Should I feel bad about being born American?

I can’t tell you how to feel but i can tell you how I feel. I don’t feel bad about being an American. Find me a perfect government in the world and then we’ll talk about it. There may be one that looks perfect on the outside, but I’m sure the people that live there have complaints and criticisms.

Where you are born, your nationality, your ethnic background, the color of your skin, your gender, your native language, the family you are raised by (and more) are entirely happenstance and beyond your control. Feeling ‘bad’ about any of it is silly.

Instead, put your energy into being a good person. Treat people well. Don’t be a dick.

Then, you can be the antithesis of what some people expect when they thunk ‘American’.

If you want to. I personally wouldn’t. I don’t love EVERYTHING about the US, but I have lived other places and travelled to a lot more, and I’d rather be in the US than anywhere else.

No, it was completely out of your control where you were born.
And we’re a young country, perhaps we’ll mature someday.

No of course not.

No. There’s no reason for you to feel bad about anything that attaches to you by accident of birth. But you’re not a newborn anymore, so you do need to ask yourself if you are doing what you can to make things better.

Let the country that is without atrocities cast the first stone.

The citizens of the USA should be proud of all the good it has done around the world and also acknowledge terrible things of the past.

Did you engage in the slaughter of American indigenous people or own slaves from Africa or do a hostile takeover of Hawaii? No? Then you can be proud of all the good the USA does and has done around the world. Example: Giving aid to countries around the world as needed, saving the world Germany and Japan in WWII, lately helping the Ukraine fend off communism, etc.

You can be proud of living in one of the most free countries in the world, where people of all skin colors have the same rights and opportunity to become as prosperous as they are able. We have black doctors, black lawyers, black university professors, black astronauts, black Congresswomen, black military generals, black U.S. President & VP, etc.

Why do people around the world hate the USA? Perhaps what they really hate is our capitalism and the freedom that goes along with it. They see hard work for personal gain as evil or just wrong. Perhaps also jealousy is involved. That’s their problem. Not yours.

You can if you want, but I won’t.

No.

Not bad, but grateful.

“The reason I ask this question is because people all over the world and the internet are saying things that are making me feel bad about who I am as an American.”

This sums up pretty well how some of the well-intended rhetoric being used to change culture surrounding things like race, gender, class and nationality can have negative consequences for certain people. You should never feel bad for who you are or where you were born.

For those who don’t understand why right wingers push back on some of this when they should be supporting it, now you know. This is the #1 reason.

That’s ridiculous. No one should ever feel bad about their place of birth.

I have a relative by marriage who told her daughter to lie about where she was born and I couldn’t even believe she even suggested such a thing.

What communist dictatorship? I haven’t seen any communist candidates in America. Stop talking to your current circle of social media friends. Maybe take a break from social media and stop watching whatever news channel you watch. Just take a break from it. Make friends with people who think differently or who don’t discuss politics. Have some fun.

@raiden88: “Should I feel bad about being born American?”

No. But if you continue to live in the US and pay taxes, you should feel a certain level of discomfort (a great deal, in my opinion). This discomfort with being part of a destructive machine is healthy.

So where do you live @hat?

^United States

No shit

I am not an American and I don’t reside in the USA but there is no reason why you should not be proud of the country you were born and you live in.

I agree that the USA is a pitiful state at the moment but the same could be said for the majority of the democratic world.

At least Biden is doing better than Trump ever did and he appears to care for his countrymen, unlike Trump.

I am not having a dig at the Democrats, only Trump because as an outsider with no allegiance to the Dems or Reps I have to say that Trump in my opinion is the worst POTUS America has ever had. One example is how many American lives could Trump have saved during the worst of the Covid outbreak? instead he virtually ignored it and ignored it existence.

Another problem in the USA that the people and the Governments are hanging on to a Constitution which is over 300 years old and when it was written it was fine but now it bears no resemblance to the modern day.

Another one o the many countries who are having problems is Britain. It’s people are having to make decisions about whether to eat or hear their homes and 1000s of parents are going hungry in order to ensure their children are fed. Also the Government is totally corrupt because they care about no one but their own greed.

I am sure any Republican who reads this will definitely not accept my comments because of what I have said about Trump but believe me I am not getting at the American people Dem or Rep because both supporters have had to endure.

No, I don’t think you should feel bad for being born American.

But I also think if you love your country, you should also be striving to make it better. And there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

Our restaurant days ended abruptly with covid, and it was cold water to my face accounting the cumulative staggering sums of money we typically threw at restaurants. We have plenty of good memories, but we will not (I hope) resume that profligacy.

Has any read the details in this Q? They offer a pretty bizarre course of action as a solution.

@janbb Yup

The reason I ask this question is because people all over the world and the internet are saying things that are making me feel bad about who I am as an American

And you let some random strangers you’ll never meet dictate your value?

@janbb Yup. Right winger. That’s why I wrote I haven’t seen any communists candidates running for office in the US. Maybe you didn’t read my answer above.

@JLeslie Did now – thanks.

@janbb @JLeslie I just read his other question. Could the bizarre solution come from a conversation with another jelly on that thread that he has very likely missed the point?

@janbb I’m with @Mimishu1995. I don’t think that the OP has offered any particular course of action as a solution so much as asked about courses of action that they think have been suggested elsewhere.