achievement - sometimes it's identification or belonging. Our belonging to a group might be random chance, but endorsing the qualities of that group, shaping and participating in that group afterward are all active.
And frankly, no one needs to prove their pride to you. You're not any kind of arbiter over whether people "deserve" to be proud of something.
Best of luck to you.
"Usually it’s considered pretty stupid to be proud of things you didn’t have a hand in." Is it stupid to be proud of a friend when they accomplish something you didn't help with, just because they are a part of your life and you want to see them succeed? Could that not be extrapolated out to pride in one's country when it accomplishes something, even if all you directly contributed was your tax money?
"Why be proud of where you were born, when it was just random chance?" Because the place I was born creates the circumstances in which I was raised, forming the environment that shapes my values, worldview, and culture. I don't think I should feel like I deserve credit, but why not have pride in knowing that I have the opportunity to carry on the legacy and work that accomplished pride-worthy things in the past?
I'm proud of being gay. Are you saying I shouldn't be?
I would suggest you focus on outgrowing the need to be proud of your nationality. It’s not necessary to be able to wave a flag happily to live a good life, do good things with your time, and appreciate others who are doing the same.
The second you try to take this to the level of the entire country, and specifically the nation-state itself… now you’re into a whole mess. The US has a lengthy history of atrocities, toppling democracies, massacring innocents, dominating weaker groups… just don’t go there.
A trick is to acknowledge that there's many alternatives. You can choose to be proud of your state, county, or simply just say "yeah my country is a cunt, so what?" And realize pride of your country doesn't impact whether or not you've been a good, nice, or kind person.
Well, you freed the slaves that you had enslaved. I mean, their descendants anyway.
I guess the answer is yes. Some small part of you can be proud to be American again. All you have to do is not think about it too hard, and you could try yelling "Silver Bullet" and shotgunning a Coors Light every now and then. That could maybe act as a stand-in for pride, anyway. C'mon buddy, it's
notthat bad...In all seriousness, individually Americans are pretty good people. Well, a few of the ones I know personally anyway. That's like a couple of baker's dozens! That's something!
The US is the only western country where slavery is still legally practiced.
Pride should be reserved for accomplishments, not for merely being born within some lines on a map. That being said, some immigration stories could be classed as accomplishments, so perhaps there’s pride to be found there.
Why would you be proud to be American?
It was founded on cruelty, and never improved.
The civilised world has always sneered at the US, and for good reason
Pretty much this, my friends and family thought I was being negative. But now, a few either, don’t like admitting it or they act like I’m a wizard.
Any nation that still ends official messages with “god bless America” and whose primary power projection has been weapons for centuries, is still a shithole. You’re not saying “allahu ackbar” because your religious extremists use a slightly different book.
Nationalism tells you your nation is what to be proud of, but that's dangerous and manipulative.
Instead, focus on the people. You can be proud of the people who are protesting, people who are running secret grocery runs for people hiding from ICE, people promoting progressive or scientific thought in threatened educational spaces, and so on.
There are still plenty of us left in the US, some against our will, and you can still be proud of them for still trying when so many others have given up.
This is true wisdom.
There are several websites about current good news, some of which is happening in this country right now.
Here's a simple one:
When the Idaho legislature banned Pride flags on public property to punish the City of Boise for flying one at city hall, the mayor and city council adopted the Pride flag as the official city flag. Best part, city hall is two blocks away from the state capitol building, so the bigoted fucks get a nice view of it when they’re at work 😊
This is actually one I didn’t know about. A small gesture, but a pleasant one. Of course the only story that made the front page was the one that sparked outrage when it was originally removed.
Hi. Random straight guy here.
looks at picture
......not sure why anyone would have an issue with this.
I'm more confused/concerned why there's a series of traffic cones turning a 2 lane road into a 1 lane road without any obvious reason why.
Also, holy shit! That's a lot of random solar panels! Someone call that phone number, and ask them what they power.
Cones might have something to do with those tents on the right. Might be an event at a venue.
The old design has the rainbow across the crosswalk, which actually does go against traffic safety standards, so the reason for it gaining the attention to get removed may not have been valid, but the actual removal reason was. And to show faith, they just redesigned it to meet standards. Here’s the original design:
Never saw this aerial view before neat! Tbh I do like the side walk more tho. The street one i find quite distracting/disorienting. And a crosswalk isn't where I want to invite distractions.
The flag switch is badass.
Wait, what safety features are unmet? The white lines are the borders of the crosswalk, and the half white line is the stop line for traffic at the intersection.
What's it missing?
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/resources/crosswalk_marking_selection_guide.pdf, Page 22. It’s not one of the official crosswalk selection options. Page 23 talks more about how decorative options fit into it and how it should be low contrast.
The reason for the cones is just out of frame at the top.
I was not expecting a literal rainbow road.
Why oh why does their website only allow one line for headlines. There is no way to scroll to see what is there since all you can read are 3 words.
Wow, that flew under the radar. An entire city that has solved poverty, crime, health issues and homelessness to the extent they can spend time and money on this performative bullshit. At least the city lawyers will eat well.
The only difference between now and what it used to be is that the mask has been taken off of US politics. Who you see in Trump and the entire Republican administration is who this country has always been. Regardless of whether it's Democrat or Republicans, they've always been war hungry, serving only the CEOs bankers and Wall Street while tossing us occasional table scraps, so we didn't get too loud in our grumbling.
The only effort that Democrats have put in is trying to put that mask back onto US politics and back to business as usual. Once the mask comes off it can't be put back on.
Edit sp
"It was real. I'd seen it. I'd seen it in reality." • The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone -- everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed." And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death... the sweetest, most courageous people in the world." "You see the fear and power in its eyes. Then you know. That the bourgeois are not human."
Disco Elysium?
Da Comrade
Hell yeah. I need to do a replay one of these days.
Here's my favorite quote:
"TRUE LOVE IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN THE NEXT WORLD—FOR NEW PEOPLE IT IS TOO LATE FOR US
WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS”
That's not entirely true. We had a brief period after WWII until the 70s when the middle class actually existed, the rich were taxed at 91%, and unions had leverage. This has eroded quickly since the dawn of neoliberalism.
Not a historian, but wasn't that boom hugely from war profiteering and the fact that none of the bombs went off in the USA? Our factories were all spun up and ready to go while most of Europe was rebuilding. Oh, and the decimation of German and Japanese industrial or technical powers.
But to your point, many graphs showing how much wages have flattened disproportionate to production do show that the period in question was a better time for the average worker.
Yes absolutely. Also not a historian, but AIUI that's probably the largest factor in the overall boom for the US economy at the time.
I didn't mean to claim that the US was ever a peaceful nation. The best I could say is that the US sat out from the world wars until they had both (1) a way to sell war to the public and (2) a clear financial interest. Post-WWII, every US war has been a bullshit war.
I also don't mean to sound positive about capitalism. My only real point was that for a brief period, (white) workers actually had an OK social contract with the ruling class. It didn't last long at all in the grand scheme, and was probably a fluke, not real evidence that capitalism works.
