Damn kind of thought this would be an uplifting post.
Doing turds dirty framing it like that.
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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.
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.
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.
yea that was really good news. I ment so a small part of me can be proud again to be American?
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’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 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 proud of being gay. Are you saying I shouldn’t be?
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.
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
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 spud 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.
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We’re finally learning that it indeed sucks to suck
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 mass comes off it can’t be put back on
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.
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
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
“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
You should have never been proud of your country its just more blatant than usual.
Take heart: There are far more of us than there are of them.
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.
The U.S. is a very nice place to live.
still? have you been anywhere else?
Yes. The U.S. is a very nice place to live compared to the majority of other places in the world.
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.
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.
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.
There are several websites about current good news, some of which is happening in this country right now.
In October 2025, following pressure from United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered cities across the state to remove LGBTQ+ Pride crosswalks and other road markings that “advance political agendas” and “ideologies.”
Abbott cited safety concerns and violation of state and federal guidelines as reasons to invoke the measure, which required cities to comply within 30 days or risk losing transportation funding.
…
But, in the meantime, the new, colorful sidewalks do not violate any local regulations, and Kaur and McKee-Rodriguez hope they signal an ongoing commitment to LGBTQ+ Pride in San Antonio.
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.
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 😊
I was not expecting a literal rainbow road.
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.
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.
No
We’ve always excelled at terrorism.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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.
