Do You Recognize Your Country?

[Tombs]

I recognize Indiana, that's about it.

 

[rhamersley]

Luckily I'm finally breaking out of the sheep farm and moving to, *checks notes*, uh...Indianapolis.

Welcome to Indy…

 

[DoggyDaddy]

AMEN!
AMEN!
AMEN!


(I was thrown off momentarily by the term "civil" war, but figured it out.)

Seems like someone is trying to be more like BigRed!

 

[rooster]

This is late stage capitalism

the United States of America is a business disguised as a country. Always has been. The vast majority of the founding fathers were of the same type of wealthy ruling class that still has control. Now that ruling class has access to a surveillance system that would shock even Orwell.

another thought:
every civilization that has risen to world power in history has eventually turned into what we are seeing now.

Dan Carlin has a fascinating podcast on the fall of Rome. The similarities to our current state are remarkable.

 

[NKBJ]

I recognize it, but not as the Republic paid for in patriot blood. I recognize it as something more like France during the 1789 revolution led by the closest things to communists that existed at the time.

Promoted by the same (though updated) orgs as now.

 

[DadSmith]

Pretty much sums up the fact that humans cannot exist in comfort, they must have a struggle to survive. Not sure if this is true but I once read that rats must chew constantly to wear their teeth or the teeth would actually grow back into their heads killing them. Analogous to humans must struggle to survive and too much success makes them weak in both body and mind.

This is so true, and very sad also.

 

[Tombs]

This is late stage capitalism

the United States of America is a business disguised as a country. Always has been. The vast majority of the founding fathers were of the same type of wealthy ruling class that still has control. Now that ruling class has access to a surveillance system that would shock even Orwell.

another thought:
every civilization that has risen to world power in history has eventually turned into what we are seeing now.

Dan Carlin has a fascinating podcast on the fall of Rome. The similarities to our current state are remarkable.

This mindset really never got seriously ingrained until Reagan came along and convinced conservatives that traditions, values, and principles are hippie concepts and that worshiping the largest corporation you can find was "true conservatism."

He sure had a love for big government, like when he took people's paychecks to give free dialysis. The first crack in the private healthcare foundation.

 

[Magyars]

Trump won the election
Babbitt was murdered
Covid came from a lab in china, fauci knew
Biden has dementia
The Clintons suicided people
Masks don't work.
All these things are being either distorted or hiden from the American people.
NO. I DON'T RECOGNIZE MY COUNTRY

 

[rooster]

This mindset really never got seriously ingrained until Reagan came along and convinced conservatives that traditions, values, and principles are hippie concepts and that worshiping the largest corporation you can find was "true conservatism."

He sure had a love for big government, like when he took people's paychecks to give free dialysis. The first crack in the private healthcare foundation.

I’ll take your word for it since Reagan was before my time. By the time I had stopped to look at my healthcare costs (union so company paid, didn’t actually see it come out of my check ) we were well into the Obama years. All of a sudden all of our contracted raises went to healthcare increases instead of being put on our check or in the pension.

Long term this eroded the advantage union labor had on $ per hour on check vs non union and has greatly contributed to the demise of organized labor.

oddly enough it started going the other way under Trump, a republican......

Anyway I’ll get off my soapbox

 

[Sigblaster]

When I was a kid, we played with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars a lot. Our GI Joes were a foot tall, and we'd cut the neighbors' lawns and shovel their driveways in winter to make some scratch to buy toy cars and guns and GI Joe gear and toy soldiers and train sets and... We'd build snow forts in winter, and go swimming and explore the woods in the summer. We'd turn our basements into haunted houses around Halloween. We'd play football or baseball in the street or sometimes in someone's backyard. We'd watch Saturday morning cartoons while scarfing down half a box of Cap'n Crunch or Honeycombs or Count Chocula.

One of my friend's brothers was over in Vietnam, and I'd see the news segments on that and get a little worried. When We'd play Vietnam with our toy guns, we used to pretend we were out on missions with him, supporting him. Thankfully, he came home. The Watergate hearings screwed up some of my daily TV programming, like WTF is this? Batman is supposed to be on. That was the extent of the intrusion of the reality of current events and politics in my small view of the world.

What a wonderful time that was, to just enjoy being alive and having fun all day, without the concerns of every day adult life, like politics and war and finances and health and social issues and crime, and all the things you need to carry when you become older and aware of the world outside of your small sphere of experience.

