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RIP United States of America. 1776 - 2016
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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politics
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I vote 2010 with Citizens United decision. Koch Brothers and TP USA immediately followed. Birther movement accelerated. Tea party astroturfing, etc.
Same, citizens united was the final nail in the coffin
We truly died between Reagan and Clinton. We're just stuck in hell now
2001 is close enough for 225.
Letting Bush baby take the election was the end for me. And the first presidential election I voted in too. Felt good to elect Obama even if he didn’t exactly do what we all hoped he would. But then the backlash has been insane.
Not putting Nixon in jail was also a mistake, but so was letting the south end reconstruction and basically get away with the killing of Lincoln.
The idea of the “Great American State Fair” and the fact we were hitting 250, sounded like it’d be a great way to celebrate. I read about some of the original plans and what the Smithsonian was working on and it really felt like a tribute to us, the people.
But now, I’ve had zero desire to celebrate anything that’s been going on, and it’s just felt like a damper on everything. What about the US is there to celebrate? I know people can say “well, acktually, compared to Burma….”, but that’s not the point. I also know we weren’t at the top, but we’ve fallen so far, so quickly.
Totally agree. We’re the most prosperous country in the world but we basically fail all social health markers. Literacy rates, quality of healthcare, infrastructure, deaths during child birth…all these are inferior to many European countries with a fraction of our GDP. It’s shameful. We can and should do better.
The major takeaway: wealth does not equal a good life.
When you remove the top 10% of earners, the average American wage drops to something like $35-40k. America may be the most prosperous country in the world, but it’s only going to a few people.
Wealth helps a lot. What doesn't help is having a few absolutely insanely wealthy people to offset hundreds of millions of poor people.
The major takeaway: wealth does not equal a good life.
Yeah you misunderstand. The actual individual people with the wealth are doing just fine in all of those categories.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross
Very accurate. These people have coopted the American flag like the Nazis coopted the swastika. It had an original purpose and meaning, but when you see only Nazis waving it around it becomes a Nazi flag.
Houses, businesses and vehicles with American flags on them or part of their decor, people with American flag clothes/hats will get the side eye from me forevermore. It's pretty much become a shithead MAGA dogwhistle.
I wear and have the flag out because maga do not use our flag. They fuck it up by putting trumps name on it or black flag with blue lines etc etc.
Liberals should take the flag back. It's theirs too.
The more USA flags I see someone has on their house or car, the more likely I want to avoid them.
When we were looking for a house, there were a few we nixed because of thin blue line flags and just excessive US flags being displayed overall in the neighborhood.
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Seeing an American flag, I just roll my eyes and move on (for a while now I've felt that our overuse of the flag--especially for home decor--is tacky, but as the article demonstrates, everyone has their own motivations for flying it). But "250 celebration" decor? Major stinkeye. I've actively avoided businesses and neighbors that post this nonsense.
II used to be very patriotic and naive. Thinking that the flag represented a desire to be the greatest country. Dreams fulfilled, melting pot, helping one’s neighbors, constant progression (albeit too slowly even when it did). I traveled to a few countries, got older, more educated. Realized what the flag meant to me wasn’t how it was being used. I still struggle with what I thought the country and patriotism stood for but I most certainly negatively judge most displays I see anymore and will also avoid businesses and neighbors that are proudly supporting this shit show of a country.
What sickens me so much is that these sister-fuckers think that patriotism only belongs to them.
Also annoying: the overly online types that act like the United States can never be redeemed and never did anything worthwhile.
Fuck that noise. We have to reclaim that flag and the American experiment to try to actually strive to be better.
Yes, 100%
I always low-key know that the US is really young, but I always forget exactly how young it is. Like my town is 3-4 times older at least and there are nearby ruins which are in excess of 20 times older
I mean there are cities and ruins here that are that old as well. One capital of a native tribe here is over 1000 years old based off just archeological remains, and oral tradition puts it far older still. It's still occupied and acts as the center of their tribal land. There are others as well, but as a white neoeuro country the US is very young.
In the US, 100 years is a long time. In Europe 100 miles is a long distance.
I’d actually describe it is a yellow flag. The Yellow Jack flag sometimes known as a Quebec signal is for ships with a deadly disease or plague.
I'd agree, but only in that most "patriots" don't actually display this flag 🇺🇸, they tend to display some aberration of it, typically monochrome.
Dear Leader's first term saw a lot of new flagpoles installed in the suburbs. Spindly, short, ultra-cheap poles, placed way too close to the street or sidewalk. With flags so large that they nearly touch the ground. Flag in your face, flag as a confrontation, as a challenge. Those flags are red flags for sure.
Also a bad sign: households who feel that one flag is good, but a dozen miniature flags are better, and both is best of all.
It's not a good design, anyway, according to the principles of vexillology. We should replace it after the civil war.
I had this conversation with an American recently. They said their country had become an embarrassment and source of anger for all of his people. They were absolutely against almost everything the government had been doing for years. They still loved what it was supposed to stand for, but had no idea how to show it or even if to show it.
Tap for spoiler
It was a Jewish-American, they were talking about Israel.
I want to put a flagpole in my yard to fly the American flag, but I want to fly the Ally Pride flag under it. I want it as a reminder that the flag doesn't just represent the assholes.
My wife won't let me, because she thinks it will make us a target. To me, that's the reason I want to do it.
She hasn't said yes yet, but I'm still working on it.
I'm sure you could find this sentiment among a lot of people from a lot of different places.
The US has always fallen well short of its stated ideals. Many people who have national pride don't know shit about fuck. Don't want to talk about racism. Don't want to talk about the problems of capitalism.
The US immediately fell short of its stated goals. You know, with that whole "all men are created equal" thing while raping their slaves
When I see an American Flag, I immediately think "This fucking redneck is going to shoot my trans ass and claim I was trying to indoctrinate his kids."
The only time you'll see me flying the flag is at full staff a couple days after his obituary. A couple of days because I'll have to buy a pole and a flag, but it will be very proudly at the top.
If someone has just one flag, that's ok. It's when they have dozens of the things that I find them suspicious.
After the COVID trucker protests, the Canadian flag became a red flag.
After the ongoing Albertan separation scandal, the Canadian flag has been redeemed and the Albertan flag is a red flag.
The right has owned patriotism. Every American flag I see is no different from a maga flag
Now the US sees the flag in the same way the rest of the world has always seen it.
The French used to look upon it with respect
It's always been a red flag.
Marx begs to differ
It always was cringe AF.
No, but we want to fly a red flag.
It is a red flag.
And a white flag, and a blue flag.
The red in the flag represents blood. Should the nation have a civil war, there will only be red.
It will be the choice of good people whether the stars and blue returns, or is replaced by something else entirely.
A commie flag? If only.
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