Being an American right now is so consistently embarrassing.
I worked hard my whole life, went to school, volunteered to help my fellow man, love my wife, support my family, voted against this fascist.
Now I have to listen to every moron that asked in school “teacher when will I ever use fractions in the real world!?” opine about their take on global economic theories.
Canada has been our stalwart ally, good neighbor, and economic partner since that little dust up when you burned the White House down a couple centuries back. And we are blowing it all up for fucking nothing.
We are a stupid nation, don’t bother trying to salvage this relationship. Take the time you have now to shift trade away from this fucking dumpster fire.
My half-brother is American and former Republican voter.
Your take sounds a lot like his; what eventually pivoted him away from the party was an increasing awareness that it’s always someone else’s fault and an inability to look inwards.
I hope things improve in the future - the American people deserve better, but that starts with becoming aware of what the real problems are.
Growing up in America, at least back when I did, you get taught about America as this mythical thing.
A shining city on a hill
Manifest destiny
Defenders of democracy
And when I was young we were also taught how these were our ideals and how we had failed to live up to them and done horrible things to get them.
I was always pretty happy with my public education, we learned about all the aspects, manifest destiny and the trail of tears and the overall genocide of our native Americans to get the land that god said we could have (he said it in secret to some white people doing the genociding). The blight of slavery, the birth out of compromise, etc.
The message I took away from my education was that America was an idea, one we have failed to live up to but one that we forever strive towards, making slow painful progress towards a more perfect union.
And maybe that was true, maybe that was propaganda. What I know now is that my fellow countrymen largely don’t want to consider the bad parts, wouldn’t it be easier if instead of having to do work to live up to our ideals we actually already had it all figured out. We actually aren’t shit, we are great, but we just let some bad stuff get in the way of our greatness. We don’t need to grow and struggle and grapple with how to solve these problems, we actually are already perfect and the most powerful and the bigliest and all we need to do is get rid of this damn scapegoat that ruined it.
And the scapegoat can be anything you like, trans people, Mexicans, an unfair trade deal with Canada. Don’t worry, no one is going to really think too hard about what these things are or how they ruined our perfect greatness, we can just say “hey it’s bad and if we get rid of it we will be great” and that’s just how it is now.
I always thought America’s true greatness, if it ever had any, came from our willingness to confront our problems and strive towards our ideals. All around me I see cowards now that are afraid of the real world and retreating into a fantasy. I loathe them.
Do not forgot this betrayal. My fellow countrymen, a large amount at least, are unmoored by reality, unbothered by reality, living out an infantile fantasy. People like that will hurt others to keep their make believe world going. You should not trust us, for your own sake you must not.
As an American that still has love in my heart for my Canadian neighbors, protect yourself from us. Protect your nation from becoming what we have become. The forces that broke our people will try to break yours too. Stay strong Canada, elbows up.
Yes, it always has been propaganda. Central and South America has suffered at the hands of American exceptionalism and propaganda for generations. The difference is that now the gaze of imperialism is pointing inwards and to the north as well, which is unusual.
Even as a kid I never understood how the US was pictured as the land of freedom, the most free country in the world, while maintaining conscription.
And whenever it came up Americans go full defense with “well it’s not being used right now”. But you as a male (also discrimination) were forced to sign up or lose social benefits right? So now you can get pulled in to wars you don’t agree with if your government wills it or go to jail if you object?
It’s something we actually have poured tons of resources into so it has impressive stats. You get this kind of weird split brain where you are impressed by the immense scale of what we’ve built, and horrified by the massive expense, but then kinda glad that you have the biggest stick on the playground.
As for conscription, the last time we had a draft it was deeply unpopular. There is a good sense of national pride that we have an all volunteer armed forces. I think most Americans are aware that a draft could be instituted but consider it so unlikely and think that if it really happened it would be because of a serious threat that people are mostly fine with the idea.
All men are theoretically eligible for the draft, but with no draft in a half century and with drafts only ever targeting young men, it’s something you kinda vaguely are aware of for a little bit and then you establish a life and realistically aren’t going to get drafted even if they instituted one.
Especially because there no mandatory service requirement in America, most citizens can pretty safely ignore the possibility of serving.
Being an American right now is so consistently embarrassing.
I worked hard my whole life, went to school, volunteered to help my fellow man, love my wife, support my family, voted against this fascist.
