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> My chief takeaway from my trips across middle America is that America is ugly I feel the urge to defend my country but there is a smug certainty to this take

by jeegsy 3y ago

> My chief takeaway from my trips across middle America is that America is ugly I feel the urge to defend my country but there is a smug certainty to this take that tells me I would be wasting my time trying to change your mind. I'm literally shaking!

komali2 3y ago
Idk, go and see for yourself I guess. I'm not talking about the natural environment, Roosevelt was correct to protect America's greatest asset with the national parks programs. This doesn't also mean everywhere on earth is perfect. I don't know what to tell you other than I recommend traveling to some towns with populations of 10k or less and talk to people. It's a totally different America from the cities and major suburbs. I don't mean to come off as smug, I've just seen a great deal of the country, the beauty and the ugly, and I think the ugly is like... I dunno, this great massive hidden secret or something.
- jeegsy 3y ago
  I've been around the country myself. As with anywhere else there is, to quote you, "the beauty and the ugly". Maybe I'm being pedantic but to say your "CHIEF TAKEAWAY"....you know.
  - komali2 3y ago
    That's fair, my intention was to indicate my chief takeaway during the trips, which was in contradiction to my chief takeaway from other parts of my life there, that is to say, when I was just living in a city studying or working. Actually, then too did I find life in the USA quite ugly. There was beauty but having traveled a lot of the world now... it doesn't balance out. You're talking to someone though that is hyper sensitive to how car-focused transit mars the beauty of anywhere, and in my travels the I've never seen anywhere give as much space to cars as I have in the USA. It's just concrete, as far as the eye can see... The ugliness is made more apparent I think by my frustration at the possibility. America has the greatest national parks on earth, and the best mechanisms for ensuring those parks are visited and seen. 3.7 million visitors to Yosemite yearly, that's over half the yearly visits to Sistine Chapel, and the Sistine Chapel is in the middle of Rome, which is chock full of tourist goodies. Yosemite is just... out there, in the middle of nowhere, and 3.7 million people a year make the journey. So the possibility of maintaining phenomenal infrastructure and natural beauty is there, why isn't that replicated elsewhere in the USA? Why not tear up the parking lots and lay down more tracks for trams or install more busses? Why not build an inter-country train system that passes through the beautiful Rocky and Appalachian mountains? And why are so many Americans left in the dust of industrialization? I mean where else on earth would someone say to me "please don't call an ambulance, I can't afford it" after I pull them out from their crashed car? Among a million other degredations the people out there are experiencing it. There's so much good in the usa that's completely out of reach for so many Americans. Ugh. So no, I'm not smug, I'm frustrated. It's the richest country on earth by every economic measure by a long shot. What is happening??

by jeegsy 3y ago

komali2 3y ago

Idk, go and see for yourself I guess. I'm not talking about the natural environment, Roosevelt was correct to protect America's greatest asset with the national parks programs. This doesn't also mean everywhere on earth is perfect. I don't know what to tell you other than I recommend traveling to some towns with populations of 10k or less and talk to people. It's a totally different America from the cities and major suburbs. I don't mean to come off as smug, I've just seen a great deal of the country, the beauty and the ugly, and I think the ugly is like... I dunno, this great massive hidden secret or something.

jeegsy 3y ago
I've been around the country myself. As with anywhere else there is, to quote you, "the beauty and the ugly". Maybe I'm being pedantic but to say your "CHIEF TAKEAWAY"....you know.
- komali2 3y ago
  That's fair, my intention was to indicate my chief takeaway during the trips, which was in contradiction to my chief takeaway from other parts of my life there, that is to say, when I was just living in a city studying or working. Actually, then too did I find life in the USA quite ugly. There was beauty but having traveled a lot of the world now... it doesn't balance out. You're talking to someone though that is hyper sensitive to how car-focused transit mars the beauty of anywhere, and in my travels the I've never seen anywhere give as much space to cars as I have in the USA. It's just concrete, as far as the eye can see... The ugliness is made more apparent I think by my frustration at the possibility. America has the greatest national parks on earth, and the best mechanisms for ensuring those parks are visited and seen. 3.7 million visitors to Yosemite yearly, that's over half the yearly visits to Sistine Chapel, and the Sistine Chapel is in the middle of Rome, which is chock full of tourist goodies. Yosemite is just... out there, in the middle of nowhere, and 3.7 million people a year make the journey. So the possibility of maintaining phenomenal infrastructure and natural beauty is there, why isn't that replicated elsewhere in the USA? Why not tear up the parking lots and lay down more tracks for trams or install more busses? Why not build an inter-country train system that passes through the beautiful Rocky and Appalachian mountains? And why are so many Americans left in the dust of industrialization? I mean where else on earth would someone say to me "please don't call an ambulance, I can't afford it" after I pull them out from their crashed car? Among a million other degredations the people out there are experiencing it. There's so much good in the usa that's completely out of reach for so many Americans. Ugh. So no, I'm not smug, I'm frustrated. It's the richest country on earth by every economic measure by a long shot. What is happening??