I was asked if I would like to do one of these diaries by MB, so here goes the "pinko furriner" version:
How I came to D-Kos, and why it is important to me.
Most of my education and all of my career has been off-shored and outsourced, so effectively I'm 2/3's a foreign cheese eating commie, or as often called after 9-11; a goddamned Un-American traitor that shouldn't be allowed to vote.
There really was a pre 9-11 and post 9-11 cut off point as an expat.
Pre9-11
I never really thought about being an expat; in fact I never really thought about it at all. It was totally irrelevant after all Europe wasn't that much different to the North-East? Right? Wrong.
Post 9-11
After the initial overwhelming sadness of that day I actually began listening to the change in rhetoric coming from the US, and eventually lost all sympathy.
The mindless chants of USA USA made me cringe inside.
The phrase "the greatest country on earth" really annoyed the shit out of me.
The wearing of idiotic flag pins had become an essential symbol of real patriotism, was pure jingoistic theater.
The sheer xenophobia and warmongering was scary, the "war" polls even more so
The use of torture made me want to run and hide from my fellow Americans.
The use of "god bless America" as some form of battle cry, made me weep.
In another words, I was a trifle concerned about my birthplace and felt a serious disconnect.
Then I found D-Kos in 2006 and spent a year or so just lurking and actually joined the site in 2007. I didn't write my first diaries until after the election in 2008 and thus avoided the food fight of the day.
Without D-Kos I'm not sure how I would have viewed/coped with:
The rampant racism on display after the election of President Obama; you could hear the birthers screams from over the pond.
The horrendous misogyny of the right, that reverberated around the world.
The religiously excused homophobia on international display.
The continuation and expansion of the war in Afghanistan.
The pardoning/lack of prosecution of war criminals.
Guantanamo's ongoing aftershocks.
The drive by shooting and murders by remote controlled aircraft.
The fact that the right doesn't get that war doesn't work, and their clamorous call for more of the same; still stuns.
The blinkered view that Israel is always right.
The inhuman idiocy that surrounds the Healthcare debate.
I could go on and on, and you can read it in newspapers from around the world on a daily basis.
You get a very narrow and distorted view from abroad, it is nice to be reminded that there are still Americans that still have in my opinion, a clear view of the reality.
So to show the rest of the world that all Americans are not the same; please donate to:
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I do however have another plan
;-)
Have a Merry Festivus.