I used to be a patriotic American. Grew up in military/law enforcement family during Reagan era. Loved Reagan. Now, after pointless Middle Eastern wars, hyper-militarized policing, media lies, money over everything culture, Covid, 2020 election shenanigans, “woke” culture, etc., I’m just not feeling very patriotic anymore. Am I only the one who doesn’t feel very patriotic anymore? I can take or leave USA now. I will live and die here but it doesn’t feel special to me anymore.
I think it depends on where you live in the U.S. I've always been in the midwest and where I'm at now has a huge military presence so there is still rationality mostly, and an "America! Fuck Yeah!" attitude. The black side of the main city is another story, and sadly the Hispanic part is going that way too. I love hispanic wowen so I've been to that part of town a lot in years past. Now they are intermingling with the nig nogs in relationships and in drug dealings. All of the bad news we see on tv here almost always comes from those two parts of the city.
If I wasn't on disability, I would move to Thailand. The lady that has cut my hair for roughly 30+ years has a son that moved there after getting his masters in psyc, and to work on getting his PHD while getting a job over there teaching English. He told her "Mom, I love you, but I will never live in America again. It's just too amazing here" So her, her husband, and his sister all went to visit, and she was like "yeah, I get it now". She showed me pics from their first trip, and some were amazing while others (like the streets and especially the electric grid look 3rd world) I looked on YT after that, and it's amazing what you can get over there compared to here as far as real estate and especially food. Plus I think steroids are totally legal. I might be wrong though as I never talked to her about that.
Anyway, to give an example, I live in a great suburb of the main city here in a really nice 2 bed and bath apt that is subsidized those on SS and SSDI like me. I pay just under $800 a month, and have the noise of one of the busiest streets in this part of town. My barbers son paid around $650-700 when he first moved to Thailand for a two bed motel that had a kitchen and everything, was on the beach, and it had an indoor and outdoor pool, plus a gym. He is now renting a house with 3 beds and 2 baths on the beach for around $800 if I recall right what she told me. When she showed me the pics of the places they ate at (there was 5 people eating) the table was loaded with food and booze on top of a building overlooking the ocean. I was like "holy shit Jamie, how much did you guys spend there?" and she told me with leaving a tip it was like $60-70 bucks. So basically you can eat awesom steak, chicken, seafood meals and get blasted for around 12-15 dollars a person. She also showed me pics of the food markets they went through. She had one of a huge steak skewer that looked delicious. I asked her how much it was, and she told me it was $1.50 US. I hate seafood tremendously to the point that even the smell makes me want to vomit, but back in the day my friends were all drug dealers and had to eat at the best places, so we went to alot of sushi restaurants. I would get two steak skewers with no sides that would equal the one she showed me and it was between $15-$20. That was over 25 years ago so I can't even imagine what it's like now as I have never gone back to a Japanese place since they went to prison.
Sorry, for the Matt type long ass post but I'm just trying to paint a pic with words. In short, would I fight and die for this country. "Fuck Yeah!"......for now. If the left takes over with their agendas, I probably only have 20 years or less in life so I would just deal with it. If I didn't have all the medical issues I have, my ass would have moved to Thailand a couple of weeks after her showing me the pics she did and all the wonderful stories she told me.
