Between the economy, politics, wildfires, climate, bird flu, and all the other untold horrors of modern life, there’s no shortage of despair in this country. But what about the bright side? What are you grateful for that still makes you glad to be here?
I’ll start…
We have some fabulous National Parks. They’re quite crowded and under-resourced and over-loved these days, but we’re lucky have to have them set aside at all and publicly owned.
In as similar vein, our National Forests/Monuments/Grasslands/Seashores, etc. Generic BLM land too. I’ve lived by a few such areas, and they make for great hiking and sightseeing, and are generally much less crowded than national parks, especially in Congressionally-designated wilderness areas.
The overwhelming percentage of individual people I’ve actually met in person have generally quite friendly, open, and fair, even when their beliefs and politics differ from mine. I may have been lucky enough to have hung around only certain circles, but by and large I’ve never really felt unwelcome or in danger anywhere (I’m not white, not religious, and not conservative, but even in the conservative west or deep red south it’s been fine – for me, personally). People have been much less friendly to me in other parts of the world.
Our entertainment output is incredible; every year it seems several lifetimes worth of music, movies, and games is made, much of them quite high quality. I wonder if we spend any more per capita on entertainment than average? Bread and circuses, I suppose.
Diversity of food: There’s good food all over the world, especially in big cities, but many places tend to focus on their own traditional cuisines. Here, in rural areas, there’s usually food from all different cultures commonly available, at not-absurd prices. They may not be very good or authentic, but at least we have them.
I think I want to reiterate that people one again… if you only ever saw our news coverage and online arguments, you’d think as a country we were all constantly at each other’s throats, guns ablazing. But in real life it’s never really felt that way to me, even at heated protests. In aggregate, there’s a lot of things I disagree on with a lot of people. But as individuals, it’s been hard for me to find someone I outright dislike in person. The sort of easy conversation (and even camaraderie) you can find here with strangers is pretty uncommon elsewhere that I’ve traveled. Especially out in here in Oregon, it’s just… nice people everywhere (shh, don’t tell).
There are probably other small things, but those are the big ones.
Of course this isn’t to make light of any suffering that people are experiencing in reality. Just trying to find some silver linings
I’ve found that when there is a crisis, big or small, Americans turn out in force to address it. On a national scale, remember after September 11, 2001, that people were standing in line to give blood (even though it wasn’t strictly necessary, but that’s a discussion for another thread)? Similarly, on a local scale, here in the town where I work a fire burned down a building where children’s donated Christmas toys were being stored. Literally within a few hours the agency that had collected the donations had three times as much money as they needed to replace all the toys that were destroyed.
We are a kind, generous and neighborly people here in the US – at least, up to a point.
Yeah - I dunno. Are Americans really motivated to do something meaningful to address a crisis? Or do they simply wish to appear to be doing so, along with a willingness to be easily manipulated. I would trade any amount of post-9/11 blood donations for far less support for the passage of the Patriot Act and attacks on sovereign countries.
The Parks are fantastic - tho much crowded as you observe.
I’m trying to really come up with something to be grateful for. Maybe the ability to travel freely, covering vast distances while remaining confident in one’s personal rights. At the present, at least people who look like me and have resources similar to mine have considerable freedom to travel without excessive intrusions. Driving, at least.
Re: people - I guess many/most people are superficially pleasant. But impressive ignorance, prejudice, and self interest lie very closely beneath the surface.
I would say that, despite attempts to limit it and/or ignore it, much of our Bill of Rights still stands. I can walk up next to a cop, call him a dirty no-good fuck-face, and wish a plague upon his genitalia, and there’s not much he’s going to be able to do about it, legally. Sure, he may claim I’m interfering, or try to drum up other charges, or lecture me, or what have you, but any retaliation is grounds for a lawsuit. I imagine that’s not going to fly in Mexico City or Islamabad, and probably isn’t going to fly in Christchurch or Berlin either – both developed, First World nations (although I could be wrong about the cop situation there).
