I love how obsessed some Americans are with their founding fathers, it’s adorably weird. I’ve never ever based any of my decisions or opinions on what our first chancellor did or didn’t do and I don’t see fucking why.
It would be adorable if it wasn’t dangerous :/ they use the founding fathers and constitution in the same way they use Jesus and the Bible - as a reason to hurt others and stop progress
And it’s funny in the wtf way because the founding fathers were against religion being involved in the governing of the nation. They codified that crap! And yet, these idiots keep trying to claim it’s a Christian nation and we need god back in everything.
You’re of course correct and I can only be playful about it because of my privileged position of being outside the US. I get that it fucking sucks from the inside.
You have no idea, hombre. They’ve slow boiled us like crabs to the point that 50% of the population is bragging that they have a hot tub while not realizing that they’re already cooked.
Just remember if we fail we will bring everyone down with us. So just because you live outside the US doesn’t mean you can make silly jokes about silly Americans because the people who think that sunscreen bad and founding fathers = gods also vote for people who think democracy is bad and fascism good. So when our democracy fails the whole entire planet will suffer, including you
The way it was explained to me, it’s because of a lack of history.
Being a new country, they had effectively no history or culture, unlike the rest of the world. It lead to a desire to develop it’s own identity which lead to elevating the founding fathers to a myth like status to match those of other countries.
It made sense to me, since there are myths involving demigods in different part of the world.
They were pretty cool enlightenment thinkers who created the first constitutional republic and were able to muscle out the British Empire. It’s pretty remarkable.
What they did is remarkable, but they are often treated more like oracles and the constitution like some perfect golden tablets someone dug up in their yard (despite needing significant changes right after it was ratified).
Lots of US people will explain to you that the constitution and its amendments are immutable. And when you ask them to repeat that slowly, they’ll just say it louder because you’re the slow one.
This is so fucking infuriating, too. I’ve had family say that the constitution cannot and should not be changed for any reason because it’s what the country was founded on.
I only have so many crayons to pull out and most of them are broken nubs.
I’m trying to figure out what the heck you’re saying. You think that no one thinks this is true:
the constitution and its amendments are immutable.
I guarantee you double your money back that there are people who think this. They don’t know what an amendment is, or the verb “to amend”. They just know there’s at least 2 of them and they can only be changed by god.
Yeah, I know. Now if anyone used their actual intellectual accomplishments as arguments instead of the simple fact that they existed, that might be interesting.
Depends on who you’re talking about and what part of their life you’re looking at.
Is it the George Washington who chopped the cherry tree, the George Washington who dressed his slaves in potato sacks, or the George Washington who declined to be king and set the standard of the presidency? There are a lot of George’s in there who are deserving of vastly different levels of reverence.
It’s an important part of history. The fact that the ideology of some guys that founded our nation a few years back would be viewed as far left extremists nowadays is astonishing. These guys literally left a country and made their own country with radical stuff like freedom of speech, allowing people to come through the borders if they feel unsafe, democracy for the people and by the people and not corporate dirtbags fucking us every chance they get. Not to mention our freedoms keeping on shrinking little by little from the Patriot Act and more legislation to monitor our communications “foR tHe ChiLdRen”.
It wouldn’t’ be so bad if they actually knew anything about their founding fathers. Maybe did a little research on them, but the ones that idolise them the most know almost nothing about them.
Because it was a government that was pretty much written up from scratch and went against many of the tenants of European governments at the time, such as a right to free speech, no state religion, etc. It is still based on English Common Law though. It inspired the French revolutionaries though they went in another direction ultimately.
I love how obsessed some Americans are with their founding fathers, it’s adorably weird. I’ve never ever based any of my decisions or opinions on what our first chancellor did or didn’t do and I don’t see fucking why.
