If Americans could read

The US has been drunk on the delusion of how noble and benevolent we consider ourselves since World War II.

We like to conveniently forget that at the time, many Americans looked up to the Nazis and were embracing eugenics. We were legally sterilizing subjective "undesirables," often without their knowledge, and we had no plans to do shit until the Axis, already steeped in conflict, decided to attack us directly from half a world away, committing one of the greatest self-inflicted tactical blunders in history thankfully.

America is all about subjugation, exploitation, and genocide. It just got a propaganda team to soften the way in which it talks about it since the mid 20th century.

At the end of the day, that's the magic of America: bullshitting. Lying. To ourselves and others. From "all men* are created equal" (Only applies to wealthy Caucasian land owners) to "manifest destiny" (genocide the people that already live here because its our destiny) to "separate but equal"(even apex American bullshitters couldn't say this one with a straight face) to "turning the bull loose"(get back to work slaves, this isn't a society) to "don't ask, don't tell" (we refuse to accept you as a human being, but hey come die gruesomely so our greedy fucks can access foreign oil markets). Our bullshit machine runs so deep, we are a ~~nation~~ capital exploitation farm that practically doubles as a religion.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26322647/#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20members,upheld%20such%20laws%20in%201927.

People also forget that the people who came to the New World to escape religious persecution were being persecuted because their beliefs were so radical that no one wanted to deal with their bullshit anymore.
- Yep!
  And we're still the sexuality phobic weirdos of the developed world, which stems out of our puritanical backwards forerunners.
  Glorification of gruesome, bloody hyperviolence all day baby, we'll show it on a loop on the news for the kiddos! Don't forget to like and subscribe!
  One flaccid dick or vagina in public, on the other hand, and everyone loses their minds!
  This is an us thing. We are the prudes of the developed western world. “Omg a boobie AAAAHHHH my child is scarred for life!“
- Radical beliefs aside, religious persecution was the style of the day, anything but Anglican was asking for trouble.
One of the best examples of U.S. government PR is the rebranding of the Department of War to the Department of Defense, even though its function didn't change. People don't like war, but call it defense and you're golden.
- "Defense companies"
To be fair, every nation feels good about themselves. Be proud of the good things, neglect the bad things. Who would want to be the bad guy? This is how human mind works.
- Except that's not the case at all. Lots of people in lots of nations will gladly tell you their country is shit.
- So what is Iceland's equivalent to the whole "being the most prolific funder and enabler of fascist terrorism in human history" that they are (supposedly) neglecting?
many Americans looked up to the Nazis
And the Nazis were looking up to Americans! House on fire and all that...
we had no plans to do shit until the Axis, already steeped in conflict, decided to attack us directly from half a world away
This is not accurate. "We" (specifically FDR) were already keeping Britain afloat financially in their war with Germany and were already literally fighting German U-boats in the Atlantic prior to Pearl Harbor. Even as far as Pearl Harbor was concerned, we were waging economic warfare against Japan by cutting off their oil and steel in response to their depredations in China - which embargo precipitated their sneak attack in the first place.
Hello, CIA tip line?
This post right here /s
This is revisionist tripe. The real reason we were slow to enter the war was that doing so was hugely unpopular among the two largest ethnicities in the US; Irish-Americans and German-Americans, for very obvious reasons. There were other reasons as well, but it's just a fact that Irish-Americans, many of whom would still have a living memory of the famine, were hostile towards the British, and German-speaking Americans, of whom there were millions, entire towns in fact, had no desire to go to war against Germany.
You leave this out because it's not convenient to your narrative.
But American Exceptionalism

Stolen from another post felt relevant

The Boston massacre was basically an anti-police riot that turned into a police shooting. The police were acquitted of the murder, which lead to more protests and an eventual revolution. Anytime someone says "real Americans support the police," I point back to that.

The local police in the nearby "pieceful" (verry rich) subarb tend to portray themselves as "just folks helping out (we also enforce bylaws)". the local city tends to have cops blatently break the law.
The antagonism is easy to see in the city. In the former, the former gives off a diffrent and hidden kind of oppression that Im in a position to only see the outer edge of (i dont live there).
Well put. I'd never thought of it that way.

points to Great Britain

I learned it from you

I have never seen the phrase "the tail wags the dog" used more aptly as with with the US-UK power dynamic
- Yeah totally - wait which is the tail in your mind?

