One of the nice things about the World Cup is how it’s serving as a makeover opportunity for the U.S. All across social media, you have tourists from around the world in awe at how wonderful the country actually is. It’s truly a refreshing change of pace and tone, one of the reasons why I’m so glad we got to host the World Cup.
If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, drive across it. What a wonderful saying. I have no idea from whom the saying originated, but I don’t think that matters. What matters is that it’s true. The world gets an unacceptably distorted picture of what the United States is like through the media, but the moment they show up and really experience the country, everyone ends up loving it.
Just look at these tourists loving America:
The blackpill, of course, is that this reveals the extent to which anti-American propaganda has permeated global discourse. People the world over really are being taught the U.S. is a fascistic hellhole where everyone is racist, living standards are low, and people are being gunned down left and right. Obviously, I don’t think America is perfect place. I have an entire blog dedicated entirely to that theme.
But nowhere in the world’s a perfect place. Yet it’s still a fact some places are better than others and that there’s a reason why, until recently, America was seen as the world’s crown jewel. In fact, the world does still see it this way. If anything, it’s Americans who don’t. Foreigners who also view America negatively are already inclined to do so.
I’ve seen this myself. Foreigners, Europeans particularly, who bad-mouth America are of the same class as Americans who do so:
Yet most Europeans I’ve met have a positive impression of America. Even if they don’t have a positive impression of the president, they’re able to separate the two. For example, I still love Britain, no matter its political leadership, no matter it’s Muslims. Why? Because I understand neither represents the totality of the country. That’s something adults are able to do: compartmentalize.
You’d think this is all great, right? Unfortunately, not everyone does, and it’s precisely whom you might expect: liberals.
Imagine putting this much effort into trying to get people to think less of America. I may be simple-minded to a fault, but the simplest explanations are for the most part correct: these people really don’t think very highly of their country. It doesn’t matter how good they have it in this country: it’s all psychologically burdensome to them. I’ve said this so many times before: if you have more criticism than you have praise, you probably don’t appreciate it all that much. Parents justify relentlessly chiding their kids out of love, wanting the best for them, yet it comes at the cost of breeding resentment in the end. There’s a lesson there.
Then you have people struggling to decide whether to support their country during the tournament because of politics:
I’ll make it easy: if you’re struggling with the question of whether to support your national team, don’t root for them, because you probably don’t support them anyway if you need to think that long and hard about it. It’s amazing to see the extent to which allow politics to dictate everything, their inability to compartmentalize. They’d likely insist otherwise, but their ideology is what they’re actually loyal to, not to a country.
Even at the peak of Megan Rapinoe’s anti-American, narcissistic run, it never crossed my mind to root against the U.S., let alone not support them at all. We’re not all equally patriotic. Many liberals are simply not patriotic at all. We should quit being forced to pretend like they are. No, you don’t have to support the U.S. national team, you don’t have to support the country. That’s never been the point. The point is, that’s not patriotism.
In their never-ending quest to make everyone as broken and miserable as them, liberals are doing whatever it takes to let the world know conflicted they feel or how much they’re rooting against the U.S. It’s not that this message is being propagated which bothers me. What bothers me is that this stuff has an audience, that there’s millions of Americans out there who feel the same way.
Still, there’s no denying, so far, the World Cup has been a resounding success. It’s something the Left is being forced to live with:
The triumph of the World Cup’s first two weeks — boosting the U.S.’s global reputation with sold-out stadiums and few logistical complications — has forced Democrats who had criticized President Donald Trump’s role in preparations to grudgingly reconsider.
“I think that there was a little bit of like liberal wishcasting that this would maybe be a disaster to sort of stick it to Trump,” said Rob Flaherty, the digital Democratic strategist and soccer fan who attended the U.S. group-stage match with Australia. “It hasn’t yet been.”
Before the tournament, attitudes about the World Cup were polarizing, like so much else, along partisan lines, with Democrats confronting FIFA and the Trump administration over high ticket prices, shortfalls in public funding, and the government’s posture to foreign visitors. As the tournament approached, local officials in areas hosting matches, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, turned from critics to cheerleaders.
