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So 500 different people surveyed yearly for the last 8 years totals 4,000 individuals. The article also has no mentions of location which would be a major big factor.
You can't apply a survey of 4,000 to a country of 329 Million. I learned this is fucking 10th grade psychology. I dislike misleading articles.
I am proud of when the US, or anyone does good things. When that's not the case, why be proud?
When I graduated college in the 2008 I read Richard Rorty's "Achieving Our Country" as we entered the recession and were dealing with the shame of Guantanamo, Iraq, and Bush era generally. During this time we also started to experience the rise of identity politics. I was glad I read this, because it helped me avoid the pitfall's of what Rorty criticized as the "New Left" iirc. This is contrast with the "Old Left" "Progressive Left" he identified it. The New Left focused on America's shame from which there is no redemption. The New Left equates patriotism with John Wayne style Chauvinism, American Exceptionalism, and belligerence. With identity politics, it seems even worsened that the new left cares about ideological purity and sin which prevents coalition type movements.
The old left Rorty championed takes a different view. For him, patriotism or love and pride of country that is abandoned by the new left is a harm to the country. The analogy he makes is that similar to how self love and self respect is a necessary condition for an individual to self improve themselves, love of country and national pride are a necessary condition to the betterment of a nation. The old left was more able to balance or reflect on criticism and shameful acts in our nations history, but through love of country and national pride work to improve it. The old left was also more willing to tolerate and cooperate with groups that did not have 100% alignment on views or experiences. The blue collar workers put there flesh and bones on the lines during strikes, but alliance with elites is what made these strikes publicized in the news and move the needle at a national policy and political conversation.
It's a shame that so many young people are finding it hard to balance that love of country with critical national self reflection. People I have very similar political views gawk or chastise me when I describe my sense of pride or love for the US. It's strange how simply loving one's country or taking pride in it is taboo in young leftist folks today, and that makes me somewhat fearful of the future.
Paywall likely, but this Atlantic article does a decent job capturing the gist of the book: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/advice-for-the-left-on-achieving-a-more-perfect-union/531054/
Who could blame them?
Old people, too. Hell half my family has left the US since COVID hit. Crazy stuff.
You should be proud of being American.
Ain't nobody going to take that away from me. I can just as easily be proud of being American as I can admit we have many issues to fix, but the general trend in years to be an edgelord and shit all over the US is getting real old.
It's hard to have true perspective on what it means to be an American with my limited travel. I've never been out of the country. I've been to most southern states, but live in the west coast now (much prefer it here) and am very aware of my bubble. It doesn't take interaction from people living in countries with free healthcare and great work reform to know that our shit is fucked, though. Proud - not yet. Determined to make this a better place - yes.
Having lived in America for a few years, and been going there to visit family often otherwise, I have a different perspective to offer than the other comments: I don't have to be proud of the government to have deep respect and admiration for the people I've met.
America is a big place. I've been to around 38 or 39 States, most passing through, though the one thing that stood out is the perseverance of the people.
I think you all should be proud in your general strive for not accepting things that are obviously wrong to you. There are disagreements, but at least you guys legitimately make effort to make things right as you feel things should be.
There's uproar in the streets, yet it's evidence that people do not want to just sit around and do nothing. I've witnessed sincerely compassionate acts of kindness, in ways I'll never forget. I was homeless for a short while, in Arkansas, and there were people so fed up with the lack of government support, that they themselves just bought apartments, and converted them into soup kitchens where they could feed us. One man had a felony, he spent time in prison for being involved in someone else's demise, yet he did this and spoke his story, not to boast in any way but to hopefully inspire many of us to turn our lives around.
It's a shame the government situation is a bit muddled, although it is also a bit of a mess in the UK, though I just think you guys should be proud to be American in some ways, even if your government is trying to convince you otherwise with their dishonest policies.
What's frustrating to us is, we know those people can be kind in Arkansas and most of the south, but they choose not to be, in general, to the people they think are different. They also continue to vote for the government who won't take care of the homeless, women, people of color or immigrants. Other states do a good job of that. We're sometimes the united states.
but they choose not to be, in general, to the people they think are different.
Don't stereotype people you don't know. Most people in all of the US(and the world) are accepting and compassionate.
You could have said that to me before 2016 and maybe a couple of years after, and I would have apologized for generalizing. Now though? No way, I can absolutely generalize the south by what's happened. For the ones that can't leave and have no voice, yeah, you're right.
Before 2016, at what time? I think the south has gotten much more accepting since the Bush years for sure. Homophobia was mainstream, in 2016 both leading presidential candidates supported gay marriage.
Here here.
To be fair, most young people aren't from the USA, so this tracks.
What I'm really curious about is how many young people are proud to be British. I myself never really felt any pride based on where I happened to be born, it was just a fluke of existence after all. There are great things about my country, but they're balanced out by bad things, which is true of most Western nations. We're alas, pretty imperfect beings.
To be fair, the headline is shitty. It means most American young people. I just didn't want to change the headline because we don't tend to editorialize in this community.
I am very proud to say that I'm not proud to be an American. Being proud of your country is a path toward genocide.
Incredibly, people in USA are so self centered and egotistical that they forget that north America and south America and central America exists, and not only that, they seem to forget that we are all Americans. So this poll title is not only inexact, it's also showcasing a level of hypocrisy and self entitlement that was never thought to be possible.
What's your alternative? Other countries have similar one-word names for their citizens, "Italians," "Japanese," "Mexicans", etc. United-Statesians? Then we might get the complaint that many other countries are made of smaller states too! Let's go for "citizens of the United States of America," that's nice and short. I get that Central/South America exists, but let us have the word, there's nothing else which sounds good.