I was talking to one of my friends and he mentioned staying home on July 4, citing how there are a lot of really ugly things going on in the US.
After thinking about this myself, I’m starting to feel the same way. Instead of being proud of the country, I’m feeling like I’m just another wallet that companies and the government are trying to suck all the money out of.
The cost of living is going up, the housing market is a nightmare, I don’t feel very confident in our government at all, the job market is a nightmare…
I think I’ll be staying home this year too… anyone else?
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but HOW THE FUCK could I EVER be proud of this country anymore??? We’ve done nothing to deserve respect or patriotism.
Y’all suck harder than my grandma without her teeth. Choose that president twice, y’all evil and insane.
Hope your country becomes one big sinkhole, y’all are the most embarrassing, idiotic, mean, evil people. Go celebrate your scum country
While walking the dog I keep tabs on houses that have flags up, and there has been an uptick for about a month now. I assume it’s for the 4th, but I’m curious who will keep their flags up.
I’ve also noticed that some people keep putting theirs up then taking them down, and I wonder what changes…
Yup.
Yeah I am sitting here in my shitting rotting trailer that I own thinking to myself fuck America.
I’m not doing anything for the forth. Fuck America, I am not celebrating my country, because my country wants me dead. Fuck em.
I get double pay for the holiday, yay!
Me, but not from USA, so…
I’m going out to a march on the 4th of July. We’re protesting for independence from America
Aww. Please celebrate - don’t give the orange turd the satisfaction of destroying yet more American culture. Also, I won’t be happy posting my favourite annual meme:
But celebrate what? The opening of our concentration camps and the country’s fall to the stupidest dictator imaginable? I suppose we could drink to the ashes…
Celebrate y’all getting together and protesting tyranny
I’ll celebrate a day I don’t have to go to work
State-level patriotism is always bullshit to begin with.
That’s how you’re tricked into loyalty based on the most arbitrary reasons.
Be the messenger of humanity and get curious about the Universe. People are brothers, and there’s no pride in being born in one plot of land over the other.
If that’s your reaction we need even more murder jets to do a fly over and the already ridiculously sized freedom flags will get even bigger!
But seriously, patriotism is an unnatural artificial and cultivated concept.
Indeed to be used by the state.The state should be you, the citizens.
That is only in theory, like the copcept of democracy
The state should not exist. We are people of Earth, and we should not be divided by someone. Divided, we are powerless to make a global change, and those who divide us reap all the benefits of this bullshit system.
So we shouldn’t band together, to band together.
You should calm down your drug use IMO.
We should band together based on mutual respect and common responsibility, and not based on someone telling us who to band with and who not to.
The concept of nation-state doesn’t allow us to band with whoever we like, and calls to unite with people born in place X (and commonly against people born in place Y). The concept of state in general oversees and dictates our relationships more broadly.
Multitude of states all fostering loyalty to their rulers doesn’t allow many people to look at those of other nations as equals and fellows with shared global goals. Sure, messages of international peace are commonplace, but hey, we should definitely exclude those pesky Chinese/Russians/Americans/Ukrainians/Israelis/Palestinians/whatever!
When we categorize people by nations through the lens of state, we put easy labels that are far from true. If someone’s a Russian, he sure supports war in Ukraine. If someone’s American, he sure is personally responsible for all the immigrant scare. If someone’s born in Israel or China, clearly he’s all on board with genocide!
At the same time, state-level patriotism fosters coming to terms with terrible people within the nation. Sure, our billionaires might be at fault in some ways, but it’s better than other country’s evil and corrupt billionaires! Our rulers are wise leaders, their rulers are cruel autocrats! My neighbor is a terrible person, but at least he’s not one of those <input the nation with bad stereotypes>!
It forces us to make preference to people who may not deserve our support, who might be actively undermining our causes, it leads us to close our eyes on the sufferings of others outside our arbitrary group that doesn’t even share our views and goals.
Now, I know it doesn’t have to be that extreme, but patriotism is always showing preference to someone or something based on a very arbitrary characteristic, instead of honest and fair consideration. It’s an intentionally cultivated fallacy.
On a personal note, I’d rather avoid ad hominem attacks if you’d like to keep a good faith discussion running. And, FYI, I never take any drugs, not even alcohol.
Utopian nonsense
We can always do our best to make it closer.
Most people claim this to be Utopian, and then just try to tone it down in others, so their own compliance is not seen to themselves as weakness but rather “wisdom”. No - it is a surrender, an act of learned helplessness.
Sure, it’s hard to force politicians to abandon the concept of nations, and it’s hard to bring a revolt to a population so compliant.
But everyone can make personal steps.
First, admit that patriotism is bullshit. There is no ground to be patriotic, and nothing realistically unites you with your “nation”. You have more in common with a person of the same position on the other side of the globe than you have with the president of your very “own” country.
Second, watch your own preferences in people and what you factor in your decision. Maybe you give too much weight to where the person comes from? Is it that you label people in some way based on that characteristic alone?
Third, if you have the opportunity, form an international collective, reach out to specialists within other nations, or if you can’t, see if you can build a collective or even just a friend group with the immigrants around you.
Fourth - advocate for people in other countries, learn what they face, what they get to endure. For example - do you know that the deadliest of recent wars was not in Ukraine or Palestine, but in Ethiopia? What do you know about the current situation in Myanmar, aside from the Facebook drama? Did you consider supporting women rights’ causes in the Middle East?
Personal action and involvement will not allow you to fall for the traps the state tries to implant in your mind, and you’ll be personally responsible for a small, but proud piece of international cooperation - one that should become commonplace to the point when it wouldn’t make sense for anyone to draw divisions.
Human life is human life. Human suffering is human suffering - here or on the other side of the globe. The concepts of unity, hope, and cooperation are all universally recognized wherever you are. Why not step in?
As an immigrant to the US, I’ve always found the blind patriotism commonplace here to be very strange. It feels even more alienating now than ever before.
Common in an authoritarian, warmongering police state.
For them it’s invariably other countries that get this label, they can’t think outside the box bcs of their propaganda.
The ONLY reason I give a shit about July 4th this year is that it’s a long weekend and the last chance we’ll have to spend with family before we move out of state in two weeks.
I’m even glad it’s supposed to rain the entire time, so I won’t even feel pressured to celebrate with fireworks!
4th of July? You mean the Ungrateful Colonists Insurgence Day?
I’ve never been more ashamed to be an American.
I’m a-shamed to be an A-merican,
Where at least now I can’t see.
And I won’t forget the libs who cried,
Who gave that right to me.
Lemmy sings
