I wish all Americans a happy 4th of July. Be proud of your nation, of what it has stood for, and of what it has brought to the world. No, it is not perfect - none of them are - but America has been, for millions of men and women, a bulwark against barbarism and a promise of a better life.
Through its ideas, its struggles and its innovations - whether in science, technology or culture - it has brought enormous benefits to the world. At important moments in history, it has stood up against barbarism and defended a certain ideal of freedom.
Let the USA never forget what they are, their DNA, and the great men of their past. Clémenceau said this about French soldiers, and I use it to pay tribute to the USA: "Yesterday soldiers of God, today soldiers of ideals".
Although I am proud of this country in the way you describe. However, I can honestly think of other countries where we fall behind on things such as technology. That being said...
I like what we stand for, but unfortunately the world does not really know much about this country, the way it operates, and the way it paints itself. We have had many great presidents in the past who done much for the country and shown us how democracy works; and we have some that were and are far from perfect.
We are a nation that began with taking land from the inhabitants who first lived here--Native Americans. The settlers who came first sought their help and then as the country became bigger and more people came, we ran those natives off the land and into other areas. Now they are the worst treated group in America, the lowest on the totem pole.
As if that were not enough, the settlers also brought slaves here from Africa against their will, to work on land and to be owned by white men. If these slaves revolted they were whipped and beaten. This is nothing to be proud of. And I wonder if anyone here is familiar with the Oklahoma Tulsa massacre of 1921, in which mobs of Whites invaded Tulsa at a Black community, and destroyed their businesses and homes, killed up to about 300 Black people, and burned their town down. That, and many other instances in which Black men were accused of crimes they did not commit, and were killed for them. These examples show how above and well racism is in this country. Racism is not gone and I doubt it will ever be.
Blacks built the White House. Immigrants are needed in this country in order for the economy to be stable. Yet, look at what is happening now.
We have a leader, a president who was elected somehow, when he is a convicted felon, someone with many shady connections, and someone who has succeeded in polarizing the country. In a way, the good thing he has done is shown us who is like him. A bigot, who was born with a spoon in his mouth and taught little about morals.
July 4 means time to review what the founding people started with and what we've expanded into. We were a nation built on slavery and allegiance to a foreign king and we broke away from the latter, then finally from the former, but it took another 100 years to get to the civil rights for the grandchildren of the enslaved.
Now the struggle is over immigration and the rights of people who've come here illegally for a better life. What have they contributed and what rights are they due despite the fact that they've come here illegally. There has to be fairness, or we're not the country we propose we are.
The New Colossus By Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
The 4th of July in 2025 no longer celebrates the birth of our nation. This marks the death knell of the United States. And in the end it wasn't cataclysmic war with some foreign power that ended this country. It failed because half the people hate their own country enough to destroy it and burn the constitution. They find an authoritarian dictatorship preferable to a Constitutional Republic. Half our population are traitors. The United States Of America died with a whimper, knifed in the back by our own. Because not enough people cared. Apathy killed this country.
Hatred for people unlike themselves. People call them "illegal" immigrants. If you don't treat others kindly as you did with yourself, you are not an American the way our former presidents welcomed immigrants. Get the "illegal" word out of your vocabulary. If you cannot accept other people mostly because underneath it all you do not like their skin color or race, then you are nothing more than a bigot. And for those supposedly religious ones who think Trump is our Messiah---you are not reading your Bibles correctly, or you're ignoring the words from Jesus who said, "Welcome the stranger".
Ah well, I'm not anti-US culture per se, I'm mostly anti-US in specific areas where US exports their bullshit where I live, things like mass consumption, gender wars, conservatism. You know, specifics like that. Otherwise, I'm cool with any American who doesn't jerk off with their flag in front of me, cause I find it gross, no matter the flag. I'm also feeling grossed out by french worshiping the french flag like it shall be holy or something.
This brings us back to our last discussion. I'm curious to know, given the way you define the history of a nation, how you would define French culture?
How do I define french culture lol? You know how to speak to a leftist, you know how to set nice traps for them 😂
The short answer hmmm, i'd define french culture by dismembering it into some elements. I'd say it's a culture under relative influence of its Catholic roots, despite secularism, lately under influence of islam as well due to colonization. There is food culture, food customs & traditions. There is social market, influencing our political philosophy, reinforced by other countries of Europe. There is a complicated relation with the nat flag due to our history with Nazis and collaboration. There is our classic authors, political philosophers, poets. There is a sexual & romantic culture, which is quite visible when confronting it to anglo-saxons views, particularly UK and US, who seem much more pragmatism oriented. That's what comes to my mind so far
I wouldn't either. He had high ambitions and realized quite a few. Not too shabby for a man standing just over 5 feet I believe. He makes for an interesting read.
