Ok but we are a nation of immigrants. I could see a company in America having that name. I’d just assume the founder was either a Chinese immigrant or the child of one.

Yeah it’s a bad rhetorical position to have backed ourselves into, but also yeah we’re certainly there. I think the 00s really did it with the flag waving support our troops leading to defense of torture and dismissal of war crimes. By that point it was hard to be proud to be an American and rather than join a national conversation about what we’d done, the right saw us recoil in horror and advanced. They screamed “love it or leave it” and asserted that America was the best. By the time the disaster of the war on terror really hit them they owned the cultural perception of “patriotism” and “America fuck yeah”. They then descended into conspiracy to explain it, the most recent contrapoints video was quite compelling on that discussion.

The left has been doing some work to reclaim it. Shermanposting is very much an example, but reclaiming national pride is hard in the face of a nationalist movement. Our history is such a mix of good and bad and when you’re committed to reality it’s hard to reclaim the flag waving position, especially when it’s gotten so bad your national value of liberty has become a fascist buzzword and the country has ruined most of its goodwill internationally.

Nah its that foreign country Puerto Rico that we keep getting immigrants from. Almost as bad as the guamanians stealing jobs from our hardworking soldiers /s

Lol so we’ve finally hit the point of an American company trying to knock off a respected Chinese brand.

No, they specify California. They ain’t getting some cheapo des Moines engineers

They see anything other than absolute cultural dominance in all parts of the world to be persecution. I remember being told in catholic school as a kid how America wasn’t being very tolerant of Christianity because people would do fun things on Sunday mornings.

Like practice your religion as you want and I’ll do the same with mine, but part of religion is that it’s yours.

I’m a woman, but I feel like if I were a man I’d be offended by the fact that large swathes of America seem to think that manhood and the military and its aesthetics are the same thing.

Like, men can have other jobs. I’ve known men who are accountants and scientists and even healthcare workers and educators. I’ve known men who are pacifists and anti war activists. Hell men can even have other interests that are culturally associated with their gender. You could do sports themed baby bags, or “fun things culturally associated with kids doing with dad” ones, or even barely change the aesthetic but make it astronaut themed.

Like, I worry that this increasing association between masculinity and the military is being done on purpose in an attempt to prime young men to go lose parts of their bodies and minds in foreign countries, and I’m reminded of the cultural buildup to the first world war

It should be <500 or what they said. What they said is mathematically better but grammatically wonky, whereas what you said is 500 is less than steps per day.

Big number > small number < big number

Only the most chaste men among them.

I get what you’re saying, but remember they’re still fighting. Feminist protests break out every few years there.

It’s why iran has so many educated women and is weirdly technologically powerful for a theocratic regime. Iran in the 70s was modern. Inshallah the people of iran will be freed from the tyranny of theocracy.

But yeah, iran is what should scare you the most because their collapse was fast and unexpected.

Bragging rights

I didn’t watch the movie, but I can’t imagine an American movie getting away with what the comic did. Yeah, one of the major themes of the comic is the fucked up sexuality displayed by the fascists and the leader gets off on the concentration camps.

Really good comic, but it’s definitely a lot. Moore did a really good job of depicting the fascists as pathetic but dangerous. Though fair warning, if Moore could think of a slur a brit might possibly use it’s in that comic.

Yeah and if I was a Christian I’d be calling most American Christians antichristians.

I think he thinks himself Solomon or even Byron, rather than a pedophilic Crassus

May he stand bared before the gods, with nothing but his soul and his actions to bear testament to his worth.

It was a warning against authoritarians. 1984 was inspired by his time conscripted into the propaganda service during world war 2 and his negative experiences with the soviets fighting alongside them in Spain. It was a warning against both fascists and authoritarian communists

Honestly, the us is going full vendetta too. Our president is really reminiscent of Adam Susan

Well both books were written to describe what british authoritarianism would look like.

Don’t worry, they’re banning the sins of the poor and cracking down on the dregs of society, just in time for you to be part of that