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Seeing this post on /r/slatestarcodex was.... depressing.
The self-hatred and navel-gazing I'm used to. The willful denial of reality and expansion of minor issues into world-ending reasons that America Sucks is just exhausting.
My Fourth of July party had a temporary above-ground pool and waterslide, bottomless coolers of beers ranging from water-adjacent to palate punchers, a $250 wagyu brisket and ribs and two types of wings and hamburgers, insanely hot sun and frigid A/C, a veritable rainbow of white/indian/mexican people from all over the country.
And still it felt like celebrating the country was verboten, and that I was the only one doing it. Because limitless abortion isn't available everywhere? Because we didn't just pass out billions of dollars for shitty degrees? Because for a brief moment, we tried to say that counting skin color tokens in higher education wasn't the right thing to do here?
Especially in our generation, it feels like we're still atoning for the jingoistic blindness that led us into Iraq and Afghanistan or something. I can't help but feel like I'm surrounded by children who are guilty of not being smarter and more honest about America's downsides (and there are many!) in the past, and so feel compelled to sacrifice their own happiness for it.
I was mildly shocked at how negative the reception was when I first made it, even though it has stabilized at a much higher figure, looking at the ratio of upvotes to down suggests that while almost a thousand people have engaged with it, only ~70% upvoted, which was still enough to drag it to the top kicking and screaming. It was closer to 60 before people already saw it was popular and were more open minded.
Probably the most polarizing thing I've written, for all that I didn't set out to be.
If people want to call me jingoistic for saying that even subtracting the myriad sins of America from its good qualities still results in their cup running over, I can't help them. At least the majority appreciate it, narrow enough as it is.
I loathe my own country, but by god I have much more reason to!
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