Your definition of French culture is quite contradictory to your vision of history. What's more, you talked about customs, which is very interesting for a man of the left 🤣
@julie07 Contradictory? I don't see it, I'm not really giving personal opinions anyway, it's mostly basics in sociology. About customs, well, I can only be critical about them, that's where my leftist agenda is, it doesn't mean I shall ignore their existence, if that's what you meant
I wanted a personal definition when I asked how you define French culture? Bon courage. Because either you're going to have to refer to the history, habits and traditions that form the basis of a nation, its history and its customs, or, as some people do, deny that there is such a thing as French culture, but then you'll be contradicting what you told me the other day.
A personal definition, well, based on... My sensations then? It's very limiting to restrict my views to my experience and surroundings, because then I'd view France not as France, only as a perceptual idea
It's intellectually dishonest to seriously deny the existence of french culture, or any country's culture at all. And it is intellectually dishonest to conclude "this is french culture" using personal views. Because it isn't legitimate, as it would be just an opinion, and an opinion doesn't describe reality. It only describe our own perceptions, viewed from our own, restrictive, window.
I'm not talking about sensations, you can describe French culture based on facts. But I reiterate what I said above, you won't succeed, without violating what you deeply believe as a man of the left.
There can be a contradiction between what my personal opinion says and what sociology would say. But it's a contradiction easy to solve, by compartmentalizing and acknowledging the reach and limits of my discourse. My opinion is valid as an opinion, it would be become invalid if I was trying to convince you that my opinion describes facts or reality.
The value I see is existential pleasure, your pleasure, my pleasure, our existential pleasure in thinking that our opinion are based on facts. As it makes us thinking that we have found something of importance to cling on. It makes us enjoy ourselves?
It's this specific pleasure we have in masturbating, for ourselves, and in front of each other. It's a common way to replace sex in our self-defined caste of intellectuals. Though, personally, it does not replace sex to me, it goes WITH sex, because pleasure can multiply like fucking baguettes of Jesus 🙏🏼
Oh you know, it's very French to masturbate intellectually, and use sophisticated words to look smart. That gives you a starting point for defining French culture.
It means a paid day off. America today isn't the America I grew up loving. When I used to have to sing the song God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, I was proud to sing it especially after 9/11 but now I feel ashamed of what it has become.
While I'm still glad I was born in a "free" country, not everything is really free here. Yes, we have freedom of speech but we have to be politically correct in a lot of things we say. We lock up more people than any other democracy with 743 out of every 100,000 Americans in jail. And we take home less of the wealth we produce than other countries. And we get the fewest vacation days out of any developed country.
The PC part is dying off now which is good. It was much worse in 2020. We have a lot of freedom here and we are a bit wild as a people compared to much of the world, some though take it too far and end up in jail. Strip out the black population and we are like most counties. We make more on average than almost all countries except a few outliers. We have the ability to take fewer vacation days in many jobs, just without the pay but it allways felt expensive to me so I didn’t.
Yes be proud of our nation. A nation that elects motherfuckers like Trump as president. A nation with run away out of control capitalism. A nation where the rich motherfuckers get big tax cuts. A nation where 5% of the population controls 90% of the wealth. A G7 Industrialized modern nation with no Universal Health Care now millions of Americans will loose the only health care they have after Trump " Big Beautiful Buget " passed and rich motherfuckers can get married in Venice. We should have stayed part of the British Empire, we would have probably become a respectable nation like Canada, Australia or New Zealand. We would have universal health care, no fuck every body run away out of control capitalism. Rich motherfuckers would be paying their fair share of taxes. Yes be proud.
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It is the best holiday of the year. I know about the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War and the tale of Paul Revere I know how great it is to be born here and have all the advantages this country has to offer. I will be grilling one of my famous burgers in honor of everyone who made this day possible, including my WW2 vet father.
honestly, it's a family day to get together and eat. every holiday is that. There was a time I'd go to ceremonies and graveyards to recognize those that gave their lives for these purposes.
It's a recognition of freedom, that freedom is not free, and it can easily be taken away or eroded in time.
I love being American and it’s sad to me that’s it’s controversial to say that now a days because of the rampant oikophobia promoted today. People take for granted the freedom we are afforded, our nation isn’t perfect but the values it was built on are worth fighting for 🇺🇸 💕
For me, it's a time to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, the revolutionaries' sacrifices that went into protecting those freedoms, and how far we've come as a nation—as well as a time to recognize the freedoms that have been or are being chipped away, embrace the spirit of rebelliousness, and strive to be better.
Independence Day; 4th of July is just a date on the calendar. We are celebrating the day that the founding fathers declared American independence from England. Arguably it was the final act of rebellion that would spark the Revolutionary War.
Today. It's the first death day. It's no longer a celebration. America has a mortal wound compliments of the elite wealthy. I do hope they are proud of themselves.
Independence from English rule. The birth of the country, the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. Constitution and BofR came later.
It was important for me to write this text, because I know that many Americans think that the French hate them, but that's not true. I have a lot of respect and gratitude for the USA.
But in reality the French also have the impression that the Americans hate France lol
Its because that used to be their slogan in the 70s. They hated all American citizens except for Jerry Lewis. So the younger ones have heard comments from Americans and think we hate them. I don't think the majority does.
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