On Hyphenated-Americans.

[P3nT4gR4m]

It occurs to me that some people may take this thread as sarcasm.  It isn't, not in the slightest.

Never took it as sarcasm, on account of it's pretty much everyone else's view of america and has been since forever. Don't beat yourself up over it, tho, having a culture is grossly overrated.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Damn good shit, Roger.

A people without a history or a connection or a sense of place are just drifting, aimless, and shallow.

And, I am reliably informed, slightly dangerous, like a deep fat frier with no lid.  You can spot the Americans, because their feet are on fire, and they eat the bark off the North sides of trees.  If they catch you, you turn into one.  The Micmac tribe knew us well, they understood us better than we understood them (which is why I don't know if they were a tribe or a nation or just a bunch of clans that had the same language).  But they are in the past, and right now it's TOMORROW, with a SMILE ON ITS FACE, and I have a four bedroom rental in Tucson.

It's MINE, too.  Belongs to me.  Herbert Eisenhower.  You can't have it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It occurs to me that some people may take this thread as sarcasm.  It isn't, not in the slightest.

Never took it as sarcasm, on account of it's pretty much everyone else's view of america and has been since forever. Don't beat yourself up over it, tho, having a culture is grossly overrated.

I don't need a culture.  I have electronics.  And a dog.  And 2 cars.  I have 312 million names, and no identity whatsoever.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I'm Dolly Todd Hoover, and my mother told me we were Black Dutch. We're all white. Black Dutch just means Germans with dark hair.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It occurs to me that some people may take this thread as sarcasm.  It isn't, not in the slightest.

Never took it as sarcasm, on account of it's pretty much everyone else's view of america and has been since forever. Don't beat yourself up over it, tho, having a culture is grossly overrated.

I know.  We have no connection to our ancestors, no sense of continuity at all.  Which I am sure is overrated.

We also know, and have known, how you feel about us.  Since forever.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Forever being the time span from 2009-present.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Question: If you don't really have an identity, is the tendency to cobble something anyway?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Culture and heritage can carry ugly diseases like blood feuds and generational grudges. You get "Us vs. Them" conflicts that stretch back beyond all sense, all because someone's Great*8 Grandpappy may or may not have wandered off with a goat that wasn't his.

So we cut out that bit from ourselves, like an appendix.

But it grew back, and now it's all weird and deformed and covered in scar tissue.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Question: If you don't really have an identity, is the tendency to cobble something anyway?

If you're isolated, the tendency is to become clannish.  All hate is focused outside of the group.

The results are historically documented, and as predictable as the sunrise.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Culture and heritage can carry ugly diseases like blood feuds and generational grudges.

We've managed that without any culture or heritage.

You get "Us vs. Them" conflicts that stretch back beyond all sense, all because someone's Great*8 Grandpappy may or may not have wandered off with a goat that wasn't his.

You mean like the Hatfields and McCoys, maybe?

So we cut out that bit from ourselves, like an appendix.

That's what we like to tell everyone, anyway.

But it grew back, and now it's all weird and deformed and covered in scar tissue.

No.  We grew guns and money.  And shortly, there won't be any money.  But we'll still have incredible stockpiles of weapons, both military and private, and a history of never having to pay for our aggression.

And there's 6.9 billion other primates on the planet.  All alone.  With nobody watching.

I don't look forward to the inevitable, but I can see it for what it is.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

This is maybe the stupidest speculation in the history of this board, but is it possible that people get all overinvested in being a Teatard or a Westboro Baptist or a libertard or a PETAtard or whatever because they don't know who the fuck they are? Maybe they do it for identity?

I mean, if they still had their culture, it would provide a thing to belong to, a common understanding ("this is the way we do it"), plus all the blood feuds and generational grudges that Cainad mentioned, that some people seem to thrive on.

I mean, if you take it away, do people make something up that's worse?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This is maybe the stupidest speculation in the history of this board, but is it possible that people get all overinvested in being a Teatard or a Westboro Baptist or a libertard or a PETAtard or whatever because they don't know who the fuck they are? Maybe they do it for identity?

Yep.  For the same reason kids with no family structure tend to fall in with gangs more often than those with tight families.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Culture and heritage can carry ugly diseases like blood feuds and generational grudges.

We've managed that without any culture or heritage.

You get "Us vs. Them" conflicts that stretch back beyond all sense, all because someone's Great*8 Grandpappy may or may not have wandered off with a goat that wasn't his.

You mean like the Hatfields and McCoys, maybe?

So we cut out that bit from ourselves, like an appendix.

That's what we like to tell everyone, anyway.

But it grew back, and now it's all weird and deformed and covered in scar tissue.

No.  We grew guns and money.  And shortly, there won't be any money.  But we'll still have incredible stockpiles of weapons, both military and private, and a history of never having to pay for our aggression.

And there's 6.9 billion other primates on the planet.  All alone.  With nobody watching.

I don't look forward to the inevitable, but I can see it for what it is.

People get along a lot better when there's enough to go around.

No money and a fuckload of weapons...yeah. Inevitable.

[trippinprincezz13]

I'm Nancy Rockefeller and I'm an alcoholic. I make mildly offensive jokes to get a few laughs and distract people from my own insecurities. I do have the latest iPhone - do you want to see? I use it to take pictures of my 2.3 cats and white picket labradoodle. 

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

My name is Betsy W Anthony and I walk barefoot on the brick sidewalks laid down two hundred years ago. I have a two bedroom rental downtown with a cat that I don't let into the basement because the rats are bigger than her and meaner, too. I don't have a car but I use a rental on the weekends. I visit a lot of museums. I can see the past where I walk, feel it under my feet in the smuggling tunnels the rats have taken over. I can taste the saltwater from the harbor and it smells like ancient tea, and in the winter a tree arrives from Halifax because we never forget. I don't know where I fit in it. I guess I'll go bake cookies and try not to think so much. Things stopped happening here a long time ago.