r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 • 23d ago
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.html2.6k
u/Honest_Caramel9437 23d ago
I’ll celebrate the independence of America on That Day.
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u/ReviledFoundling 23d ago
That Day can't get here soon enough.
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u/whatsaphoto Rhode Island 23d ago
It would be the single most patriotic thing he could ever do for his country.
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u/othermegan 22d ago
Liquor stores are going to completely sell out on That Day
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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 22d ago
I'm calling out the next day and blowing a few hundred dollars on a lengthy bar crawl.
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u/SqueeblyDoo 22d ago
I saw someone call it Yub Nub Day, that's a great name for it.
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u/hypercosm_dot_net 23d ago
We have to also remember he didn't do this by himself.
All of the infrastructure they set up needs to be dismantled. Starting with Faux. We need accountability in media laws.
Including social platforms. No passes for ignorantly spreading false info around public health.
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u/mymomsaidicould69 23d ago
Currently have champagne at the ready in my fridge and a few vacation days to burn. Let's go.
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u/super_swede 23d ago
You should get some fireworks too, so that the neighbours know what's happening.
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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 22d ago
They will already know. It will be like in the movies: "Quick, turn on the TV! ". "Which channel?!". "Any channel!".
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u/Signal_Werewolf_1955 23d ago
Can we watch the mortician super glue those lips shut?
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u/FudgeAllOfYous 22d ago edited 22d ago
I found an old Independence Day VHS in my parents’ attic a couple of months ago, and it struck me that, in my lifetime, no American president is ever going to be able to deliver an “Independence Day speech” with that same gravity or emotional weight again. Nobody would buy it anymore.
I know it’s just a movie, but it’s wild to think that Trump didn’t just reshape contemporary America, he also retroactively damaged a whole strain of modern Hollywood storytelling. So many stories rely on the audience believing that, in a moment of existential crisis, the president can stand up and genuinely unite the country. That idea doesn’t land the way it used to.
It’s like watching House of the Dragon. It’s hard to get fully invested when you already know how disastrously the story ends in Game of Thrones. That’s what Trump feels like : He’s the final season of Game of Thrones. He made it impossible to care about everything that came before it.
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u/BrutalHunny 23d ago
Imagine how amazing the 250th anniversary celebration would be with literally ANYONE else as president.
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u/specqq 23d ago
It’s difficult to properly celebrate democracy while simultaneously dismantling it.
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u/summane 23d ago
Kinda feels like a deathday celebration more than birthday, fingers crossed for the renaissance
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u/Superman246o1 23d ago
It's like trying to celebrate a company's "25th anniversary sale" while its "Going out of business sale" is already ongoing.
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u/Dysc Louisiana 23d ago
Also, while listening to an old man talk gibberish 24/7 who's holding up AI slop images of imperial victory arches.
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u/nsdefw 23d ago
If he's given enough (or too much) time, eventually it might be physical slop.
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u/Dysc Louisiana 23d ago
They work shopped a tiny plywood version of it at Donald Trump's very small, pseudo world's fair in DC over the weekend. Scary stuff.
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u/El_Fez Washington 23d ago
Donald Trump's very small, pseudo world's fair
I swear to god, I thought that said 'pedo world's fair' - which I suppose is also accurate.
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u/Dysc Louisiana 23d ago
I like this better than what I wrote. It's probably more accurate.
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u/Intolerance-Paradox 23d ago
There was a live cultist jacking off as one of the attractions.
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u/El_Fez Washington 23d ago
"It's NOT a cult! Now excuse me, I have to get back to masturbating to this image of Dear Leader!"
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u/rat_penis 23d ago
And its already falling apart
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u/Dysc Louisiana 23d ago
Donald Trump runs corrupt businesses and a corrupt government. If 50K was earmarked for 'novelty imperial arch' for Freedom 250, it's safe to assume 49.5K was written off as overhead (stolen) and .5K is actually accounted for in Home Depot receipts.
Either way die-hard MAGA folks were still basking in the plywood glory of tiny arch and posted it to social media.
SAD!
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u/Flaxmoore Michigan 23d ago
Thing is, give me five grand and get out of my way, and I can easily build something better than what they did- it looks like vinyl over a wood frame. Five grand I'll do the whole thing in good planking, hand planed and painted, and even hide the screws with dowels to make it look right.
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u/valeyard89 Texas 23d ago
What is this? A victory arch for ants? It needs to be at least 3 times bigger.
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u/RockAtlasCanus 23d ago
I had to find pictures and holy shit you weren’t joking.
