Something you might have noticed, every time there’s something positive, to brag or take pride with, someone will rub it in everyone else’s face: “we got to the Moon first”, “we have all the freedoms and the best democracy”, we have the most powerful army or strongest economy”, “we have bigger homes and bigger incomes”. For the good stuff it’s always “we”, part of the greatest. Individual contributions are blurry, meaningless. The laurels belong to everyone.

When it comes to the bad stuff there’s a shift in language. There’s no “we” anywhere to be found. It’s vague but it’s definitely someone else in another state who’s responsible. A crazy politician. A corrupt interest localized elsewhere. Overall result is blurry, meaningless. The blame belongs to someone specific.

The usual first reaction is “but those were different people you were talking to” and you’re right. But what a coincidence that when someone assigns blame there’s always an answer like yours to deflect it, but when they were assigning “awards” nobody ever came up to deflect those. Either most Americans think they should only get the praise and every other voice is drowned, or maybe it’s a balanced split but you only speak now to tell is you feel slighted and victimized but chose to be quiet back then when you were honored as an American.

It’s this coincidence you should be upset with. When the right hand only brags about the good stuff and puts the golden crown on your head, and the left hand only shirks responsibility when it’s pointed out that there’s gunk all over the crown and the backside is wooden.