I am an American citizen. To accomplish this achievement, I have done absolutely nothing. I just happen to have been born within a certain set of superficial, invisible geographic lines.

As is the current custom, I am supposed to be proud about the certain set of lines I happen to have been born within. I am supposed to think this space is better than anything outside “my” certain set of lines entitled “United States of America.” Much effort is made to engender and reinforce this idea of superiority, and it’s hard to resist. Everybody wants to feel superior, and if one can supposedly accomplish superiority through not having done a damn thing, that’s a win-win.

Actual evidence supporting the contention that the space within “my” set of lines is better than other spaces is uneven and arguably nonexistent, at best. Spaces, like people and baseball teams, all have strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, despite this uneveness and my general dislike of having divided us through invisible geographic lines in the first place, I have always felt that despite the slavery and the massacres and so much more horribleness, the space I happen to have been born within has tended to embrace immigrants to “our” space generally more than other spaces around the globe.

In fact, if there’s any one thing that “we” American citizens can remotely boast to the other spaces about with anything close to a straight face, it’s what has become known as “the melting pot” concept (or myth, if one is a stickler for details). For a bunch of reasons, very much including the ridiculousness of invisible geographic lines, I have always held that “the melting pot” is what distinguishes us from other spaces. Without this concept/myth, our space is no better than, say, any of the spaces currently being used around the world to stash American immigrants.

Another long-popular concept/myth in “my” space is that if one has initiative and drive they can make it, and that the best of us use this initiative and drive to come from nothing and make the most of themselves in our country. This concept is so entrenched in our set of geographic lines psyche that one can’t see an American anything (movie, etc.) that doesn’t feature and make as its central thematic premise this concept.

Thus it is currently ironic that a whole bunch of people who haven’t done a damn thing outside of being born within this certain set of lines are trying to kick out folks from “our” space who have actually taken the initiative and drive so entrenched in our psyche. Nobody seriously debates whether these folks do jobs “we” don’t want that make “our” lives easier and less expensive. “They” have drive and “we” sit around and eat blueberries “they” pick in our morning cereal.

This irony has always existed, yet, like many uncomfortable ironies, has generally been suppressed and ignored. Specifically, efforts to kick “them” out have been undertaken at various intensities over the last 100+ years regardless of which set of politicians rule our certain set of lines. The only difference today is that this intensity has, once again, been ramped up, and a new breed of faceless thugs created to more expeditiously eradicate “them” from “our” space.

Arguments for why the thugs require facelessness have been made, but it seems pretty obvious that at least on some level even the most horrible among us realize how fucking embarrassing this all is considering the whole “melting pot” and “drive and initiative” thing. And also white masks were a no-go. That’s been done.

So instead we get faceless thugs created by racists who, because they are racists, feel the only way to “make American great” is by eliminating the only thing that can even arguably be used as evidence to assert that our certain set of lines is better.

Yeah, we’re only “great” if we’re just as shitty as everybody else.