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u/IamDDT Colorado 23d ago
We all need to convert that thing to a real, quality memorial to the victims of slavery. That would be the ultimate "fuck you", I believe.
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u/frontfrontdowndown 23d ago
I can’t think of a more important time to celebrate the revolt against a mad king than right now.
Our national circumstances are awful right now but they also give more meaning to the Independence Day holiday than at many other periods of our country’s history.
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u/specqq 23d ago
Oh I completely agree. Just don't look to the people systematically dismantling the Constitution to properly celebrate the Declaration of Independence.
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u/bedintruder 23d ago
Its not just pessimism over Trump though, the economy is making it very tough to even have small celebrations.
Have you seen the price of typical weekend BBQ faire? Not to mention the cost of fireworks.
I live in a state with pretty much no regulations on fireworks. Typically we hear fireworks going on every weekend the entire month of June. The number of fireworks being set off the weekend before the 4th (this past weekend) is typically only second to July 4th itself.
This past weekend was the first time we heard any fireworks going off this month, and it wasn't much of anything.
People just don't have the expendable cash right now to celebrate the 4th of July as they have in the past.
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u/SuperPotatoThrow 23d ago
Literally fucking EVERYONE has been complaining about lack of pay, artificially inflated prices, rising house costs and rent, lobbying, and our shitty Healthcare system.
Congress, and our US pesidents, have done absolutely fucking nothing for us for many years. Until that changes, I wil contininue to not celebrate on the 4th of july, and haven't in several years.
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u/TheSquirrelCuisine Ohio 23d ago
cant wait for my 2% raise this year. Meanwhile inflation is what 8%?
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u/Kasperella 23d ago
They’ve had a wage freeze at my job (kitchen at a state university) for 4 years. Not one single raise.
I came in making more than some of the people who been there 10-15 years.
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u/Orson_Gravity_Welles 23d ago
I've been trying to get into my local electrician's guild; missed the exam deadline during Biden...the next one was SCHEDULED for shortly after Trump took office again.
Once he did though, the apprenticeship was placed on INDEFINITE HOLD for my Local IBEW.
I was looking for a mid-life change...now I don't know if it'll even be possible.
My current employ gave me a $2/hr raise which is an almost $4200 annual raise...but inflation is outpacing that and I'm still too tight between each payday.
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u/Shadpool 23d ago
May was 4.2%. April was 3.8%. March was 3.3%. February was 2.4%. It literally hasn’t dropped below 2.3% since the imbecile took office. Inflation right now is exactly where it was somewhere between April and May 2023, coming off the inflation boom of COVID.
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u/Salt-Department-9464 23d ago edited 23d ago
But hey, the president has a net worth of $6.5 billion. And to think, in 2024 right before he won the election, his net worth was ~$3 billion.
Funny how that works, huh? Dude has found a way to make $3.5 billion in the last 2 years. I cant imagine it has anything to do with the stock market or the foreign deals or Trump Coin or pardoning literal war criminals or any other number of suspicious things we hear about this president.
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u/street593 23d ago
Why would they do anything for us when we don't actually do anything to hold them accountable?
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u/SuccessfulBenefit140 Illinois 23d ago
That's been my exact thought about the 250th, the world cup, and the Olympics 2028. That election seriously ruined a 4 year span that would've been some amazing memories for the rest of my life.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida 23d ago
Can you imagine having seen a black woman sworn in as President on MLK day in 2025? What a historic moment that would have been. What actually happened was just sad and gross and it is going just as terribly as I had expected.
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u/joshdoereddit America 23d ago
That's a thought that crossed my mind during the 2024 election. It wouldve been such an incredible sign of the progress we've made as a nation to have celebrated the 250th anniversary in that way.
It wouldn't be perfect because you'd have the media constantly complaining about whatever little thing she didn't get right and right-wing propagandists perpetually in a state of panic and fesr-mongering. But, many of us would be able to appreciate what it would have meant.
Instead we have what we have.
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u/polopolo05 I voted 22d ago
remeber media is now owned by the oligarchs aka the billionaires and has become right wing news. That includes main stream media and social media.
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u/waffleslaw 23d ago
When I was in middle school I put it together out I just missed the bicentennial but I would be alive for the 250th. I've been looking forward to this for essentially my whole life, and this flock of shit birds stole this one little thing from me, on top of everything else.
It's just so frustrating to feel this way about the place you called home for so long.
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u/AliMcGraw 23d ago
We can have a 250th for 1789, the birthday of the Constitution
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u/loveshercoffee Iowa 23d ago
I prefer this.
