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Can anyone explain why I am incorrect in feeling this way? The results speak for themselves. Large segments of the population are chronically ill, obese, drug addicted, now STD rates are reaching new record highs. We also have a large percentage of the population that is mentally ill and chooses to externalize their problems by attacking others, attacking society, etc.
Not a good look for the post modern United States. No one seems interested in helping. Everyone seems to be focused on profiting for themselves exclusively. As long as we can make a buck, we pretend these issues don't effect us. I think that primitive level of thinking is wrong and we should know better.
Our politicians and media are doing us no favors. They are focused entirely on their careers and personal wealth. These spend most of their time and energy distracting us by shifting the blame towards their adversaries. Our lives are going to suck if we willingly follow selfish, chaotic people.
Yes, i agree, for black people, freedom came much later.
I do acknowledge this. I have made posts in the past suggesting that conservatives embrace the making of Juneteenth a national holiday.....a big one like the 4th of July. Yea I know it’s a Texas thing and not all slaves were freed that day but it has come to represent the freeing of the slaves. The holiday should not be a day of reflection, nor a day of national guilt but one that in the spirit of America celebrates freedom. Cookouts, long weekend and an indulging in black culture in a similar way we indulge in all things Irish on Saint Patrick’s day or Mexican things on Cinco de Mayo. I believe acknowledging the ending of slavery in this way would be consistent with how Americans embrace and celebrate something good about our history.
Of course my view of what that holiday would look like is in contrast with what the left would want. They would see my vision as insulting and as cultural appropriation. They would want a day of white repentance....they want a second MLK day. Do it my way and the WHOLE nation could embrace it together. Do it their way and half the country would refuse and scoff at it. One day we will learn to tell the leftist whiners to go pound sand.
Many people just feed their body but not their spirit. Take God out of the equation and satan enters. One has to serve one the other.
If the bible is accurate in saying Satan is the 'ruler/God' of this world...doesnt it stand to reason, that the most powerful nation on the planet...is likely fully in league with Satan?
I don't have contempt for people with a tribal mentality. We can see ourselves any way we choose. But the fact is, if someone is born in the USA, they are a USA citizen first and foremost. Different ethnic groups prefer to stay together in various communities, at least for a couple generations. It's no different for Hispanics, Asians, or various other groups.
There are places in Michigan and Illinois that were once predominately Polish, but eventually, those people spread out and move into more diverse communities. Those formerly majority Polish communities in Illinois that I have visited now have larger Hispanic communities in their place. Hamtramck in Michigan was once majority Polish, but now it has a larger population of people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani roots. There are just as many Arabs now there as there are Poles.
When people come here from other countries, they tend to want to live with people who have the same background, speak the same language, like the same food, share the same religion, share the same life experience, etc. I think most people have this tribal mentality to some extent, and there is nothing wrong with that. It makes adjusting to the American way of life a little easier when you are among what you see as "your people".
Yep. When I moved to China - for brevity's sake, I'm a white American dude from a military family, who's a political and social centrist, and moving back to the US next month - as much as I found fascinating here, and though I found myself surprisingly comfortable in most day to day interactions, I found myself making friends in the expat community, often with people who I would have had very little in common with back in the US, much more quickly than I found myself making friends with locals. I never had an issue with immigrant communities in the US, had lived in or adjacent to a number of them at varying points in my life, and had previously become involved in a couple via relationships, but finding myself in an immigrant community as an American made it more clear to me than before.
It wasn't that I disliked the Chinese, or Chinese culture. It wasn't that I looked down on them - I married one, and married into her family. Before Uncle Xi's push to shore up nationalism and accelerating desire to shore up a Chinese monoculture along party narratives, I fully expected to spend more time here. It's simply that many of the social norms, I was unable to get used to. I could appreciate nostalgia and cultural references from an academic or outside viewpoint but would never get warm fuzzies going to a village whose development was stuck in the Mao era. I will never find the pushiness or the Mad Max traffic norms comfortable. I was, and am, and always will be, an outsider, and so because of this, as long as I am in China, I will always feel the need to seek out people who share some of my background.
