• Bytemeister@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’m not willing to give my life.

    To roughly paraphrase Patton. Don’t die for your cause, make some other bastard die for theirs.

    • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 months ago

      That’s always been the goal, the point is more one of commitment. How much are you willing to lose to see your end through?

      That’s not to say that only those who max out commitment are allowed, just that you should know where your limits lie. Have frank discussions about your limits such that your allies can make contingency plans should your limits be reached, as you would do for those that martyr themselves.

  • HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    I am still willing to give my life for what I believe this country stands for. This country stands, and right now those values are st odds with some people and policy’s within this countrys government, and part of what this country stands for is standing agianst tyranny, agianst threats, foreign and domestic. No person is above this cardinal rule. We usurped tyrannical rule once before, we will surely do so agian.

      • HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        I suppose emphasis on what I believe it stands for. The U.S.'s grey history date back to the pilgrims, but at times the people have rallied to fight agianst tyranny and I believe we can and will do so agian. I want to believe this country stands for freedom and stands agianst tyranny, and that we, the people will fight for this.

    • Bilb!@lem.monster
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 months ago

      I was never willing to give my life for anything and that’s still true.

    • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      This country stands, and right now those values

      Which values? Colonialism? Genocide? White supremacy? Enslavement of the global south? Anticommunism? Burgers?

      part of what this country stands for is standing agianst tyranny

      Bull.shit. I’m Spanish. Go ahead and tell my murdered ancestors during fascism how glad they are that the US had perfect relationships with Franco. Go ask people in Chile what they think of Pinochet and his US-Sponsored fascist coup. Or go ask the progressive leaders of the middle east like Mosaddegh, who were eliminated from power through destabilisation. And that’s fucking nothing compared with what the people of Vietnam, Laos or Korea endured during the most intensive bombing campaigns in human history (Laos was bombed by the US with more explosives than the entire explosives used in WW2). Your country IS THE TYRANT, it doesn’t stand against tyranny.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Hope. The US has historically been a rough country for almost everyone. It has also historically been “the land of opportunities.” The fact that once again, as in the gilded age, our “leaders” have forgotten the one redeeming quality of our broken old democracy, has once again extinguished the idea of hope.

        As Churchill once said, “you can trust that the Americans will eventually do the right thing. They’ll just try everything else first.” The fact that we don’t think that is at all true, isn’t good for anyone.

        • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          Stop your weird nationalism: the US is a colonial empire as are most western European countries. Accept it, and move on, you’re being an american exceptionalist right now, which is a racist position.

  • quixote84@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’m of the opinion that the top half is almost as bad.

    We are ruled by very old dragons, possibly even “grand” dragons. What’s happening now more closely resembles removing of a mask than a complete 180 shift in policy.

    It’s still something which deserves to be opposed as strongly as possible. It’s just… the honest character of a nation founded on breaking every promise it ever made to the original occupants of this land, fighting a war with itself over the right to own people, joining the colonial game within four years of “the frontier” being closed, refusing to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, bombing Laos and Cambodia just because they’re in close proximity to a nation which was the current target of our 75+ year endless war, and violating international treaties regarding ethical treatment of political prisoners in the manner seen in Abu Ghraib or with the “enhanced interrogation” which took place in Gitmo.

    This is the bad place.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      3 months ago

      There’s a lot of propaganda to kids, including the idea that the military is purely defensive. Especially pre-Iraq. And then we recruit people straight out of high school. You want to help during natural disasters? Join this organization. Don’t worry the president never calls us up to go fight wars…

      If we waited until 22 we’d lose a ton of recruits that actually learned history in college and from asking around their community.

    • tischbier@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Bingo. I call them dragons too. I also think that this is why, unlike in 2020, we aren’t seeing the same level of unrest. The mask being revealed is more of the same for Americans. It only confirms what we already thought we were living under.

      So, more of the same, that doesn’t spur our communities to moving. If anything it makes us more cautious. I know in my community I’ve floated social alliances but everyone I’ve talked to is very hesitant and cowed. No one wants to be on a list and no one wants to end their current life over becoming a saboteur just yet.

      You’re completely right about American history too. In our foundational case law, Chief Justice Marshal stated it was right to take the Native lands by force because “we” have the “right of conquest.” Looking back at the original treaties and contractual documents and when seeing every one was broken in some way by America— if that isn’t enough to convince a person of the character of the country then I don’t know what is.

      The best ideals that we want for this country still exist. They exist inside you and me and in our hope and humanity. The Wheel of Fate always turns. We can and we will turn the wheel eventually in the direction of humanism and progress. We will do this together, and become dragon slayers, if we must.

  • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    What tf has the United States stood for, if not colonialism, racism and genocide?

    I’m glad USAians are starting to despise their country as much as the rest of the world now that it’s starting to happen to them, but please keep the lusting after the good ol days that never existed to the boomers.

      • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        3 months ago

        What do you want from this interaction?

        Presumably, making people understand that the US (and western Europe) represent the most evil shit imaginable in the past 5 centuries including essentially the genocide of the entire continent of America and the colonisation of the entirety of south america, Africa and most of Asia, and that at no point was it worth dying for.

      • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Sorry, in the future I’ll be more respectful of people who say they’ll defend colonialism, racism and genocide with their lives.

          • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            You must have interpreted the image differently because to me it very much sounds like they’re saying things used to be good and now the country became bad. In fact, that’s the word being used.

            And, frankly, I’m tired of people singing praises of the good old days when they melted the skin off of children in Cambodia and sent death squads to South America. I don’t care what they think they were fighting for, the onus of not loving genocide is on them.

    • Revan343
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      Note that the meme doesn’t talk about what the United States stood for

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      We kind of hoped we were turning over a new leaf. Nope, same fucking leaf. Same rotting monetary elite underneath it all.

    • FriskyDingo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      It has also stood for resisters, runaways, rebellion, race traitors, class traitors, communist, unionists, socialists, militant farming communities, civil rights protestors, suffregettes, panthers, occupiers, standing rock, bros and whatever comes next to drag this country into something slightly better and closer to its written ideals.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    As someone who wrote that check and nearly had it cashed when I was younger, all I want to say is these guys are playing with fire. Right now a lot of people I know aren’t seeing the damage from cuts yet and don’t care about immigration issues.

    But there is a line and once it’s crossed things will not be fun for anyone.

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    3 months ago

    Nah, I’m not giving my life. They’re going to have to take it from me and I won’t go quietly.

  • Match!!@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’m willing to give my life for the right cause but not willing to kill someone. It’s harder to find how to make that work nowadays