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Wishing each and every American a blessed 4th of July. The United States is an exceptional country and no American should take for granted the lottery of life that they won merely by being born in that country. Regardless of your political affiliation, a president is temporary and will never define the country any more than the robust private sector as well as the accomplishments, ambitions, charity, altruism, warmth, and resilience of the American people. America remains the global hub of innovation, entertainment, and academia. When I think of a dynamic society that is readily transparent about its flaws to a fault, receptive to change and development, I think of America. Unlike most European states, America isn't under the illusion that endless subsidies, bureaucratic bloating, and clientelism can keep the ball moving. America is the world's sole meritocracy, where diligent and conscientious work is all but guaranteed to yield a comfortable life in a safe, upper-middle-class suburb where people keep their garage doors open and allow their children to play outside until midnight. American research infrastructure, budgets, connections, corporate R&D, venture capital, and job markets are unparalleled. Billions of people on this planet would sacrifice anything to set their feet on American soil, let alone be born and raised there. Many people put their lives at jeopardy by doing so on a daily basis, making or attempting to make the treacherous journey through the Darien Gap of the Colombian-Panaman border.
My family comes from a third-world dictatorship and I've had the privilege of witnessing them reaching the American dream first-hand. Things I take for granted today were precious commodities for them. I was raised in a 70% Republican neighborhood in the South, and at all times, I was viewed solely as an individual who happened to have a non-Anglo-Saxon name and a member of the community, judged by my character and work ethic rather than my caste or creed. I am enamored with many aspects of life in Norway, but I will never earnestly feel a sense of belonging in the society here, I hit a dead end by constitutionally failing to fit the Norwegian mold. On paper, I did everything right, I speak Norwegian at C2 fluency, Knausgaard's My Struggle series are one of my all-time favorite reads, yet the country has an idiosyncratic social code I've yet to fully decipher, there's an invisible barrier between ethnic Norwegians and me that has led my social circle to consist of fellow American or continental European expats. Western Oslo is home to several upper-middle-class communities with 1-2 million USD homes making it some of the most expensive real estate in the country. People there believe that their postal code is a referendum on their self-worth and are content to live in a dated wooden house that can be found for a third of the price on the opposite end of town, and the vast majority of people residing there would not be able to purchase a house in 2026; they typically pool in resources from their extended family, have inherited a residence, secretly live in a condo, or entered the housing market in the 1990s when it was not this oppressive. Despite Norway priding itself on being an egalitarian country, "keeping up with the Joneses" is much more of a thing here than virtually anywhere in the US. People here believe the opportunity cost of going into debt for some puffy vests and quarter-zips outweighs that of using their wealth for edifying and intellectually stimulating experiences. They vacation in the same tacky Spanish resorts that the lower-middle-class scourge 15 miles away does, rather than saving some funds for a trip to Cuzco or Singapore. The wealth in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Detroit, Columbus, Houston, and Dallas, which also share the same reputation of being flashy and stuck up in their respective metropolitan areas, feels much more meritocratic, as I know it is possible to be a homeowner there as a common man who righteously ascended the social ladder. Paradoxically, the average income in those communities is much higher than anywhere in Norway.
My time abroad in 26 countries has made me realize that every country has its fair share of pros and cons, and in that regard, grasping the extent to which America’s pros outweigh the cons has reinforced my American exceptionalism. America's cons are reversible and tractable, but the solid foundation remains intact. I dream of the day I get to return to the United States. I will drive a camper van from coast to coast, staying at KOA campgrounds. I will see the multitude of landscapes that the American national park system has on offer. I will marry a cute blonde Utahn girl at BYU before I begin my postgrad in an Ivy League institution. I can't wait to pay a measly $100 out-of-pocket monthly for world-class medical care.
"The tenets of American democracy are particularly cherished when you are not born with them but with deliberation and conviction adopt them for your own." -Marjorie Lynch
America could have been the best country on Earth but immigrants have stolen it and turned it into a mediocre, and declining, country that is barely better than Canada and the UK (worse immigrant situations and base populations). You praise the root of this destruction: egalitarianism, hardworkocracy (meritocracy is when high IQ people are aristocrats not when grinding for market value pays off), classlessness, greed, deracination, treachery, and above all, hubris.
Chinese and Indians have completely invaded American STEM at all levels: tech companies, academia, mathematical finance, hardware, and engineering. Smart white American labor has been completely wiped out and has nowhere to go. It almost amounts to a genocide of smart white Americans. And mediocre white Americans don't care because they are classless, greedy, deracinated, treacherous, narcissistic, and believe in the lowness of hardworkocracy. They think that if some aliens land in Montana and start taking over all the land, Americans should just compete with them to have access to the finite resources. Compete to the bone, compete until there is nothing left in live worth living anymore. Just work, work , work, work according to standards set by the aliens, by the demiurge, sacrifice love, beauty, friendship, and everything to pointless toil. I question at times how much qualia they have, if any. Maybe some people have a divine spark and others are just mud.
Aristocracy is when high-agency people break rules, scheme and kill to fulfill their desire of getting things simply for existing instead of working hard. Those who complain about not being given things instead of doing the above are not aristocrats, they are failsons.
No, Aristocracy is when smart people get to compete with each other and keep the profits of their own competition for themselves, instead of having all their time wasting competing with a horde of lvl. 1 3rd world zerglings and then having their miniscule EXP half confiscated and handed to more 3rd worlders and proles.
Smart people are keeping the profits for themselves. Ergo, you're not smart enough to be an aristocrat if you're here complaining about taxes and nepotism.
Most smart people lose half of their income to taxes and make half of what they should because of anti smart people systematic efforts to lower their opportunities. In other words, most smart people are upper middle class and make six figures. Or less -- go check the IQ income correlation. 145 IQ people are on average at the 90th percentile of income, with a lot of spread. That sounds wrong to me.
Whatever you call "let the high IQs work without taxes or competition with anyone they don't like", it's not "aristocracy" in any established meaning of the word. Aristocracy is not when you "get" to do things. Aristocracy is when you do things, while other people less versed in politics "get" to do what you allow them and no more.
Bemoaning that the world isn't fair because you only get to keep 100k/year instead of 200k/year is a useless and undignified activity.
I didn't say without competition. I said without meaningless competition. It's like banning France from the worldcup unless they play 3 games a day against U14 teams to qualify. Obviously in a lot of worlds France will just sit it out and the world cup will be won by some mediocre team that was willing to play all year against U14s.
Aristocracy is a privilege, nature is when animals just do things, like a bear eating a human for example. Aristocracy is like being born into a world where you don't have to waste your time fending off bears.
It's less undignified than having or expressing false consciousness and it's not more useless than anything else people comment on the internet for free.
I didn't say without competition either. I said without competition with anyone you don't like. Naturally everyone is incentivized to eliminate as much competition as possible, branding it "meaningless" and "below them" and shit. That isn't how it works. Competition only becomes truly meaningless when you're strong enough to make your lessers compete against it instead. Like the actual aristocrats of the world are currently doing to you. You're the bear barrier. You'll remain one until you become the kind of person who's better at wrangling people than bears.
If you're truly too smart for your current position in the world then complaining on wordcel forums is both undignified and useless. You should be out there lobbying, colluding and scheming.
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