I am not an elite: I am a high school graduate with no higher education. I am a democratic socialist (yes, I believe socialism can only work if empowered by electoral politics - you can call me a dreamer, etc). I also consider myself a populist. I am also an anti-patriot because I've lived too long to believe that either my birth country (the UK) or my adopted country (the US) are electoral democracies any more. Both countries are dominated by corrupt oligarchs who have gained control over all the major political parties. In the US, we can thank Citizens United for this development; I can't imagine a way back from that.
That said, I appreciate what you do, even when I disagree with you!
July 4th is meant to be about freedom — and the truth is, freedom has never been applied to us all equally.
Patriotism is about more than just loving one's country; it's about active participation, a deep commitment to its betterment, and a profound sense of responsibility towards its people and shared values. It means questioning policies that are unjust, advocating for positive change, and speaking out for the rights and freedoms of all.
- Win Without War email today
My sweetheart and I listened this morning to
"What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?": James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass's Historic Speech
The rest of the Democracy Now! program caused us to reach for the tissues multiple times, moved by powerful stories people taking action in service of liberty and justice for all -- patriotism.
Sorry Matt. Disagree, hard. Patriotism has only ever served inbred generational wealth, that plays war games for profit, sending our kids to the endless meat grinder. I find patriotism to an indication of significant lack of critical thinking. To be “proud” to be whatever, when the only meaningful contribution, is to be born somewhere, absurd. The sooner we can discard these meaningless notions, the better.
I don’t think the anti-populist, anti-trust people are fundamentally wrong about any of their views. What I think they miss is that they are **no better.** Hence you have the right openly grifting and the elitist left fully self-enriching while pretending to have the back of the average man.
The argument for populism kinda is let the average man do better, understanding that the elites will still be filthy rich and enriching, just not quite as much. And holy crap, that sentiment is considered frickin’ communist.
Interesting timing on this one, just because Musk just tweeted yesterday I think, that he thinks only people with children should be allowed to vote. (No word yet on whether that includes dead beat dads of 10 children who publicly denounce you.)
Thank you for this deft summary and important message. I'm reading "The Storm is Here: An American Crucible" by Luke Mogelson about 2020 and the runup to Jan 6, and it's hard to put down because it so well renders what happens when you fool enough folks into thinking that they should give up on politics of persuasion and instead take power through Insurrection.
Most of the time I hear people talk about patriotism, it's in the context of how a war crime isn't a war crime when America does it.
Or how it is our god given right to destroy any governmnet that doesn't place the profits of the American oligarchy above the wellbeing of its own citizens.
Or how to convince poor people to die killing other poor people so the rich people can stay rich.
America is a legal fiction I abide by. I don't love America any more than I love my mortgage.
I care about this planet, its ecosystem, and the human race. How we break down by nation is of much less concern to me.
I think this pessimism is well warranted. We've had the greatest decrease in life expectancy of any OECD country. The erasure of the ongoing Pandemic is emblematic of lack of executive agency in our institutions and profits over people. Moreover, sortition is far more democratic than what we practice.
There's two relatively different variations on this phenomenon. One, is the relatively obvious "citizen of the world", liberal/leftists who performatively dislike the relatively robust small-c conservative part of the US, and see that as part of the GOP tradition because it's not seen as "cool", particularly Online. This branch sort of sees themselves as temporarily embarrassed Swedish citizens (or the equivalent).
I don't find their point of view very compelling or persuasive. It's based on a flimsy premise that doesn't really hold up in practice (you don't see many of these anti-Patriots moving to Europe). It's fundamentally based in the core belief of a unipolar world that is dominated by America, so it's completely safe to be aesthetically anti-American.
The other, older tradition is very simple. It's fear that popular will from Americans will actually hurt the bottom line or force your business to compete. This is an unsubtle power grab dressed up in complicated economic terms that is trying to trick us into thinking people can't decide for themselves what they want.
We need a July Fourth tradition akin to annually watching Christmas movies like A Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life, but with politically-optimistic films about America's slow evolution towards actual democracy. Could start with _Hamilton_.
The (often self-defined) elite feared 'the farmer and the city day-labourer'. Even then, the higher-ups feared the Socialist-Communists among The People.
I am not an elite: I am a high school graduate with no higher education. I am a democratic socialist (yes, I believe socialism can only work if empowered by electoral politics - you can call me a dreamer, etc). I also consider myself a populist. I am also an anti-patriot because I've lived too long to believe that either my birth country (the UK) or my adopted country (the US) are electoral democracies any more. Both countries are dominated by corrupt oligarchs who have gained control over all the major political parties. In the US, we can thank Citizens United for this development; I can't imagine a way back from that.