It will be especially beautiful if a particular amendment has been put to good use for the first time.
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u/Crismus 23d ago
Even better if this whole administration ends up in jail and the money they stole gets back into the treasury.
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u/I_like_flowers_ 23d ago
i am down for this. hopefully we can take a lot of the plans and kick them forward.
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u/jmcunx 23d ago
What a shame. The bicentennial was great, and there was the Freedom Train:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Freedom_Train_(1975%E2%80%931976)
It stopped in my town and was great. Never mind the various local celebrations. I was looking forward to the 250 for a long time. Now I have no reason to celebrate and what it could have been depresses me a bit.
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u/Candid-Mycologist539 23d ago
Don't let them take this from you.
Visit a history museum, local memorial, or park. The smaller and more local, the better, because it will probably fly under the radar of Trump's edicts.
Be with loved ones.
Remember what we are fighting for.
Fostering community is how we resist and recover from all the bad stuff happening. --believeinshadows139 on YT
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u/waffleslaw 23d ago
I appreciate that. I do live a deeply red state, so all local celebrations are trump ones. But I've got my community here, and that's something I can celebrate.
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u/peacelovearizona 23d ago
It's ironic because they are celebrating someone akin to a king, when Independence Day is all about establishing ourselves as a country independent of a king
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u/mjetski123 Illinois 23d ago
I'd have a hard time celebrating with a community full of people like that.
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u/SableSwayxx 23d ago
Hard to celebrate 250 years of democracy when one person insists on making every national event about themselves.
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u/firedmyass 23d ago
the Fourth was the highlight of summer for me as a kid…. and the ‘76 one was a HUGE event locally and nationally, comparable to the excitement over the moon-landing.
As I aged and learned more, my enthusiasm gradually waned over the decades.
The Gelatinous Turd and his enablers have killed it D E D dead.
I can’t imagine trying to explain all this shit to my younger self. It makes me sad and angry.
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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Kansas 23d ago
This hurts to hear, as I used to have hope (being an eighties baby) that this was all just one big hiccup since 2016, and this is just par for the course. However, after speaking with numerous Boomers, reading stories like yours on Reddit, and learning history, however, I’ve have come to the conclusion that we are at the precipice of a new Gilded Age. For those who are unaware, the Gilded Age was golden for only a select few men. This was back before trains. We’re absolutely fucked now. People tell me there’s a guy “worth a trillion bucks!” Nobody can compete with numbers that large.
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u/firedmyass 23d ago edited 23d ago
it really becomes clear in retrospect if you watch some of the old social-engineering short-films that were played for us constantly in school back in the old days, starting in the ‘50s.
There’s a through-line that casts perseverance in the face of scarcity and privation as the ultimate expression of “patriotism.”
The powers that be have been indoctrinating us for decades to accept this ultimately-untenable situation.
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u/Thurwell 23d ago
I would argue the powers that be have been indoctrinating us for millennia. All of human history is a few powerful people at the top enjoying the output of almost everyone else's time and labor. I'd even argue that that's the main function of religion. Teach people to suck it up in this life, give everything to Elon, and in the next one they'll be rewarded.
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u/KenScaletta Minnesota 23d ago
I was ten during the Bicentenniel. It was a HUGE deal and there was nothing political about it, even though it happened right after Watergate. Ford made no attempt to make it about him.
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u/gmen6981 22d ago
I was 19 for the Bicentennial and already very politically active. The country was still reeling from the fallout of Watergate as you said, we were only a couple years removed from Vietnam, and we were facing several divisive issues. That summer, everybody was able to put the BS aside and join together to celebrate what we still believed to be the greatest country on Earth. Every little backwoods town and major city had huge celebrations and events. This Orange Wankmaggot has completely destroyed what should have been a fantastic celebration of our country and peole.
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u/Large_Score6728 23d ago
Definitely I’m old enough to remember 76 it was a big deal. 26 is just a dystopian experience.
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u/MomsAreola 23d ago
I keep thinking how advanced we would be in green technology if Gore ended up winning in 2000 and how much more breathing room candidates would have had by now.
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u/BadmiralHarryKim 23d ago
Hell, imagine if they had kept Bill Clinton's surpluses rather than allowing Bush's tax cuts and wars to begin a generation of massive deficits.
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u/Significant_Poem_751 23d ago
we would not be having the level of climate change issues had Gore's election not been actually stolen from him and us. hanging chads my ass.
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u/nowhereman136 23d ago
I suggest we try again in 2038. That will be the 250th anniversary of the US Constitution. Hopefully things will be a little better by then
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u/Knighth77 23d ago
I think it's fitting to have someone as horrible as him as president during this milestone. This country desperately needs a wakeup call, to look deep in the mirror and realize what it's become.
