It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now.
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr From over here, where all of my long life I've been ashamed of what my ancestors did during the fascist British Empire to hundreds of millions of people, I've always seen the USA as the same or worse. What we see happening in your country now is what I've always believed existed under the pretty PR cover. That has never stopped me from respecting certain Americans I've known who are genuine anti-fascists, and all my friends are among them.
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr you're definitely not alone in these feelings, especially the guilt of being secure in a time when so many aren't.
I very much don't feel like celebrating. It'd be one thing if it felt like we were even slightly going in the right direction, but we're on such a hugely regressive path right now it's hard to just get up and be mildly productive, let alone be *excited* about anything.
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@RickiTarr same. Going to wear black on the 4th.
@akamran @RickiTarr Might wear my AMERICA NEEDS THERAPY shirt. It happens to be black.
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr right there with you. I'm choosing to be proud of the resistance to the king, and of people like this guy:
https://fastestslowguy.blogspot.com/2026/03/othaniel-youngs-revolutionary-war.html
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It’s called the ‘Freedom 250 celebration’, I guess their advertising hasn’t been so good as you seem to have missed it.
@Mwritter @RickiTarr
Freedoms for traitors & billionaires. Not for you or me. -
I am not celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. I am grieving that we never attained the ideals we were founded on. But I am hopeful that we will. Even now.
White male landowning dominance, and preserving the availability of human labor for their exploitation?
The US is now exactly what it was intended to be.
Sorry, I’m not happy with the public displays of jingoism that this holiday enforces.
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@RickiTarr Last night, I was noting how un-celebratory the neighborhood looked while I was walking the dog. A handful of flags, but barely more than are just up all year anyway. Seems like fewer than a 'regular' Independence Day... FAR fewer than what should arguably be a bigger celebration.
It feels considerably less celebratory than the 200th anniversary in 1976, which itself was in the midst of a recession and only about 18 months removed from Nixon resigning.
@SKleefeld @RickiTarr I was 18 for the bicentennial. People generally felt very positive. We got rid of Nixon and got out of the Vietnam war, and while there was a recession it was still a lot easier for young people to get jobs than it is now. There was a real sense that things were getting better and there was suddenly a lot of interest in history, although a lot of what the media were putting out was sugar coated. The Beach Boys had a huge free concert on the Mall in Washington and I was there. Most folks my age smoked pot, but it was weak ass 70s pot. The official celebrations were thoroughly nonpartisan and Ford didn't try to inject himself, quite the opposite.
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr Right there with you. I've been sad about the 4th for at least 10 years now. I love what this country has the potential to be, but I'm gravely disappointed with where it is now.
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@RickiTarr right there with you. I'm choosing to be proud of the resistance to the king, and of people like this guy:
https://fastestslowguy.blogspot.com/2026/03/othaniel-youngs-revolutionary-war.html
@morgan Agreed, I am proud of those who work toward a better country
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@RickiTarr From over here, where all of my long life I've been ashamed of what my ancestors did during the fascist British Empire to hundreds of millions of people, I've always seen the USA as the same or worse. What we see happening in your country now is what I've always believed existed under the pretty PR cover. That has never stopped me from respecting certain Americans I've known who are genuine anti-fascists, and all my friends are among them.
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@RickiTarr it’s, bad right now. and yet we persist. not everything worth doing is always worth a celebration?
@mxsparks hugs
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@RickiTarr
I think our country has always been a bizarre mutation. There have always been awful things going on here, and also wonderful things.This is to say that celebrating the 4th has always been somewhat fraught for me, but I can’t deny that I’ve also always really loved some of what it is to be American.
Right now we have a kind of cancer, and I’m doing what I can to see that we survive that. And I see the others doing the same (that you mentioned), and I’ll always be grateful for people here trying to make things better.
And any point on a journey is just one of many steps. So the big numbers are curious to note, but not of great importance to me, either.
I guess my big point is: I hope you have a good weekend!
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr I know…
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr@beige.party I know this is easier said than done but it's trying to find a positive, even it really minor or the situation isn't great. It's how I'm currently powering through this year despite my concerned from massive spike of transphobia and far-right in the UK where I live.
I'm grateful that I started to know more queer people in real life as I have tried to push myself to socialised a lot more. As well as that, I been experimenting with clothes that's bit feminine but make outfit out of it which it felt like I'm getting closer the real me. -
It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr It’s very difficult to navigate from hour to hour as we watch this regime dismantle our constitutional republic. I just keep remember Benjamin Franklin telling the woman in Philadelphia. “a republic if you can keep it“. Many people denied that Project 2025 was real. It’s very real.
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr I've felt this way about the 4th for a long lime. I usually find ways to appreciate the part of the celebration that it about being with friends, and fume silently about the rest.
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It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr I’ve always been pretty indifferent—and thought it strange when anyone anywhere whenever has made an identity of the accident of birth within ephemeral political borders.
I’ve also seen pros (my privilege, good we’ve done, etc) while being keenly aware of cons for less privileged Americans—and global communities harmed by our self-serving policies.
If not for Trump’s co-opting of 250, I could genially acknowledge the positives. But now think it just memorializes a failed experiment.
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@RickiTarr now I have to add that some of this is inevitably the viewpoint of a child vs an adult, but it also is objectively a grim time
@Html_Entities @RickiTarr In 1976 we had something to celebrate. We had survived a corrupt president who tried to overthrow free elections. We were a little closer to the promises of the Declaration, having passed the Civil Rights Act. Roe v. Wade legalized a woman's right to choose. We were, for a brief period, not engaged in a war.
Now look at us. -
It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now. How do I celebrate a country with detention camps? I know there are great people here, who are working toward a better tomorrow, but it feels nuts to want to shoot off fireworks right now. Add on this massive heat wave that most of the United States is going through, and I'm just feeling trapped. Of course, then I feel ungrateful, I have a place to live, I'm not in a camp, I have food, and friends. My mental health feels less than stellar right now. Anyway, sorry for the brain dump, I just wanted to be honest, it feels so complicated right now, what do we do, how do we help? I love you all. I hope you're safe, cool, and have a good weekend. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings too, if you want.
@RickiTarr to me, there is nothing to celebrate right now. It’s getting so bad I’m actively considering getting my Canadian citizenship after a law change and being dual to have an escape route for my family. It doesn’t matter if we flip anything, it’s going to take years to fix this mess. And the hopelessness one feels is enough to kill any even little bit of excitement for the celebration.
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