Now a prominent congressional Democrat is going even farther: praising the U.S.’s handling of tournament logistics — if not giving the Trump administration explicit credit by name.
Know this: anyone rooting for the World Cup to fail isn’t just being unpatriotic. They’re being bad people. They’re bitter, broken, and wholly undeserving of joy. I better not catch any of them celebrating when the U.S. wins the World Cup. They’ll be called out and made examples of. Count on it.
Unpatriotic Patriots
One of the strangest aspects of our current moment is how a person can do and say anything to show they have contempt and hard feelings, if not outright hatred, for their so-called country, yet we dare not describe them exactly as they are: anti-American or unpatriotic.
Things like this:
I really don’t understand why so many people struggle with this: exercising your rights, engaging in political pluralism, none of it alone is an act of patriotism. There’s no logic there. People like Mai Vang can qualify her remarks by claiming to “love” her country all they want, but seriously: if I chose to disrespect Mai Vang in some fashion, nobody would be confused about how exactly I felt about her. Same goes for America.
By the way, as an immigrant, Vang should be the last person to ever disrespect the U.S. Her and her family, which included 16 children, escaped what would’ve been a substantively worse life, was accepted into America, allowed to live off the generosity of Americans for over a generation, off taxpayer-funded welfare and other benefits, and in the end, this golden child cannot even be bothered to partake in the Pledge of Allegiance, while also holding political office? Liberals are right: people often fail to see the privilege that they have.
Others would criticize the notion of patriotism itself, that it’s irrational to love something that’s entirely a political construct. If you honestly believe that, then hating a country is equally irrational. One cannot criticize the idea some may be devoted to their country while simultaneously justifying one’s own lack of devotion. If people are allowed to hate America, other people can love it, too. You don’t need to like it, no. But they’re allowed to love it just as you’re allowed to hate it.
By the way, there’s nothing more irrational than living somewhere you have such conflicted feelings towards, surrounded by people you fear and loathe. Imagine believing this, being so deeply troubled by it, and insisting on living here:
America doesn’t have a perfect history. Americans aren’t perfect and there are lots of truly awful people in this country. But guess what? Everywhere’s like that. Patriotism isn’t about loving your country because it did something you personally approve of, nor is it about loving it in spite of all the bad it did. It’s about loving your country because it’s yours, it’s your home, and for better or for worse, it’s where you live, work, and make your memories. It’s a privilege to have a place to call home.
With so many other places to call home, it’s a wonder they don’t find somewhere that won’t saddle them with as much emotional baggage.
It Wasn’t Always This Way
It’s hard to believe, but patriotism didn’t always used to be anathema to the Democratic Party:
What happened? Having lived it, I think patriotism took a hit during the 2000s, in the wake of 9/11. The Right suddenly held cultural dominance and, unfortunately, they irresponsibly used that power. For example, anyone who even remotely expressed caution and skepticism towards the War On Terror was deemed “unpatriotic,” including some on the Right. It was ugly and, dare I say it, borderline fascistic. It’s interesting liberals now regard George W. Bush as a “decent man,” given all this took place during his administration and even he was tarred as the Hitler of his time.
There’s that, then there’s also changing cultural norms and demographics. We now have two generations who came up at a time when discontent with America wasn’t only increasing, but had become institutionalized, reflected almost ubiquitously in our culture. This stuff matters. Anyone who thinks kids were just being taught to be skeptically patriotic is kidding themselves. Even if that were the honest-to-God intent, and it wasn’t, it certainly didn’t have that effect. It was also so very predictable that the increasing diversity of the country would have a detrimental effect on patriotic sentiment, especially when our entire culture is built around the idea that America not only only owes something to non-Whites, but continues to fail them.
I remember it too: whatever the differences between the two parties, patriotism wasn’t one of them:
Liberals today justify their lack of patriotism on the basis of not agreeing with everything the country is doing, not out of animus nor anti-American sentiment. But conservatives, people on the Right, criticize America, too. Our criticisms differ from that of liberals and people on the Left, sure. But in spite of all our criticisms, we’re still patriotic, our love and commitment towards the country never wavers. This isn’t simply a matter of liberals seeking better for America. It’s conditional patriotism.
Conditional patriotism is no patriotism at all. It’s a business relationship.