It would be adorable if it wasn’t dangerous :/ they use the founding fathers and constitution in the same way they use Jesus and the Bible - as a reason to hurt others and stop progress
And it’s funny in the wtf way because the founding fathers were against religion being involved in the governing of the nation. They codified that crap! And yet, these idiots keep trying to claim it’s a Christian nation and we need god back in everything.
You’re of course correct and I can only be playful about it because of my privileged position of being outside the US. I get that it fucking sucks from the inside.
You have no idea, hombre. They’ve slow boiled us like crabs to the point that 50% of the population is bragging that they have a hot tub while not realizing that they’re already cooked.
Just remember if we fail we will bring everyone down with us. So just because you live outside the US doesn’t mean you can make silly jokes about silly Americans because the people who think that sunscreen bad and founding fathers = gods also vote for people who think democracy is bad and fascism good. So when our democracy fails the whole entire planet will suffer, including you
Oi, no one said that people on the outside aren’t worried either. Also, it’s not like European countries aren’t on the same trip towards fashism.
It would be difficult, but if the US ruins its own democracy, that doesn’t mean others will fall.
Yes, splendid, thank you, I don’t think I’d even care otherwise…
The way it was explained to me, it’s because of a lack of history.
Being a new country, they had effectively no history or culture, unlike the rest of the world. It lead to a desire to develop it’s own identity which lead to elevating the founding fathers to a myth like status to match those of other countries.
It made sense to me, since there are myths involving demigods in different part of the world.
Yeah its the same way other post-revolutionary countries idolise their revolutionary leaders, like how the soviets idolised Lenin or Trotsky.
They were pretty cool enlightenment thinkers who created the first constitutional republic and were able to muscle out the British Empire. It’s pretty remarkable.
What they did is remarkable, but they are often treated more like oracles and the constitution like some perfect golden tablets someone dug up in their yard (despite needing significant changes right after it was ratified).
Lots of US people will explain to you that the constitution and its amendments are immutable. And when you ask them to repeat that slowly, they’ll just say it louder because you’re the slow one.
This is so fucking infuriating, too. I’ve had family say that the constitution cannot and should not be changed for any reason because it’s what the country was founded on.
I only have so many crayons to pull out and most of them are broken nubs.
I wonder if there’s some sort of irony in there about immutable, “perfect” laws
Literally no one thinks that. It’s immutable, without more amendments. The point is you can’t just ignore what you don’t like
I’m trying to figure out what the heck you’re saying. You think that no one thinks this is true:
I guarantee you double your money back that there are people who think this. They don’t know what an amendment is, or the verb “to amend”. They just know there’s at least 2 of them and they can only be changed by god.
Yeah, I know. Now if anyone used their actual intellectual accomplishments as arguments instead of the simple fact that they existed, that might be interesting.
Their intellectual accomplishments: rad Personal lives : depends who you’re talking about
Depends on who you’re talking about and what part of their life you’re looking at.
Is it the George Washington who chopped the cherry tree, the George Washington who dressed his slaves in potato sacks, or the George Washington who declined to be king and set the standard of the presidency? There are a lot of George’s in there who are deserving of vastly different levels of reverence.
It’s an important part of history. The fact that the ideology of some guys that founded our nation a few years back would be viewed as far left extremists nowadays is astonishing. These guys literally left a country and made their own country with radical stuff like freedom of speech, allowing people to come through the borders if they feel unsafe, democracy for the people and by the people and not corporate dirtbags fucking us every chance they get. Not to mention our freedoms keeping on shrinking little by little from the Patriot Act and more legislation to monitor our communications “foR tHe ChiLdRen”.
…for white men.
It wouldn’t’ be so bad if they actually knew anything about their founding fathers. Maybe did a little research on them, but the ones that idolise them the most know almost nothing about them.
Because it was a government that was pretty much written up from scratch and went against many of the tenants of European governments at the time, such as a right to free speech, no state religion, etc. It is still based on English Common Law though. It inspired the French revolutionaries though they went in another direction ultimately.