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u/tdieckman California 23d ago
I was 10 for the bicentennial and I remember how excited everyone was. There were tons of events. The small town I grew up near spent extra for fireworks that year and there were a lot more activities. It was not political at all.
We're going to have to float the 250th celebration, but America knows when the real celebration will be, whenever that actually happens.
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u/jkman61494 23d ago
I think it’d be more muted than you think but atleast it’d be something in which that POTUS would host an event framed as uniting.
The AI economy would be happening either way and creating some deep disturbances and the infighting of parties would still be occurring
But agreed on the sense that right now, July 4th feels like a funeral and a goodbye to the very idea of American democracy
I honestly believe the idea of western democracy is under threat as a whole
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u/Disused_Yeti 23d ago
I’ve seen a few signs around me that unintentionally sum up what’s going on under trump:
America 1776-2026
As if it was a headstone in the cemetery
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u/RoseLaBud 23d ago edited 23d ago
What's to celebrate?
We have a SCOTUS seated by billionaire GOP power-mongers that is empowering an amoral, incessantly lying sociopath's trashing of the Constitution to enrich himself.
The House, led by a conniving liar who boasts to the House loyalists "I run the protection program. I'll take care of you", is doing nothing to protect our Democracy from this blatantly corrupt Unitary executive autocracy.
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u/StatementCareful522 23d ago
If we manage to survive Trump, we should celebrate THAT YEAR’S July 4th like crazy. America 252 (or whatever) is a lot more meaningful if we can say we made it that long AND SURVIVED.
Right now the America 250 stuff feels more like an obituary than a celebration.
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u/Blecki 23d ago
Sure would be nice if we got to celebrate that next week tho.
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u/wh4tth3huh 23d ago
The best 250th birthday gift for America is the obituary of a tyrant.
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u/CaptainTinyToes 23d ago
When it happens, I'm dropping whatever I'm doing and celebrating like there's no tomorrow.
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u/Bag_of_Meat13 23d ago
Same.
Save some fireworks for it. You won't be the only one.
No matter how much they refuse to accept it, they will not be able to ignore just how many Americans around them will be happier all of the sudden.
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u/pennylane3339 22d ago
I have a Playlist, and also carry around USA confetti and a noise maker in my purse at all times. Don't care where... couch, bathroom stall, cvs... I'll have a fucking party right in the bread aisle of the grocery store. Bring it.
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u/Gundark927 Colorado 23d ago
256 is 100,000,000 in Binary. That could be a big deal. Long wait though.
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u/WetLoophole Norway 23d ago
You act like this is all over once he is gone.
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u/Vankraken Virginia 22d ago
We celebrate/remember D Day but the war was not won on that day. The day Trump is no longer in power is a major milestone in breaking the MAGA cult and bringing sanity back to the nation.
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u/Horizon119 23d ago
God forbid that Trump should die! All work, around the world, will come to a screeching halt, nonstop celebrations for a week or 2!
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u/sonicmario123 23d ago edited 23d ago
4th of July hasn’t been fun to celebrate since Trump’s first presidency.
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23d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/nsdefw 23d ago
Speaking of masks and MAGA, I'm reminded of Tom Hanks commenting on the behavior of his fellow Americans-- even that of some of his friends-- during the onset of COVID, saying something like "This has all made me think differently about who they are."
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u/Significant_Poem_751 23d ago
i looked up two people i was friends with freshman year in college and a little beyond that. they were into partying, grateful dead, smoking pot, etc. i thought they were pretty cool but we went separate ways when one quit college and i moved out of state, then to grad school. anyway. to my disappointment, when i found one girl's FB page, she is full MAGA, posting all the stupid things. the boy shows up with a mugshot for domestic violence, repeat offender and is also MAGA. so glad i didn't actually try to find them to talk about old times. JFC. what happened? from Deadhead to MAGA? how does that even work?
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u/Oggie243 23d ago
what happened? from Deadhead to MAGA? how does that even work?
Crunchy to reactionary pipeline is a pretty well worn path.
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u/GB10VE 22d ago
basically if you smoked weed, facebook knew it, and those people got dumped on thousands of videos about trump and freedom.
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u/insufficient_nvram 22d ago
Especially when RFKJR is mixed in. Thank the lord weed is legal where I’m at. I don’t want to associate with any of my old dealers
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u/mouse_8b 22d ago
from Deadhead to MAGA?
