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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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Ask Lemmy
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I left America and I sometimes struggle not to be self-loathing about it. I love a lot of American-made culture, but it pains me to see people who prefer the giant trucks, the myth of "rugged individualism", and the false machismo around guns, misogyny, and nationalistic tendencies.
I like a version of America that probably never actually existed beyond the imaginations of a minority of us. Those old world Enlightenment ideas melded with the optimism of the new are still attractive to me. I still can't listen to this sort of thing without getting a little swept up in it. I'll never make a proper cynic, I fear.
By all means like what you like, and it's nice if you like American stuff - but we have more to offer than just crutches for fragile egos, and it doesn't take a disillusioned seppo to see it for what it is.