Proud to be an American

I am proud to call myself an American. I love America—the land, the spirit, and the people. But what does it mean to be an American? What exactly are "American values"? What am I proud of?

In the simplest terms, the core of American culture revolves around loving freedom. Fundamentally, freedom is the state of mind where an individual cannot be persuaded to obey an unjust individual or system through any offer of liberty or threat to have liberty taken away. If we are truly free, then no threats of force can dissuade us and no promises of luxury can persuade us to give up our freedom. An individual can be caged or crucified, but so long as their will is never broken, they remain free. Conversely, an individual may enjoy abundant luxuries and privileges, but if he or she values these more than freedom, such an addict will find themselves clamoring up to anyone who promises to keep the supply coming. Freedom is not a commodity which can be given to an individual by another individual. Freedom is a spiritual state which an individual can only reach through their own efforts.

The 'American Spirit' is our deep conviction of the importance of freedom and our unwavering will to fight for it. And not just for ourself or our families, but for all—for all Americans and all who wish to become an American. Our individual freedom does not lead us to selfishness and unrestrained indulgence, but extends a duty for all who value freedom as a principle to join hands with our fellow citizens in the never-ending battle against tyranny, injustice, and evil.

We believe the fundamental goal of American culture is to develop the social, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual conditions necessary for every individual to be able to achieve freedom, and where none are able to exploit others or scheme to tempt others into giving up their freedom. In short, a truly noble culture where there is no tolerance for evil inflicted upon any segment of our society.

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Beyond the somewhat abstract idea of freedom, American culture has a number of tangible core values.

Among these are unity and integration, as exemplified by our motto E Pluribus Unum and our position as the most cosmopolitan society in the modern world.

Charity and impartial kindness to strangers, as exemplified by our founding myth of the First Thanksgiving, where Squanto and King Massasoit welcomed starving refugeesthe Pilgrims—with open arms.

The willingness to stand up to oppressors, as demonstrated by the Revolutionary War; Nat Turner's Rebellion; John Brown's Raid; the resistance of Pontiac, Tecumseh, Black Hawk, and the struggles of countless other Native Americans; Lincoln during the Civil War; the Wild West archetype of the lone lawman; and countless other examples. And, as a corollary, anti-isolationism and a willingness to assist others in their just struggles*—as exemplified by the Monroe Doctrine.

* ("Assist" obviously does not mean overthrow foreign governments who are courageously willing to stand up to Western oppressors, which has unfortunately been the anti-American foreign policy of the US government for the past century).

And the radically anti-traditionalist Dream that each individual will be judged by the quality of their character and allowed to reach their full potential without any prejudices against their class, parentage, or ethnic background holding them back:

"that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." -James Truslow Adams (1931)


"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!" -Martin Luther King (1963)

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If you were to gauge the reactions of a random sample of US citizens, you would most likely find that opinions are strongly polarized with respect to the preceding section—some will steadfastly support these values and others will believe we are totally missing the plot (or worse, that the things we value actually go against "real" American values). To understand why there can be such a massive difference in opinion as to what being an American means, we must define two terms which are often conflated in everyday speech. These two terms are patriotism and nationalism.

People who vocally claim to love America often call themselves American patriots, while the phrase "American nationalist" is seldom used (but often refers to far rightist groups who are perceived to be more "extreme" than mere patriots). It just so happens that most self-described patriots tend to be on the right-wing of the political spectrum. Such individuals tend to believe America should move back toward traditional social norms (e.g. restricting same-sex marriage and limiting the influence of Islam in US society), restrict immigration, assert our military dominance in a more-or-less neo-colonialist manner overseas (or, alternatively, adopt a non-interventionist stance offering no empathy for the outside world's strife), and that Americans should have pride in their ethnic heritage. Noting that the United States government was founded largely by individuals of Anglo ethnicity and cultural background, they feel America is an integral part of Western Civilization, and feel proud of this heritage.

This is no coincidence.

