Or, and hear me out, the country that built itself in part on being prepared to meet tyranny with force is the one who ought to actually meet tyranny with force when the time comes. Other countries, which did not do this, have every right to call out hypocrisy and cowardice for what it is, especially after decades of watching the cowards be cowardly.
And no, my country is far from perfect. Surely you see how irrelevant that is to this discussion.
UPDATE: How nice! You understood me after all. You also assumed some facts not in evidence, but in a discussion such as this, that’s likely to happen. I’m not “keen”, I’m merely fucking exhausted.
As a way of calling out the hypocrisy of the people who claim to be all gung-ho to stamp out tyranny from behind the barrel of a gun I have no issue with it […] https://lemmy.world/comment/16821307
That country doesn’t exist anymore, and it hasn’t in generations. Anyone who believes otherwise has been drinking a bit too much of the kool-aid. What we have left is a bunch of rednecks who trot out that line about tyranny to justify holding onto their guns, and otherwise a bunch of fat, happy people who have little to no real idea about what’s going on at home, much less around the world.
Mind you, as you pointed out in my comment elsewhere, I agree that it’s hypocrisy and cowardice, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with expecting people to sacrifice themselves (especially when you’re not willing to put yourself on the line too) for some heavily-propagandized patriotic ideal that is pure fabrication at this point. Especially when the reality is that tyranny has been winning here for a long time and most people seem fine with it as long as things aren’t too uncomfortable for them (which amounts to: they get to drive their big stupid SUVs and watch football and pretend that they’re temporarily-embarrassed millionaires.) The idea of ‘rugged individualism’ has been drilled into this country’s head for at least the last 40 years I’ve been paying attention to politics, not because it comes from the core of our national identity, but because it divides us and hampers efforts to engender class consciousness.
What I’m trying to do here is thread the needle: yes there is hypocrisy and it should be called out, but, as the rest of the sentence you quoted says, it’s also a little bit hypocritical to expect others to do what you aren’t here doing too. I understand the frustration non-Americans feel at the direction this country is going and the implications it has for them, and trust me when I say that some of us feel the same way too. But I’m a disabled man in my 50s, I’m more useful on the information/ideas/inspiration side of things than on the front line.
Or, and hear me out, the country that built itself in part on being prepared to meet tyranny with force is the one who ought to actually meet tyranny with force when the time comes. Other countries, which did not do this, have every right to call out hypocrisy and cowardice for what it is, especially after decades of watching the cowards be cowardly.
And no, my country is far from perfect. Surely you see how irrelevant that is to this discussion.
UPDATE: How nice! You understood me after all. You also assumed some facts not in evidence, but in a discussion such as this, that’s likely to happen. I’m not “keen”, I’m merely fucking exhausted.
That country doesn’t exist anymore, and it hasn’t in generations. Anyone who believes otherwise has been drinking a bit too much of the kool-aid. What we have left is a bunch of rednecks who trot out that line about tyranny to justify holding onto their guns, and otherwise a bunch of fat, happy people who have little to no real idea about what’s going on at home, much less around the world.
Mind you, as you pointed out in my comment elsewhere, I agree that it’s hypocrisy and cowardice, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with expecting people to sacrifice themselves (especially when you’re not willing to put yourself on the line too) for some heavily-propagandized patriotic ideal that is pure fabrication at this point. Especially when the reality is that tyranny has been winning here for a long time and most people seem fine with it as long as things aren’t too uncomfortable for them (which amounts to: they get to drive their big stupid SUVs and watch football and pretend that they’re temporarily-embarrassed millionaires.) The idea of ‘rugged individualism’ has been drilled into this country’s head for at least the last 40 years I’ve been paying attention to politics, not because it comes from the core of our national identity, but because it divides us and hampers efforts to engender class consciousness.
What I’m trying to do here is thread the needle: yes there is hypocrisy and it should be called out, but, as the rest of the sentence you quoted says, it’s also a little bit hypocritical to expect others to do what you aren’t here doing too. I understand the frustration non-Americans feel at the direction this country is going and the implications it has for them, and trust me when I say that some of us feel the same way too. But I’m a disabled man in my 50s, I’m more useful on the information/ideas/inspiration side of things than on the front line.
Me too, man, me fuckin’ too.
I feel you. Let’s be exhausted together. Cheers.