this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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Confidently Incorrect

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When people are way too smug about their wrong answer.

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[–] Lumidaub@feddit.de 156 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I love how obsessed some Americans are with their founding fathers, it's adorably weird. I've never ever based any of my decisions or opinions on what our first chancellor did or didn't do and I don't see fucking why.

[–] gothicdecadence@lemmy.world 85 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It would be adorable if it wasn't dangerous :/ they use the founding fathers and constitution in the same way they use Jesus and the Bible - as a reason to hurt others and stop progress

[–] 1chemistdown@kbin.social 45 points 1 year ago

And it’s funny in the wtf way because the founding fathers were against religion being involved in the governing of the nation. They codified that crap! And yet, these idiots keep trying to claim it’s a Christian nation and we need god back in everything.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You're of course correct and I can only be playful about it because of my privileged position of being outside the US. I get that it fucking sucks from the inside.

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

You have no idea, hombre. They’ve slow boiled us like crabs to the point that 50% of the population is bragging that they have a hot tub while not realizing that they’re already cooked.

[–] SlimeKnight@lemm.ee 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The way it was explained to me, it's because of a lack of history.

Being a new country, they had effectively no history or culture, unlike the rest of the world. It lead to a desire to develop it's own identity which lead to elevating the founding fathers to a myth like status to match those of other countries.

It made sense to me, since there are myths involving demigods in different part of the world.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah its the same way other post-revolutionary countries idolise their revolutionary leaders, like how the soviets idolised Lenin or Trotsky.

[–] Burp@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They were pretty cool enlightenment thinkers who created the first constitutional republic and were able to muscle out the British Empire. It’s pretty remarkable.

[–] nan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What they did is remarkable, but they are often treated more like oracles and the constitution like some perfect golden tablets someone dug up in their yard (despite needing significant changes right after it was ratified).

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lots of US people will explain to you that the constitution and its amendments are immutable. And when you ask them to repeat that slowly, they'll just say it louder because you're the slow one.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

I wonder if there's some sort of irony in there about immutable, "perfect" laws

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I know. Now if anyone used their actual intellectual accomplishments as arguments instead of the simple fact that they existed, that might be interesting.

[–] Zirconium@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Their intellectual accomplishments: rad Personal lives : depends who you're talking about

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Depends on who you’re talking about and what part of their life you’re looking at.

Is it the George Washington who chopped the cherry tree, the George Washington who dressed his slaves in potato sacks, or the George Washington who declined to be king and set the standard of the presidency? There are a lot of George’s in there who are deserving of vastly different levels of reverence.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's an important part of history. The fact that the ideology of some guys that founded our nation a few years back would be viewed as far left extremists nowadays is astonishing. These guys literally left a country and made their own country with radical stuff like freedom of speech, allowing people to come through the borders if they feel unsafe, democracy for the people and by the people and not corporate dirtbags fucking us every chance they get. Not to mention our freedoms keeping on shrinking little by little from the Patriot Act and more legislation to monitor our communications "foR tHe ChiLdRen".

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

radical stuff like freedom of speech

...for white men.

[–] wwaxwork@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It wouldn't' be so bad if they actually knew anything about their founding fathers. Maybe did a little research on them, but the ones that idolise them the most know almost nothing about them.

Because it was a government that was pretty much written up from scratch and went against many of the tenants of European governments at the time, such as a right to free speech, no state religion, etc. It is still based on English Common Law though. It inspired the French revolutionaries though they went in another direction ultimately.