a million pieces/segments sneering at hasan piker and the co-chair of the DSA, meanwhile a republican congressional candidate in upstate new york named peter oberacker is the grandson of an actual nazi germany soldier and his former staffer was part of the 'i love hitler' young GOP group chat
Should everyone be proud of where they come from? Probably not.
I don't think being proud of your ancestry or heritage should be the default setting. In fact, we should look back with a critical view and criticize where we should and learn where appropriate. Humans tend to suck, you know? So we should acknowledge that and not ignore the faults of our nature.
Thing is, you could very easily be a very proud German AND proud of your family and still say "yeah, I'm not so proud of my country and family between 1939 and 1945"
I've never understood the concept of "being proud of your country" at all, to be honest. Like, you as an individual have such a vanishingly insignificant impact on your country as a whole that anything you may have contributed is pretty much irrelevant. This applies doubly so if you're below the age of, say 30 or 40, or if you're being "proud" of something your country did before you came of age, as you literally didn't contribute anything whatsoever and just happened to be born into it.
The obvious exception is if you are the supreme dictator-for-life and singlehandedly made every major policy decision for the last 3 decades. Or if you live in Liechtenstein and therefore your individual impact is drastically overrepresented compared to a "regular size" country.
Yeah it feels more healthy to be proud of achievements.
Includes being proud of your children if you have achieved good parenting, but being part of a country, what is the achievement, what is the work you have put in there?
Pay taxes maybe. "I'm proud to pay taxes for country X" doesn't have the same ring to it, though.
I understand where you're all coming from, but at the same time I do believe you can be proud of things you've done nothing for.
For example I don't see anything wrong with being proud of a family member for beating addiction or running a 5k etc.
Edit: Phrasing
I don’t really understand how, personally. I’m not proud of my family at all. I am American, but I am a first generation immigrant, and my family is Belgian and they are responsible for genocide and I mean they have in Belgium in their homes a Massive collection of stuff from the Congo. When I was younger, I didn’t understand what all of that ivory and everything else meant. But when I got older, I learned where it had come from. I’m not proud of that. I’m not proud of my family. I’m not proud of a thing they fucking did in the past.
I don’t really understand how any American right now could be proud of America considering where we are at.
I don’t understand, how German can be proud of themselves. It’s not been long enough. And while my own countries have been a fucked up places. I also saw what the Germans did to Belgium. My family never forgot that and we haven’t forgiven. I don’t understand why anyone fucking should.
Now I don’t believe any person or country should be proud of anything. Elon Musk didn’t make all his money because of America. That took nearly the entire world’s leadership to do. And they are collective of all of us. So I’m not sure what there is to be proud of anymore.
You can be proud of yourself and your own achievements. You can be proud of how your kids or students turned out and, to an extent, their achievements. You can be proud of your teammates (colleagues, coauthors etc) and what your team has done. Being proud of millions of totally unrelated people, or a social construct like a "nation" or a "country" is a big fucking stretch. If you insist on doing that, you also need to be ashamed of all the awful shit your country has done too. And believe me, there will be a ton of shit there. Can't take the credit but eschew the responsibility.
A lot of people came to America because where they was was so shitty, that even a wilderness like America looked good.
We've seen this kind of thing before. This is the Southern Lost Cause propaganda strategy as applied to Nazi Germany.
If you've never been exposed to "The Lost Cause" in school, or haven't yet come to realize what that really means, I urge you to read up on it now.. It wears a thin veil of well-reasoned, even compassionate dialogue, but conveniently leaves out the bigger picture of why and what prompted all this in the first place. Those deploying this kind of speech are like a housecat: rolling over and displaying their belly while seemingly "taking the L", but are actually poised to harm by quietly aligning themselves with the Cause's original narrative.
While we're a far cry from erecting bronze statues and renaming streets in the name of Nazism, I caution everyone to identify this kind of speech wherever you see it. So, stamp it out, decry it as revisionist, and don't let up. Render it impolite, uncouth, and socially unacceptable in any context. Unchecked, this kind of thing slowly creeps in, eventually worming its way into textbooks and everyday chit-chat.
It's almost like their morality is just another tool they'll use or cast aside as needed whenever it's politically expedient or something.
Conservatives are bad people. That's it.
Most what I learn from the USA nowadays is very negative and it seems that some people are totally off the rails over there.
It seems that the general quality of living is way worse than in EU.
Is the reality as bad as the news and these kinds of statements make it look like? We have higher taxes but good quality schools and healthcare is included. How is America average buying power after those?
It is very worrying that a country that often has been viewed as the lighthouse of the western culture seems to struggle so much.
Honestly, I'd imagine it's pretty similar to the EU. Your living experience varies drastically state to state and even city to city. Some cities/states prioritize education, infrastructure, healthcare, etc. and some don't. General political views seem to be the major difference between the EU and the US, from what I've heard, most of the "left" here would be considered center or center-right over there. I've only briefly visited the EU so many of you probably have a much better answer than me and I welcome any corrections.
Yes, USA is an miserable shithole. Personally I've been making long term plans to move to EU. Cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, etc. They are like utopia compared to the fucking parking lot society that I live in.
In August 2026, an old post made by Oberacker resurfaced. The post, from 2015, was a Veterans Day memorial post for his grandfather, who died in the Battle of the Bulge fighting for Nazi Germany. Oberacker, who had served on the state Senate’s Republican antisemitism working group, came under fire for the post. Oberacker later said, "Looking at it through the prism of today, totally different story. Having been on the antisemitism task force for the Senate Republicans, I would look at it a little bit differently now."
Oh, he'd look at it differently now. He didn't say he shouldn't have made the post, or that he wouldn't do it again. Just that he'd squint a little harder, I guess.
Hate to break it to you, most Germans grandparents were at least collaborators. The NSDAP r member cards opened my eyes who of my family was a member. My beloved aunt for. example was a member.
We SALUTE and HONOR Nazis!
-JEW LOVERS according to AIPAC!
AIPAC doesn't care who the supporters are, just that they support them. Much like the "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel" were Zionists who wanted to get the British out of Palestine and found a Jewish state by teaming with the NAZI's and having them send the Jews to their cause. Turns out the NAZI's just didn't care to listen to them.
Fascism isn't widely recognized or condemned from within a fascist society.
Literally a bit from the Office
What happened with the co-chair of the DSA?
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