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I’m not often proud of myself or self satisfied in anyway, but one thing I am proud of is my fundamental American-ness. When people are like you’re an arrogant American I’m like “yes. Yes I am.” It actually makes me happy when they say that lol I am American to my core. I was raised on American principles by my father and grandfather who were both good Americans themselves. I’m not confused about what America is. I’m not confused about what an American is or what it means to be one. I have no real desire to learn much about my Irish or German roots. I have no desire to travel outside of America. I mean I have and I will if necessary but like why? You know? I love America. I’m a part of America. I want the best for America. I believe America is worth fighting for. My daughter asked me what it means to be an American and I told her it means you can do whatever the fuck you feel like as long as you’re not harming another person. That’s America. Freedom. Something no one can ever take away from you. No matter what some dweeb in Washington tells you. America is unruly. It’s restless. It’s chaotic. It’s beautiful. Like shockingly breathtakingly beautiful. Reverence for personal liberty. Suspicion of the government. Fear of regulation. Fear of other people’s good intentions. Comfort with disorder over control. America motherfucker. Loud brash chaotic hypocritical argumentative unruly contradictory half finished… I’m proud to be an American.

Replies (67)

Loving a nation-state because you happened to be born there is sad. If you like American principles and morality, cool. Bit thinking it's better than other nation states is just playing into the culture wars that hamper human progress.
↩ replying to HODL
My family migrated to Mexico from America four generations ago, and they're staying there. Not because Mexico is legally freer, but because Mexico is freer in practice because the laws are never enforced. I'm the only one in America. For example ... If you want to build a house i nMexico, you build it. No need to get permits and inspections. Nobody pays income tax, even though there is 30% federal income tax. Want a water well .. you just drill it and hide it. Nobody gets well permits up front. They drill and hope they can get a permit in the future. If not .. oh well. However, the water thing might change with the Mexican federal government declaring ownership of all the water in Mexico, but I presume that those with permits might lose their wells, and those with illegal wells will continue to have them. Guns are illegal, but everyon has them. It's a fairly lawless conutry, and the closest thing to the Libertarian ideal that I've ever lived. People are more concerned about what the Cartels will do than what the government wil do.
The Constitution is one of the greatest papers ever written. However, I think that it’s better to take a state-by-state approach. For example, I don’t think that California is a place anyone should live. But that’s the great thing about the US. The states are different from each other. I hope the US stays that way. Now it’s on the same path as the EU. It’s little by little becoming The Soviet Union.
↩ replying to HODL
Fair. That line was too sweeping. What I meant was…the principles you’re describing (suspicion of authority, comfort with chaos, reverence for liberty) aren’t uniquely American inventions. They show up everywhere humans resist control. We just happened to build a system around them. PNG isn’t America badly executed, it’s a different answer to different problems.
I dont agree with travel part. You should and you must. I mean the USA is beautiful but so is the rest of the world. Maybe it opens your perspective on different cultures... Then you would see that the other cultures are also to admire...
As someone that immigrated to the US and naturalized I'm all in with Ms. America. I'm not especially proud of the our Government leaders, right now and I get by knowing they are but a fleeting moment in the history of our country. This country is my home, it's where my children were born and where I choose to be. I'll stand by democracy and the foundations on which the United States were built. I too am proud to be American. P.S, I agree with an earlier comment that traveling outside the US is a must. It makes me appreciate returning home knowing that American's aren't the only ones dealing with new-world shit.
Same. I don’t love statism, but I do love America. I also love Chicago. I love my family. I love my neighbors. I love my neighborhoods. I love Chopin, the tiny Polish theatre in Wicker Park where I tried my first Pączki and watched a full length film with UChicago students in their native language. I love the tiny Christian college where I meditated with Tibetan monks. I love Ruth Page, the ballet school I went to on Dearborn where I got yelled at in Russian and French by my dance teachers who were often immigrants from the Soviet era. I love Red Bud in Michigan where me and a bunch of my trashy moto friends gather for 4th of July every year to watch dirtcycles race. I love Badlandz where sometimes we fuck each other with paintball guns while we ride ATVs, SxS, and pitbikes. I love the inner city poetry slams where the BIPOC community puts out some of the soulful art I’ve ever encountered. I love Notre Dame, the Catholic college where we light candles in Mary’s Grotto before we watch the best football. I love the New Mexican rez where you certainly are reminded that magic, without a doubt, is real. To be American is to be deeply rooted in a paradoxically collective and ruggedly individualistic culture that outwardly looks vastly different but inwardly means to be wholly aligned with a fundamental value system that says- we love freedom, we love liberty, we love prosperity, and we protect this space that we have carved out as ours despite what we look, speak, or pray like while we welcome, with warmth, others who share in those values. That is humanity at its best. View quoted note →
↩ replying to HODL
No. But I live under state tyranny where I am forbidden from drinking while openly carrying a gun on my hip and another concealed in my shoulder holster while talking shit about the government…but because I manufacture my own firearms, I can do this within 1000 ft of a federally funded school. But state laws vary. If I lived in Nevada, I could drink a beer at the same time, but not here.
I'm down with the positive aspects of what America stands for and symbolizes. As a brit living in Europe there's a lot to like about the forward looking, positive, competitive mindset that is generally intrinsic to your culture. I'm less down with some of the lack of self-awareness that can show up, and I'd say in general travelling to gain experience of other cultures is highly enlightening and not to be underestimated if you want to appreciate what's going on the world and how other people are both similar and different to oneself. Just my two pennies ;)