A family friend of ours who was German and had almost his entire adult life in the US said once that every year or two, he had to go back to Germany "to be around other Germans." Although he had no desire to live there again, he preferred life in the US and was proud of his American citizenship and was comfortable in American society, he needed to be able to walk into a supermarket and converse with people on a base level in German. He needed to go to a pub and hear people crack jokes that only worked in that language, to talk to old friends and reminisce about life in Germany in the era he was growing up. After he got his fill, he was happy to go back to his stable and fulfilling life in the US with his American wife and kids.
These ethnic communities aren't there as an affront to American society; they act as a support network for those who are integrating to American life. They preserve a sense of identity for these people and their future generations of American children, which is perfectly fine, and also something that you see with Irish-, Italian-, German-, Swedish-, etc Americans.
I don't have contempt for people with a tribal mentality. We can see ourselves any way we choose. But the fact is, if someone is born in the USA, they are a USA citizen first and foremost. Different ethnic groups prefer to stay together in various communities, at least for a couple generations. It's no different for Hispanics, Asians, or various other groups.
There are places in Michigan and Illinois that were once predominately Polish, but eventually, those people spread out and move into more diverse communities. Those formerly majority Polish communities in Illinois that I have visited now have larger Hispanic communities in their place. Hamtramck in Michigan was once majority Polish, but now it has a larger population of people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani roots. There are just as many Arabs now there as there are Poles.
When people come here from other countries, they tend to want to live with people who have the same background, speak the same language, like the same food, share the same religion, share the same life experience, etc. I think most people have this tribal mentality to some extent, and there is nothing wrong with that. It makes adjusting to the American way of life a little easier when you are among what you see as "your people".
You are misunderstanding what I am saying. It's not about people living in neighborhoods where they share an ethnicity it's about them putting their race/ethnic group above their American nationality. That's a tribal mentality that I object to. It's divisive. Our people should be the American people first and foremost as a whole not our particular race or ethnic group.
Here's a little example of the above. Many Hispanics put their ethnic group above our immigration laws and that's just plain wrong and anti-American.
The real history of human progress is a chronology of the contributions of individuals -- acting and interacting in an enlightened self-interest.
Barbarism snd atrocity are a collective thing.
This is true to an extent. And it is the case in America. Barbarism and atrocities in America has arisen out of tribalism and hatred. America has dealt with such for a long time.
I do acknowledge this. I have made posts in the past suggesting that conservatives embrace the making of Juneteenth a national holiday.....a big one like the 4th of July. Yea I know it’s a Texas thing and not all slaves were freed that day but it has come to represent the freeing of the slaves. The holiday should not be a day of reflection, nor a day of national guilt but one that in the spirit of America celebrates freedom. Cookouts, long weekend and an indulging in black culture in a similar way we indulge in all things Irish on Saint Patrick’s day or Mexican things on Cinco de Mayo. I believe acknowledging the ending of slavery in this way would be consistent with how Americans embrace and celebrate something good about our history.
Nice idea and might have worked, but BLM has tainted everything with a stain of violence, looting, burning, destroying lives, making demands, harassing people in public, telling whites to move out of their homes and hand them over to blacks, funneling money, on and on. They had their chance to get off the plantation but still require victimhood and violence.
Yes, i agree, for black people, freedom came much later.
My whole point is this. I hear people talking about America going into chaos and ruin. When I look at American history and its entirety, American history has been a case of trying to stay together in spite of chaos. Not everyone in America enjoyed the same rights and freedoms. Today, everyone has the same rights as everyone else. I brought this up because of what I know about American history. Many people like to look back to the times when "America was great". Not everyone can do that.
I don't feel we are in more turbulent times than the 60's, the 40's, the 1800's for example.
Day to day living for most of us is enjoyable and we continue to live our versions of the American dream.\
I do think that when there is a Republican in office, some liberals get more of a sense of doom and gloom....and when a Democrat is in office, conservatives have more of a sense of doom and gloom.
It's all bout the tribal politics.
Americans are resilient and adapt. Look at that last recession -- boy did we come back from that. 10 year recovery -- that was solid.
As a new American, I always admired the patriotism of ALL Americans....and how resilient and ready to move forward from a crisis.
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