I was talking to one of my friends and he mentioned staying home on July 4, citing how there are a lot of really ugly things going on in the US.
After thinking about this myself, I’m starting to feel the same way. Instead of being proud of the country, I’m feeling like I’m just another wallet that companies and the government are trying to suck all the money out of.
The cost of living is going up, the housing market is a nightmare, I don’t feel very confident in our government at all, the job market is a nightmare…
I think I’ll be staying home this year too… anyone else?
Nope, I’m from Russia.
But then again, where does that not have its place? Are people in Europe, say, universally welcoming to immigrants? Or maybe Asia is not full of xenophobia? Africa, at least?..
There are much better factors of unity than being on a certain plot of land.
Europe is quite accepting to immigration, but if you look for a country where no one dislikes foreigners, good luck!
What I wanted to say in the beginning is, you band together to form a government, for the people, by the people! The US one is kind of crap, the russian one is an authoritarian hell hole, likewise in china.
Here in Europe we complain all the time about “the government” but that is to make politicians change their policies, because we’ll vote them in if we like them (the policies) or vote them out if we dislike them. Works half-reasonable well (when the Kremlin doesn’t spew too much disinformation), better than any other system IMO.
You can’t do that in Russia, so I understand your frustration about “the government”.
Guess that’s why Europe has built defences against immigrants, and many European countries straight up rejected to accept them? And that’s why right-wingers with their anti-immigration policies win over more and more votes?
My point is, this is one of the consequences that comes with national identity. For some, it’s just unfair preference of “their” people and things, for others, it’s nationalism and xenophobia.
Blocking “disinformation” is also a slippery slope towards autocracy. Y’know, Russia did the same back in the day. I understand that it feels like a necessity amidst hybrid wars, but it’s bound to be problematic down the road.
Well it’s not all rosy, but today immigration has become a weaponized tool, the Kremlin pays immigrants to ship them over to the Baltic states, uses propaganda in all ways to sway people to vote on bad things etc.
I’m not saying the EU is some sort of haven, but it’s probably one of the better places.
I think you are spot on with nationalism etc. It’s a fucking plague. We have enough of everything but no no let’s not share it. Sigh.
About Russia though, they have always always been the bad ones (except 1991-2000? Maamybee), and we do a very very poor job of blocking their misinformation campaigns. It’s also way more powerful today with social media than it was just ten years ago.
So today we got what we got, we can’t just “remove” all governments in the EU for example, it would just lead to a disaster. Fighting for a better world? Yes, I’d love that.
Immigration being seen as a weapon has always bewildered me. If people come to your country, commonly running away from famine and war, and you see them as nothing but a weapon, something is seriously wrong. I am aware some countries like Finland are already fairly filled with immigrants, but Europe could use some more cooperation to solve this.
To my perspective, Russian government was not the bad one, it was a rival, as in yet another place being run by shitheads. Funnily enough, 1991-2000 was actually the time when liberties coming from Perestroika were tanked again, the country was destroyed against people’s will, and wild privatization combined with corruption has left millions in deep poverty and famine; crime arose. People had their homeland taken away from them before they could react, and they were intentionally kept clueless on what was going on. But it was also the time when Russia had better relations with Europe and the US, which is why this period is seen as “Russia being good”.
Removing all governments overnight is not feasible indeed. But we should admit the harms patriotic and, as a radical extension, nationalist models cause to society at large and our global cooperation, we should own up to what it means to hostility, warfare, and breeding idiots who make it worse for all of us. Every time someone tries to instill patriotic feelings within the population, they just want to make us more controllable and divided. We shouldn’t let them. And as an extension of that, we should advocate for direct democracy and gradual dissolution of government as a main controlling entity.