Etymologically, patriotism comes from the Greek word "patrios," meaning "of one's fathers." This reveals crucial insight into the mindset of a patriot—what they value is not their nation or their state, but the traditions and heritage (especially ethnic heritage) passed down by their forefathers. In the US, this way of thinking is observable in Confederate-sympathizers who constantly try to justify their beliefs due to "heritage"; anti-immigration advocates of the 1800s who coined the term "native American" to mean anyone of Anglo heritage, despite the obvious hypocrisy of ignoring actual Native Americans and those of African heritage who had been here as long as any Anglos in the US; and the so-called "dog-whistle politics" (which gained popularity with Nixon and has culminated with Trump) that uses thinly-veiled rhetoric in order to pander to racist and ethnocentric voters.

Seeing as bigotry and ethnocentrism are attitudes which fundamentally contradict American values, an "American patriot" is an oxymoron. Patriots cannot be Americans because they care more about the concerns of their ethnic group than to American society as a whole, in addition to arbitrarily placing a higher value on customs connected to their ancestors than to elements of American culture which were introduced by individuals outside of their ancestral background.

Subverting the conception of America as the "Land of Opportunity," patriotism results in ethnic nepotism and always functions to benefit the in-group while unfairly denying opportunities to those who happen to fall into the out-group.


Trump and Kushner nepotism
Trump and Bannon ethno-nepotism
Trump: correctly viewed as a patriot by many because he thinks positively of the anti-American values of nepotism and ethno-nepotism.

Even the ancient Greeks, whom fans of Western Civilization admire so much, recognized that the attitude of patriotism is throughly barbaric:

Liddell & Scott write that patriotes was "applied to barbarians who had only a common [patris], [politai] being used of Greeks who had a common [polis] (or free-state)."[1]

When the United States was founded, the motto E Pluribus Unum (from many: one) was chosen to make clear that America was a free-state where all were welcome, regardless of where their forefathers were born. Over the centuries after our independence, the motto has continued to become more and more significant as American society becomes increasingly composed of different cultural and ethnic lineages. Patriots spit on the very notion of E Pluribus Unum through their ethno-favoritism.

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On the other hand, we are American nationalists. Yet, I am an unabashed leftist. Shocking as it may seem, this is not contradictory. (Make no mistake, I believe communism has no place in America, nor I do not wish to follow mainstream Progressives' vision to make America become European Social Democracy-lite.)

Nationalism is not a fundamentally right-wing phenomenon. Nationalism merely means viewing a country as a "being" in itself—not merely a theoretical entity produced by the circumstances of various individuals entering into a hypothetical "social contract", but a meaningful organization and way of expressing the totality of feelings, wants, needs, aspirations, and life of a society as a whole. A nationalist ideology makes decisions which take into account all individuals in society (and not merely the ethnic or religious majority, or any other dominant sub-group, as is the case in democracy).

More specifically, what is a nation? It is a group of people with a common past. In our case, it means all American citizens and all residents who consider themselves Americans are part of the American nation. As Americans, we share a history, we share a cultural mythos, we share a government of a sovereign state many hundreds of years old, and many other things. It does not matter where we were born, our ethnic or ancestral makeup, our religion, skin color, or anything else. These are irrelevant and play no determination in who can become an American. Indeed, considering that America has been a multi-ethnic society of immigrants and refugees since the time of the Pilgrims, discriminating against individuals based on the arbitrary factors just listed is unequivocally anti-American.

Properly understood, nationalism is therefore a uniting factor. White supremacists (who reject the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence), nativists seeking to restrict immigration (who have never read grievance 7 of the Declaration), Islamophobes (who can't grasp the 1st Amendment), and anyone else who values ethnic identitarianism, seeks to divide their community, and tolerates tyranny of the majority can never be nationalists in the true sense of the word—no matter how much they claim to be.

As an aside, beyond sloppy use of the terms "patriotism" and "nationalism," leftists and anti-racists frequently commit another massive vocabulary blunder. False Leftists accuse rightists of being "fascists," because they view fascism as anti-American attitude. In reality, the fasces is a symbol of unity dating back to ancient Rome and, ironically, is found throughout US government symbolism. This is no mistake: the artists were well aware that the fasces is unequivocally an expression of E Pluribus Unum.