We are in agreement
Middle class does not exist, that's a tool of the oligarchy to divide the working class into subsections, to give those higher up someone to look down upon. It reinforces individual over collective
Some people love their country like a child loves their parent. Uncritical. They can do no wrong and are the best ever. Don't be like that.
Some people love their like like a peer loves a peer. You see their flaws and want them to be the best they can be. Be like that, even when it's uncomfortable and difficult.
For me its like loving a relative who is a writhing hateful shell of what they used to be. Think Alzheimer's or something.
But even that is glorifying a national myth, where the actual history is defined by subjugation and exploitation.
Wow! Just like a real relative!
MLK jr and the civil rights movement are just as much a part of America as Jim Crow and slavery. ICE is America but so is every protester fighting it. Lincoln is America. The KKK is America. Trump is America. Luigi is America.
The thing about people is we like to make things simple and put things in a box, and not have exceptions. But that's almost never true, and the US is a land of contradictions. We're very good people, and we're very bad people.
So yeah, it's going down the drain, but it's always been going down the drain. It's also going to get better, and it always has, little by little. Hopefully we can weather this storm and rebuild.
This is a great take and I'm glad to read it! Thank you!
I like how you make your point, but the soft power of the US is over. As pointed out by others, the current administration is a sympthom, not an aberration.
US may have military primacy and the reserve currency, but neither can restore the loss of the appeal it had between post-ww2 and 2020. When tourists get deported after months of incarceration and we see videos of masked federal goons shooting people in the face, that is something else. When allying with the US gets you humiliation, threats, or even missle and drone attacks, that just does not seems like the smart move. So, respectfully, with friends like the US who needs enemies?
Wishing you best of luck getting your country back tough.
When I say things will get better, I'm hoping that's for the people of America and the world, not the US government having soft power. I personally don't want the US to be a super power anymore.
This has always been my point when people say "back in the good ol days" or "Make America great again" or any other nonsense about how it used to be better.... this is pretty much the best it has ever been! Even with the dipshit in office at the moment, it has pretty much always been greedy dipshits in control.... we are raising the best generation to date in terms of nutrition being provided, the most inclusive in terms of race/gender/sexual preference.... all we can do is hope we continue to make gradual improvement. People have always sucked. The elite have always raped and pillaged the poor.... but there is less of that now than any time in history..... slavery and depravity have been a part of history since we started recording history. I just cross my fingers and try to enlighten the young in my field of influence to be good humans and hope that some day we might not be as horrible as we have always been.
Idk we're back sliding a lot right now. Overturning row v and well, the rest of what is going on. I just hope we can move forward sometime and soon
I think it's easier to find success stories if you ask this question about your town than your country.
A few weeks ago I took my kid to a parking lot by a park so he could practice biking, and when we got there there were nearly a dozen kids biking, and a band was playing etherial middle eastern music next to us to a crowd as the full moon hung over a lake draped in light of the setting sun.
It was gorgeous, and free, both financially and in spirit. It was a beautiful appreciation of people and art from across the world. I thought for a moment that it was a picture of what I'd like America to one day be, then realized that I was in America, and it was already a picture of what America IS. It's unfortunate that America is also many terrible other things. But America is also this. And that spirit is what brought these musicians or their parents to America, and eventually to that parking lot by the lake under the full moon.
This scene could be the opening paragraphs for a new Stephen King novel.
Yeah, and the next scene is where a bunch of obese federal goons climb out of their unmarked suvs to kidnap a few brownish kids and shoot some of the parents in the face.
No, wait that isn't fiction. Those things did actually happen.
You ain’t wrong.
I was recently at a Maya city on a tour. The Maya gave up on their cities and the citizens abandoned them. It makes me wonder if that can happen here, the abandonment of the ruling class.
There are more Maya now than there were at contact.
Hell yeah! America is now the number one exporter in highly qualified workers!
It's promoting Europe and the rest of the world to come closer together with new treaties and trade. It's a positive move in the next phase of global relations.
They better figure defense out too, China isn't building a massive military for nothing
China spends 1.7% of their GDP on the military, half the percentage of the US and less than that of the EU.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS
They spend 1/8 of the US and 1/5 of the EU per citizen they have to defend.
The US military is well known for flushing money down the drain in contracts and keeping old systems running beyond their intended lifespan. The US production of replacement ships and aircraft is taking a long time.
China is building new ships and aircraft like crazy. For example in 2025 the US Navy commissioned a whole 2 ships, a sub and a frigate. China built 18, including a new carrier.
GDP or not, China is making it happen.
I would probably say your movie and tv show industry, im not going to comment on the the actual conditions for writers, actors, people who work in the industry (out of my expertise), the output is pretty amazing. No other country has produces the sheer content and quality of media you do.
This was unexpectedly wholesome. Thanks homie.
Hey, that's a reasonable and kind response. I appreciate it!
The protests in Oregon and Minnesota show that we are still America despite the MAGA separatists attempt to destroy us. And although this current chapter sucks hardcore, we now see our neighbors and "friends" for what they really are.
The separatists really thought they could just steamroll us. But, it didn't go according to plan. We also scare the whole cabinet enough that they are living on military bases because they literally fear for their lives.
MAGA is eating itself alive which is the only outcome of a movement based entirely on hatred and destruction. So, we are showing our resolve. That's the undercurrent that shows we still have some good left in us.
This is pretty big. It's better to know your enemy than have them lurking in the shadows. They are loud and proud right now and we won't forget that shit in 3 years. Your orange god won't be in power forever and then what are you going to do for the rest of your life?
Focus on midterms, my friend.
Don't think about 3 years. Think about 6 months.
The pessimist in me says the same thing that happened for many Confederates and Nazis: Forgiven and allowed to return into the folds of society, to fuck over humanity again.
I would like to be wrong. It is my desire to see them overflowing baskets and filling cardboard caskets.
although the thing is America can't recover unless the supreme court is delt with, and democrats won't do that, so the decline will just continue until it breaks
This is my hope, we understand them better than they understand us. And if civil war broke out the anti vaxers will learn what has killed the most soldiers throughout all history.
wait till november before doing a victory lap
It's very easy to disparage a nation state due to the actions of their government and forget that there are good people everywhere that are well intentioned and trying to do the right thing. The No Kings protest movement is a good example of that. Building solidarity movements with humane values is the way we change society for the better.
You should be proud to be human.
Not to be born within some imaginary line drawn on a map, in an area that later got "cleaned" as much as possible of everyone else not speaking the same language or worshipping the same god.
Pride comes with accomplishment.
Being human, being American, being male, being white, these are all accidents of birth. There's no reason to take pride in any of it.
Bring born in to a disaffected class of people, being gay, or a person of color, and overcoming that adversity to any measure of success, that merits some pride.
But just being human? Anybody can do that.
I understand but I think we call pride also the sense of belonging to a chain of individuals that achieved growth of knowledge, rights, scientific discoveries and engineering results.
It is a meaning of the word that would easily lend itself to manipulation but also one that allowed individuals to contribute and to stand on the shoulders of giants.
In that sense, the highest level one would easily be being human.
Being American isn't necessarily an accident of birth.
Almost everything about the situation you were born in to is an accident of birth.
As in, you had no hand in it. Your parents may or may not have had some say in the matter, but for the vast majority of Americans, they didn't choose to be an American either. Any more than they chose the color of their skin or the texture of their hair.
