On Hyphenated-Americans.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Having thought about it all last night, I have come to a conclusion:  Pixie was 169% right.  An Irish-American is just an American.  There is no connection between myself, except in genetics, between myself and a person from Cornwall.  This isn't butthurt talking, it's observable fact.

There are some interesting implications that come with having no cultural heritage...Or at least a severely abbreviated one.  Our culture was born in war, expanded with war, and slaps a pastiche of theft and/or commerce-based "culture" on itself.

An example would be our holidays.  Consider:

Thanksgiving:  Thanks for the help, Native Americans!  Have some blankets.

Mother's Day:  Fabricated wholecloth by the Hallmark Greeting Card Company.

Labor Day:  The day when all the proles go work long overtime to support sales to the middle class & wealthy.

July 4th:  The day we celebrate kicking out the forces of law & order, because teabagger.

Christmas:  Starts before thanksgiving.  Buy some shit, already.

Halloween:  Here, kids, have some processed sugar.  Sorry about that, England.

Veterans/Memorial Day:  We used up a bunch of people, so YOU should feel bad about that twice a year.

Without heritage, there is no culture.  Without culture, there are no social norms.  Without social norms, there are no morals.  Since people can't operate that way, we made some shit up.  Given the fortress mentality of our founding, the shit we made up is based on imperialism and the cult of the gun.

So, no, we aren't Irish-Americans or German-Americans, or anything like that (with the occasional exception of Native Americans, specifically those who have preserved their culture).  No, we - and this includes 2nd+ generation immigrants - are just Americans, and we do what America does.  We we aren't doing that, we practice it on ourselves.

This has led to societal abominations like the school-to-prison/military pipelines, etc.  This fills the two basic requirements our society requires; fear and fresh troops.  And while some yahoos still think it's about FREEDOM, the only "freedom" you have here is the privilege of not yet having been noticed by the system.

Our police dress like stormtroopers, and our population whimpers about "being safe" and "stomping the gonads out of anyone who doesn't show respect".  The government no longer has to police the thoughts of the citizenry; they are now self-policing.

In a teenager that isn't wanted by his/her parents, abberant behavior becomes normal.  In a society not wanted by their parent societies, you see the same thing.  This is why I am puzzled by people who wonder why the United States is so damn dysfunctional, and why we hardly ever seem to give a shit what your opinion is, nationally speaking, on anything.  Why should we?

And that is the culture of America, historically and currently.  Not a nation of immigrants, but a nation of convicts and militaristic yahoos.  What were you expecting from a nation of street urchins, whose parents have told them "You're not our son".

Or Kill Me.

[Suu]

I'm not Italian. I'm not Irish. I'm American. I was born in New York to American born parents and happen to carry names from the old world. That's it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hello, my name is Lyndon B Nixon, and I'm a millwright.  I have a 4 bedroom rental in Tucson, a wife, 2 kids, and two cars.  I was a soldier, my son is a marine.  My family doesn't go back too far...In fact, as far as I can see, I didn't actually exist until 8 years ago.

I have many electronic devices, some of which I have a basic understanding of.  I have a firearm or two, it's every American's patriotic duty to pack iron for no apparent reason.  I own a dog whose previous owner beat him frequently, and as a result the dog is partially crippled and affection-starved.

We're just doing our best out here, you know?  We work hard, or my name isn't Franklin S Truman.  I'm a dead man walking around pretending to be alive, just like all my friends.  We have parties on the weekends.  Nothing outrageous, these days, just a collection of my fellow corpses over for coffee and maybe a bit of bourbon.

I have a good chunk of privilege, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it.  Not because I'm spoiled or anything, so much as the subject never really comes up.  We're good people, we make active efforts to not shit on people, though I must admit that we're not always successful.  And we don't air our dirty laundry or our rotting corpses in front of the neighbors.

Drop by sometime!  Just give us a call so we can spray some fabreeze around.  Jenn will put some burgers on, everyone likes burgers, right?  Damn straight, or my name isn't Spiro T Reagan.  I'm employed somehow, though I don't understand the details.  I am not required to.  I just do my thing, and I try not to get in the way of you doing your thing.  I am the embodiment of the enlightened American future, and hardly anyone I know is in the penitentiary.

[LMNO]

the only "freedom" you have here is the privilege of not yet having been noticed by the system.

This is an amazing line.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

the only "freedom" you have here is the privilege of not yet having been noticed by the system.

