proud of your home and the accomplishments of the country
Don’t really understand that either. I could understand celebrating the date at which you got an united democracy, that’s certainly an accomplishment. Even that happend a quarter millennium ago, you (not even your grandmother) didn’t take part in it and nowadays there’s no British monarchy you can annoy by being a democracy, but celebrating democracy as a concept always is great. But you don’t do that. All what I see from the Atlantic Ocean’s other side is some people celebrating something which is written under “Nationality” in their passports. I personally can’t celebrate something as complex/indefinite as a country. I don’t think complex really is the best word for it, but what I mean is that countries never are only good and also “country” itself is a term so obscure and indefinite. The country existed for nearly 250 years, billions of people lived in it and some terrible stuff happend in and because of it. Wars and crimes and war crimes of leading personell, etc. Surely also some good stuff, but how to seperate that? You simply can’t. Is Ronald Reagan part of what you’re celebrating, is Donald Trump part of it? Is democracy part of it? Is some random 1800s-farmer part of it? Are people even part of it and if no why? Are the country’s borders part of it? Is the tree standing in your backyard part of it? You can’t ignore the killing of civilians in Vietnam war while including democracy or can you? What’s home? Is it your family? Your house? Both?
One thing is for sure: You aren’t the country, you just live at some place on the world which happens to be territory of something named “USA”. Same for me, I have been born at some place which happens to be territory of something called “Germany”. Why should I be proud about the place where I were born? That’s no achievement, I didn’t even contribute to it. I’m proud that I managed to contribute to democracy by protesting and voting. I also felt proud about the A I got in some elementary school test. I’m really proud about switching from Windows to Arch Linux in less than 2 hours. I may some day feel proud for my children while watching them doing something great. I contributed to all of this more or less directly and I can feel proud about it for that reason. But why should I feel proud about a country? Germany is nothing I’m responsible for, the (current path of the) USA is nothing you are responsible for. If you were responsible for it, why shouldn’t I be too?
We can’t feel proud about it, we can’t feel ashamed for it, because it isn’t our fault. However we can change the current situation. Changing the world, having the courage to try it, is something we can feel proud about.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 1 day ago
It hasn’t really fallen, it’s just saying the quiet part out loud for once.
Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
fr, it’s honestly just business as usual except some white people are facing material consequences and their government is being too obvious with its imperialism.
US was built on fascist doctrine and will continue that legacy until systematic change.