Used to be proud of the US? Why? Because of what? The many wars they started all those years, the inequality, mass shootings, 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.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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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.
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.
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.
Ignorance
(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
Why?
They wouldn't be proud if they weren't ignorant
Why do you say that?
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. :)
If the "melting pot" actually does it's thing and reduces how many differences we see between ourselves and others, then... maybe kinda good?
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.
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 don't know. You (as an American) are in a better place to judge that than I.
What I do know is this: people are people. And for every rotten son of a bitch, there's someone else, quietly, moving heaven and earth to do good - both in big ways and small. If we're going to tilt at windmills, we may as well tilt at windmills together.
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.
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.
Hey, that's a reasonable and kind response. I appreciate it!
This was unexpectedly wholesome. Thanks homie.
Accelerating EU integration through the threat of invading Greenland,Iceland and thus Greenland -> Denmark -> EU.
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.
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 have you won without help?
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
Grifting.
?
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