If you're the child of immigrants, or an immigrant yourself, then sure, be proud of the accomplishment. It was hard and they (or you) earned the right to be here. But for most of us, it's just where we happened to be from.
The US consistently ranks among the most charitable countries in the world, being #1 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019.
I’m looking forward to 2026 statistics after the removal of USAID.
USAID wasn't charity though was it? I believe it was taxpayer funded.
I could counter that it’s all taxpayer founded and I’d be right to some extent.
Yeah but you know what I meant 😉
Well, they have to for lack of a welfare state. It really isn't much to brag about. Charity is a bandaid, which doesn't solve the structural issues the same way that a welfare state does.
I'm German and I don't think that it's particularly healthy to be proud of the country you're from. It's basically the belief that your own traditions, language and land are better than that of others. Like I get calling a place home, but so many places in Germany are as foreign to me as places in other countries. Maybe more familiar, but familiarity isn't the same as something being good.
I'm not American... but I am Scottish/British and I've never quite understood the whole being proud of your country thing.
Unless one is a hypocrite it's always been clear to me that if you're going to be proud of all the good shit your country has done you've also got to be ashamed of all the bad shit.
And with a few centuries of colonialism under the UK's belt (and before anyone says different, no, Scotland very much partook and benefited from it) I seriously don't have the emotional fortitude to feel that much shame.
Feeling pride in your culture? In your community? Fine. But in your nation state? A bunch of administrators with delusions of grandeur wrapped in a flag? I'd argue that's unnatural because nation states in no way played a role in our evolutionary psychology.
Maybe I'd feel different if I was born in a wee inoffensive country somewhere... but I hope not. Nation states are pragmatically necessary but I don't think we should be getting too invested in them.
I'm an American, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I can imagine being proud of one's country's institutions. When a nation actually pulls off democratic republicanism, it's something to be proud of. When a nation's institutions protect civil rights and promote egalitarianism, it's something to be proud of because that takes a lot to set up. Ultimately, a government is something built by a community and shaped by a culture. The people at the top would like to fool you into believing that government is a clash of wills between politicians, but they're just the tip of the iceberg.
Although our highest offices have been corrupt for a long time (always?), Project 2025 dismantled many of our proudest institutions.
Yea but I heard a story about a carpenter and the job almost killed him.
Actually it did kill him. But he recovered.
He got better.
Government might be corrupt as hell but at least culture of Mental Health acceptance is much better than Chinese culture.
I'm originally from Guangzhou, China, am naturalized and I overall like the US... at least more than China...
I just hate the corrupt politicians.
Also, so much entertainment stuff... movies, tv, are made in the US. Chinese entertainment is boring as hell (IMO)
Also: Usually those in the Entertainment industry lean relatively more left.
I still think Americans are generally good, if they actually knew the truth and not just far-right propaganda. (I mean that's just humans in general... people are easily manipulated by the evil few)
The problem is low voter turnout, first past the post, winner take all electoral college, gerrymandering, most important of all, the PROPAGANDA.
Americans in red jurisdictions... rural areas... those who never met a non-white person... have a problem with a distorted worldview...
Primary turnout is atrocious...
Right now my parents and their culture are smothering me to death... they hate the idea of medications and depression is not a serious problem in their eyes.
I appreciate the reality check. It's not often that I get to see that perspective. Thank you.
the lgbtq+ rights in your country seems amazing compared to my own
they are being eroded fast tho
check literally any LGBTQ+ focused news site
Does that mean American citizens shouldn't be proud of the advances made in LGBT rights?
No they aren't. They are being eroded in red states, blue states are expanding them.
Hell, San Francisco has a UBI program that' exclusively for LGBT folks.
There's absolutely some federal bills eroding LGBT rights, particularly for trans people.
the drain has been clogged for decades, now its just BACKING up, which we are facing the consequences of clogging it in the first place. before we could use the plumber to unclog, but now its so big(trump) its just overflowing.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is legitimately the best in the world and other countries wish they treated disabled people as well as America
Sorry to be a downer - the ADA itself is very good, but it's not the only factor in determining quality of life for a disabled person. I'm disabled and my country's equivalent of the ADA is about 90% as strong, but access to disability benefits (i.e., money) is much much stronger in my country than it is in the US. I used to be pretty active in disability forums, the whole benefits system in the US sounds fucking nightmarish for disabled people.
From my personal experience, Finland supports people with disabilities much better, in part because the entire system is better. There's public transportation everywhere here for one thing.
I can also go back to university here because it's free.
That's not possible for someone with disabilities in the USA.
Why not? Universities are also required to be ada compliant. It’s not retroactive, so older infrastructure is always an issue, but modern facilities should be fully accessible.
If you mean disabled should go for free, why? Some disabled are advantaged and some not. My state is one of those offering free public university based on economic need, a much better choice.
But yes, it’s by state, and most do not
Finns pay up to 57% income taxes and a 25% VAT. They also don't waste that money on a bloated military.
"up to 57%" is like saying American billionaires "can pay over 20%".
Unless you're extremely wealthy here you won't get anywhere near that 57%.
You don't need to be Elon-wealthy to get those percentages. Over 500 000€/year salary gives you nice 50% tax bracket. You absolutely are not poor if your taxes are that high, but you don't need to be CEO of Google either.
Oh, my bad, only a half million a year gets you into that tax bracket. My bad, you're right, that is such a low amount.
It's terrible that after that amount you get taxed on what you made over, rather than the whole thing.
(Btw since I'm guessing your Finnish, too by the username, the joke was that in the USA you can be multi millionaire+ wealthy and pay 0% tax)
That is the actual joke here, agreed. If, and that's a pretty damn big if, there was any sense on USA government they could just take our progressive steps and leave everything above 35% away from it and still have a crapload of budget to actually make their country great again.
But spending 100 million bucks per hour to demolish schools half way across the world is cool too I guess.
You really don't realize how much had been done to support people who have difficulties walking, hearing, etc. until you travel in Europe or Asia with someone who needs assistance. Walkable cities are great if you can walk, but you don't notice the lack of wheelchair ramps unless you need them yourself or are traveling with someone who needs them.
As an American, the ADA is definitely something to be proud of.
Those things are easier to implement when all your buildings aren't over 150 years old though.
Still interesting to see how it is implemented in neighborhoods and buildings that are over 150 years old. I think the Smithsonian museums in our capital are actually the most interesting examples, because many are old buildings whose historical character were preserved, but where wheelchair ramps, railings, and elevators were tastefully and functionally installed many decades or more than a century after the building was originally constructed.
And perhaps the best thing about the ADA is the sidewalk requirements. It doesn't much matter why a sidewalk developed a raised crack when the ADA requires that it be fixed.
I'm not even disabled, but I've pushed baby strollers in different cities (including outside the US) enough to realize how nice it is to be in a city where all the sidewalks and public buildings are ADA compliant.
True, but ignoring those old buildings, how many countries in Europe and Asia have laws like the ADA for new buildings? And sidewalks and parking lots?
Almost all of them? Why are you americans like this? Do you think that places outside of the usa don't have accessible new buildings? Do you think Canada does not have similar rules or that places that have a robust welfare system like Denmark just flip the bird to disabled people?
