No Stupid Questions

This is pretty big. It's better to know your enemy than have them lurking in the shadows. They are loud and proud right now and we won't forget that shit in 3 years. Your orange god won't be in power forever and then what are you going to do for the rest of your life?

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.

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

This has always been my point when people say "back in the good ol days" or "Make America great again" or any other nonsense about how it used to be better.... this is pretty much the best it has ever been! Even with the dipshit in office at the moment, it has pretty much always been greedy dipshits in control.... we are raising the best generation to date in terms of nutrition being provided, the most inclusive in terms of race/gender/sexual preference.... all we can do is hope we continue to make gradual improvement. People have always sucked. The elite have always raped and pillaged the poor.... but there is less of that now than any time in history..... slavery and depravity have been a part of history since we started recording history. I just cross my fingers and try to enlighten the young in my field of influence to be good humans and hope that some day we might not be as horrible as we have always been.

This is a great take and I'm glad to read it! Thank you!

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. :)

I remember as a kid they showed us so many nostalgic images of Ellis Island and talked so much about the American dream. Now they're so strict on immigration that ICE is killing US Citizens.

I really want to thank you for making it easy to find you and block you.

really appreciate it.

thanks!

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.

Hey, that's a reasonable and kind response. I appreciate it!