The fasces itself is a bundle of rods, representing that they are stronger when bundled together into one united formation, than separate. Rightists and ethno-tribalists, who seek to divide America up along ethnic lines, are unbundling the rods and bashing them against one another until they break. This is the antithesis of fascism. It is also anti-American.


Abraham Lincoln sitting on a chair supported by fasces. Arguably, no president has shown stronger commitment to the American principle of E Pluribus Unum than Lincoln.

George Washington standing besides a fasces. Completed during Washington's lifetime, the artist of this sculpture was well-aware that there was no better symbol to honor Washington than this symbol of unity.

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Having established this, American nationalists who happen to be left-leaning should no longer be afraid of accidentally being associated with bigoted patriots when we speak fondly of the noble aspects of the United States.

Well, this should be the case, but the unfortunate fact is that so often in our history, American values have been overshadowed by their exact opposites—by bigotry, oppression, ethnic cleansings, unrestricted greed—often resulting in the worst imaginable outcomes in what should have been a history where we learned from the mistakes of past nations and cultures. Due to our undeniable history (and the tendency for patriots to either wash away the unsightly aspects of our past, our outright praise the ignoble acts as things we should be proud of), some American leftists seem to have become disillusioned with our nation and many are openly hostile to the American Spirit.

I sincerely believe that those individuals who commit acts of tyranny and evil on American soil do not hold American values, nor should we even consider them Americans at all. Individuals who commit or are sympathetic to acts which harm innocent people based on their skin color, ethnic background, religion, or immigration status value Western culture and Western Civilization over American culture and American Civilization. These individuals wish for America to culturally remain a colony of the West, and base our laws and political outlook on traditions rooted in Eurocentrism.

Leftists have always had disdain for the cruelties and ignobility inflicted by Western Civilization, but they have been duped by rightists into believing there is no alternative to the narrative of America as a Western nation. The truth is that an authentically American culture has always been distinct from Western Civilization, and indeed, contrary to it. The founders of the US missed a critical opportunity to break from the West after achieving independence; ultimately they were too Anglo-centric and not idealistic enough to make a complete break with the Old World. While it is undeniable that Western thought has remained a powerful force throughout our history (and remains so in the present day), we must understand that this is a stain on the fabric of America—not the fabric itself.

When we read history it is intuitive to us that this is not what America should have been. Americans find the "heritage" of Jim Crow, slavery, ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, discrimination against immigrants, unparalleled corporate greed, and pollution of our landscape utterly repulsive and alien to the American Spirit. Yet, many have become too cynical to see the scattered lights which have been engulfed by the darkness.


The reason why right-leaning political parties have come to dominate every level of government—from local school boards, to state governments, to every branch of the federal government—is because leftists have lost their idealism and become pessimistic, cynical, and apathetic. In the past few years, there has been a surge in far-rightist groups with not-so-secret sympathy towards White Supremacism, Islamophobia, and other unacceptable attitudes. How can the left counter this if we do not regain our idealism? How can we regain our idealism if we have no vision, no hope, and nothing to believe in?

Our answer lies in a simple strategy: regain our pride in being Americans. The only way to improve America's future is to believe improvement is possible in the first place. I sincerely believe it is. American culture has been embodied (albeit not always without flaws) in individuals such as Abraham Lincoln, MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Squanto, Washington, Jefferson, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Thoreau, Emerson, and countless others.

Were their entire lives based upon the lie that American culture was worth fighting for? Will all their sacrifices and work have been for nothing? We are at a crossroads: either we can let rightists erode American culture and quietly watch as it is usurped by Western Civilization OR we can stand resolute and challenge their claim to speak for America.

American Civilization cannot exist until we live up to the promises that this land is 'undivided with liberty and justice for all', until we judge individuals not 'by the color of their skin but by the content of their character', and until this land is 'a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong'. This cannot ever be accomplished until America liberates itself from the shackles of Western Civilization and becomes the New World civilization and beacon of light it was always meant to be.


Instead of dividing our nation by sowing distrust based on skin color, ethnic background, immigration status, class affiliation, religion, or anything else anti-Americans try to tempt us with, we offer Americans a way to permanently overcome these and finally achieve E Pluribus Unum: UNITY THROUGH NOBILITY.

Gadsden flag we won't let them tread on you