This article makes it sound like Denmark does, on occasion, flip the bird to disabled people. Can you share any counter-evidence that shows Denmark has a law that's equivalent to the ADA?
https://www.edf-feph.org/blog/denmark-must-do-better-for-people-with-disabilities/
Your attitude is off putting, by the way. I'm glad most people I've met in Europe are more pleasant than you're being.
Acknowledging an issue is not admitting a fault, its kinda what good nations do. And one article from an advocacy group does not make a broken system. Here I can do the same for the usa:
https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/challenges-for-people-with-disabilities
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2019/apr/challenges-living-disability-america-and-how-serious-illness-can
https://www.section508.gov/blog/Barriers-to-Accessibility-Stories-from-Our-Community/
Not to say Denmark or anywhere is perfect far from it, but pulling an article out and claiming smug victory when not in a competition is very american.
How most would do it is just list the building directive:
https://www.byggerietsregler.dk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BR18_Executive_order_on_building_regulations_2018.pdf
Your attitude is american by the way, I am glad I don't have to meet more of you in person.
You seem to be shifting the goal posts. None of the articles you linked to are about deficiencies in the ADA - in fact, your first link says this about it:
I never claimed America does more for disabled people than other countries. There are a lot of ways that we fall short. But when it comes to the ADA, it exceeds everything I've seen in foreign countries, and I'm proud of it.
I also understand that Denmark has laws that require a certain level of accessibility in public buildings. I never denied that, but I still maintain that their requirements are not equivalent to the ADA. So for, they seem to be inferior.
This is a joke, right? Like... Where's the /s?
I know "America Bad" is popular on the Internet but it's not always true. The ADA was among the first laws worldwide to treat disability rights as full civil rights across nearly all areas of public life, including employment, private businesses, public spaces, and transportation, and it went on to inspire other countries to pass similar sweeping laws. Also worth noting it was signed into law by a Republican weirdly enough. Not sure that would happen today.
If you want to say that the broader social safety net including healthcare in America sucks though, and by extension harms disabled people, I can't really argue with that. But the ADA is excellent and groundbreaking.
And sometimes it's the same person. That's what people really fail to get. Everyone is capable of good and evil, often at the same time.
Their need to demonize others as totally evil largely a product of their own fears that their evils will be discovered.
Is America fundamentally different today than in the past? Like others have pointed out, it's not like we've got no skeletons in our collective past. Ask any indigenous person, a large percentage of black folk, or anyone who's ever been considered "a foreigner." The only major difference is that the same people who have always been assholes are feeling like they can operate out in the open.
But at the same time, the good that has always been true is still here. We're a beautiful country, with so many ecosystems and climates, two beautiful oceans, amazing natural resources, and we've been pretty safe from wars due to our geography and having two pretty good neighbors.
Those being selfishly rich or power hungry have very loud voices these days instead of doing the same things while acting like so-called gentlemen, but they're still a minority. Most people are just keeping their heads down and earning an honest living. Many are still doing great things like working on medicine, trying to repair our environment, raising and teaching our children, helping those in need, whatever you can name.
Maybe those that want to do evil in America want honest people to feel hopeless and to abandon holding on to what we have. That will leave it all to them after all. But I still love my home and my friends. I love our mountains, beaches, and wildlife. I love my America as much as ever, since I want this country to be the best it can be. But those who go around doing wrong in the name of this country, I want them to see justice more than ever too. We've survived the tyrants of America's past for over 400 years, and one way or another, we can only move forward and hopefully learn from our mistakes.
We can be embarrassed or angry for how our country is being represented and managed, but barring a literal apocalypse, there's still a ton of good left to find here between the land and the actual people who live here and cash this place home.
now that the DOJ doesn't prosecute for it anymore, we're way better at corruption. the rich take so much more of our taxes.
There is this video about some American traveling and complaining that everywhere he goes people look at him with disgust and disdain. So there is that.
As an American white dude traveling full time, I haven't really gotten any of this yet personally. I have sat next to some really loud Americans and felt irritated at them, but the same goes for the British lady who walked into a cafe I was in and loudly insisted they make her a sandwich that wasn't on the menu.
Most people are kind and curious. Those who aren't, regardless of nationality, are the ones who irritate the locals.
Of course, the world is big and I obviously haven't been everywhere. In each place I have been to, though, learning a few words and being extra polite goes a long way. Locals welcome you and return the curiosity and respect.
Curious: As a Chinese American, is it technically possible for me to just... pretend to be a Chinese National (I'm talking about after getting through borders and putting away the US passport), and fake a Chinese accent when speaking English... and like "conceal" my American identity? (I can speak basic Mandarin btw)
Is it actually better? Since I heard that Chinese Tourists sometimes get hated on too...
Or since I speak Cantonese too, I could pretend to be a Hong Konger...
Or I could pretend to be from Taiwan... most people probably can't tell anyways, its just the same Mandarin to them
hmmm 🤔
If you say you're from taiwan, i think many people will say, "oh i love thai food!" 😆
🤣
My ancestors are actually from Taishan. Not Taiwan, Taishan (台山).
But if I say that irl, nobody would know where that is lmfao.
(Guangdong Province... which is in Southern part of Mainland China)
I spent like 6 months in 雲南 and 18 in 台灣 but yeah i'm not familiar with 台山.
But for years afterwards people who i talked to would ask me about thailand, even a close friend took like 6 months to understand no, not thailand, somewhere else. I think most places you could speak cantonese and say you're from cambodia and no one would bat an eyelid 😆
Depends where you are, but I'd advise against presenting as Chinese, chinese tourists have such a bad reputation sometimes you see signs like "no spitting in the dish sink" or "do not put toilet paper in dust bin" exclusively in chinese in hostels. Which indicates behavior expected of Chinese tourists
Across asia, I get curious looks rather than any hostility. I kinda wonder what the american was doing that drew so much attention, if they weren't making it up for content.
imo speaking with an american accent wouldn’t even particularly call you out… i know a bunch of people that speak english as a second language that speak with at least somewhat of an american accent
Tell people you are canadian eh.
I always introduce myself using my native birth country (always a fun talking point too!), never as an American. If prompted I'll say I'm a New Yorker, but I refuse to represent that stain on the planet.
E: I no longer live in the US either
You'd be surprised how common it is to put toilet paper in provided bins instead of flushing! Lots of places in eastern Europe and South America, in my experience.
I'm not really sure what this has to do with my comment
Oh, I think I just replied to the wrong comment by accident. My bad.
American and Chinese tourists are the two most hated tourists and it's not even fucking close.
American because they are loud annoying impolite and destroy shit
Chinese because they are ignorant disgusting foul and destroy shit
No we're at the end of an empire and the dawn of a new world. Our bases across the middle east will be abandoned. More will be emptied or destroyed. Our influence across the world will shrink more than it is now.
The states we have may stay. Alaska might try to break off and join Canada in 50 years. Hawaii might join Australia and New Zealand as well.
Unless we get a political party that will advocate for taxing the fuck out of the rich to invest in america via trains, healthcare and R&D.
Don't get your hopes up.
