Happy 247th: The Absurd Arena Live Discussion Board
Live chat at 12pm EST with Katie and Wilson in the Substack app chat!
Click here to join the live discussion board with Katie and Wilson in the Substack app chat
Hey Useful Idiots,
All too often, when we call out the US for its sadistic war leaders and pitiful treatment of its people, the response from trolls is “If you hate America so much, why don’t you just leave?”
But today, in honor of America’s birthday (nearly its 250th and we cannot wait for Trump’s party), we’re changing our tune: this week the Useful Idiots are going to be optimistic.
Sure, we may not be used to it, and maybe it says something about me that the only song about optimism I could think of to quote here begins with the lyric:
“Flies are buzzing around my head
Vultures circling the dead
Picking up every last crumb”
But we can try. So: What are the things you love about America? What’s something you can do or say or have or eat here that you can’t anywhere else? We see people out there working, like Cornel West or CodePink, to make real change to help people in the US; what’s your optimistic outlook from the change they might bring?
We mourn and throw down and talk about things that suck enough, today the grass is greener on our side.
So join Katie and Wilson at 12pm est to celebrate America’s 247th and give each other a reminder why things may still be looking up.
Some of the land, the mountains and the forests, are still nice. The places were people don’t want or not allowed to own and live.
Some of the people are amusing to talk to. I can’t really go all Abel Meeropol united front with that: “and especially the people, that’s America to me” but I like some of us, you know like y’all and our odd little Alternative Front, Matt, Chris, Cornell, Glenn, you know.
Some of the Bread and Circus is still amazing, currently The Righteous Gemstones, even The Boyz (thanks space Jeffie!)
I kinda like that it’s all on it’s last legs while regretting that it will end up destroying so much to keep itself going.
Maybe it will physically patch itself up and the beat will go on in its demented corpse intentionally forgetting what its ideals were supposed to be along with the stuff that got swept under the info rug.
The landscape of the US is still really beautiful, even with our abuse of it. And there are many people I still greatly care about and conversations that are still worth having. I think things I love about the US are things that most people value and care about in their own countries.
I complain because things I grew up thinking are really important are getting twisted and used in a way that feels like “opposite day”.
I’m pretty sure that happens in all places, sometimes getting worse and sometimes people working to retain a certain value succeed.
I like that we at least had a premise that we could bring about change by voting and working together to pass laws. We’ve never had a “true” or “pure” democratic republic, when humans put theories into practice they get messy and corrupted.
Mark Twain’s cynical views were not new in his era. I hope someday we can laugh at ourselves again.