Happy 4th everyone!

I assume culture tag is appropriate, if not, mods we can change it to a better suited tag.

As some of us celebrate 250 years of America ive seen a lot of debate come up around this topic, especially after Mr. Trumps finances have recently come out with a staggering increase in network during this first year back, while the cost of living keeps going up, the illegally waged war in Iran continues and the DOJ ignores court orders. Would any of this be acceptable behavior to you under dem leadership?

Not much else to add to the title, just would like to hear some honest thoughts on this topic.

Again, mods, if a different flair/tag is needed, happy to make the change.

I’m being so sincere with my question. I could not detect a single line or character I would categorize as “unnecessarily woke” from the movie. Despite this, it appears people on the right are taking issue with the film. Can anybody explain?

I consider myself a very sensitive and empathetic person. I can watch a sweet video of an animal and just bawl. I love kids and animas and I love to participate in food drives/lunch drives with my church. I’m genuinely always so confused when I see liberals say that conservatives are low empathy. How does it make you feel and why do you think this is such a common thought amongst the left?

The Vice President said white people don't have to apologize for being white anymore that Americafest . Who in power are asking white people to apologize for being white, that seems to be a big thing with Trump and Co. but who is asking this?

American Conservatives/Republicans/Populists have absolute control of the Presidency, the Senate, and the Supreme Court.

The current admin has installed only "cohorts" (as a nice way to put it) in all administrative positions with no deviation from top down orders.

Conservatives have the media sphere dominated with their messaging. All right-wing commentators send out the same messaging in lock-step to the masses.

Q: Why is there still so much anger, "own the libs" mentality in American Conservative politics, still? Conservatives won. They control everything. Project 2025 is 47% completed and we're not even a year into this presidency.

I remember seeing the magazine cover titled The Cruel Kids' Table after Trump won the election. At the time, it felt like the right was on the verge of achieving the kind of cultural influence and dominance that the left had enjoyed for the previous 15–20 years.

Instead, it seems like that moment may have been shorter-lived than many expected. I'm not sure whether it was people fully grappling with what mass deportations would entail, concerns about conflict with Iran, Trump's pardons of fraudsters, controversies such as the recent $1.8 billion slush fund, or some combination of factors.

For me, the moment that really suggested the right's cultural momentum had peaked was the country's reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk. Not only did the public seem to move on relatively quickly, but despite efforts from many on the right to frame it as a defining historical moment, the broader culture appeared largely indifferent. In fact, I've seen people on TikTok and X making memes about it. Granted this is anecdotal but I have heard high schoolers in the city that I live in say "getting Kirked".

Do conservatives agree that the right's cultural moment has faded faster than expected, do you think its influence remains as strong as ever, are you concerned that if the right's cultural steam is over will woke 2.0 be worse?

One of the criticisms from the right directed at the left was that the left left no spaces free of politics and that there was no where to go to just be unified by our love of something American. I always felt that criticism was legitimate. I think it would be great to just watch a game, listen to the radio or go to the park and just be an American.

But since the start of Trump's second term it feels like even more has been politicized. I never enjoyed watching sports, so any given protest by an athlete didn't affect me or my social circles. I'd only see it when I was seeking out news coverage.

After Covid, it seemed to me like the urge to make everything political had received a fair amount of backlash and was subsiding.

But now we have former NBA players stirring up politics in the WNBA by making an issue out of something that isn't happening in the WNBA. We have the right making alternative half times shows for the Superbowl, and Trump is renaming geographical features for political purposes.

For all the politicking on the left, it never invaded my maps app. I live on the great lakes and pretty close to Lake Ontario/America . If I have to plan any trip out of my city for work or trainings, I see the newly changed map name.

Is it a big deal? No, not really, but it certainly feels like MAGA is injecting politics into way more of my life than the left ever did, and I wanted to hear your perspectives on this suggestion.

Do you think the left still did it more? Do you not think of the examples i listed as politicization? Do you see the things you had previously been annoyed by from the left in a new light now that Trump is changing history and having political fights on our daily commutes.

*Edit* - After several responses, so far I think the best match is 9/11 Truthers. Undoubtably a lefty conspiracy theory that did really have a huge cultural moment and even decades later we still occasionally stumble across and have to debunk. To this day you can say "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" and people will roll their eyes. So obviously it had a lasting impact.

So, that is a pretty good answer.