Whatever may come, there is one sure thing: nobody will trust the US ever again. It may take the old allies a while to find their footing and they may still be dependant on the US. But that relationship will be more like that of the abusive caretaker vs abused teen. Biding their time until they finally can exit the dependance.
I wish we would do that today. But unless the military and oil leaves the state, we're still carpetbagged by southern evangelical morons. This state is solid red for now. And they think Canada is socialist because they think it's bad and that's all they know. We're not going anywhere.
The US has some amazing musicians
Anyone who was proud of america before was just drinking the coolaid. There are things america did that were worth being proud of individually, but soo many more not to. It's the same idea as idolizing a person. The vast majority of the time they are really a bad person overall. Instead focus on the event or achievement and not the person.
You're getting a lot of the same comments in here, and I don't feel like I need to add to the cacophony of voices decrying just how bad things have gotten (or, if you prefer, how bad they have always been and how they have only just now become more visible to us) so I thought I would chime in with one that still holds true today.
The United States has some of the best national parks in the world. If you are someone who enjoys nature and being in the great outdoors, whether that's hiking, hunting, fishing, birdwatching, climbing, caving, exploring, etc. the experience you can get here really can't be matched anywhere else in the world. We have the most diverse range of biomes anywhere on the planet - deserts, mountains, valleys, forests, badlands, swamps - you name it, we've got it and it's probably contained in one of our many national parks scattered across the countryside - and the best part is that access is free for everybody.
Now, the big caveat, and one that kind of deflates this selling point quite a bit recently, is that a lot of the national park land and nature reserves are under threat right now by the Trump administration - there have been big moves by the executive to reclassify lots of federally protected land in order to expand oil drilling/fracking operations, as well as a push to force non-resident visitors to pay for entry, both of which are being fought tooth and nail by conservationists and environmental activists.
So, there's something. We can debate on whether or not it's a good thing to have national pride over things that we have little to no control over, but at the very least we can say we enjoy what we have now and take pride in the fact that our forebearers had the wisdom to use the law to protect the land and it's precious resources and that we continue that effort into the modern era.
Being "proud of your country" is the root cause for all this shit.
Be proud of your family, your city, your friends, your self. even your company if they do good by you and others.
Never your country.
There are worse places to live.
Don't get me wrong, there are loads of better places to live, but there are definitely worse places.
America makes great animated series. It makes great movies sometimes too. Admittedly both of these things are usually actually made overseas, but you guys write them.
You also have a nice flag. Although you do kind of ruin it by being super weird about them.
You have really cheap petrol / gas. That's definitely something you beat most of the world at. I think that's the winner - cheap gas.
We only have cheap gas because we pay for it in federal taxes that are diverted to oil producers in the form of subsidies. It's only cheap on the surface and most people have no clue.
I appreciate your earnestness. But speaking as an American artist, your country absolutely has the same caliber of talent and creativity. It just doesn't have the Hollywood dollar attached to it. I don't even know where you live. I can say that with my whole chest because creative expression is an inherent part of being a human being. You can't suppress it, control it, or sell it for long without it rebelling against its constraints. Or shouting itself from the literal rooftops.
I think that's the most valuable thing in the world. You should look into locally produced art and cinema. I guarantee you your local arts college has an independent film festival.
what did you use to be proud of?
If this is a genuine question, then my answer would be: a whole bunch of stuff I was taught that wasn't actually true.
The way American history was presented to me (and I assume lots of other Americans) in school was the rosiest tinted glasses version of our history that could possibly be constructed. We spent a whole lot more time talking about "breaking bread" with the native Americans rather than slaughtering them, and focused more on our early economic growth rather than the slaves on whose backs it was earned. Our involvement in various wars was characterized as "aid" or "ally-ship", or even stepping in as the "savior" who made sure the good guys won. Our sociopolitical progress (women's suffrage, the Civil Rights movement, etc) was framed as the goodhearted majority fighting against a smaller group of hateful bad actors, who all sort of magically disappeared whenever progressive legislation won out.
Simply put, it's revisionist history designed to retroactively affirm all the "land of the free, home of the brave" shit, when in reality this is a nation whose economy was built on the backs of slaves from all over the world, and whose sociopolitical ideology has always been steered by a small group of cruel and cowardly men who want endless personal power and wealth, to the direct detriment of their fellow country-folk.
There are things I'm genuinely proud of. Like all those who came before me who made it possible for me to vote/get an education/walk down the street while black, female, and queer. There are great American artists, academics, inventors—all sorts of people who've made meaningful contributions to the world. Like any other people, we are not all the worst of us.
But holy shit the worst of us are SO worst. And they're so loud, and they're so rich, and they've stolen so many of our resources, and they're doing so much fucking damage to practically everyone on earth, not to mention to the earth itself. And they've controlled the narrative for a very long time, have taught us (sold us) so much bullshit for so long that a lot of the things the average American is proud of are almost entirely fictional.
It's... disheartening.
I hear ya, and I agree - but I think there's a huge number of not-so-wealthy Americans who are just as culpable. People who happily empower the billionaire class, hoping to catch a crumb of their wealth. And I don't claim to be different - when I was younger, I would have sold my soul for the right price.
The average ICE employee, for example, probably isn't so different from younger me. When a young person without a college education is offered a six-figure salary - they will accept first and ask questions later. Any moral or ethical qualms are quickly overcome by the realization that their bank account is steadily growing every week. They can enjoy life instead of struggling. They can take care of their loved ones. Meanwhile, the screams of children become part of the normal workweek. It's crazy but that's human nature. We are cruel creatures.
thank you
Ignorance
(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
Why?
They wouldn't be proud if they weren't ignorant
Why do you say that?
Being an immigrant nation
loads
protect your democracy and vote dem in november
good luck!
Everywhere there are good people doing good things with the best of intentions - people doing art for the love of the art, actually taking care of natural areas for the love of nature, helping others because they don't want others to suffer rather than as some "charity" grift to make money or make others think they're good people, and so on.
They're just not in power in the US and, IMHO, don't add up to anywhere close to being the majority of people.
All hope is false, unless engineered, built action by action. You want hope? Build it.
Who are you talking to?
Many of my friends are organizing everything from mutual aid, protection of the targeted, and have expressed a willingness to die for the best values we were taught, if it comes to that. People like that are one good thing about America. Each of us can contribute in our own way, and many are quietly doing so. I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future but good people fearlessly doing what is right feeds my soul.
The collar of the USA is in the hands of Zionists/AIPAC. The USA is managed by Zionists
That took me by surprise. In his first term, Russia was holding the leash. Are these guys passing around the Trump Kompromat?
there's more than one epstein and more than one blackmail book. weird rich guy sex stuff is about power and control more than it is anything else. the centers of these rings just also enjoy power and control over victim and direct perpetrator in a form of violent sexual hierarchy
Is there another Epstein? I'm sure someone is trying recreate his special "Concierge" service, but it would be difficult to do that today. It took him many years, and potential clients today would be far warier.
It's more likely those services will be decentralized, like the Fediverse. There will be multiple concierges around the world, not just one big service that handles everybody.
The CIA was complicit in Epstein, moreso they were active conspirators. They can absolutely do it again, and we shouldn't assume this is the only blackmail they have either.
