When I protested a couple weeks ago a few people yelled at me at that I didn’t love America… the irony would be hilarious if it wasn’t reflecting a sad reality.
Truth is, Trumpists absolutely do not like free speech.
Yeah. The more I listen to older generations about the shit the US government pulled in the past, the more I realize that this shit happening now is kind of par for the course for good ole America.
Like. The government killed black protestors in the civil rights era. Outright killed. Right now, though deportation is awful, there are no deaths, yet, that we’ve heard of. And thousands of civil rights activists were jailed for peaceful protest, which is happening again.
And McCarthyism was the government targeting those that didn’t agree with their desired economy, essentially political dissenters. People lost their jobs and more. So. The government ruining the lives of dissenters isn’t new either.
And disabled individuals lost their humanity in the forced sterilization era, and innocent Japanese were forced into concentration camps. So the dehumanization of trans people has precedence.
See, the thing is I grew up outside the US and was taught about the civil rights movement as well - did they just not talk about what the police and federal government were doing for a century? Was it all framed as a minority of whites that were being racist or something?
Some kids are told about it in school, and then that chapter ends and the lesson moves on and the kids forget about it. Beyond that, Americans have to actively seek out that information.
With Trump making moves to erase all evidence of the history I mentioned above, it’s about to get a lot worse.
It’s so incredibly sickening for a human being to just delete millions of documents and pieces of data for their own ego. Like, he’s probably caused the deaths of millions by shit he did with COVID and other stuff, but this will fuck over all of humanity for the rest of time.
You can’t ignore the MANY people who have died in our Hispanic concentration camps to say that the ones we’ve deported in the last two months haven’t died, that feels so disingenuous to the overall story. We’ve killed a ton of people for the crime of brown skin, especially in our concentration camps. First time we did it was the Japanese by the way, this isn’t even new for us even though we pretend Germany is the only country that’s ever had camps.
Everyone that went to El Salvador might as well have been given a death sentence. The El Salvadorian head of state said they would go to prison without trials, and be forced to do slave labor till they die.
AFAICT their president is, in fact, a dictator much like Drumpf wants to be. The population currently appreciates him because he took the country from, “you’re likely to be murdered by gang violence,” to “you are somewhat likely to be abducted, and disappeared for unknown reasons.” Apparently that’s a bit more stable than the previous environment.
While all of this is true, and America is up there among the worst crimes in modern history, most countries histories are littered with horrific shit.
It’s worth remembering that ALL of human history is atrocity and injustice galore, so despite all the horrors the last few decades are almost certainly the best and safest time to exist (for humans, not the rest of the planet). When we look back at the 50’s and 60’s middle classes in the west, we do so with rose tinted goggles; they were a small percentage of the human population in absolute terms. The average human globally — especially in the bottom percentiles — were much poorer, less educated, and had a lower quality of life than they do today.
It’s difficult notion to wrestle with… I never like showing my patriotism and I always read American history very critically (thanks Howard Zinn!) but it’s also the only country I’ve lived in and will probably stay in for the rest of my life. I’m inspired that change can happen (even if it’s bad) in this country and even if is a long and hard path, I guess I can’t say I’ve given up yet. I also have two kids so I gotta try to give them something better.
We will probably stay here too because of family and all that. But we have no kids, and if shit really goes south we’re outta here. Problem is, no country wants us.
See , that’s the thing. At this point, that IS America. I understand loving the abstract notion and original intent of America, but that’s not what it is now.
I think it’s like a parent, they may get dementia, leave the family to pursue drugs or a lover, or even turn abusive, yet you still love them on some level. I imagine a number of the Jews who survived the Holocaust also still loved Germany after the war.
A country is much more than its government. Even if I end up leaving the US, I’ll still feel a sense of “home” when I meet another American or something. Even if I’m no longer welcome there, I would still call it my home.
You can hate what someone has become while still loving them.
And I absolutely do hope that things will improve. I think the American spirit is still alive and well, it’s just going through a bit of an episode right now. I agree with a few of the things Trump is doing (cutting waste and trying to uncover fraud), but I absolutely hate the way he’s going about it, and I disagree with the apparent longer term plans.
I sincerely hope we all survive this and the next admin can undo the worst of it while keeping most of the good changes. We’ll see. I feel like the next few months will be incredibly important.
What Trump says they’re doing and what they actually are doing are complete opposites. “Getting rid of fraud” while pillaging public coffers with huge conflicts of interest and corruption. “Efficiency” while cutting people illegally and indiscriminately, then paying them to come back and do nothing. It will take a long time to recover from this.
When I protested a couple weeks ago a few people yelled at me at that I didn’t love America… the irony would be hilarious if it wasn’t reflecting a sad reality.
Truth is, Trumpists absolutely do not like free speech.
At this point, I kinda do hate America.
I hate a significant portion of the American population and that the values we brag about are actually propganada to justify our worst tendencies.
Oh wait, maybe I do hate America.
Yeah. The more I listen to older generations about the shit the US government pulled in the past, the more I realize that this shit happening now is kind of par for the course for good ole America.
