It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now.

[mav@masto.hackers.town]

@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.

[gramrgednangel@beige.party]

@akamran @RickiTarr Might wear my AMERICA NEEDS THERAPY shirt. It happens to be black.

[morgan@sfba.social]

@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

#NoKings

[riaresists@mastodon.social]

@Mwritter @RickiTarr
Freedoms for traitors & billionaires. Not for you or me.

[benhm3@mastodon.social]

@FranceskaMann @RickiTarr

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.

[not2b@sfba.social]

@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.

[mfennvt@mastodon.world]

@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.

[rickitarr@beige.party]

@morgan Agreed, I am proud of those who work toward a better country

[rickitarr@beige.party]

@DavidBridger ️

[rickitarr@beige.party]

@mxsparks hugs

[rickitarr@beige.party]

@hopeward ️

[j258853@toot.community]

@RickiTarr I know…

[matty@blahaj.zone]

@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.

[beachbum@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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.

[ravelin@mindly.social]

@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.

[hopeward@sunny.garden]

@RickiTarr

[holberg@mstdn.social]

@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.

[lperry2@mastodon.social]

@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.

[myrddinemerys@ohai.social]

@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.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@RickiTarr

there were darker eras. there will be yet darker times still

we do what anyone does in such times

we persist and resist

it doesn't have to be full-throated. something like your post as a clarion call of sanity is enough. muster the grace that we can, as you are doing now

the ideal of course is we coalesce some sort of means to not only fight back but win

we don't have to be desperate about it. we don't need anxiety. we simply smile and carry on and then discover stronger means