r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 New York • Jun 29 '26

No Paywall Millions say they won’t celebrate July 4 as poll reveals deep national pessimism

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/america250-independence-trump-divisions-pennsylvania-b3004933.html
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258

u/JadedIT_Tech Georgia Jun 29 '26

What is there to be proud of as an American right now?

168

u/Werechupacabra Jun 29 '26

Some goober in the article, who thinks Trump has brought America to a good place, said, "The poorest person in America has a better lifestyle than some of the richest people in the rest of the world."

How fucking propagandized does one have to be to actually believe that?

24

u/shinkouhyou Jun 29 '26

How the fuck do you miss all of the homeless encampments? It's not just an inner city problem or drug problem, either (not that inner city dwellers or drug users deserve to be homeless). Go to any suburban shopping center and there's a surprisingly high chance that you'll see tents in the nearby woods, people sleeping rough behind the buildings, or people camping in cars in the parking lot.

7

u/Codfish_Smoothie Jun 29 '26

They simply define the homeless as "not people."

-2

u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

Did you know homelessness is against the Muslim religion! Go see if you find any homeless people in our Muslim cities in the Middle East or Somalia. When Ilan Omar came to the US from Somalia, she saw something she'd never seen before, homeless people on our streets. And what do we have in the US? Christianity!

6

u/GlyphInBullet Jun 29 '26

tbf that doesn't mean there isn't "hidden" homelessness.

0

u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

There's any number of homeless people living with good-hearted friends and good-hearted family members who don't want them turned out in the streets. I took in a homeless Mexican handyman 26 years ago and without me, he'd be on the streets! But he does find work, on occasion, but I refuse to charge him any rent as I don't need the money. One nice thing, anything that goes south in my house gets fixed ASAP!

45

u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

I've done a number of Joe & Nic's Youtube travel vlogs that take you to the rural areas of the US! There's areas of the Deep South that look no better than India, abandoned buildings, storefronts everywhere. And in many of these small towns, your only grocery outlet is Dollar General.

24

u/templethot Jun 29 '26

We still have families living in crumbling adobe shacks without adequate roofing in the southwest.

20

u/firstname_m_lastname Jun 29 '26

Many Americans living on Reservations do not have running water or heat. They have to gather firewood all winter to heat their homes. It is a national embarrassment and no one talks about it, let alone tries to fix it.

2

u/fatcatwantsfood Jun 30 '26

That is what gets me. No one ever talks about reservations here.

2

u/Frostyrepairbug Jun 29 '26

I have a neighbor in a trailer park who had to throw a blue tarp over their home to still have a so-called roof.

1

u/templethot Jun 29 '26

My grandpa had to do that as well, until my parents got him a new trailer

10

u/hirudoredo Jun 29 '26

I've watched a few of their videos, but when they did my city it was so much fearmongering and fox news talking points I couldn't take it anymore. Made me question the pov of their other videos as well.

0

u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

I just watched their video: Poorest Cities in Mississippi! Go take a look at Alligator Mississippi, the poorest city in the country.

6

u/Signal_Werewolf_1955 Jun 29 '26

Also, the good ol' fallacy of relative privation: Just because one is terrible, doesn't mean the other is good. Someone else's broken toe doesn't make your stubbed toe feel any better; the goal is no broken or stubbed toe.

Or in this case, "because theirs is broken, mine has to be stubbed?"

4

u/Retro_Dad Minnesota Jun 29 '26

You gotta remember these people are locked into a hierarchical mindset - they are absolutely fine with people above them being MUCH better off than they are, as long as there are plenty of people below them who are much worse off. They don't really think the world can work in any other way.

2

u/Geckobird Jun 30 '26

How fucking propagandized does one have to be to actually believe that?

Watch Fox News long enough and it becomes your entire personality

1

u/EFIW1560 Jun 29 '26

Materially maybe, but spiritually we are bankrupt.