Like. The government killed black protestors in the civil rights era. Outright killed. Right now, though deportation is awful, there are no deaths, yet, that we’ve heard of. And thousands of civil rights activists were jailed for peaceful protest, which is happening again.
And McCarthyism was the government targeting those that didn’t agree with their desired economy, essentially political dissenters. People lost their jobs and more. So. The government ruining the lives of dissenters isn’t new either.
And disabled individuals lost their humanity in the forced sterilization era, and innocent Japanese were forced into concentration camps. So the dehumanization of trans people has precedence.
Yall. America sucks.
See, the thing is I grew up outside the US and was taught about the civil rights movement as well - did they just not talk about what the police and federal government were doing for a century? Was it all framed as a minority of whites that were being racist or something?
Some kids are told about it in school, and then that chapter ends and the lesson moves on and the kids forget about it. Beyond that, Americans have to actively seek out that information.
With Trump making moves to erase all evidence of the history I mentioned above, it’s about to get a lot worse.
It’s so incredibly sickening for a human being to just delete millions of documents and pieces of data for their own ego. Like, he’s probably caused the deaths of millions by shit he did with COVID and other stuff, but this will fuck over all of humanity for the rest of time.
You can’t ignore the MANY people who have died in our Hispanic concentration camps to say that the ones we’ve deported in the last two months haven’t died, that feels so disingenuous to the overall story. We’ve killed a ton of people for the crime of brown skin, especially in our concentration camps. First time we did it was the Japanese by the way, this isn’t even new for us even though we pretend Germany is the only country that’s ever had camps.
Excellent point. Thank you.
Everyone that went to El Salvador might as well have been given a death sentence. The El Salvadorian head of state said they would go to prison without trials, and be forced to do slave labor till they die.
My sincere hope is that they’re rescued before this goes too far. Is that Polly Anna? Probably. But I’m hanging onto that.
Why has El Salvador agreed to this?
AFAICT their president is, in fact, a dictator much like Drumpf wants to be. The population currently appreciates him because he took the country from, “you’re likely to be murdered by gang violence,” to “you are somewhat likely to be abducted, and disappeared for unknown reasons.” Apparently that’s a bit more stable than the previous environment.
Lame. Didn’t they have a revolution in the late 80s/early 90s?
I seem to recall the US possibly getting involved, which probably means we installed the previous guy that let things get so bad.
While all of this is true, and America is up there among the worst crimes in modern history, most countries histories are littered with horrific shit.
It’s worth remembering that ALL of human history is atrocity and injustice galore, so despite all the horrors the last few decades are almost certainly the best and safest time to exist (for humans, not the rest of the planet). When we look back at the 50’s and 60’s middle classes in the west, we do so with rose tinted goggles; they were a small percentage of the human population in absolute terms. The average human globally — especially in the bottom percentiles — were much poorer, less educated, and had a lower quality of life than they do today.
Death to America!
And buttersauce
It’s difficult notion to wrestle with… I never like showing my patriotism and I always read American history very critically (thanks Howard Zinn!) but it’s also the only country I’ve lived in and will probably stay in for the rest of my life. I’m inspired that change can happen (even if it’s bad) in this country and even if is a long and hard path, I guess I can’t say I’ve given up yet. I also have two kids so I gotta try to give them something better.
We will probably stay here too because of family and all that. But we have no kids, and if shit really goes south we’re outta here. Problem is, no country wants us.
There’s nothing wrong with that. I live in America and have hated it for at least 2 decades now.
I don’t, I absolutely love America, I’m just really tired of a lot of nonsense, such as:
That stuff combined results in the nonsense we see here, where the American peoples’ voice isn’t really reflected in political policy.
See , that’s the thing. At this point, that IS America. I understand loving the abstract notion and original intent of America, but that’s not what it is now.
I think it’s like a parent, they may get dementia, leave the family to pursue drugs or a lover, or even turn abusive, yet you still love them on some level. I imagine a number of the Jews who survived the Holocaust also still loved Germany after the war.
A country is much more than its government. Even if I end up leaving the US, I’ll still feel a sense of “home” when I meet another American or something. Even if I’m no longer welcome there, I would still call it my home.
You can hate what someone has become while still loving them.
Great point, I will always regard it with a wistfulness.
And I absolutely do hope that things will improve. I think the American spirit is still alive and well, it’s just going through a bit of an episode right now. I agree with a few of the things Trump is doing (cutting waste and trying to uncover fraud), but I absolutely hate the way he’s going about it, and I disagree with the apparent longer term plans.
I sincerely hope we all survive this and the next admin can undo the worst of it while keeping most of the good changes. We’ll see. I feel like the next few months will be incredibly important.
What Trump says they’re doing and what they actually are doing are complete opposites. “Getting rid of fraud” while pillaging public coffers with huge conflicts of interest and corruption. “Efficiency” while cutting people illegally and indiscriminately, then paying them to come back and do nothing. It will take a long time to recover from this.
Right, which is why I said:
Some of the changes are good, and but many are just outright cronyism.
Join the club