Just because America hasn't lived up to its values doesn't mean that the values are wrong

Dude. Our constitution said black people were 3/5ths of a human.
- Exactly, thanks for supporting my point.
  Does it still? Or did we change the Constitution to better reflect our values?
- technically it was your Supreme Court
- To be fair though, the 3/5ths compromise wasn't about black people being 3/5ths of a human. Free states didn't want to count enslaved persons for the population when determining representation in congress while Slave owning states wanted to count each slave as part of the population and thus have a higher representation in congress than they should.
  By your argument the slave owning people were wanting to count black people as a human and the anti slavery people didn't. If the free states had gotten their way then black people, by your assessment, wouldn't have been counted as people at all but would have likely caused the emancipation of slaves much much earlier.
Our values are changing. The speaker of the House says that the separation of church and state does not exist. Second in line to the presidency.
Our history is being rewritten. Just look at the reinterpretation of the 2nd amendment after Reagan.
- And? All that has happened before.
  Actual President William McKinley felt America had a duty to spread Christianity to the rest of the world.
  And in my opinion Dred Scott is a much greater travesty of constitutional law.
  Again, just because the country has failed to uphold its values does not mean that the values are worthless

Opens history book on Europe/Asia/Africa/South America, etc. insert literally any place in the world. Wow! I'm funny on Lemmy! So dumb, good people in every country in the world. And just about every country has done unspeakable things to get to where they are today. Most of the time it's not because the good people even want to be involved it's because the rich make it happen. Blame the rich...they are the problem in every country.

You're not wrong, every country has done fucked shit. I think the point of this meme is to bring Americans down to that realisation that applies to their country too, tho.
- With an insulting title like this post has, I don't think that's the point at all.
- Everybody knows. There's nothing new under the sun
- I think the point of this meme is to bring Americans down to that realisation that applies to their country too
  Because Americans don't know? We get taught about this in school. If you want to find a country that buries its atrocities, try Japan
- I can't imagine they don't know.
Which country dropped 2 nuclear bombs again? I always forget.
- Singling out the US from WW2 seems odd. It was the one with Nazis, you know? Also during that war Japan did some absolutely despicable shit, like Nanjing massacre, there were the Nazis which, yeah no need to explain that one, USSR had their own massacres and "forced relocations" of peoples, there was the fascist Italy which at least in Africa did awful shit, Croatia had Ustaše and their own holocaust, Lithuania same deal, don't remember off the bat what horrible shit Brits did but knowing Brits you know there's something there, Finland had horrific prison camps for Soviet prisoners...
  Looking at WW2 and coming to the conclusion that the US specifically is bad is weird. There's so much fucked up shit done by almost everyone.
  Also tbh I've never really understood what the big difference between using nukes and just bombing the absolute shit out of a population with conventional weapons is. Nowadays the difference is that you don't want to trigger a nuclear exchange, but that wasn't really a case then. One difference is that it's new and different weapon, but that's not very concrete. Radiation and lasting effects is more concrete, but also, unexploded shit manages to still kill people. You'll have horrific after effects from conventional weapons too.
  This is something I've never understood but would be glad if someone explains. It's often just said as self-evident thing but I've never seen the argument spelled out. Might help me change my mind about it if someone does.

This tweet is banned in Texas and Florida.

As an illiterate American, I could not read that meme and it's only by chance through random mashing of the keys that I was able to craft this response.

That's another quantum physics marvel.
- Want to see it again?
  Source: average American student.

And the textbooks have been marginally sanitized even then.

