American Pride Falls to 25-Year Record Low | Hacker News Reader

American Pride Falls to 25-Year Record Low

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Pride was once pretty much universally considered a sin, usually because it results in things like arrogance, lack of humility, and a general disconnect from the reality of one's own self. Nationalism often takes the form of pride and is encouraged to some degree by most governments, and now we have an entire month dedicated to that other kind of it.

So, maybe passing peak pride, if that's what's occurred, isn't such a bad thing? A national humility month would probably be more psychologically healthy.

This is conflating so many different concepts under one idea of pride. Come on. Yes, humility is also important but it’s a false dilemma and meaningless.

I don't disagree, but it seems like a dangerous thing to say coming out of Pride month.

I'm just amazed how high it is. Living in Europe, and reading "43% in the U.S. say they display the American flag outside their home" ... wtf. Is there any European country that has 1% do that?

Context: this is usually just for national holidays like Independence Day next weekend. It's just a way we've traditionally observed them.

OK. But even then we don't do that here.

Do you have an Independence Day from another world power?

It’s just cultural. I don’t think Americans wear red, white and blue as much as the Dutch wear orange on their holidays as an example.

Who is we? Because we do that here (Poland).

Maybe NL? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Netherlands#Displa...

Flags are weird.

In Canada, the right wing loves to fly lots of Canadian flags.

At the same time one of Pierre Pollievre's main slogans was "Canada is Broken".

He dropped that slogan after Trump made Canadian pride cool again, but the sentiment is still there.

> wtf. Is there any European country that has 1% do that?

News flash: other cultures are different than yours. People in them will do things that you don't do, or not do things that are extremely common to you.

> Is there any European country that has 1% do that?

I dunno about the rest of the country but take a stroll through Madrid. I have never seen so many flags on display, especially around and near a city center. The number of Spain's national and civil flags around the city and hanging off apartment balconies was surprising.

In the US flags are generally in the suburbs where the houses are (not so much apartments, leases usually prohibit it). In my experience (Texas, USA) I see more college and state flags than American.

I mean, I kinda found national pride to be a funny concept, but maybe that's because I come from a place that's changed (depending on how you count) 6 different countries in the last 100 years.

You guys on the other hand, even the libs/dems, had a version of the manifest destiny in your pockets, or so it seemed. And now one half (or on HN 95% of US users) of you are suddenly appalled with the state of things. To the outside world, however, not much other than theatrics, has changed.

> To the outside world, however, not much other than theatrics, has changed.

On the inside, it’s very different.

It's incredible how high these levels were so recently. Never mind Trump (though I'm sure he's helping). Dropping from near-100% to near-50% in 25 years? Show me any societal variable that changes so quickly.

Clearly their proxy for pride is a bit noisy (flag outside the home) but still. And it's a jubilee year as well.

It's hard to feel proud of your country while it's being robbed blind and burned to the ground by a collection of cartoon villains. And knowing that a large chunk of the country either chose this deliberately, or ignored everyone else who told them what they were choosing.

What has happened to my country disgusts me so deeply I am losing my will to live. The only thing to be hopeful for are the midterm elections and I feel like it is foolish beyond reason to expect that to become a magic wand. Hell is empty and the devils are all here.

Hey, I understand you're appalled by the political landscape at home. But losing the will to live is too much, way too much.

Find a shrink, talk to someone. You're not well, don't let that go worse.

I’m disgusted too. But it helps to read some history and gain some perspective. Despite everything going on, this is still historically and pretty darn good time and place to be alive.

Don't ever let a Republican, and especially a Trump voter, complain about the current state of affairs.

They voted for this, and have been voting for this for decades.

They have two choices: own it and admit to themselves that they do in fact support fascism, or vow to never, ever again vote Republican or similar for the rest of their lives.

> Don't ever let a Republican, and especially a Trump voter, complain about the current state of affairs.

Likewise: Don't ever let a Democrat complain about the current state of affairs. They chose to run shit candidates that couldn't even win against a fool like Trump.

They voted for this (in the primaries), and have been voting for this for at least a decade.

They have two choices: own it and admit to themselves that they don't actually care that much about avoiding "fascism," or vow to never, ever again to vote for Democrats who can't win a "red" [1] state for the rest of their lives.

[1] "Red" states are actually not that red. They only seem so "red" because the Democrats stopped trying to represent them.

They literally don't have any good candidates because it takes one or more of these to be at the top:

1. Already having power

2. Extreme wealth

3. Extreme corruption

The system is broken, and the ones in power won't allow it to ever be fixed because it benefits them for it to stay broken.

> They literally don't have any good candidates because it takes one of these to get to the top:

> 1. Extreme wealth

> 2. Extreme corruption

> 3. All of the above

OK. So which of those categories did Obama fall into?

I think yours is an over-cynical take that is in fact wrong.

> The system is broken, and the ones in power won't allow it to ever be fixed because it benefits them for it to stay broken.

The system is broken, but not in the way you describe. The partisan rank-and-file demand candidates that represent the partisan faithful, not an actual majority of the country [1]. They strongly prefer zealous evangelism fantasies and judgement over representation. It's stupid and foolish, and it's how we've gotten were were are. And a lot of Democrats have responded to Trump by getting worse, instead taking a reality check and snapping out of it.

[1] And I'm not talking about some milquetoast centrism.

It's a hopeless party that serves only its leaders, not the party, and certainly not the country. The days of Obama are gone.

> They chose to run shit candidates that couldn't even win against a fool like Trump.

Are we really still doing the blame-shifting game? The current state of Trump related affairs belong to Trump. But sure keep using his goto blame-shifting tactics to help them achieve their divisive agenda.

Also, voters don't choose to run anyone. Not in primaries and not after one has been selected from the primary pool. The pool to pick from is formed before voters give their input.

Maybe education levels in USA are rising?

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