Heads should roll for compromising our own people to a foreign interest.
CIA, Mossad, Russia, etc., they were all tied to Epstein, and many claim one or the other was operating him. I don't think it was that simple.
I believe Epstein was more of a independent operator of an extremely high-end specialty concierge service, and he had two types of clients - those who engaged his services, and those who purchased information about those paying clients. Why get paid by one employer, when you can sell the same info to multiple parties?
He started as an Israeli honeypot, then tried to get involved with Russia later. There is no question as to his genesis being Israeli intelligence, with the help of the CIA, there is no way they didn't know what was going on. The FBI was complicit too, heads should roll for this.
I understand that they all knew what he was doing, and almost certainly were paying him a retainer, but I still believe he was mostly independent, working for whomever would pay for his information, sometimes running operations he was paid to do.
I'm just saying that he doesn't seem to have been an employee or agent of one specific nation or agency. But what do any of us really know? They have leaked out some information, but it only seems to further muddy the water in regards to his employment. They surely know exactly who he was, and what he was up to, and they are choosing to not tell us, probably because citizens would go nuts if the CIA admitted that they knew he was raping and murdering children, but covered for him.
In 2020 there were some tweets from Jenna Jameson saying that there were many Epsteins, and that he was almost an amateur in comparison to some. She was a porn star so the credibility is not the same as a Nobel Laureate, but she also has probably seen into the "underworld" more than most of us.
That's interesting. I'm sure there are lots of scummy pimps around the world, but I doubt many of them have the same level of connection to politicians and Oligarchs and intelligence agencies that he had.
Her characterization of him as an amateur is overstated. Now that we've seen some of the documentation, we know he was anything but an amateur. She may have crossed paths with some awful people, including a lot of Sociopathic pornographers with no morality at all, but I doubt any of them were at Epstein's professional level. He seems to have been a singular character in that world.
I think it’s more likely that the ruling class owns both the USA and Israel, and use them together to accomplish their goals. AIPAC is just the mechanism of control and Zionists are just the useful idiots.
We are the very best arms maker on Earth!
The USA produces more military arms than Russia, China, Germany, and three or four other countries COMBINED.
That's not even counting small arms. Firearm sales have TRIPLED since 2000.
Every state in the union is part of the arms industry, even Hawaii.
https://www.nssf.org/government-relations/impact/
5.3 billion in small arms says to civilians.
The small arms market in the USA is so large it would be the 155th largest GDP if it was country.
Not US here. I sometimes think that Americans are nice individuals, generaly speaking, but they are collectivly ferocious.
Americans are radically different depending on what region, and social class, of American you are interacting with.
But that's true of any country. Every country hates and is embarassed by the poor uneducated douchebags, and loves their elite well-off cultured population.
UK has way more chavs living in shitty places with bad economics, than it does 'posh' people with nice accents living in London. USA is no different.
For some additional geographic context: The United States is roughly the size of Europe. A little larger if you include Alaska, a little smaller if you don't. The entirety of England is roughly the size of Illinois.
As a Canadian, I find average Americans are friendlier than average Canadians (experience through the West Coast, Orlando and Texas)
But your mileage may vary: I am white
None of the friendliness is sincere. I live in NC and they were super friendly but actually complete assholes full of hate.
Over the past decade, you can be proud of how you’ve made inclusive principles a standard feature of your cultural products.
Today, you’re facing backlash from the idiots who are panicking, but in Europe many of us are still lagging behind, and the positive effects of your influence on inclusion are still being felt.
At the local level there are many people in many cities trying to make things better.
Today all the things are gone
I'd worked for all my life
And its hard to start again
With no children and my wife
I'd rue my cursed stars
To be living here today
'Cause the flag now stands for serfdom
And freedoms been taken away
And I'm ashamed to be an American
Where folks pretend their free
And I won't forget, the men who lied
Who took that life from me
And I'd gladly stand up
Next to you and regain her still today
'Cause ain't no doubt I used to love this land
God help the USA
From the lakes of Minnesota
To the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas
From sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston
And New York to L.A
Well there's disgust in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say
Did you make that up? Because the is killer. no sarcasm. If you didn't where the hell did you find that?
I mean made the parody but not what its based on. Its because every time I hear that song I would think. "Im ashamed to be an american" and mostly from the actions of americans who love the song and aren't ashamed of the countries shameful acts.
You should have never been proud of your country its just more blatant than usual.
I mean America has plenty of industries the rest of the world depends on. Unfortunately, a lot of the good takes involve ignoring a lot of the bad ones that helped obtain them.
Don't be proud of your country, be proud of the societies you are willing to participate in and contribute towards. If you don't find yourself living inside a good one, go and search it out.
lol. it's not your country. it's bezos trump musk thiel and co's country. you can live here as long as you don't inconvenience them too much
Totally normal feeling and it shows you have awareness of what is going on.
There are tons of good people in the US and even more that would be good if our society wasn't so twisted.
American here.
No. We're living in the early stages of a fascist dictatorship. And we've been doing this to the rest of the world for way too fucking long. The sooner we come to grips with the fact that the hens have come home to roost and we're reaping what we've sown, the sooner we can actually take it down and build something better.
You think there's nothing going on behind the scenes that an American citizen should be proud of? Note this is different from "Americans have a lot to be ashamed of AND a lot of to be proud of"
What's actually the point of this exercise? Trying to scrape together reasons to be proud of living in a fascist dictator state, "not everything is that bad", just reads like cope. Yeah sure, there are some decent places in the US, but even those could be much better than they are. Every facet of life in the US is being held back by the fascism part, even whatever "good" parts we can brainstorm up
Can you just answer the question?
Some people just have a mentality of pure negativity.
I once dated a doctor, who was a fellow at the best hospital in the world, who had a pretty amazing life, from my perspective. They grew up with wealthy parents, they went to Standford, for free, and had a degree from Harvard Medical school, and they'd completed their residency and had a salary of about 350K at the age of 30.
From their own perspective, they hated their life. Nobody likes them, they were a failure, they were poor and struggling, etc. etc. The same rhetoric you get from so many people here. And I'm sure when I walked away from them because of their extreme self-negativity, they thought I was just also another mean terrible person to them. And they kept lecturing me about how 'naive and dumb' i was for being happy with my life...
People just become prisoners in their own minds and can't see any good in the world or their own lives.
I don't know if you live here or not. I'm trying to stay hopeful that this regime will fall apart sooner rather than later.
Don't call me a prisoner of my own mind. Don't insult my intelligence. It isn't naive or dumb to hope that things can be better, or to go looking for them.
What OP is looking for is assurance that America isn't an unredeemable bad guy. You know what I see? Someone rapidly realizing that their reality is propagandized nationalistic pride, and trying to claw it back, exactly the way I was ten years ago.
Of course there are good things about a place. But self-soothing with a constructed reality doesn't change the fact that we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, and that a pretty big chunk of the world's issues are a direct result of our broken political system.
It's okay to see the real world for what it is. Pretending it's all gonna be fine makes the problem worse, not better. The sooner we can agree it needs to be fixed, the sooner it will get fixed. That gives me some hope. That eventually, enough people will see that it needs to change.