Now I have to listen to every moron that asked in school “teacher when will I ever use fractions in the real world!?” opine about their take on global economic theories.
Canada has been our stalwart ally, good neighbor, and economic partner since that little dust up when you burned the White House down a couple centuries back. And we are blowing it all up for fucking nothing.
We are a stupid nation, don’t bother trying to salvage this relationship. Take the time you have now to shift trade away from this fucking dumpster fire.
My half-brother is American and former Republican voter.
Your take sounds a lot like his; what eventually pivoted him away from the party was an increasing awareness that it’s always someone else’s fault and an inability to look inwards.
I hope things improve in the future - the American people deserve better, but that starts with becoming aware of what the real problems are.
There was always rot in America’s foundation of which most of the world and I hope Americans were well aware.
Canada’s servicemen and women died as your brothers and sisters when the US invoked article 5 of NATO in response to the 9/11 attacks.
This is a betrayal that won’t soon be forgotten.
Growing up in America, at least back when I did, you get taught about America as this mythical thing.
And when I was young we were also taught how these were our ideals and how we had failed to live up to them and done horrible things to get them.
I was always pretty happy with my public education, we learned about all the aspects, manifest destiny and the trail of tears and the overall genocide of our native Americans to get the land that god said we could have (he said it in secret to some white people doing the genociding). The blight of slavery, the birth out of compromise, etc.
The message I took away from my education was that America was an idea, one we have failed to live up to but one that we forever strive towards, making slow painful progress towards a more perfect union.
And maybe that was true, maybe that was propaganda. What I know now is that my fellow countrymen largely don’t want to consider the bad parts, wouldn’t it be easier if instead of having to do work to live up to our ideals we actually already had it all figured out. We actually aren’t shit, we are great, but we just let some bad stuff get in the way of our greatness. We don’t need to grow and struggle and grapple with how to solve these problems, we actually are already perfect and the most powerful and the bigliest and all we need to do is get rid of this damn scapegoat that ruined it.
And the scapegoat can be anything you like, trans people, Mexicans, an unfair trade deal with Canada. Don’t worry, no one is going to really think too hard about what these things are or how they ruined our perfect greatness, we can just say “hey it’s bad and if we get rid of it we will be great” and that’s just how it is now.
I always thought America’s true greatness, if it ever had any, came from our willingness to confront our problems and strive towards our ideals. All around me I see cowards now that are afraid of the real world and retreating into a fantasy. I loathe them.
Do not forgot this betrayal. My fellow countrymen, a large amount at least, are unmoored by reality, unbothered by reality, living out an infantile fantasy. People like that will hurt others to keep their make believe world going. You should not trust us, for your own sake you must not.
As an American that still has love in my heart for my Canadian neighbors, protect yourself from us. Protect your nation from becoming what we have become. The forces that broke our people will try to break yours too. Stay strong Canada, elbows up.
Yes, it always has been propaganda. Central and South America has suffered at the hands of American exceptionalism and propaganda for generations. The difference is that now the gaze of imperialism is pointing inwards and to the north as well, which is unusual.
Americans probably should be taught more about their government’s neocolonial actions.
Even as a kid I never understood how the US was pictured as the land of freedom, the most free country in the world, while maintaining conscription.
And whenever it came up Americans go full defense with “well it’s not being used right now”. But you as a male (also discrimination) were forced to sign up or lose social benefits right? So now you can get pulled in to wars you don’t agree with if your government wills it or go to jail if you object?
Americas relationship with our military is weird.
It’s something we actually have poured tons of resources into so it has impressive stats. You get this kind of weird split brain where you are impressed by the immense scale of what we’ve built, and horrified by the massive expense, but then kinda glad that you have the biggest stick on the playground.
As for conscription, the last time we had a draft it was deeply unpopular. There is a good sense of national pride that we have an all volunteer armed forces. I think most Americans are aware that a draft could be instituted but consider it so unlikely and think that if it really happened it would be because of a serious threat that people are mostly fine with the idea.
All men are theoretically eligible for the draft, but with no draft in a half century and with drafts only ever targeting young men, it’s something you kinda vaguely are aware of for a little bit and then you establish a life and realistically aren’t going to get drafted even if they instituted one.
Especially because there no mandatory service requirement in America, most citizens can pretty safely ignore the possibility of serving.
I upvoted but also had to comment as it so captures how I feel. There are many of us but not many enough apparently.