Stop oppressing me.

OT: You should be proud of being American, if you aren't. There's a lot of faggotry surrounding the idea that "You shouldn't be proud of being born in random circumstances". Fuck you. You can and ought to be proud of contributing to a country which has been at the forefront of the world since the 1930s, and you should be proud that your countrymen of all stripes have a comparatively brilliant record on tolerance, liberty and free expression. Is America perfect? Not by a long-shot, but pride comes from the process of development; the journey of improvement, if you want to be a romantic about it.

America doesn't need to be perfect for your pride. Who the fuck takes pride in being handed something perfect, anyway? At the very least you should be fucking grateful and willing to make an effort to contribute to its improvement.

Cause at least I know I'm free

>how to spot a colonist

Quote from: Meta Cognition on July 04, 2015, 08:58:33 AM

There's a lot of faggotry surrounding the idea that "You shouldn't be proud of being born in random circumstances". Fuck you.

Gotta disagree with you there. I applaud being proud of something that you have accomplished or somehow contributed to, but being proud of the fact that you just so happened to be born in some part of the world? That's just pointless, in my opinion.

The point is that nobody is proud of being born in a specific set of borders in the first place. When people say "I'm proud to be an American", they don't mean they start welling up because of the line separating them from Mexico.

Pride in one's country comes from your own ability to contribute to its development, and that country's pre-existing capacity to produce a civil society in the first place. People are proud of being born into America, Britain, Canada, Sweden--whatever--precisely because their countrymen have figured out a relatively decent way of moulding relatively decent people. I'm proud to be British because my country has a comparatively solid record at maintaining a decent social ethos.

With how much grief the US gets, i'm still proud to be in this country.

MURICA!

God bless our soldiers for murdering all those Indians and kicking them off their land..

A couple of issues:

I) Disease was the primary killer.
II) Natives were murdering each other long before the Europeans got there.
III) The Natives had no concept of private property.

If you want to paint the American military as a bunch of murderers, at least put some fucking effort in.

I wouldn't say I'm proud, because there's a lot of shit old America did that I don't agree with.  But I can respect how far America has come.

Is America perfect? Not by a long-shot, but pride comes from the process of development; the journey of improvement, if you want to be a romantic about it.

Well, I can only be truly proud of perfection, or near-perfection. What you're describing is more akin to patriotism--which may seem pedantic, but I don't think you have to be a "proud patriot", do you? I don't think it would be oxymoronic to say that. It's like saying you don't have to be a happy janitor.

"Pride" implies contentment, and to be content with America at this moment would be... complacent, in my opinion.

So no, OT: I'm not proud to be an American.

Or, at least, I would say you're applying the word in too static a context. It's perfectly reasonable to be content with how far a country has come and still desire change.

I'm far too cynical for that. Am I elated that gays have the right to marry in this country, now? Yes. Am I proud of it?... No. Not only is this an issue that we should have resolved decades ago, it should have never been a social issue in the first place.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is just that--the civil rights act of 1964. Within my grandparents' lifetimes, it was okay to discriminate based on race, color, etc. I'm not at all proud of that. Frankly, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed that it's only been fifty years since then. It hasn't even been 150 years since slavery was abolished in this country (granted, the 150th anniversary of its ratification is come December). That's a source of shame for me.

There's not much good that we've done that doesn't involve
1. Undoing a bad
2. Something we should have sorted out decades ago

So maybe I'm just a cynic, but it's really difficult for me to be proud of someone because they don't smear excrement all over the walls anymore, especially when they've graduated to smearing it on other people's faces instead.

i try to abstain from nationalistic feelings. i have a healthy respect for america's hegemony and i love our gorgeous country, but i am not proud to be an american all the same.

I'm proud that my country is the top hat of your country.