This is so sad!
Yeah it was brutal. She was a really good doctor too. But just... had zero perspective on her life and was super bitter than other people had more money than she did.
She also wanted a cat but then kept saying how she can't get one because it will mean she is a pathetic sad lonely single person. It was so weird. I had a cat and she would come over and play with him all the time... then start in on her self-hating rants. She could never just enjoy something.
The only good I've seen have been the sporadic and broken bits of a resistance that have managed to not get arrested yet. And I'm not talking about the democrats that are larping as real people for the votes.
Instead of trying to feel good, make it good. Go forth and organize for the better future that you wish to see.
No. This is late stage capitalism, it is over for the US.
I have options to go to another country, but I choose to stay in the U.S. It certainly is not an easy decision given the many current and historical problem within the U.S. Like many of you, I believe Trump is the symptom, not the problem. The problem is much more deeply rooted and harder to get rid off.
Admittedly, my wife being in the U.S. is the largest driving force for me to remain in the U.S. Yet, here are some other advantages of the U.S. I have considered:
Gave*
With the near-complete dissolution of USAID, expect that number to drop dramatically. Unless it's for Israel.
USAID was nothing but a tool of imperialism and regime change. The US creates the circumstances so that they would need aid. Aid that comes with strings attached.
Maybe not the government, but look to the people.
We've always excelled at terrorism.
I don't think there was much of a reason to ever be proud of it, if you're ashamed now. You can still be proud of what your fellow americans put out : on the culture and research fronts most notably... the US shines far, even though I hear the Trump admin hurt some universities.
But on the political level ? it's still the murderous empire it has been for the past 80 years, just a little more open about it
Accelerating EU integration through the threat of invading Greenland,Iceland and thus Greenland -> Denmark -> EU.
As a fellow American, I'm going to make a big assumption here and advise you to engage with more people outside. Lemmings are great and all but we do not represent the real world. I can say this has helped me and man, am I worlds better for it.
Right now, the internet is quasi-weaponized against everyone's better mental health. A lot of people are being fed propaganda that aligns strongly with their beliefs, with many people being sucked into a narrow, amplified, and semi-fictional view of reality. You have to dig deep to find real journalism, facts, and then puzzle together a less biased worldview; few people are there to do any of that legwork for you these days. It's all exhausting and a recipe for mental illness if you do it constantly.
Instead, try to get out there and just talk to one person; better yet a stranger. Even if it's just smalltalk. Even if it's about the weather with a librarian or a checkout clerk. ANYONE. If you can make your way to a club, mutual-aid hub, local meetup, whatever... that's even better. The goal is to just verbalize with other humans. The rest will follow from there.
You’re not wrong, but I think you’re really missing something important - that we’ve seen some truly ugly and disturbing shit that we can’t ever unsee. Yes, we’re surrounded by negativity on the Internet, and Mr Rogers advice holds: look for the helpers. That restores some of my faith in mankind, but I can’t ever unhear that kindergarten teacher who was willing to turn in her student’s parents because she suspected they might be here illegally. Could I make small talk with her and feel a little more normal? Sure. Do I think the majority of people are like her? No. But… that knowledge is there, the banality of evil is still alive and lurking.
Steve Shives explains it much more eloquently than I ever could, but I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to devote 15 minutes to a random YouTube video from an internet stranger. I do highly recommend it, as it really encapsulated exactly the kind of sentiment I’m struggling with.
Bingo. People here tend to be very extreme in their beliefs and they vastly over generalized their niche interests.
The vast majority of people out there don't know what Linux is nor will they be 'liberated' by it.
But making small talk can also backfire. The idea that you will just chat people up and all will be well with the world is naive. A lot of people only find community and belonging through creation oppositional identity (us vs them). Frankly I have had to leave many communities over the years because the 'community' had warped into that mentality of 'those people not like us are bad, and we are the good guys' nonsense, usually because it got infused with political bullshit by insecure weirdos who need to see everything through a political struggle.
We are really, really good at making billionaires even richer while decreasing quality of life for the weak, lazy 99%. /s but sadly not really
Grifting.
?
Being proud of countries or nationalities is inherently toxic and problematic. I never understood it.
Land of the free, fought against oppression, and force children to pledge allegiance.
Backwards ass shithole.
I was never nieve enough to think we are all equal. But I did think we where making progress in that direction and maybe we still are. But these last few years have been heart breaking
Uh, we have the best military, the best medicine, the best universities, broadest cultural reach... etc.
Life in liberal blue progressive areas, is highly desirable and really great, but it's very expensive.
It's just that you aren't getting access to any of it unless you're part of our social elite. If you're in the bottom 90% of the economic status, you are only ever going to get access to the middling/average stuff.
You have the most well financed military. Jury's out on whether it is the best.
Why do you say that?
How many wars has America won without help?
I haven't fought in any wars good sir. Who do you think I am?
By what metric? It's far better trained and equipped than most any other military, especially elite units.
Unless you're talking about how the Finnish army whooped us in some exercises, on their home turf in winter, at which their entire nation is super-specialized in? I'm sure if you stuck the Finnish army in Florida for an exercise they'd be the ones whooped.
The point of that exercise was to ID training deficiencies for Arctic operations.
Yeah, we are about to get served a big slice of humble pie so bring your appetite. The pain we are all experiencing is there to tell us we cannot continue the way we were. We had the option to change in the past but didn't because it was too hard, now there is no avoiding change.
Your goverment is making me appreciate my goverment a bit more for just being useless and boring.
Even if I knew of anything, I wouldn’t say so, for fear of some MAGA fuckwit seeing my comment and ruining things.
Seems like more people are getting involved in direct action (against ICE). Starting around the time of Bernie's primary campaign in 2020, I've noticed the amount of people getting involved in mutual-aid-type stuff slowly growing. The US has been "helping" Ukraine with "lethal aid," though it's debatable that's the best way to help, and it's probably more about enriching arms manufacturers and making sure Ukraine is perpetually indebted to the US.
i'd say only americans that have cause to be proud of themselves are the ones who are actively opposing what is happening to your country.
Yeah to stand up against blatant fascism is cool. But if Trump has made me realize anything it's that the US has been an evil country for a long time...
Indeed
There has been an increase interest in NATO and I believe they are working to contribute more to defense because they can no longer expect help from the USA.
The U.S. is a very nice place to live.
still? have you been anywhere else?
I'm not the parent commenter. But I'm Chinese and I can confidently say that living in the United States for your average citizen is far more comfortable than living in China.
You can say all you want about how unfair the US economy is to the average working-class citizen but at the end of the day, it's still a high-income country, and we have running water, electricity, unfiltered Internet access, good public sanitation, and reasonably-modern housing. There are some villages in China that I've been to with a total of six electric plugs, toilets that need to be flushed with a bucket, a barely-working 3G cellular connection, and where you can't drive faster than 20 km/h without destroying your car.
Don't take these things for granted, because you don't know what it's like to live without them.
Go on Baidu and look up 广州市麦地西街 (The one in 白云区, 梅花园 area)
Look at the street view (too laggy for me so I can't screenshot it rn)
That's the neighborhood I used to live... dirty af... urban hell lol... never had internet till my family emigrated... it was 2010 and I had no idea how to use the internet and my US-Born cousins treated me like some peasant lol
I know this is going to sound bleak or dramatic, but I feel like the US is on a trajectory to a situation that is worse than what you describe.
