I think you're putting the cart before the horse. We won't see systemic change until we have more progressives in government, and people don't run for office unless they love their country enough to change it. In order to get out of this situation, I think we need more patriotism in leftist circles.
I believe in the government's ability to eventually do the right thing. I love that we have a justice department that is actually holding people in power accountable. I love that the IRA and Chips act have meaningfully made life better for people. I love that we are attempting to cancel student debt despite setbacks.
Yeah, things could be better, but they won't be until we make them better and I think that the US is a place we can reasonably do that and that's beautiful.
Or, you know, maybe for the refugee kids that've just barely escaped war only to have mouthbreathing fucknuts jerking off their freedums into the air? Not to mention the millions of vets that spend the weeks leading up to the forced holiday trying their goddamned best not to spiral into the hungry void of their personal terrors.
I have an American flag hanging in my car. Friends of mine are so surprised by it that some have gone as far as "Hey, that's mo_ztt's car! Oh wait... it has a US flag and he's definitely not a Republican. Huh, I thought that was his car." They told me this after the fact and I was a little off-put by it (like naw dude, I'm allowed to like this country and dislike Trump both at the same time.)
No, actually, you aren't allowed to like this country.
Actually think about it. This nation was built by slaves on stolen land and it has never stopped committing atrocities. Why the fuck would you like this country?
Every "great" nation has committed atrocities. There are always evil men, there are always structures of power for them to grab the reins of. That's true in modern China, it was true in Washington then as it is now, it was true in the USSR and it's true now in Russia, as it is in the government in Ukraine.
Every body of people also has great and selfless people who rise within those structures, or in opposition to them. Martin Luther King was one, Gandhi was one, Abraham Lincoln was one.
To me, morality assigns on an individual level. It's not an excuse for any systemic evil or a reason not to fix it. Absolutely we should fix the problems and punish the evildoers as individuals. But refusing to acknowledge the many great things the US has done, because it's also done great evil, seems unfair to all those people who tried to work for good with whatever time they had.
What a breath of fresh air. America is currently in a tumultuous period, but we must always respect the ideals that undermine our society and the sacrifices made by the founders to establish this nation. Toxic amounts of apathy and criticism is equally as problematic as blind devotion and toxic patriotism.
Not at all, but if not properly paired with action its just talk. There's plenty of pundits that get people spun up over issues with no real prescriptions of their own as a means of generating clicks and outrage