There is a crazy amount of cognitive dissonance in this thread. Show me a single other modern society that didn't have serious and deeply ingrained racial and societal problems from the start. We can only move forward and do better, which is happening slowly. Put a magnifying glass on any country's past and you'll drum up all sorts of nasty shit. But people just love to shit on the US so here we are

conservative attitude is to deny or diminish anything wrong with history. same can be seen in Turkey. I think what is criticized is that denial, not that there was anything wrong. because as you said every country has their skeletons.
You only missed the point by an observable universe's length.
As someone whose government disappeared 43 students who were protesting in 2014, and opened fire on defenseless civilians protesting the summer Olympics in 1968 killing upwards of 350, I say you're not wrong. Hi, neighbor.

Oh, so I'm the only one who gets in trouble when I start referencing Malcom X?

Nope.

If Americans told the truth*

They can read it was about taxes but they won’t get to read about the colonies being pissed about fair treatment to the Natives for their help in the 7 years war (fair is relative: read it as respecting their borders and claims to America)

So, in order, taxes evasion, war, secession, wars, racism, wars, poor labour laws, wars and racism again?

Seems to be a pattern

Joshua Fit For Battle - Contents Of An American History Class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP862vW9WJE

Relentless imperialistic fucks
Eye glassed with drugs of power and conquest
Greed kills
Establish a history relationship
And turn around and stab them in the back
Guns and disease destroyed a whole culture
Victims on their backs, rotting
Seeping, suffering
Suffering, suffering
Suffering
This is our fucking history
This is our fucking history
History repeats itself and always will

Thank you for transcribing the lyrics, because I couldn't understand them in the first 30 seconds and I wasn't willing to continue listening after that.
The message is good, the instrumentalists are proficient, but the vocals are painful. It was less "Rage Against The Machine" and more "Tantrum Against The Melody".

That book is: https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/

I have that book, but can’t read it. /s
- Because you were homeschooled by religious fundamentalists, or because you went to a public school controlled by them?

Hurrr duurrr am lemmy user I hate america huurrr duurrr

Your alternative is what? China? Russia? Iran?

Have fun living there buddy. I'm staying in the west.

Oh IDK, maybe something like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, etc..... or any of THESE?
Best countries to live in 2023.
You think America is the only county in "the west"?
- I think some context should be added on how hard it is to move to those countries though.
  Sweden typically only has around 100k-150k immigrate per year.
  Denmark had a record high immigration in 2022 of 121k people.
  Norway typically has around 48k immigrate each year with 2023 being a big year at 53k.
  New Zealand also had a record immigration year in 2023, 195k people which was up 220%.
  The US has 1-3 million immigrants per year.
  The USA has a total population of 331 million and ~50.6 million are immigrants (15% of the population).
  Sweden has a total population of 10.4 million and ~2.15 million are immigrants (20% of the population).
  Denmark has a total population of 5.8 million and ~650k are immigrants (11% of the population).
  Norway has a total population of 5.4 million and ~720k are immigrants (13% of the population).
  New Zealand has a total population of 5.1 million and ~1.4 million are immigrants (27.5% of the population).
  If you're wanting to look at immigration from the USA here's how many Americans live in each of those countries.
  Sweden - 22k
  Denmark - 9.6k
  Norway - 10.2k
  New Zealand - 27.6k
  Those may be some of the best places to live in the world, but there are more immigrants from other places living in the USA than the total combined population of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and New Zealand. If they'd open up the doors I'm sure a lot of American's would love to move, but until then it seems like a case of pulling the ladder up behind them or cutting the rope bridge after crossing.
- Great for people born in these countries. Now what about the rest of the world?
  Winning the birth lottery isn't an achievement. Trying to make the world better - is.
  And that's not to shame nordic countries for their achievement - they're doing most things right - but their challenge is so much easier compared to the U.S that it's ridiculous to compare them. Sweden doesn't need to face ISIS or Bin Laden committing terror on their territory or threatening their countries existence (although sweden's r@pe statistics say they do have a problem...)
Being critical of your countries past and/or present actions doesn't mean you hate it. America is far from perfect but I still love it.
- I 100% agree
  But captioning your post with "If Americans Could Read" says otherwise. And the general opinions on Lemmy say otherwise. People here hate America, hate the west, and are against everything the west values.
  And to these people my comment is relevant.

man americans are an aberration of this world: literate ones, let alone illiterates ..

Huh. After all it is. Keep going then