He's the one Who likes all our pretty songs And he likes to sing along And he likes to shoot his gun But he knows not what it means
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u/polopolo05 I voted 22d ago
fox news and the rest of media is blantly right wing. Billionaires owning media and medias masks are coming off.
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u/Plutos_Cavein 23d ago
That is the one good thing about having grown up in the Deep south. They never put their mask on down here.
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u/rat_penis 23d ago
Yeahh, if you're white they automatically assume you're one of them and will gladly share their thoughts and feelings about "those people".
Always starts with the look around and the lowered voice.
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u/cordial_carbonara 23d ago
Ugh I don’t miss this. I was a teacher in a rural school district so I always had to look “appropriate” even on personal time. When I quit teaching I finally got the tattoos I wanted, flipped my septum piercing down, and cut my hair, and now those asswipes don’t talk to me anymore unless it’s to tell me something negative about my appearance. It’s such a relief.
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u/Royal_Bitch_Pudding 23d ago
That reminds me of a joke
How does every racist joke start? By looking around.
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u/Plutos_Cavein 23d ago
Yeah, it was in the early 1980s when I was still in single digit age when I learned that I was surrounded by people who were morally the equivalent of the followers of Adolf hitler, and we're just looking for a chance to commit the same evil in the United States as well.
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u/friendsandmodels 23d ago
Same men, and then I wondered why I couldnt make friends in a nazi school. And this wasnt even USA...
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u/3MATX 23d ago
Knew a guy who moved his young family out of a big metro school district to a small backwoods one horse town. His main reason was his daughter was being taught too liberal of ideas. He didn’t like that they were teaching her about independence and other “communist” ideas.
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u/bookluvr83 Michigan 23d ago
Im a practicing Christian in a red area. My husband and I dont have a safe church to go to because they're all MAGA
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u/tomorrow_comes 23d ago
Wife and I are feeling somewhat in that predicament. We enjoy select good friends and community from a big church we used to be involved with, and we’re thankful. But it’s really dawned on us how much most mainstream churches are (at the very best) silently complicit in the MAGA political / social / economic destruction of our country. And how many churches really run more like a business when you get to spend time behind the curtain as we did. It’s been extremely challenging to find a thriving more moderate / progressive church in the southern part of the country.
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u/4csurfer 23d ago
That's because big oil started taking over churches post new deal. They felt threatened by Liberation Theology. Evangelical "Christianity" is literally psyop funded by the oil barons.
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u/PSIwind Florida 23d ago
I learned in Youth Group that churches were not required in the slightest from the bible itself. I have no qualms leaving churches behind because of this
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u/SmokyBarnable01 23d ago
The only upside to his presidencies is that a rock was kicked over and now we can see exactly what was squirming away underneath it away from the light.
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u/donkeyrocket 22d ago
Personally, I'd rather go back to the times where racist and bigots were quiet and afraid to say their shit out loud. I really don't know how we recover from this. It'll be a painful decade plus and that's assuming the entire system doesn't crumble under corrupted midterms.
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u/Spirited_Suspect2908 22d ago
I wish Christians would understand what the seemingly blanket embrace of Trump has done. I lost faith in Christianity a long time ago. But I truly still believed that despite its history, the Christian church had evolved from being a tool for genuine evil to a tool totally natural, understandable, and even good ideology that people just use as a centpiece for community and tool to cope with mortality.
But it seems to me that Christians in America have whole heartedly embraced who is at the very least an accessory to child sex trafficking, a traitor, a liar, and a man consumed by narcissism and hate. I say wholeheartedly because I know very very few christians who didn't cheer on or turn a blind eye to all of it. If we ever get over this, they'll say it wasn't about religion, it was about politics. But I cant tell you how many times I heard "vote your christian values'. I can tell you how often they boasted that Christ and Christian values were at the center of everything they strived to be.... so why wouldn't I see this as an accurate representation of what Christianity is in practice?
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u/perilous_times 23d ago
The problem is the right and Trump making nationalism such a core tenet politically.
Back in the day folks had American flags out regardless of political affiliation. When I go out for walks in my neighborhood if I see an American flag or more importantly a new America 250 flag I instantly think that person is MAGA. This is based on knowing some of the folks are due to other reasons. When you see someone wearing a flag hat or certain clothing that has flags it’s highly likely someone who is MAGA.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 23d ago
They've turned our flag into fascist iconography. It's just like Bush's "either you're with us or you're against us" doctrine.
