The real problem here is that she is correct. America has, in fact, been defined by white supremacy, white normativity, and white power throughout its history. “The Baptism of Early Virginia” demonstrates this clearly. /1

Her problem is she can’t see how repugnant and evil that conception of America has been and is. When progressives and conservatives talk about the country, they talk past each other. They never arrive at a full evaluation b/c they each, in their own way, omit half the data. /2

She gets the historical reality correct but fails to see or admit the carnage that reality produced and continues to produce. He grasps something of the carnage but refuses the historical antecedents. He wants the myth of the melting pot instead. So the convo can’t be honest /3

If we want to be roundly honest, we must take the parts they each get correct: 1. America is centered on whiteness as an ideology. 2. American whiteness has led to the enslavement and genocide of entire people groups. America is not a melting pot but a meat grinder. /4

And yet, there’s more truth than the two contentions in this video. 3. America does also offer opportunities largely unrealized by other countries. 4. And America is a place where those once most brutalized have bent the country toward some justice and equality. /5

So many other things are true as well. I suppose what I’m saying is these videos are about scoring cheap rhetorical points when the reality we’re facing is far more complex and often sinister than we admit. America is at once a horrible and beautiful idea forged in blood. /6

I can’t take anyone seriously who can’t admit these plain historical realities or deal with their lingering effects. There’s no progress to be made by being romantic, whether of the progressive or the conservative variety. Only truth will make us free. /7

And we mustn’t think ourselves patriots if we cannot tell the truth about the country we profess to love. The greatest damage being done to America is being done e by self-professed “patriots” who lie non-stop about what the country has been and now is. /8

These so-called “patriots” murder America with their falsehoods. They actually hate America because they cannot stand what she was and is. They only wish her to be their dream, their utopian fantasy. They want arm candy, trophy wives, a Stepford America empty of her own stuff. 9

But real patriots love their country, warts and all. They see her and still love her. They call her out and call her up. They dignify and beautify her precisely because they refuse to flatter her. Patriots tell the truth, confront the horrid, repent the wicked, celebrate the good

America’s problem is that the “patriotic”—progressive, moderate and conservative—are destroying patriotism. The middle is too milquetoast and cowardly, the conservative too racist and angry, and the progressive too racist and angry. And the church too much like the world. /11

We need far fewer videos like this. In fact, we don’t need them at all. We need much more honest history, public ethics, neighbor love, visionary leadership, principled inclusion, shared humanity, and—above all—Jesus. We are simply rearranging chairs on the Titanic w/o more Jesus

Mass immigration to the West is a concept developed by R.N. Coudenhove-Kalergi in his 1925 book, "Practical Idealism." The original German version, "Praktischer Idealismus," is still in circulation today. I have translated one such copy into English.