While it seems like an attractive fantasy to be trapped in some sort of time loop where you could relive those youthful years endlessly, I think it would be a kind of hell. We are meant to grow and learn, and react and interact with the world around us. Yes, it's hard. It was hard watching my kids become more aware of the world, and It's going to be hard to watch my grandkids go through that. But all that is rewarding too. Seeing my kids grow and learn about the reality of life has beend incredibly rewarding, especially when they get PO'd about the same things I get PO'd about.

To directly answer your question, YES I recognize my country. The natural beauty of the landscape is there, just as it has always been. Politics have become extremely divisive yet again, but these things have happened in the past, and I think and hope we'll get past it. Politicians are going to politic, advocates are going to advocate, extremists are going to go to extremes, but I have to believe that in the end, some how, some way, the United States of America will continue to be the shining beacon of freedom that it has been since its inception. I HAVE to believe that, because anything less than that would be unacceptable to me.

 

[TheGhostRider]

I still recognize my country even though it’s starting to get tainted with the graffiti of politics and extremism.
I can still see a lot of good but I worry about how long that’s going to last. I do think my country is starting to to show strain from the weight of corruption and I pray every day the wrongs will made right… if not by us than by the hand of God.

 

[jamil]

I recognize the country I see in my neighborhood. I don't recognize the country I see on the news/internet.

 

[rob63]

INGO will love this.

I visited the Minuteman Park at the North Bridge in Concord, MA this past week. This is the location of the famous "shot heard around the world."

A park ranger was explaining how it took 14 years from the firing of shots on that day before George Washington was elected to be the first President. He then said "keep that in mind the next time you are frustrated at how long it is taking us to get universal health care."

 

[Magyars]

 

[actaeon277]

INGO will love this.

I visited the Minuteman Park at the North Bridge in Concord, MA this past week. This is the location of the famous "shot heard around the world."

A park ranger was explaining how it took 14 years from the firing of shots on that day before George Washington was elected to be the first President. He then said "keep that in mind the next time you are frustrated at how long it is taking us to get universal health care."

 

[eldirector]

INGO will love this.

I visited the Minuteman Park at the North Bridge in Concord, MA this past week. This is the location of the famous "shot heard around the world."

A park ranger was explaining how it took 14 years from the firing of shots on that day before George Washington was elected to be the first President. He then said "keep that in mind the next time you are frustrated at how long it is taking us to get universal health care."

Yep. Took 14 years to quash the idea of high taxes and repressive governments instituting policies that line their own pockets on the backs of their citizens. Still fighting that to this day, actually. Thanks for the reminder, Park Ranger!

 

[IndyDave1776]

I find it interesting that Britannica would link the Tontons Macoutes with the Minutemen. Very interesting.

 

[Sigblaster]

I find it interesting that Britannica would link the Tontons Macoutes with the Minutemen. Very interesting.

View attachment 148867

Minutemen were militia troops.
Militia troops participated in the Battle Of Bunker Hill.
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" was a command given at Bunker Hill.
Robert Plant describes (in another context) "See the whites of their eyes then shoot, with all the romance of the Tontons Macoutes".

You now have your link between the two.

 

[BigRed]

INGO will love this.

I visited the Minuteman Park at the North Bridge in Concord, MA this past week. This is the location of the famous "shot heard around the world."

A park ranger was explaining how it took 14 years from the firing of shots on that day before George Washington was elected to be the first President. He then said "keep that in mind the next time you are frustrated at how long it is taking us to get universal health care."

"I have not a man that is afraid to go."
-Isaac Davis




That God ****** park ranger is nothing but a piece of ****.

 

[rob63]

"I have not a man that is afraid to go."
-Isaac Davis




That God ****** park ranger is nothing but a piece of ****.

I think it extends far beyond the park ranger. The instructive part is the fact that he honestly believed that was a useful analogy to explain something to the people that he typically encounters. I can't even say he is wrong either, everyone else in the group laughed while I stood there with my jaw hitting the floor.

Concord was a charming little rural town, but it was obvious how different politically it is to a typical rural Indiana town. There were BLM signs in the yard of every other house. The comical part being that the presence of so many BLM signs made me conscious of the fact that I never once saw a black person anywhere in the area.

I don't doubt the park ranger was expressing the prevailing sentiment of the area, something I find sad. It's why I put it in this thread, I don't recognize my country.