I hate my country, because I love humanity.
It's as simple as that.
Being born on US soil doesn't mean I have to allow myself to condone every constant failure of the nation I had the misfortune of spawning in. None of us are obligated by birth or circumstance to simply accept the catastrophic level of incompetent and vile governance that's happened since this country was incepted.
I know what my country was built on. That's why I hate it. I don't care about "America". I care about humankind. Why is it so difficult for some to simply value human lives in a way that actually matters and isn't founded in rhetoric or falsehood?
Don't let anyone tell you that you should "love your country" for what it is when there's work to be done. I love humanity, for what we can be. I will not "love" the HYPOTHESIS of what America "could be". I will not love nor accept the inherent hypocrisy of this government's actions at every turn. I will not swallow the propaganda and act as if nothing is wrong just because I'm "safe" from some hypothetical threat.
Why should I be grateful for this "freedom"?
Why should any of us?
Simply because we're not all living in a war zone? That's a low bar.
We are not free.
Not until indigenous people, black people, brown people of all backgrounds and ethnicities, asian people, queer people, disabled people, impoverished people, all marginalized communities that diverge from the white, cissexist, ableist expectation can all be free.
America is no land of freedom and individual greatness. It's not the fruitful harvest of opportunity that we're fist fed in school. Only for those in privileged circumstances is there any kind of freedom, and even then it's only an illusion.
I hate my country, because I love humanity.