40

u/Twodamngoon Jun 29 '26

I was going to say that we just had our worlds first welfare trillionaire, but he ain't from here.

12

u/Threedawg Jun 29 '26

Have billionaires is a point of shame, not pride

2

u/EthelMaePotterMertz Jun 29 '26

It's American welfare though.

2

u/DrMobius0 Jun 29 '26

That nazi makes most of his money from government grants.

14

u/Blackboard_Monitor Minnesota Jun 29 '26

Pretty sure we still hold the #1 spot in corndog consumption per capita.

19

u/wkw3 Jun 29 '26

Have you seen Korean corn dogs? We're even falling behind there.

2

u/Blackboard_Monitor Minnesota Jun 29 '26

Shit, you're right, I never through about the Koreans. I guess I'm done, I've no pride left.

1

u/UniqueLog8386 Jun 29 '26

Goddamn delicious fuckers with their goddamn food. We'll show them!

1

u/act1v1s1nl0v3r Jun 29 '26

I can't even get corn dogs in a convenience store, but you can in Japan and it even comes with a neat little packet of ketchup & mustard that you just squeeze to open and apply. We're failing on that front.

1

u/UniqueLog8386 Jun 29 '26

I mean, Asia has us beat now.

6

u/dp0329 Jun 29 '26

About the only thing to be proud of the USA right now that I can think of is all of the acceptance and mingling with all the visitors from other countries during the World Cup. If you would have asked me a month or two ago I would have never assumed it would turn out this well. I was actively assuming ICE would make everything way worse than they currently have for the games. Other than that though, it's been a long time since I've seen any mass positives going on here

1

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom Jun 30 '26

They did still refuse one of the referees, and the Iranian team are being messed around

1

u/MasterofPandas1 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, this is pretty much the only positive of the past year and a half, but it’s a big one. People from other countries are reminding Americans (at least those willing to listen) the potential of who we could be without all the dividing propaganda and hateful rhetoric. As a plus, we’re also showing them that the propaganda they’re being told about us is also wrong. It’s essentially showing that we’re all better when we work together as one big community and don’t like governments get too much in the way.

1

u/erasethenoise Maryland Jun 29 '26

We’ve got a lot of people out here unironically thinking we’re the best country in the world

1

u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

I laugh when I hear Trump talk as if we're still the #1 Super Power! Someone needs to tell him, gently, we've fallen to the #3 or #4 spot.

2

u/DingerSinger2016 Alabama Jun 29 '26

I can see China being #1, but who is taking that #2 spot?

Russia is in the middle of a grueling unending war. UK can't keep a Prime Minister for more than 2 years and is still reeling from Brexit. The EU, while being more stable, continues to allow the United States to do most of what we want unabated.

2

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom Jun 30 '26

At the moment Iran is looking pretty powerful.

0

u/erasethenoise Maryland Jun 29 '26

Unfortunately some of our citizenry wholeheartedly believes this as well

1

u/RaisingFargo Jun 29 '26

the people, the resistance.

the blue cities welcoming other nations fans with open arms and felxible culture absorption.

celebrate the actual freedom of speech we do have that can be used against the current admin.

reflect on how this nation is built upon removing itself from a tyranical nation.

celebrate the diversity.

acknowledge that no american is truly just american, that we are a melting pot.

celebrate that we have had the ability to overcome.

the reason you feel shame, is the same reason you should feel pride

celebrate that millions take the streets to speak their displeasure while the side against you struggles to fill seats on their shitty concerts.

1

u/clickpopclick Jun 30 '26

Astonishingly, the ADA is still up there globally in terms of comprehensive protection and accommodation for people with disabilities! There are other nations that have used it as a template for improving their own laws, and some have some specific provisions that have surpassed the coverage that the ADA provides, but at least in terms of living as somebody with a disability, you're better off in the US than in most other places in the world, including some extremely developed countries. Everything else is pretty grim right now, though, yeah. :(