I've spent time in this type of regional area in SE Asia, with very limited and rudimentary infrastructure.
It might be hyperbole to suggest that the US is becoming a dystopia, but it's not hyperbole to list the multiple complex unsolvable problems.
Yes. The U.S. is a very nice place to live compared to the majority of other places in the world.
As an American, I will never have faith in or be proud of this country again. Simple as that. That ship has sailed.
Nah it's been a shit hole for centuries, both culturally and politically. Fun fact most of my ancestors were in North America before the United States existed, hasn't stopped dipshits from trying to "Americanize" us.
Act like russian. You will be surprised that most of them don't support this war and their gov.
No.
What about being pretty good at starting unnecessary wars?
Okay fair. And we make a good bomb, and a nice fighter jet. Our propaganda is effective. We do a lot of good in areas that are not good.
No, to what?
The question pressed by the post? No there’s nothing exciting Going on behind the scenes. It’s actually fucking worse when you look under the hood. His original description of a turd circling a drain is quite apt for the situation.
Well the good news is that few of us are anywhere close to trumps orbit, there are still plenty of us doing good work making our communities a better place for everyone, even if some of us voted for trump tbh. A lotta bad but a lot of good too. And it's always good to have your passport up to date
Recently, the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the George Floyd riots, and Minneapolis pushing ICE out are magnificent examples of people coming together.
This isn’t uniquely American. But Americans can create community
AmeriKKKans are excellent at protecting rich pedophiles!!
Take heart: There are far more of us than there are of them.
I am an American, I've never been "proud" of my country, pride is something weird. The United States still generates the most electricity from nuclear power, and we're starting to build more now, that's something good.
I'd say it has made most Americans stop taking democracy, or even sanity in our leaders, for granted. We've always looked out over the oceans at "them" and pitied those countries with crazy leaders and corruption and now it has taken roost here.
America always was shit. You only felt proud out of, at best, ignorance.
This is a country that was built on slavery, racism, and genocide. None of that changed, it only changed forms.
Hockey, I guess?
If the "melting pot" actually does it's thing and reduces how many differences we see between ourselves and others, then... maybe kinda good?
I remember as a kid they showed us so many nostalgic images of Ellis Island and talked so much about the American dream. Now they're so strict on immigration that ICE is killing US Citizens.
The melting pot is no longer fashionable idea. You're a racist if you suggest immigrants should assimilate by today's standards.
I know. And it blows
Agreed. To me, the root the issue with American politics, is that everyone wants free lunch. Everyone wants the benefits, but doesn't want to pay the costs that come with those benefits.
Like with housing. People think it's too expensive, but nobody wants their own houses value to go down. And if you point that out those are mutually exclusive, they tell you you're an asshole. They start spouting off insane nonsense about how it must be possible, but someone 'evil' is preventing it. They just go to magical thinking rather than admit any collective responsibility.
crickets
there's... hundreds of comments and upvotes on this discussion. Lol. Are you MAGA? It seems like you're just not willing to look at the evidence that's right in front of you. :)
wtf you talking about?? am I MAGA?? Are you!?? Im not even an American....thank fuck.
Then what's your excuse for ignoring the evidence on the front page of this discussion?
my comment went above your head, go touch grass.
Your comment was
If you want to talk about missing the point, you should be willing to accept basic scrutiny about your comment.
Have a day. 🫱
Learn from post war Germany. There is no need to be proud of your country. It's all made up anyway. What do I have to do with 5 basketball players or 11 football players or whatever who just happen to speak my language? How can I be "proud" of their achievements? Doesn't make sense at all
We do many amazing things every day in the fields of scientific and medical research. Unfortunately those are overshadowed by clickbait news looking for KK's latest calf implants and Trump's latest dementia-ism.
You still have more freedom of speech than UK.
Free speech is vanishing in the US, and it is being done in the form of "advertising". You can't say death, murder, or suicide in videos and a lot of forums ... it makes advertisers sad, so you need to use baby-style code words. Remember when you were a kid and had to say "fudge" instead of saying "fuck"? Same thing.
Theoretically, but in practice no.
This does not sound plausible.
Free speech is when AIPAC channels unlimited dark money to influencers to disparage anti-zionist candidates like they did in Kat Abu's race. Free is quickly becoming worthless.
Not an American, but I hear you make good blood clots. Bigly good blood clots. Some people say: the best. So let's put our hope in that. Let's make the blood clot great again.
No
what were you proud of?
Which country are you from?
The advertising industry.
Doing turds dirty framing it like that.
The amount of venom in this thread is astounding. I'm close to leaving lemmy. The amount of hate people are spewing for shit that's not our fault is starting to get old.
We cannot hope to improve as a nation while sitting there huffing our own farts. I, for one, see a chance for this mess to be a catalyst for real change in this country.
This sentiment gives me the most hope. I’ve long held the sentiment that a great prolonged pain is what we all needed to break the cycle.
I don’t want it to end so soon or we’ll fall yet again into old habits. Then we would’ve learnt nothing.
Let the modern PedoNazis keep pushing the knife so the right people feel the pain and finally also understand the consequences of stupidity in voting. The conservative voter is incapable of empathy and understands nothing else but personal suffering.
Pretty much. The American public needs to be reminded of what happens when we let corporate power grow unchecked and fall for the lies of demagogues.
Can't fix things if we pretend they don't exist.
The first step is admitting the country
hasis a problem.I know I don't do enough. It's not enough to vote for the "right" people about once a year and just keep your head down, with maybe some "digital activism".
Things are pretty messed up right now and its not really surprising people are looking for an outlet.
Im grumpy with the US like everyone else.
Yeah, I am too. But, I don't need people calling me names for not risking my neck to kill people.
Fair enough.
Im also angry at our guys in Australia. Our prime minister Albo has had a lot to say about how we're managing the crisis and what we're going to do, but absolutely no criticism or pressure on the one person who caused this and is the only person who can bring it to an end.
I really want Albo and other world leaders of "middle powers" to be unanimous in calling out Trumps absurd and reckless behaviour.
Used to be proud of the US? Why? Because of what? The many wars they started all those years, the inequality, mass shootings, war crimes, crimes against humanity in the incarceration system and with immigrants, still legal slavery (when incarcerated), the corruption, or the abuse of power on the world stage? Because that's been happening at least since the second World War. You know, when they dropped not just one but two nukes.
Edit: seeing the dislikes people don't like to be called out for being the bully? The US isn't a turd going down the drain, the US is the modern day fascist regime doing a Hitler 101. And all Americans do is complain they can't do anything and are the victim while the rest of the world is set on fire by the pedophile tyrant they chose back into office after the first term disaster.
Stop complaining, use your fucking second amendment, it's the reason you kept it: rise up against a hypothetical tyranical regime. All those deaths during the years at school shootings etc. were all worth it apparently. Well go on then eh. Now you have one. Clean up your own mess.
I really want to thank you for making it easy to find you and block you.
really appreciate it.
thanks!