America without the TM

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I believe in America.

A lot of people who are currently being labeled nasty, unpatriotic things love America, too. We sit up at night and talk about it. It tries our faith and wears us down, but this is Who We Are and damned if the shrieking apes are going to take that away from us. They don't own this place. They don't own the land, don't own the history, don't own the hopes and dreams and promise of a nation or a continent.

I believe that this is a Special Place. I believe that this is the place (in some ways, the only possible place) where mankind comes together after millennia apart to learn from each other and to find out what the future will hold. I believe in the Clovis people, in the Aztecs and the Mayans and the Olmecs, the Inuit and the Navajo and the Abanaqi and all the rest. I believe in the ruins of Pumapunku and ancient Roman boats and Templar Knights and South Pacific Islanders and wandering Hebrews and Welsh explorers and Vikings. I believe in them all, not because the dirty brown people needed white saviors, and not because the noble savages must be magically better than us nasty invaders. I believe in them because this is a place that draws us in. Because this is Holy Land. Because when you have grown as much as you can in the place where you were born, you must explore, and nowhere else in the world is so separated from every other land, so likely to catch up explorers looking for the edges of the earth, and so kind to those who survive the trip.

The Americas are a land of exiles and adventurers, rebels and malcontents and deviants. We are the second siblings on too-crowded islands, set adrift. We are the refugees of famine and disaster. We are the eldest sons sent out to find their fortune. We are the well-bred daughters of poor families. We are the heretics and criminals, and we are the survivors of genocide. We are forgetful, because we spend so much time looking forward that we fail to remember our past in anything more solid than myth and parable. We are always in motion, accelerating. We are plural - always plural - because we never were one family with one origin. We are the mutts of the world, and we are never, ever satisfied. We sometimes commit ecological suicide.

I believe this is a land of apocalypses. I believe in Easter Island statues and abandoned cities and dust bowls. I believe that the only way to continue existing as the proving ground for new ideas is to periodically wipe away the old and start over. I believe the world is watching, because everyone likes a show, and no one gives a show like the Americas. I believe we are special because we burn brightly and lead the way for the others.

And, in time, their explorers will find this land again.

[Cain]

Except...that's not America.  America's a line on a map, and a whole bucket of money.  Everything else is just...interior design.  Flags and national anthems and "national characteristics", as if the nation-state has a monpoly on the vast expression of human nature.  America is the TM.  Just like everywhere else.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The United States of America is and has always been a cesspool of exploitation and despair.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

The United States of America is a country, America (or, to be more accurate "the Americas") is a continent.

[Doktor Howl]

The Americas are a land of exiles and adventurers, rebels and malcontents and deviants.

Well, nooooo...We WERE that, until sometime around the middle of the last century.  Now we're fat Romans, hiding behind our walls and pretending the world isn't there.  Or, if it must be there, then it is there to serve us.

[Doktor Howl]

The United States of America is a country, America (or, to be more accurate "the Americas") is a continent.

Balls.  Those other countries should think up their own name, instead of ripping us off.

[Doktor Howl]

The United States of America is and has always been a cesspool of exploitation and despair.

Yeah, but so are all the others.  Except Belgium, and they're just showing off.

[Doktor Howl]

Also, how COULD you have America with no ™?  That's fucking treason at LEAST.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

"Welcome to the United Snakes, land of the thief, home of the slave.
The grand imperial guard, where the dollar is sacred and power is god."
                    —Brother Ali, Uncle Sam Goddamn

[I_Kicked_Kennedy]

America is a Trojan Chocolate Easter Bunny.
A tasty perversion of Jesus,
Utterly hollow,
And when you figure this out,
It's too late.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

The Americas are a land of exiles and adventurers, rebels and malcontents and deviants.

Well, nooooo...We WERE that, until sometime around the middle of the last century.  Now we're fat Romans, hiding behind our walls and pretending the world isn't there.  Or, if it must be there, then it is there to serve us.

That's why this is a piece about belief. I know damn well that the reality of the situation is pretty fucking bleak and full of the ^TM crap, but the reason it's worth staying around and not giving in to the douchebuckets who've co-opted America is that I do still have this faith in the place, and I do still believe that somewhere under the layers of cheeto dust the people still have the faintest glimmer of who they were.

And if they don't, I believe this place will get rid of them and replace them with new uppity bastards. It's happened before.

[Cain]

The United States of America is and has always been a cesspool of exploitation and despair.

Yeah, but so are all the others.  Except Belgium, and they're just showing off.

I think Belgium was made to go sit in a quiet corner and think about what it had done re: the Congo Free State.  Strictly speaking not Belgium's fault, of course, but Leopold II was their king.

[trippinprincezz13]

The Americas are a land of exiles and adventurers, rebels and malcontents and deviants.

Well, nooooo...We WERE that, until sometime around the middle of the last century.  Now we're fat Romans, hiding behind our walls and pretending the world isn't there.  Or, if it must be there, then it is there to serve us.

That's why this is a piece about belief. I know damn well that the reality of the situation is pretty fucking bleak and full of the ^TM crap, but the reason it's worth staying around and not giving in to the douchebuckets who've co-opted America is that I do still have this faith in the place, and I do still believe that somewhere under the layers of cheeto dust the people still have the faintest glimmer of who they were.

And if they don't, I believe this place will get rid of them and replace them with new uppity bastards. It's happened before.

I know what you're getting at, but America's just a place. Some good stuff happened, some bad stuff happened, some stuff happened. Just like every other place. Some may have a longer history than others but there are things to be proud of, things to be ashamed of, things to learn from and things that just happened everywhere. Where I happened to be born was just a matter of circumstance. I can look back at the past actions of people and have an opinion on it, but I just can't get all "Woo America!" because it's just a hunk of land, where I happened to be born, where stuff happens, for better or worse.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The United States of America is a country, America (or, to be more accurate "the Americas") is a continent.

The Americas are a land of exiles and adventurers, rebels and malcontents and deviants. We are the second siblings on too-crowded islands, set adrift. We are the refugees of famine and disaster. We are the eldest sons sent out to find their fortune. We are the well-bred daughters of poor families. We are the heretics and criminals, and we are the survivors of genocide. We are forgetful, because we spend so much time looking forward that we fail to remember our past in anything more solid than myth and parable. We are always in motion, accelerating. We are plural - always plural - because we never were one family with one origin. We are the mutts of the world, and we are never, ever satisfied. We sometimes commit ecological suicide.

This doesn't really seem to describe the two continents (which can't really be described as "a land"). It seems to describe a country founded by fairly recent arrivals. Which is it? How does that paragraph tie in with your mention of the natives? Are you saying that there's some kind of kinship?

Quite frankly, I don't like this piece at all. But perhaps I'm just not seeing what you're going for.

[Salty]

What I got out of it was there's something in America worth salvaging. I agree completely. The rats will feast like kings when The Time™ comes.

More seriously, I do not want to have faith in anything let alone this safe haven for assholes. If we contain those who have survived genocide, they only have a place to survive in such lavish BECAUSE of massive, successful genocide.