That said, I appreciate what you do, even when I disagree with you!
July 4th is meant to be about freedom — and the truth is, freedom has never been applied to us all equally.
Patriotism is about more than just loving one's country; it's about active participation, a deep commitment to its betterment, and a profound sense of responsibility towards its people and shared values. It means questioning policies that are unjust, advocating for positive change, and speaking out for the rights and freedoms of all.
- Win Without War email today
My sweetheart and I listened this morning to
"What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?": James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass's Historic Speech
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/4/what_to_the_slave_is_the?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=a1229b879d-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-a1229b879d-192274497
The rest of the Democracy Now! program caused us to reach for the tissues multiple times, moved by powerful stories people taking action in service of liberty and justice for all -- patriotism.
I could not disagree more about the utility of patriotism. Having said that, I have PTSD because I once considered myself a ‘patriot.’
Sorry Matt. Disagree, hard. Patriotism has only ever served inbred generational wealth, that plays war games for profit, sending our kids to the endless meat grinder. I find patriotism to an indication of significant lack of critical thinking. To be “proud” to be whatever, when the only meaningful contribution, is to be born somewhere, absurd. The sooner we can discard these meaningless notions, the better.
I don’t think the anti-populist, anti-trust people are fundamentally wrong about any of their views. What I think they miss is that they are **no better.** Hence you have the right openly grifting and the elitist left fully self-enriching while pretending to have the back of the average man.
The argument for populism kinda is let the average man do better, understanding that the elites will still be filthy rich and enriching, just not quite as much. And holy crap, that sentiment is considered frickin’ communist.
Interesting timing on this one, just because Musk just tweeted yesterday I think, that he thinks only people with children should be allowed to vote. (No word yet on whether that includes dead beat dads of 10 children who publicly denounce you.)
Happy 4th, thanks for the great article.
Thank you for this deft summary and important message. I'm reading "The Storm is Here: An American Crucible" by Luke Mogelson about 2020 and the runup to Jan 6, and it's hard to put down because it so well renders what happens when you fool enough folks into thinking that they should give up on politics of persuasion and instead take power through Insurrection.
I guess it depends on how one defines patriotism.
Most of the time I hear people talk about patriotism, it's in the context of how a war crime isn't a war crime when America does it.
Or how it is our god given right to destroy any governmnet that doesn't place the profits of the American oligarchy above the wellbeing of its own citizens.
Or how to convince poor people to die killing other poor people so the rich people can stay rich.
America is a legal fiction I abide by. I don't love America any more than I love my mortgage.
I care about this planet, its ecosystem, and the human race. How we break down by nation is of much less concern to me.
Right on!
This was an interesting write up, and has inspired me to dive into our nation's history more. Happy 4th of July all!
"Sabotiere" - the inner canister in my ice cream maker also kinda looks like part of a boot. Ice cream trivia aside, thank you for this post.
I think this pessimism is well warranted. We've had the greatest decrease in life expectancy of any OECD country. The erasure of the ongoing Pandemic is emblematic of lack of executive agency in our institutions and profits over people. Moreover, sortition is far more democratic than what we practice.
There's two relatively different variations on this phenomenon. One, is the relatively obvious "citizen of the world", liberal/leftists who performatively dislike the relatively robust small-c conservative part of the US, and see that as part of the GOP tradition because it's not seen as "cool", particularly Online. This branch sort of sees themselves as temporarily embarrassed Swedish citizens (or the equivalent).
I don't find their point of view very compelling or persuasive. It's based on a flimsy premise that doesn't really hold up in practice (you don't see many of these anti-Patriots moving to Europe). It's fundamentally based in the core belief of a unipolar world that is dominated by America, so it's completely safe to be aesthetically anti-American.
The other, older tradition is very simple. It's fear that popular will from Americans will actually hurt the bottom line or force your business to compete. This is an unsubtle power grab dressed up in complicated economic terms that is trying to trick us into thinking people can't decide for themselves what they want.
Huzzah!
We need a July Fourth tradition akin to annually watching Christmas movies like A Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life, but with politically-optimistic films about America's slow evolution towards actual democracy. Could start with _Hamilton_.
The (often self-defined) elite feared 'the farmer and the city day-labourer'. Even then, the higher-ups feared the Socialist-Communists among The People.