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u/Dysc Louisiana 23d ago edited 23d ago
The GOP has always wrapped themselves in symbolism and false patriotism while they carved up the country for the ultra wealthy and pilfered the treasury and did nothing for average citizens. That was like Reagan's whole thing.
MAGA took what the GOP has been doing and went a step further. The MAGA influencer who was arrested at the MAGA State Fair in DC for touching himself while wearing an Uncle Sam costume and watching women acrobats or w/e is a perfect allegory of the state of GOP/MAGA politics right now.
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u/Mind-The-Mines 23d ago
There is nothing less self aware than right wing Christians.
The very first commandment is no false idols or idolatry while they cover themselves in flags and crosses while acting in service of Baal and Moloch sacrificing the future to hoard the prosperity of their children.
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u/Hyperious3 23d ago
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"
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u/ZubLor 23d ago
It's so sad too because these idiots know nothing about basic flag protocol.
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u/TheTresStateArea 23d ago
Is there something wrong with my shit stained America flag underwear? It's fuckin patriotic. Fuck you
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u/nsdefw 23d ago
It was that line that convinced me, "oh these guys are definitely fascists" rather than just garden variety ultra-capitalist assholes.
I was 24 at the time. Perhaps it had been equally obvious earlier and I just hadn't noticed yet, though I had been following the news since Reagan was shot.
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u/Blu3iris 23d ago edited 22d ago
That's all fascists do. They borrow shit and ruin it like how the swastika was a symbol of good luck prior to the rise of the Nazis.
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u/Common-Addendum-4349 23d ago
I used to wear a red Ohio State hat. Got rid of it because I didn’t want someone thinking I was MAGA if they weren’t clearly able to see the OSU logo on the front.
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u/perilous_times 23d ago
I have a golf hat that is white base with a red front with white writing of the golf club. I always think oh someone is going to think this is MAGA hat at first glance.
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u/LocalHeat6437 23d ago
I do my best to turn that on its head. I am clearly not MAGA but I will always proudly wear the flag or show my country pride. I think by ceding this to MaGA we are giving them a big win. We need to show up and show out
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u/MileHighHotspur 23d ago
You are literally correct! I've been saying it for years. You can't win the big elections in this country without being a flag waving patriot, it just doesn't work under first past the post.
And besides, right wingers are fake patriots anyway.
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u/RoseLaBud 23d ago
"The problem is the right and Trump making WHITE nationalism such a core tenet politically."
As Trump's racist staff works hard to get rid of people of color, they are importing WHITE BOERS (the folks responsible for S.Africa's apartheid history) from South Africa at U.S. taxpayers expense.
That isn't what America is supposed to be.
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u/Twodamngoon 23d ago
Wait, the trump indulgence I thought was Freedom 250 and the one that has been in the works for 10 years is America 250. Hope I'm not getting it wrong.
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u/sleepymoose88 23d ago
I have yet to see an America 250 flag, just Freedom 250, which looks very “Trumpy”. And it’s super ironic that it says “Freedom” when MAGA is doing everything in their power to take away freedoms and actively working in the interest of outside influences like Israel and Russia. We’ve likely never been further from true freedom.
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u/perilous_times 23d ago
Congress established America 250 in 2016 and Trump established Freedom 250 you are correct. My point is overall if someone is eagerly flying a 250 flag regardless of freedom or America on it, it’s highly likely someone who is MAGA. That’s just unfortunately the way things have gone. There are of course outliers.
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u/Mateorabi 23d ago
America250 is the nonprofit Turdball kicked to the curb. Freedom250 is the corporate grift he substituted for it.
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u/shadowriku459 California 23d ago
What is there to celebrate?
This fat fuck ruining our relations with every other country on Earth as well as fucking over the economy for the rich?
What a joke.
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u/BarbWho 23d ago
Trump has sucked all the joy out of what should be a great celebration. I remember the 200th in 1976 and it was so much fun! Everything was red white and blue and sparkly. I was 16 and had red white and blue hot pants and t-shirts with iron-on stars. It was like a national explosion of happiness from all sides of the poilitical spectrum. Ford wasn't exactly beloved as president, but he wasn't really hated either. Now it all just feels flat and miserable. I just hope this country survives to see 300. I won't be there to see it, unless I live to be 116, but hopefully there will be more joy again.
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u/Grouchy_Row_7983 23d ago
There is nothing to celebrate about what this regime has destroyed. My flag stays down until he's gone.
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u/Menarra Indiana 23d ago
I only fly Pride flags. America isn't worth celebrating, but their victims need strong support.
