I am an immigrant. I left what was a reasonably decent life in a terribly flawed country to pick up a much more difficult one in an amazing nation.
I’ve engaged in discussion with many who do not appreciate the country and are quick to disparage it. I find they are often one of three types of people:
1. The ignorant, especially those who have never lived anywhere else and have no basis to compare the many flaws of our great nation on which they choose to focus.
2. The affluent, for whom wealth is such insulation from the opportunity and the camaraderie the country offers.
3. The grifters, both locally bred and foreign born, who seek to augment all that America offers with the coin an advocacy of entitlement, victimhood and blame offer.
If anyone disagrees with the basic proposition, please provide examples of a better society now or in the past. Often people will disagree with something and then make general statements about the entirely that have no basis in reality.
There may be some better instances locally in place or time but I have never seen any country that can claim a consistently better living than in the US.
I’m all for reasonable patriotism and celebrating America, its history, people and values, but this “greatest country on Earth” stuff gives me the ick.
It’s why immigrants flock (ed) here to pursue the American Dream. Not the Communist Dream (nightmare) nor the Socialist Dream (nightmare), nor the European and Scandinavian disasters. Ever notice how the highest ranking members in these aforementioned states are all covert capitalists?
As a first-generation American, I am immensely grateful for everything this great country has afforded me and my family. That gratitude is exactly why I care so much about whether we preserve the civilization that made those opportunities possible.
A joy to read the different perspectives on the American Experiment.
History is so much more complex than an individual ideology or set of values. But from what I've experienced, learned, and read —especially about our core Western values—individualism, liberal democracy, free-market capitalism, the rule of law, and universal human rights—we live in the greatest country on earth.
Imagine what it’s like for a European World Cup fan to return home after seeing the real America. Air conditioning in giant stadiums, Walmarts, and Buc-ees. Warm and welcoming Americans who are the opposite of what their media propagandizes us as. God bless America. Hope we inspire Europeans to protect their homelands from the communists and Islamists who threaten all of us: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/european-world-cup-fans-letter
“That America has been blessed by great statesmen and survived incompetent leaders. It has shaken off the scourge of slavery and witnessed the triumph of the civil rights movement and the defeat of the Nazis.”
———————————————-
The “civil rights movement” was a triumph in the exact same way that Nazi Germany was a triumph.
Just take the word “Jews” out of anything Hitler ever wrote and replace it with “Whites” and that is the civil rights movement.
I am an immigrant. I left what was a reasonably decent life in a terribly flawed country to pick up a much more difficult one in an amazing nation.
I’ve engaged in discussion with many who do not appreciate the country and are quick to disparage it. I find they are often one of three types of people:
1. The ignorant, especially those who have never lived anywhere else and have no basis to compare the many flaws of our great nation on which they choose to focus.
2. The affluent, for whom wealth is such insulation from the opportunity and the camaraderie the country offers.
3. The grifters, both locally bred and foreign born, who seek to augment all that America offers with the coin an advocacy of entitlement, victimhood and blame offer.
If anyone disagrees with the basic proposition, please provide examples of a better society now or in the past. Often people will disagree with something and then make general statements about the entirely that have no basis in reality.
There may be some better instances locally in place or time but I have never seen any country that can claim a consistently better living than in the US.
I’m all for reasonable patriotism and celebrating America, its history, people and values, but this “greatest country on Earth” stuff gives me the ick.
You don't have to love the United States---just as long as you're willing to die for it.
Brava, Bravo Love this USA!
Great essays!
It’s why immigrants flock (ed) here to pursue the American Dream. Not the Communist Dream (nightmare) nor the Socialist Dream (nightmare), nor the European and Scandinavian disasters. Ever notice how the highest ranking members in these aforementioned states are all covert capitalists?
As a first-generation American, I am immensely grateful for everything this great country has afforded me and my family. That gratitude is exactly why I care so much about whether we preserve the civilization that made those opportunities possible.
A joy to read the different perspectives on the American Experiment.
History is so much more complex than an individual ideology or set of values. But from what I've experienced, learned, and read —especially about our core Western values—individualism, liberal democracy, free-market capitalism, the rule of law, and universal human rights—we live in the greatest country on earth.
Imagine what it’s like for a European World Cup fan to return home after seeing the real America. Air conditioning in giant stadiums, Walmarts, and Buc-ees. Warm and welcoming Americans who are the opposite of what their media propagandizes us as. God bless America. Hope we inspire Europeans to protect their homelands from the communists and Islamists who threaten all of us: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/european-world-cup-fans-letter
I have my own take on this...
https://jimgeschke.substack.com/p/world-cup-sleepover
“That America has been blessed by great statesmen and survived incompetent leaders. It has shaken off the scourge of slavery and witnessed the triumph of the civil rights movement and the defeat of the Nazis.”
———————————————-
The “civil rights movement” was a triumph in the exact same way that Nazi Germany was a triumph.
Just take the word “Jews” out of anything Hitler ever wrote and replace it with “Whites” and that is the civil rights movement.