Is there such thing as an American people? -

[A Clockwork Soybean]

Politicians talk a lot about so and so 'betraying the will of the American people". But what could the "American people" possibly be, aside from anyone with a US citizenship? Is there such thing as an "American" culture or ethnicity, or is it just something anyone can claim with the right paperwork? Discuss below.

 

[Rusty Crab]

Not anymore

 

[break these cuffs]

The American spirit has been historically exemplified by rugged individualism. It was a frontier to be explored and conquered. They're doing their best to destroy that part of American culture because it breeds independent thinking and resistance authority. You can still find it in rural places and frontiers like Alaska do still exist, but it's dying. Newer generations are being taught to rely on the government. It is the solution to their problems. Everything in the country is terrible and you should be upset and anxious all the time. Don't build anything yourself. Don't think for yourself. Just consume and trust your betters to do for you.

 

[Vingle]

I see the native Americans as true Americans. White Muricans are glorified Britains.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

Kind of. Americans have always been a distinct people but the mainstream of it has been rapidly shifting since the nation was founded and it's been increasingly diluted in the past few decades.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I see the native Americans as true Americans. White Muricans are glorified Britains.

America has more descendants of germans than of britains. Even if britains, swedes, dutch were there first.

Politicians talk a lot about so and so 'betraying the will of the American people". But what could the "American people" possibly be, aside from anyone with a US citizenship? Is there such thing as an "American" culture or ethnicity, or is it just something anyone can claim with the right paperwork? Discuss below.

Politicians always seek the broadest possible identifiers so that everyone thinks it's about them. Thing is, it becomes harder to do so credibly the more diverse a nation is.

Unity is strength, diversity is weakness.

The advantage of weakness is that it's easier to rule over.

The american people were in some sense diverse of course. Multiple nationalities. When nieuw amsterdam had 250 people it had 51! languages between them.

Is there American culture? Of course. The only people who would wuestion it are the same who want to supplant/control it.

 

[DJ Grelle]

The original white (north sea adjacent descendant) americans are far and few in between.
America also never had the chance for serious ethnogenesis to occur.
In new england it happened, but in the south it failed because of the civil war and reconstruction. The rest of america was too much influence by rapidly changing groups of immigrants so they never really solidified into an identity.

 

[Bad Gateway]

lmao reeeeeeeee muh immigrants

 

[Just Another Apocalypse]

Politicians talk a lot about so and so 'betraying the will of the American people". But what could the "American people" possibly be, aside from anyone with a US citizenship? Is there such thing as an "American" culture or ethnicity, or is it just something anyone can claim with the right paperwork? Discuss below.

Would have to say that it probably is just about what's on your passport.

An ethnicity? Considering the mutt nature of the peop!e (no real difference to that in Europe).

Libertarianism seems to have gone out the window, what with idea of personal responsibility being seen as some kind of oppression.

To think that Marxist 'culture' has such a hold on so many people...

'America is pregnant with promises and antisipation , but strangled by the hand of the inevitable '

 

[Carlos Weston Chantor]

Yes, obviously. For anyone non-american, americans are almost a distinctive species

 

[Cabelaz]

As long as some dumb redneck will join the muhrines America and its autistic culture will stand

 

[scathefire]

The American spirit has been historically exemplified by rugged individualism. It was a frontier to be explored and conquered. They're doing their best to destroy that part of American culture because it breeds independent thinking and resistance authority. You can still find it in rural places and frontiers like Alaska do still exist, but it's dying. Newer generations are being taught to rely on the government. It is the solution to their problems. Everything in the country is terrible and you should be upset and anxious all the time. Don't build anything yourself. Don't think for yourself. Just consume and trust your betters to do for you.

Maybe part of the reason why this is is because there's no new frontier on earth to explore and conquer (until we manage to colonize space, that is). Every bit of land has been thoroughly explored, mapped, and conquered. There's nowhere else to go to strike out on your own and flee your government, besides the alternative governments in other nations.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

There are actually ethnic groups unique to the US. There's the melungeons. They're the result of Native Americans, Europeans(mostly Scotch-Irish), and Sub-Saharan Africans. Their features vary quite a bit. They can range from white to a natural state of borderline Minstrel show in appearance.
Obviously, there's also the various Native tribes.

 

[Vingle]

America has more descendants of germans than of britains. Even if britains, swedes, dutch were there first.

I had a brain fart, it was Australia I thought of. There are even descendants of people from my country.

I guess you could say it's Europe V2

 

[break these cuffs]

Maybe part of the reason why this is is because there's no new frontier on earth to explore and conquer (until we manage to colonize space, that is). Every bit of land has been thoroughly explored, mapped, and conquered. There's nowhere else to go to strike out on your own and flee your government, besides the alternative governments in other nations.