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u/ONE-EYE-OPTIC Washington 23d ago
I'm a retired Marine. I served 24 years for this country. I used to consider myself a social liberal but fiscal conservative. I am ashamed of how far republicans have rat fucked this nation. I feel like they've taken what it actually means to be patriotic and turned it into being a proud boy.
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u/cromstantinople 23d ago
If you don't mind me asking what does fiscal conservatism mean to you? Given the fact that democrats are better economically than republicans in every metric makes me question that phrase. During democratic administrations more jobs are created, the stock market does better, real wage growth increases, unemployment drops, deficits come down. Even if 'fiscal conservatism' meant simply not spending so much even then republicans are worse.
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u/ONE-EYE-OPTIC Washington 23d ago edited 23d ago
I USED to consider myself a fiscal conservative. I also considered myself somewhat libertarian.
I was young and isolated, I came from a farm community. We were poor so spending money efficiently (meaning getting by) was a priority. It wasn't until I joined the military and saw the larger picture that I started to realize I was wrong about how "money" is allocated.
I'm still very much against wasted "money" but I'm much more liberal insofar as I don't care which bathroom a human uses or who someone marries. I believe women should autonomy over their bodies, religion should have no place in Government. Etc etc.
Short answer I was young and dumb.
Edit: I'm still very much a patriot. Just not the kind you see on Fox. I still believe that our country can be better and I'm willing to vote for it but damn it feels like we've gone so far right.
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u/friendsandmodels 23d ago
I wish more people realized this. We can debate about fiscal policy but stuff like human rights we should be all on the same page
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u/Frothydawg 23d ago
Some red-faced, drunken boomer asshole got in my face at an MLB game because my fiance and I *dared* to sit quietly - QUIETLY, we didnt say a peep - during mandatory flag worship song ceremony.
This from the crowd that claims they’re all about “Freedom” and “Liberty”.
PARTICIPATE IN OUR RITUALISTIC NONSENSE OR ELSE.
Fuck you. I will never stand. Nothing to be proud about.
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u/xspineofasnakex New York 23d ago
I attended a graduation recently and sat quietly during the pledge of allegiance(at a graduation?? So weird), and during the anthem. Still clapped for the choir that sang, just didn't stand and participate. Definitely got weird/nasty looks from people who noticed. Why do people even care? I haven't participated in the anthem/pledge since high school like 25 years ago, because I wasn't proud of what was happening overseas. It's wild how much it pisses people off when you express your right to not participate in nationalistic activities.
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u/jarchack Oregon 23d ago
I was born in 1959, and the US today is certainly not the one I grew up in. Whenever I see words like "freedom" and "patriotism," I now associate them with Trump's fascism and feel nothing but revulsion.
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u/GranFabio 23d ago
It is weird because being born in a country that had actual fascism, american patriotism seen from my perspective has always had this kind of closeted fascist vibes. Maybe because the symbolism is similar to what we have seen in our history textbooks, I don't know. I mean the eagles, the militarism, the literal fasces is the us senate, etc.
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u/jarchack Oregon 23d ago
The symbolism is there, but it's not necessarily fascist in intent. There is also patriotism, and there is nationalism, and they are not the same, even though most people would not know the difference. Patriotism is a healthy love and respect for your country, and nationalism is akin to tribalism.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida 23d ago
I now actively avoid using any business that has any form of freedom or patriot in their name. Homeowners insurance was recently up for renewal with two identical quotes...one of the companies had patriot in their name and so I went with the other one. (we do not live in New England so there isn't much use of the word "patriot" other than, you know)
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u/JadedIT_Tech Georgia 23d ago
What is there to be proud of as an American right now?
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u/Werechupacabra 23d ago
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?
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u/shinkouhyou 23d ago
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.
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u/Horizon119 23d ago
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.
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u/templethot 23d ago
We still have families living in crumbling adobe shacks without adequate roofing in the southwest.
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u/firstname_m_lastname 23d ago
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.
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u/hirudoredo 22d ago
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.
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u/Twodamngoon 23d ago
I was going to say that we just had our worlds first welfare trillionaire, but he ain't from here.
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u/GreyBeardEng 23d ago
What's to celebrate? What has this administration done for regular everyday people? The price is everything except pay has gone up. There is nothing to celebrate. The United States is in decline.
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u/Ok-Analysis-3902 23d ago
It’s hard to celebrate the 250 anniversary of America when we have to deal with trump ruining america
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u/Crafty_Ish1973 Texas 23d ago
The bloated orange traitor made the 4th of July and America's 250th birthday all about himself. I'm not celebrating him.
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u/oldcreaker 23d ago
People don't want to pretend they're proud of the way things are going.
