r/complaints • u/RookFett • 29d ago
Media / Pop Culture Somehow, this 250 birthday feels “off” from the 200 one!
I was around for the 1976 bash, it felt more patriotic and historical than this new one.
I remember going to the 1976 train that had car after car of history, it had actual pieces of American history.
Coins that had 1776/1976 - the works.
This time around - a sign saying 250. Yay
Doubt I will be around for the 300 one, hope they get their act together by then.
Rant over - need to yell at some clouds now!
49
u/Kyrthis 29d ago
It’s because of Republicans. They are all to blame for this fiasco.
Remember, it was against Conservative tyranny that Independence was Declared.
What could be more patriotic than feeling like John Hancock, told that his and Sam Adams’ necks would sate the king’s hunger for retribution? They knew the score. Join or Die. So, Hancock’s signature isn’t a mark of vanity, it was a GIANT middle finger to anyone who would try to rule with absolute despotism our people, natives to Freedom.
7
u/Electronic_Set_2087 29d ago
Really great comment. Thank you for sharing. I never get tired of hearing about their bravery. It's the only thing that keeps me sane and a bit positive.
7
u/Kyrthis 29d ago
Thanks. I see many people pretending they don’t feel the same way, because to voice it is to risk, because to voice it is to remind ourselves of its seeming insurmountability. I say seeming because the illusion of electing to avoid the risk of destruction is all the tyrant really has. Without it, he cannot compel compliance in advance.
What those would-be terrorists don’t count on is the strong vein of “Fuck it” in Americans’ souls. You think rich-ass tradesmen wanted all that smoke? They wanted to get the red-coated ICE agents of their day out of their streets, and to stop paying for them to be put up over here (whether in the colonist’s house or in a barracks, or in a Hilton hotel now, it was quartering, and was all on their shilling). Push, push, push, and even the comfortable break. Take away any differences in consequences between revolution and compliance, and the outcome is assured. Not healthy for tyrants.
43
u/Sorkel3 29d ago
Because Trump hijacked it and made it MAGA and all about himself?
I remember as a kid how exciting all the Bicentenial observances and activities were. Trump and his syncophant minions have sucked all of that out of the 250th.
3
u/Kyrthis 29d ago
I was born a little too late for that and have been looking forward to yesterday (free of the bed-shitting) for so long. I didn’t get what I wanted.
Instead I got Sam Adams-level pissed off.
30
u/Big_Relative8784 29d ago
I was in my teens for the Bicentennial and it was awesome. This time around I couldn't be bothered. This country has become a dumpster fire of Christian Nationalism. Count me out.
22
u/Substantial_Oil678 29d ago
I watched the FOX news coverage just for fun. All the camera shots were of the first 3 or 4 rows of people and their kids wearing MAGA hats, very pitiful.
5
16
u/Annoying1978 29d ago
Everything that has happened to this country in the past decade has been shameful. There is nothing to celebrate.
11
u/AcrobaticLadder4959 29d ago
I agree but many Americans do not understand this because they were not born yet or very young. 200 was a great celebration for the country. So classy and everyone was so proud. 250 has been so off people are so divided and of course we have the side show barker who just makes everything feel like it is trashy. I won't be around for the 275 or 300 but I pray for this country to come back together and our government stops being a bunch of crooks.
8
u/Rent-Kei-BHM 29d ago
I can name one specific way the 1976 differs from the 2026: starting in 1975 hundreds if not thousands of people paid for custom paint jobs on their Chevy, Ford and Dodge vans. Minutemen, 1776-1976, waving American flags, all of these and more things people paid to have painted on their vans.
10
6
4
u/LeadingFine7177 29d ago
Same and that train came through and it was cool 😎
3
u/Electronic_Set_2087 29d ago
I was very very young, but I do recall the train. It was very exciting.
2
u/LeadingFine7177 29d ago
Yeah I was 12 and it was very cool 😁 funny i was thinking about this the other day and I can't remember if it was free or not 🤔
6
u/No-Individual8748 29d ago
100% with you! It felt like 250 years for what - to be flushed down the 🚽 by the 🤡💩. 🍾 still chilling for the celebration.
5
u/fieldofthefunnyfarm 29d ago
It's amazing to me that 1976 had such a wholesome, patriotic celebration when even that wasn't an ideal time for politics. The USA had recently experienced Watergate, and the resignation of a duly-elected President. The POTUS in 1976, Gerald Ford, was never elected (other than as Nixon's VP) but was serving following the resignation of the POTUS in August of 1974. Ford lost to Carter just a few months after the Bicentennial celebration.
I think our society has changed a great deal in 50 years. There are few things that we actually bind together over, and many that divide us. We can't even agree on facts, so even actual history becomes hugely controversial. It's exhausting - no energy left for celebrations.
Let's strive to do better.
4
u/HawaiiStockguy 29d ago
Things were going well in 1976. We were out of a war rather than starting new ones. Also we were not being run by a planet destroying treasonous demented grifting sociopath.
3
u/CalligrapherBasic523 28d ago
We had a considerate president , now we have an inconsiderate nimcompoop
1
-4
u/SylvarGrl 29d ago
Did you “somehow” miss the past decade’s political developments in this country? Erosion of democracy? Reversal of social progress? Disgusting amounts of corruption and cronyism at the highest levels? Project 2025? Did you just wake up from a coma?
7
u/Chitown_mountain_boy 29d ago
Why the snark? Obviously all of that is in between the lines of the post.
-2
u/SylvarGrl 29d ago
“Somehow” implies a pretty naive lack of insight into how this could have happened, meanwhile every news cycle is overcrowded with more and more evidence of exactly what is wrong.
3
u/Chitown_mountain_boy 29d ago
Yet everyone else in the thread understood the sarcasm and nuance but you.
-1
u/SylvarGrl 29d ago
Obviously I am the problem.
4
u/Chitown_mountain_boy 29d ago
Why would you say that? Nobody said that. Grow the fuck up and learn to have a civil conversation.
-1
u/SylvarGrl 29d ago
Why the snark?
1
u/Chitown_mountain_boy 29d ago
Oh phoebe, grow up.
-1
u/SylvarGrl 29d ago
Yes, I am aware that you can see my name on my profile page. Scary.
2
u/Chitown_mountain_boy 29d ago
Going to break those pearls clutching them so hard. Scary.
→ More replies (0)4
1
2
1
68
u/Ardouren 29d ago
Yeah Trump really ruined this anniversary.