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It’s Gross And Cringey To Love A State Like Israel Or The USA – Caitlin Johnstone
(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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those are the things that could theoretically exist without the united states, i'm referring to things that can only exist because of the united state's presence in its current form.
biggest among them to me is the socially liberal attitudes towards sexuality and its interplay with american capitalism that allows for the physical spaces that my neurodivergent ass depends on to maintain my psychological well being.
the world's oppressive history with gay spaces or events of this type imparts it's modern day equivalents with a HEAVILY unspoken & nuanced character that doesn't work at all with the part of the spectrum that i inhabit. the ones in western europe are the closest equivalents to the ones in the united states; but they're all CONSIDERABLY less egalitarian and i know for a fact that they don't work at all with the physical characteristics that define my american minority statuses. the american brand of these physical spaces & events are unique and the only places that work for me and others like me; which is why i love them.
the next biggest biggest things for me to love about the existence of the united states are other interplays with american capitalism, but this time with war engineering; enabling the technological advancements that my physical ass depends on to survive like continuous glucose monitors; fall/impact detection smart devices; and a skillset that enables a comfortable life for myself (among other examples).
all said: these things that i love are all accidental oversights or bandages created by the this country's majority and it's all SIGNIFICANTLY outweighed by the suffering that this world has to endure at the hands of this country's ruling class' pursuit of profit and the majority's unwitting willingness to go along with it for the sake of their own comfort and well bieng, as i have been doing.
I don't get how these things also couldn't exist in your conception without the United States? How are national parks, created via acts of Congress and other various government declarations, less to do with the existence of the United States as it is than the particulars of gay culture you like? Which I would argue generally exist despite the us government not because of it.
Anything we could possibly contribute to American culture could be better enjoyed without the oppressive evil of the American government or America as a state.
it's like the food example that the other person responded with.
queer spaces similar (but not the same) can and do exist outside the american empire.
these specific queer spaces that i described do not exist in the same way outside the american empire for similar reasons that slavery or calmex or soulfood food exists.
I think we are all on the same page in regards to certain things only existing as they do because of the American state and it's history. We all agree that history shapes present. Bbnh69420 I believe had the same question I had which is what makes these queer spaces so uniquely American that other examples given lack? What makes them more unique than the examples that "that could theoretically exist without the united states"?
If with the phrase "can only exist because of the united state's presence in its current form" you meam that these queer spaces can only continue to exist as long as the United States continues to I disagree. No more would American queer spaces vanish than would soul food if the boot of empire was removed. But both indeed would not have manifested identically in an alternate history with no USA.
So really I'm just trying to understand that difference in perspective.
i think i answered this else where in thr post: https://lemmy.ml/post/25852812/16654341
unlike the empire's boot; these spaces are accidents or oversights and that were once allowed to flourish in the united state's presence in it's current form. that current form won't be around for long since this country has been changing; it's been growing more conservative as evidenced by blue cities and red states alike closing these places down, even before trump appeared on the scene. austin is an excellent example of this: all such spaces i described have been forced to closed down; but since this is a niche within a niche of americans, there's little to no outcry. san francisco takes the opposite approach: these spaces were closed down by covid and not allowed to return due to ordinances from the 1980's preventing their return. this is why soul food can continue to exist, but these spaces cannot; no one in their right mind would want to make soul food illegal. lol