My Take On The USA's 250th Birthday
I had originally planned on visiting Boston for this particular Fourth of July, but had to cancel when my mom admitted to me that she stole many thousands of dollars promised to me by my dad in exchange for never asking him for money again. When the war with Iran started, I knew the plane ticket prices were going to shoot up as a result and accepted not being able to travel as an inevitability. Then I got the unexpected news that a severe heat wave was going to afflict the entire eastern half of the United States.
Really, this country deserves to have its birthday ruined, especially after the release of the Epstein files thus far and the stupid war that Trump started with Iran. I had heard a lot about how in 1976, the bicentennial celebrations were marred by the Watergate scandal, fallout from Vietnam, among other controversies. I'd hoped this year would be different, but it definitely isn't. We are in a much worse place overall than in 1976.
Growing up, I was taught that this was the best country in the world and that everyone was jealous of us and wanted to come here to be Americans. The history of our war of independence is also taught as a romantic legend like King Arthur And The Round Knights. Over the course of my lifetime, I have seen old white men over twice my age repeatedly make everyone else's lives worse with no consequences. Patriotism at this point is a privilege for old people and those with enough money as opportunities to escape poverty and live as a functioning adult have been taken away from millions. The "best" Americans are defined as aging, white bigots who think almost every other human being exists to serve them and that God chose them to rule the world. AI has functionally killed meritocracy and reduced the American Dream to one of the largest MLM scams to have existed in the history of man.
I try not to give too much into the narrative of American exceptionalism because this is not the only country in the Americas that was founded on slavery and the genocide of natives. However, it is definitely the one that has profited the most and still has the most people who take a perverse pride in our racist atrocities. The United States is the wealthiest and most powerful empire to have existed in the history of man, being a Pandora's box that has unleashed great horrors, but also great gifts, to the rest of the world. In theory, this is the best country in the world, but it isn't. Instead, it resembles something like the Soviet Union in its final years or Russia since then, but much hotter, poorer, and more violent and racist.
Nearly all of the promises made to citizens here by the Constitution have been broken. There are no jobs, oligarchs are actively stealing from the people, and various police agencies (ICE included) are basically hunting people for sport. I feel like the best thing the United States can do right now is implode already and be forced to give away its wealth to the world as a form of reparations. It needs to be reduced to a more "normal" country and never be allowed to tell the rest of the world what to do ever again.
