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'm not sure why people still think the guy who, a day before he was sworn in, said "He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote-counting computers, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So, it was pretty good, it was pretty good. So, thank you to Elon" legitimately won in a free and fair election.

Yup. But you know how all the maga assholes think trans people are deviant sexual freaks? Well, guess what they do to them in custody.

Death is preferable.

In other news, any trans folks looking to learn how to shoot, Pink Pistols has chapters all over the country, and they've been creating safe learning environments for people of all genders and sexualities for years now.

It's because we were a nation founded by violence and oppression and built on the backs of a slave race, none of which are practices we ever truly abandoned.

You have healthcare, affordable schooling, and labor unions because, wherever you are, your populace is considered a workforce, not a slave race. When your society relies on a workforce, you want them healthy so they can work longer, you want them educated so they can work smarter, and you want them comfortable enough with their salaries and their hours to feel they can afford to have kids, who will one day join the workforce.

Governing bodies in the US don't need us healthy, smart, or comfortable. They just need us to 1) work (hence tying our healthcare to our work hours), and 2) breed (hence minimal sex education, poor access to contraception, abortion bans, etc).

They don't need to give us healthcare (or education, or basic human necessities or rights), because as long as we're breeding, it's cheaper if we just die. And if that ever bothers us enough to take to the streets (which it has, many times), our local police forces are highly militarized and have no qualms about doing to us what their white ancestors did to my native and black ones (which they have, many times).

And to be clear, this isn't meant to be a woe-is-America spiel. These are problems that we've had many opportunities to address over the years, but let hubris, bigotry, and plain old stupidity get in the way. This is very much a mess of our own making, so I'm not trying to throw a pity party, just addressing your confusion.

TL;DR: Violence, oppression, and slavery. The tried and true American way.

Not a lawyer, but if you've already paid for something (i.e. "bought" an eBook on Amazon), then you've done your part to ensure the creator eats tonight. Pirating a digital copy of it that you can read/move/engage with wherever you want is no longer even slightly morally questionable at that point.

Funny, cuz lots of the ones who say "ew less than 100k listens" will also say they're not into pop music. Wondering what they think "pop" is short for lmao

When has proving in a courtroom that Trump did something unlawful ever actually mattered?

"But isn't Albany in New York?" - Average American

Went to one in Sacramento with a couple of friends. I'd bet there were about 5k-10k when we were there. Good vibes all around. Few other friends went to one in Los Angeles, looked like that one had a lot of attendees too.

To the naysayers: even if this accomplishes nothing in the most literal sense, hope is the basis of progress, and hope dwindles very quickly when you feel like you're standing alone and shouting into the void. Gathering with so many other people who likewise understand how fucked everything is and how desperately we need to make big changes can go a long way to recharging that hope battery.

Do you mean that the issue is the fact that they're brothers or that it's been printed in a newspaper with their faces on? Because if they're two consenting adults, they cannot reproduce with one another, and they didn't grow up as siblings, then I too am struggling to see what the issue is, considering that the usual incest-related issues (inbreeding and consent/coercion issues born of familial bonds/hierarchies) are addressed. Seems the only remaining issue is that it's been publicized, meaning they're liable to get shit on by the people for the rest of their lives for something they weren't aware of, had no control over, and hurts no one.

Reading comprehension issue, I'm afraid.

Something that may help is explaining that gun control policy originated as a means of disarming minorities, specifically black people.

Black Panthers in Oakland, CA would open carry and follow cops around whenever they came into black neighborhoods, in an attempt to curtail the rampant police brutality black people regularly endured. Naturally, a bunch of old white 2A-loving Republicans (including the fucking NRA) didn't like that, and altogether signed off on the Mulford Act, the first major gun control legislation in the country, supported by "2A advocates" (read, in this instance: racists) for the sole purpose of better allowing police to terrorize black citizens.

I was once pretty strongly anti-gun too (less for political reasons and more because I saw a guy get his chest blown out at work when I was in my early 20s), but the knowledge that the true intention underpinning gun control and anti-gun legislation has always been to disarm and weaken marginalized communities changed my mind.

Not sure it will help with your friends, but idk. Worth a try maybe.

This absolutely is the average experience for young women on social media, and moreover it's the intended experience. Making girls feel like shit about themselves has gotten powerful men money, sex, and more power for a very very long time.

Quick upvote without reading whilst I continue mindlessly scrolling.

Frankly, I don't really blame people for having faith in the guardrails. Generally speaking, whenever any truly progressive legislation (often labeled as "extremism") has been pushed forward, those guardrails have come up real quick. I understand why people thought that that would hold true for extremism in any direction. But it... well, doesn't.

My dumb optimistic ass scrolling to the comments under this post thinking "maybe this time iT wOn'T bE sO bAd" lmao

They've signed with an OEM (still secret atm, but the best guess seems to be Motorola?) who will produce the first flagship GrapheneOS device sometime this or next year iirc. Supposed to be revealing the manufacturer next month. That'll at least take some of the Google dependency by having to use Pixels.

Do you think Obama could have said that quote from Trump above and still been sworn in the next day?

I know we're meant to be discussing this from a privacy perspective, but my first thought whenever the topic of eliminating cash comes up is that, at least where I am in the US, it's tantamount to euthanizing the homeless. The vast majority of unhoused folks I know (which is a lot, including myself for a terrible but thankfully short period of my life) get most of their necessities (particularly food) by buying them with cash they've earned through various means, rather than charities, food banks, soup kitchens, etc. And only a very small percentage of them has any sort of bank account and/or a device to manage digital currency.

But also privacy, yes. Cash is king.

Hanged. Ain't no way this textbook case of overcompensating masculine fragility is hung, lbr.