I’d also offer the legality of cannabis. Though it’s illegal at the federal level*, at the state level it’s legal in states in which probably 2/3 of the US population lives. Including Missouri – MISSOURI!!! one of the fucking reddest of fucking red states – I can buy more than enough doob, legally, at a dispensary that I could hit right now if I threw a rock in that direction. (Many) Other developed, first-world nations, not so much. Illegal in the UK, quasi but not really legal in Australia, not legal at all in New Zealand, etc.
I like the fact that, when push comes to shove, we still have the best conventional military (for now). Negotiation and diplomacy is fine and all that, but at a certain point, with some aggressors, no amount of talking will deter them, and you just got to start turning their biology into physics. There are many nations elsewhere in the world that like to preach high-minded human rights, anti-aggression, democracy and all that but can’t actually kinetically defend it.
I like that America is also still a nation of vast geographical advantages. Being flanked by two oceans, having only two neighbors, enough natural resources to cover nearly every possible contingency, being self-sufficient for food and almost anything (in theory,) is still huge.
I also like that America is one of the few nations in the world that has almost every form of terrain and climate within its borders.
I’ve been perturbed lately about people who really want to donate blankets and clothes to the NC hurricane victims, and now the CA fire victims. FEMA doesn’t want clothes. They say right on their website “Used clothing is never needed.” But everyone has bags of clothes they no longer want that they were going to throw away/donate anyway and are really sure that shipping all of that shit from Ohio to California is going to be worthwhile. And then they just go on to Temu and buy more junk they can bag up to send to the next victims.
That being said, I think American infrastructure is pretty great. Our highway systems are great. They’re not perfect but they exist and they get me to where I’m going pretty quickly and I like them.
Since they all about preservation of nature and all that liberal rot, I don’t doubt they’re somewhere on the hit list.
Or at least to be given to corporations to monetize to the hilt.
A safe to consume food and water supply. There is an occasional hiccup now and then, but being able to buy/eat food or drink water almost anywhere that is safe is something many people in America (USA) take for granted.
I have my doubts about this. During WW II, people voluntarily blacked out their homes for air raid drills and put up with rationed consumer goods. Try that today and there would be lawsuits.
On the positive note- the US has a great range of climates and plenty of natural attractions. The wildlife is diverse and several endangered species were saved from extinction. What is lacking in mass transit is somewhat made up by a highway system which, despite what whiny people say, is in pretty good shape. The entertainment is I think the best in the world, from music to movies to sports.
We have all these online stores. If you go to a brick and mortar store you can have curbside pickup or they can deliver it to your doorstep.
All your bills can be paid online. Its so much more convenient.
Another great thing about America is how much we invest in R&D. This is why our economy grows so much faster than Europes.
Between 2010 and 2023, the cumulative GDP growth rate reached 34% in the United States, compared with just 21% in the European Union.
By 2022, investment in new technologies will represent 5% of GDP in the United States and 2.8% of GDP in the eurozone. Research and development spending in 2022 will amount to 3.5% of GDP in the United States and 2.3% of GDP in the eurozone. What’s more, from 2016–2017 onwards, the investment and R&D effort in the United States increased significantly compared to that of the eurozone. At the same time, productivity began to grow much faster in the United States than in Europe. It is therefore the lag in technological investment and R&D that explains a large part of Europe’s lag behind the United States in terms of labour productivity and GDP.
How can Europe hope to catch up with the United States in terms of productivity and growth? The first step would be to change the nature of business investment. The rate of business investment is virtually the same at the start of 2024 in the United States and the eurozone (13.5% of GDP), but the proportion of this investment in technology is much higher in the United States (5% of GDP compared with 2.8% in the eurozone). We therefore need to correct the fact that business investment in the eurozone is too mundane and not sufficiently high-end.
To whatever extent the original observation may or may not be true, “pulling together in helpful generosity” is a trait hardly unique to Americans. After having lived abroad for a while, I can confirm it’s the kind of thing every reasonably healthy society does. So if there’s any truth to it for Americans, the gratitude is not that they’re special for doing this, it rather should be that the culture wars haven’t completely broken this normal human quality… yet.
