politics

I'm 45, and my nationality is nothing to be proud of.

I'm grateful for having been born here, but I can't find it within myself to be prideful over something that I had no control over such as the circumstances of my birth. I have a different concept of pride. I'm prideful for things that I've done such as reaching milestones, accomplishing goals, etc. I don't hate this country, but I definitely don't believe we're the best, but I definitely don't believe we're the worst. For what it's worth, it's my home and I plan on staying.

Does not help the movement most inclined to wrap themselves in a flag just stormed the capital.

Like one from abroad old enough to remember the old idea of America as something to aspire to:

It's kind of like losing your older brother to a crippling drug addiction (almost literally). You know that he wasn't always perfect, but he was always there. Nowadays you are never sure how he will act, sometimes showing signs of how he used to be, but more often bring a disappointment.

On a political and governmental level, I'm not proud at all personally. There is very little that our government did that I think should inspire the rest of the world to follow suit. Maybe stopping a few terrible things that it should have never been doing in the first place, but that's hardly anything to be proud of when it's long overdue and with still plenty of other bad things that it's starting or failing to stop.

But as far as the people who live here go, there are a lot of them that I am proud to know and be around. There are some great people here, and maybe they are partially influenced by some good deeds from the country's past, or at least the ideals it promoted. Not government leaders thag would affect things on a large scale, but genuinely good people who make things more bearable for those in their vicinity. Ironically some of them are in demographics that this country is not currently respecting or defending enough.

Because it's not about the soil, it's about the bond with your people, your history, your culture. There's a good kind of national pride we don't have - the kind that says "look what we've built! Look how we trust each other, look how we all keep things clean together, look how even when we disagree we work towards the goals that matter"

We don't have much trust in our people, our history is short and brutal, and our culture is just bits and pieces of other cultures. We definitely don't have a national goal, we rarely even feel a part of our local community. Our greatest connection is to work, and they'll squeeze out everything they can then cut us loose in a heartbeat

And that all leaves people starving for an identity, which is very exploitable

I wonder why, could it have to do with these last few years that were batshit insane, with a leader that fits in terms of batshit insane?

I lost the last bit of patriotism I had left after the Sandy Hook massacres & all our elected officials did jack shit. Murica is only #1 in white collar crime these days. Our politicians are paid off shills. Wall St is run by the absolute worst scum of the earth bc they know we do nothing to them no matter how many laws they break. SCOTUS is fucking worthless & the country is comprised of about ~35% of the world’s stupidest people.

We need a revolution. That is the ONLY solution at this point but because of all the stupid, we’d much rather fight amongst ourselves than get off our lazy butts and fight the real evils in this world. It’s sad times but I do hope I live long enough to watch it all burn down.

There's a lot I love about America: the natural beauty, some of the people, access to a lot that most of the rest of the world doesn't have similar access to, but I've never bought into the "Proud to be an American" schtick. Our gov't can get fucked, regardless of who the President is. There's corruption that goes way beyond that office.

Extremely proud is a completely different category than "proud". Although I think the title still rings true without the "extremely" quantifier. Even those of us who are older and were proud of what our country represented when we were younger have seen through the lies and are pretty damned disappointed.

Well, gee, I wonder why. Could it be that it's been a shitstorm of fuckery their entire lives? Nah, that can't be it....

I'm in the middle age bracket there and completely agree with them as do most of my similar aged peers.

This seems like a pretty nebulous concept with a lot of wiggle room for interpretation.

Like, am I proud of having been born in the specific place I was and having the parents that I do? I ain't had shit to do with that. I'm American by accident. I'm no more proud of being American than I am of being 5'10": it's just a box I fit into, honestly somewhat uncomfortably. I'm proud of the work I do and the achievements I've... achieved, but nothing I've done would be impossible anywhere else. If anything, there are parts of the world where what I've achieved would have been easier to do and where my preferred lifestyle is more widely accepted (for context, this refers to that I don't like cars, don't own or want to own one, and choose to get around by bike and transit instead) (a friend of my dad's recently told him that I "need a European girlfriend" because "American women don't understand guys like him:" for the record, I've never met this woman).

Anyway, pointless rambling aside, America is just one country out of hundreds in the world, and I don't see why I should feel all nationalistic about having been born in it.