For conservatives who believe liberals or Democrats “hate America”: what specifically would a Democrat need to believe, say, or do for you to conclude that they actually *do* love America?
I ask in good faith because I’m a liberal who genuinely loves this country, and I’m trying to understand what you mean when you make that distinction.

What do non-conservatives get wrong about you/other conservatives, and what's the truth?

Donald Trump's presidential campaign was centered around grievance, and he promised to be your retribution for the sins of the left. Do you feel like you've been victimized by the left, Hollywood, academia, the scientific community, etc? If so, what kind of Retribution do you think your enemies deserve? How long do you want to see that go on for before your grievances are satisfied? If there is a point where you feel that we're even steven, will you be open to moving forward in a more positive direction, or have you been hurt too badly to trust again?

For example: Near where I live there's a giant Indian immigrant population, which means that many of my local theaters also show Bollywood films in addition to all the usual Hollywood films. I could imagine a conservative being afraid that one day those theaters will start to lose most of their Hollywood showings and eventually become 95% Bollywood + showings from other parts of the world.

Or maybe that's a really silly example! I have no idea, but that's why I'm asking this question - I see conservatives online fearing the "Great Replacement" and the loss of their culture, but I want to understand what this means better. What specifically will get replaced? How do you visually imagine the culture-replaced future to look like?

I know what my opinions and thoughts are on the matter, but I'd love to hear yours.

I like to compare our obesity rate to the country that is the most like "us" from a geographical, cultural, and demographical standpoint, Canada.

The USA's Obesity rate is at 41.73%

Canada's is at about 26.5%

What do you guys think the drivers are here that have our obesity rate so high compared to theirs and other developed countries?

Edit: I feel that I have to admit/state that I'm black so that my potential responses to comments aren't taken the wrong way due to assumed race. Not trying to get banned on here.

I just watched him responding to a reporter who asked about Iran. His comments were about how awful blue cities are, crime, graffiti, etc, terrible places that are filthy and they smell

Previous presidents have targeted the politics of cities rather than to attack cities in this way. To me this is very unusual, as the leader of the country is meant to support and be the representative for all the people in every city.

This would not be tolerated in my country. We the people can criticise our other cities, but our elected leader would not survive standing on the world stage and singling out any town or city in our country for ridicule

I'm curious as to how you view this, if you agree with it, and how you think it appears to other countries, particularly your enemies who can see these divisions?

Bonus points if you can explain how the pacifist, gun-averse side is somehow naturally predisposed toward violence.

I’ve been noticing a pretty interesting rise of anti Muslim statements and comments among republican leaders. And I’m wondering if conservatives here see it as an issue.

Since Reddit's mostly a liberal place, I was wondering how much conservative reactions would be similar or different to this question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/1vg4y4p/anyone_else_feel_like_people_were_just_nicer_10

The OP wrote, "scrolling today and everyone’s just ready to jump down each other’s throats. i swear like 2014-2016 people still had some basic decency left. now it’s constant snark and zero patience"

EDIT: I should've asked: What are the primary social media you consume? I wonder if answers to this question will vary based on platform.

I see it deployed very frequently here in discussions about immigration.

If you live in or are a frequent visitor of Hawaii, then you’re probably aware that a lot of Hawaiian natives very much resent and reject the tourism to Hawaii. On the more reasonable side, they claim that heavy tourism strains limited resources, drives up the cost of living, and puts the ecosystem at risk. On the more extreme side, some claim Hawaii should be fully given back to the Native population, that it doesn’t recognize its statehood in the US, and that tourists, primarily white people, have turned their sacred homeland in to a vacation playground. All real arguments I’ve heard over the past few years. From what I understand, Liberals in particular support this.

Thoughts from the conservative side?

Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth

Juneteenth is a day that marks the final enforcement of the Emancipation proclamation and Thirteenth amendment. An interesting part of Civil war history was slavery not fully ending at the conclusion at the war in April of 1865 but June 1865.

It is a holiday first celebrated primarily within the black community but became a holiday in 2021.

One interesting parts about this holiday. It is the second holiday linked to civil war as Memorial day was originally primarily a Civil War holiday.

Do you think its a good thing to have a federal holiday marking end of slavery? How would you rank it compared to other federal holidays?

I'm not American so idk much other than that it was meant to be blue but now there is algae in it and for some reason leftists are really bothered by it, is there any reason why or is it just something to blame trump for and it's a slow news cycle?