This is an amazing line.

What's more amazing is that we are not, as a nation of immigrants (and some locals that kinda got stepped on), able to distinguish between ourselves from an ancestry background.

THAT IS NOT A SLAM ON PIXIE, THAT'S THE TRUTH.

On Saint Patrick's Day, suddenly everyone and their grandmother is Irish.  Not to celebrate Ireland, but to change from our regular uniform to our green shirt & jeans uniform.  And if everyone who claimed to be of Native American blood WAS of Native American blood, they'd run the place, and we'd be in a very small reservation on the site of the Roanoke colony.

It's all bullshit.  All of it.

You can take my word for it, because I'm Clint Wayne, and I'm a real American.  Wife, 2 kids, and a mangled & neurotic dog.  4 bedroom rental in Tucson.  2 cars.  Loads of electronics.  Every day is the same, and that's the way I like - DEMAND - it.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I'm so mixed, it's like I'm not enough of anything to count, even if we DID have cultures here.
My mom's people got here in 1640 and it was fuck, drift, fuck, drift, fuck drift ever since.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm so mixed, it's like I'm not enough of anything to count, even if we DID have cultures here.
My mom's people got here in 1640 and it was fuck, drift, fuck, drift, fuck drift ever since.

Put anything in a blender for long enough, you get America.  Soft, sludgy, and nobody really wants to look at it.  I'm Woodrow Taft, and I work 9-5, just like all my pals.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

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

I'm George W Ford, and I do my part.  Just like any good American.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I'm so mixed, it's like I'm not enough of anything to count, even if we DID have cultures here.
My mom's people got here in 1640 and it was fuck, drift, fuck, drift, fuck drift ever since.

Put anything in a blender for long enough, you get America.  Soft, sludgy, and nobody really wants to look at it.  I'm Woodrow Taft, and I work 9-5, just like all my pals.

I'm Eleanor Fillmore and I work a swing shift, keep a nice trailer, save at WalMart and still find time for the Steve Wilkos show.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm so mixed, it's like I'm not enough of anything to count, even if we DID have cultures here.
My mom's people got here in 1640 and it was fuck, drift, fuck, drift, fuck drift ever since.

Put anything in a blender for long enough, you get America.  Soft, sludgy, and nobody really wants to look at it.  I'm Woodrow Taft, and I work 9-5, just like all my pals.

I'm Eleanor Fillmore and I work a swing shift, keep a nice trailer, save at WalMart and still find time for the Steve Wilkos show.

I'm John Quincy Madison, and I like to listen to talk radio.  It smooths things out, and I don't have to worry about politics.  I'm a Police Tactical Squad member, and I do what I have to do, even if I don't like it, because I can't let my pals down.  FOUR BEDROOM RENTAL.  TUCSON.  DOG.  WIFE.  2 KIDS.

[LMNO]

I'm Millard S Eisenhower, I'm a goddamn patriot, and I'm afraid of anyone who doesn't look like me.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Damn good shit, Roger.

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

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

However, people have always been migratory, so the thing that can fix it is the passage of time.

More time than you or I will spend being alive, but it'll happen, eventually, if we can settle down long enough to let it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm Millard S Eisenhower, I'm a goddamn patriot, and I'm afraid of anyone who doesn't look like me.

The fortunate thing, Millard, is that everyone does look like you.  Everyone.  This is America, and we're all the same.  We're so all the same that sometimes we get a little bugged about it and make up phony differences.  Then, to convince ourselves that we're different, we engineer awful acts of violence in Colorado, NY, and Boston to PROVE TO THOSE BASTARDS THAT WE'RE DIFFERENT.

I'm Richard M Roosevelt, and I HAVE A DOG.  2 KIDS.  2 CARS.  WIFE.  4 BEDROOM RENTAL.  TUCSON.  I have lots of electronics.  I don't think about it too much, because then I might remember that I don't exist below the knees and I've only been around 8 years, and I've been dead the whole time.  We don't breathe here.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

However, people have always been migratory, so the thing that can fix it is the passage of time.

More time than you or I will spend being alive, but it'll happen, eventually, if we can settle down long enough to let it.

I'm reasonably sure there's more America than there was when I was a kid.  It's a jangled bit of RNA that gets into other cultures and reproduces itself.  As a great Japanese man said, "EVERYWHERE is America".  And he was right, or my name isn't Jimmy Clinton.  I have a dog.