What Would The Founders Think?
As you may have guessed, the answer wasn’t positive. Only 19% of Americans believe the Founders would be pleased with America today. That’s an -8 percentage point decline from 2013 (27%) and a whopping -35 percentage point decline from the record high reached in 2001 (54%).
No surprises there. Here’s what initially surprised me:
By political affiliation, Democrats are the most pessimistic. Just 13% believe the Founders would be proud of America, down -29 percentage points since 2013. Among independents, 21% agree, a modest 3-point decline. Republicans are the most optimistic at 25%, up +13 points from 2013 when Obama was in office, but still down -32 points from their 2003 peak.
The reason it initially surprised me is because I don’t think the Founders would be happy about what’s become of the U.S., let alone recognize what it’s become, despite not being a Democratic-minded person myself. The more I think about it, the more it actually makes sense that Democrats would think the Founders would think poorly of what their country has become. After all, they already have a derisive opinion of the country almost by default, so they’re simply projecting their views onto the Founders.
Which brings up an important question: what do Democrats know about the Founders, anyway? I’ve noted on more than one occasion that Americans’ collective understanding of the Founders is flawed at best, false at worst. For example, they weren’t as anti-monarchy as the “No Kings” liberals make them out to be. They weren’t even democratic. They were quite the aristocrats, as most of them had an aristocratic background. No, they weren’t authoritarians. However, they weren’t full-bore libertarians, either. Given their background, they very much believed in authority, they just didn’t think it should all be vested in a single person. They absolutely weren’t against enforcing the law like so many Americans are today.
Unfortunately, the further away we get from 1776, the more our understanding of who the Founders will be lost to time. Part of the reason is because our institutions have done such an awful job of propagating the truth of the Founders, of what this country was always supposed to be. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, in my view, that Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, et. al. will become mere historical figures to be displaced by others. For example, Civil Rights leaders are held in higher regard today than our traditional heroes.
As the Founders have already been appropriated by the Left for ideological purposes, I’d expect them to continue to be exploited in this manner. It’ll be interesting to see what crazy leftist design they manage to trace back to the men who made America.
Good Times Don’t Last. Enjoy It While It Lasts
A British man has something to say as he reflects on his American experience:
The World Cup, besides the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, is the last major international event being hosted in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. After this, I’m not sure what lies ahead for the country. Will the last remnants of our unity fracture? I always think back to how the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo were followed less than a decade later by the collapse of Yugoslavia and civil war, the deadliest armed conflicts in Europe since World War II. I also think back to the Summer Olympics the same year - hosted in Los Angeles, no less - was followed by a crippling crime wave driven by the crack cocaine epidemic, the Rodney King controversy, and the devastating riots also less than a decade later. It seems like the parties are always a portend for something awful top come.
I’ll share my thoughts more on what I think is coming up the road later. For now, just enjoy the good times while they’re still here. It seriously feels like a party in the USA, and I intend to soak it all in and have the time of my life. I hope you do also.
What are your thoughts on anything discussed here? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.
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30 years ago I asked my B&B host in New Zealand what his stereotype of Americans is (I've asked this to many people around the world): "We think you have your 6-shooter in your right pocket and your lawyer's business card in the left. You shoot each other and sue each other." Best answer I ever got.
You and Wiley have hit the nail on the head with your class division theory. Europeans who travel here regularly (and Americans who do the opposite) are mostly laptop-class people, SPD / Labour voters who come for work, cultural enrichment, to say they've been htere, to sneer at the Yanks, etc... The only time AfD / Reform voters will make a trip is for soccer, and that's who we're seeing now. If Freedy the German wasn't an AfD voter when he arrived, he will be by the time he leaves.
re: conditional patriotism. I've long thought the same thing and it goes way back. I remember in the early '80s when you'd hear libs criticize the US vs. Europe for using more energy, no universal health care, and too many guns. Over time the list of beefs lengthened and the reference point expanded beyond Europe, to just flat-out criticism. If a man said to his wife - "hey honey, why don't you get a face lift, a neck job, bigger silicone boobs, a tummy tuck and a Brazilian butt lift" a reasonable person would conclude he wasn't that into her as is.