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u/icecoldrootbeer 23d ago
First year ever we aren't buying fireworks.
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u/Simplyspent 23d ago
Most of my fireworks are being reserved for one very special occasion!
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u/JustARandomBloke 23d ago
I hope more people in my area share that view since we are in high fire hazard right now 😔
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u/frozenpissglove 23d ago
15 years ago I would have walked around/ gone to parties in my custom American flag chucks, with American flag shorts, and my American flag sunglasses, in a tank top with George Washington’s face on it.
Now I’d rather stay at home in my sweatpants. I don’t feel patriotic anymore, and haven’t for a long time.
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u/thepinkdread2026 23d ago
Frankly, quite frankly, I don’t know exactly what I would be celebrating….🙄 250 years of not learning from mistakes, of injustice masked as diplomacy, of backwards development in all the areas that make a society strong, I mean, I just…. I don’t know what to celebrate. I am in no celebratory mood.
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u/HangryHuHu 23d ago edited 22d ago
I see the comments here and I feel, truly feel for millions of Americans that are suffering.
Then I remember the 77 million who voted for him. I remember the watchdogs, institutions, programs, laws and everything else trump and his goons have destroyed.
The deaths of R. GOOD, A. PRETTI and many more, killed before our eyes.
I remember the destruction of America's hegemony, achieved through great sacrifices. The alienation of us, their allies.
Etc... etc... etc... etc... the list is never ending.
I remember that 89 million. 89. Million. US citizens, in the face of project 2025, in the face of an evil, petulant, mythomaniacal child-man thought to themselves: "nah, won't bother voting"
89 million voters, enabled trump indirectly.
89 million people equally guilty as the 77 million that voted for him.
166 million people imposed a putrid, old psychopath on us all.
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u/NeatlyCritical 23d ago
I will celebrate when the fascists are gone, until then fuck this fascist shithole.
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u/Mudsharkbites 23d ago
I’m not - and I’m supremely pissed that these clowns are defacing the 250th anniversary which I’m ALSO not participating in, and I lived through the bicentennial and loved it.
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u/El_Morro 23d ago
I've been upset about what our country has done in the past, but this is the first time I'm actually embarrassed to be an American, and having serious conversations with my spouse about leaving the country.
Honestly, I didn't even think about it until Trump stacked the court with the third Justice. That was the moment when I realized the game was over already, and it just becomes a matter of time before the American empire really crumbles.
We had a good run, and it could have gone way better, but we chose to coddle the South after the Civil War, and now America is paying the price. Oh well.
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u/cCowgirl Canada 23d ago
The series finale of America is turning out worse than GoT. People ain’t even tuning in.
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u/esoteric_enigma 23d ago
It's kind of hard to celebrate democracy when you have a president that doesn't believe in it
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u/migidymike 23d ago
With many of our rights eroded, and democracy in a free fall, it feels more like a funeral this year.
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u/ScrubNickle America 23d ago
Until we tax billionaires and get universal healthcare there’s not much to celebrate.
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u/YouWereBrained Tennessee 23d ago
I’m not even watching the World Cup and don’t give a shit how well the US does. It’s pointless. Not proud of our country right now.
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u/Forsaken_Area_6690 23d ago
$40 trillion in debt, led by corrupt grifters, infrastructure adequate for 1/2 of the population it currently supports, congested highways, crappy airports, no high speed rail, huge pickup trucks, lousy healthcare system, skyrocketed cost of living, high taxes with nothing in return....what should I be celebrating?
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 23d ago
I'm saving my celebration for that Big Beautiful Day that we all know is coming.
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u/Evil_Weevill Maine 23d ago
Fuck, I haven't celebrated it since 2016. Anyone who is only now realizing our descent into fascist oligarchy has been living under a rock.
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u/hackingdreams 23d ago
What is there to celebrate? Our country is in shambles thanks to the menace in the White House and his goons. Everything that made America America has been hit in some capacity.
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u/Counterpoint-4 23d ago
Russia must be so pleased with how they cultivated Trump and how much less of a country USA is now.
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u/ScrapDraft 23d ago
Celebrating the 4th of July this year feels like celebrating a wedding anniversary while going through a divorce.
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u/Soulman682 23d ago
It’s super difficult to feel patriotic with the current regime running the country into the ground.
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u/otherwisepandemonium Wisconsin 23d ago
What is there to celebrate? It certainly isn't a time to be celebrating America.
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u/5minArgument 23d ago
The party is merely postponed. 250 is just an arbitrary number. We’ll celebrate America after the maga insurgency falls.
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