In absolute terms life here sucks right now. I detest the government, this state is burning, culture war is taking over everything, tech is stagnating... but when I ask, where else *could* I go with better overall prospects, there’s basically no other country on the list.
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Thought: The US is perhaps the only country where I feel both comfortable and justified in challenging native-borns’ right to judge who’s a “real” American. Even when their judgment is flattering as in, “you’ve become really American, not like some of those other immigrants”
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I don’t feel that because I’ve now spent ~23 years here and seen/learned more about this country than many born here. I felt that way even 2-3 years in, when talking to say 50-year old native-borns. I don’t think I’d be this way after say 23 years in Japan or France.
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This may seem hypocritical, but even being an expat for that long, I probably wouldn’t reciprocally recognize Indianness of immigrants who’ve spent longer than me there. It’s the uniqueness of the idea of the US. There’s no naturally privileged definition of “American.”
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The correct American response to remarks like “you’ve become really American, not like some of those other immigrants” is “wtf makes you the judge of that?” “American” unlike any other national identity, is almost like PageRank, an identity born of mutuality of recognition.
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Other identities are kinda essentialist whether you like it or not. Much as I detest the Hindutva brigade in Modi’s India, it’s harder to challenge their claim to primacy in defining the idea of India and Indianness, because there isn’t a robust non-reactionary alternative basis.
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The genius of the US is that if you can grok the way the machine works, hack it for your own idea of your best life (aka “the American dream”), and remake the country itself in a small way in doing so, that *is* how you earn an American identity.
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If you make the mistake of thinking it’s about being born here, and about cowboy hats, guns, garage startups, country music, rock, black culture, or any other absolute signifier, there’s a very good chance you’ll end up being more Russian than American.
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“American” is a post-national relativist, mutualist identity, and trying to adopt (or grow into) via absolute signifiers is a security hole. An attack surface that makes you pwnable by Putin or Xi. Both of whom will cheerfully manufacture a firehose of cowboy-hat memes to own you
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End of conversation
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1492 is an odd choice of start date, that's a completely different empire. But yes, US culture is very old, a spin of the British culture of several centuries ago. Whatever has changed since then, the basic political ideals have remained. They are what make America evolveable.
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