I think the same adventurous spirit can be engaged in different ways. You don't have to settle a frontier to experience the majesty of the American landscape. A section hike of the John Muir Trail or canoe trip the Boundary Waters can be spiritual, as well as physical experience. How many Americans have visited all of the national parks in their state and their neighboring states? These aren't expensive vacations requiring thousands of dollars of gear and weeks to complete. These places have been mapped, but experiencing them is so much different than viewing it on some influencer's instagram story.

Friends of mine are developing trades and hobbies such as blacksmithing into profitable booths at a farmer's market or a seasonal business of chartered lighthouse tours. It's about working for yourself, your family, and your community. There are arguably more opportunities than ever before make something of yourself even if there is more competition than ever before. You have to be realistic and possibly work towards it for longer.

You want adventure? Go be a smoke jumper or work a fishing boat in Alaska. Guide big game hunts in the Rockies. I believe the opportunities are still there, they just require a little more effort to go get. We're more comfortable than we've ever been before. We have so much at our fingertips that we don't have to leave our house in even a moderately sized city if we don't want to. You have to be willing to leave that behind and we're being conditioned to not want that. Don't push your boundaries. Be safe. Don't risk it. It's too much for you. It's too much for anyone.

That's horseshit. America is still out there. You just have to go out and take it.

 

[Standardized Profile]

When the drafters of the American Constitution wrote, "We the People of the United States, in Order to ... secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," who were they talking about? Who were the people involved in that process, and who are their posterity? That's one answer.

Another answer is found in the Gettysburg Address. "Our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln acknowledges that the American people have "fathers," but claims the nation was conceived in "liberty," rather than the usual nation-building process of some tribe rolling in and raping all the women. "Nation" derives from the Latin word for "birth," and conception refers to both thought and the result of intercourse. Lincoln is playing with words to suggest the the historical act of independence and the state of liberty are more important--for Americans--than common ancestry. If Lincoln was correct, we may find somewhere in this country a group of people who are united by the American heritage of liberty the way other nations are united by blood, and dedicated to equal treatment of all. Do such people exist?

Under either definition, it's easy to say who's not an American. I like to think in ideals, so Lincoln's definition appeals to me. I can look around and see lots of people who would trade almost any right for the promise of comfort, and lots people who think some groups should be treated as less than others because of real or imagined historic slights. They might be citizens but I don't consider them Americans, not really. They do not partake in Americanism.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Self-identified "Americans," on the Census, correspond largely to White Southerners, who in turn are primarily a mixture, culturally speaking, of Southern English aristocrats and their indentured servants and Northern English/Scots-Irish yeomen.

In a more general sense, "Americans" are split along various regional faultlines. In colonial times, the main four corresponded loosely to New England, the Middle Colonies, the South, and the Appalachian Backcountry, with origins in the Southern English bourgeoisie, the Midlanders, the Southern English aristocracy, and the Northern English/Scots-Irish respectively. The West Coast and coastal Great Lakes emerged largely as a result of New England expansion, the interior West and the non-coastal Great Lakes as a result of Middle Colonies expansion.

Oftentimes American regions have had more in common with adjacent Canadian provinces than with other Americans, like Portland feeling more at home with Vancouver than with Birmingham, or Boston being more like Halifax than like Tucson.

Ultimately, there are some four root Anglo-American cultures and two additional cultures derived from those, if we want to simplify to the greatest degree. Each sees itself as the truest form of America and the others as heresy.

 

[StarDreamer2002]

No, seriously, the idea of "the US as one nation" developed between the Civil War and World War 2. Before that, the name "United States" was plural and seen as several independant states working together with many different nations working together for each one's self interest, not as one unified country just consisting of dozens of states and made up by different ethnic, racial and religious groups.

 

[Ahriman]

Is there such thing as an "American" culture or ethnicity, or is it just something anyone can claim with the right paperwork? Discuss below.

It's not an ethnicity, but certainly a nationality.

 

[Haim Arlosoroff]

It began as a nationality for a subethnicity of Anglo-Saxons, then during the Civil War it became a citizenry only as the Irish and Blacks changed the face of America forever. By 1900, Germans and other continentals had out-bred and mongrelized what was once White Anglo Saxon Protestants into mere Whites. However that would be fine, Race is only a breeding population with a shared sense of destiny after all. However by 1965 the immigration rates skyrocketed and looking forward, immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88% of U.S. population growth through 2065.

Maybe under the Cesar Chavez flag, American will come to mean something again? It is today just a piece of paper, if that, for the average 'American' to be American. Ironically, partial Latino ancestry Americans may become the most xenophobic voting bloc in the last hundred years. For the rights of the working class, but that is beside the point.