July 4th Ain’t Nothin to be Proud About

I stole this from an email I receive by Islamic Socialist. You can follow them on Substack and BlueSky. This is my July 4th post.

“Every year, either out of ignorance or arrogance, on the 4th of July, millions of Americans go out in this country that many of them can barely afford to survive under, to celebrate independence as a nation birthed & maintained on blood.

“Very negative picture, yes, I know. It upsets you, good. You and the many like you refuse to do the necessary independent study of just how much of the US’s history is marked by active wars, genocides, systemic rape, slaughter of its own people for demanding better conditions, overthrowing sovereign nations for geopolitical power, influencing fascism in other parts of the world because of our brutality, and much, much more. I don’t hate you, at least I don’t hate the ones who never learned the truth because they was never presented the ability to. I hate those who arrogantly defend the illusion that the empire taught them to defend. I hate those who refuse to study independently and put all their trust into the liars of empire, unwilling to have a critical thought of their own, independent from the influence of the state. I hate, boldly and firmly, robotic “people” who care none for critical thinking, no independence of their brain. I hate those who, in their enslavement, act like sell outs and turncoats to protect a system that has never given them a damn thing except pocket change and a lie to protect while they stood by and watched slaughter, rape & theft of others outside their lands. Hell, sometimes even inside their lands.

“I hate cowards, I hate robotic people. You can quote me on it – if you refuse to challenge the narratives of the US, if you refuse to think for yourself without the mainstream telling you whats allowed to be thought about, or the mainstream telling you whats true, if you accept the hateful narratives from the West against people you’ve never met or struggled alongside, if you refuse to listen to opposing sides because their evidence challenges your comfortable lie – then I mean it when I say I hate you, you coward, you robot. Centrists, neo-liberals, wealthy conservatives, workers of weapons manufacturers, and the other cowards and robots who uphold the evil empire – to hell with all of you. Your maintenance of the evil empire, once it falls, because it will, will gain you a punishment worse than The Hague.

“Your celebrations are an empty, hollow show of arrogance.

“‘But we are celebrating our independence!’ Independence for what? A nation who fought over a 3% tax where we are now taxed by several brackets, none of which under 10%, and some over 30%? Independence on a land that was already occupied that we raped and slaughtered to steal so we have our living space? Theft, mind you, that didn’t stop even to this day where we continue to steal reservation lands as natives are targeted and randomly trafficked or killed? Independence for who, because the only ones who have been doing great in this country are the wealthiest bloodlines and the business owners of this country?

“What is the point of your pride, because you was born in America? People was born under Nazi Germany, should they be proud of Nazi Germany? ‘Oh that’s an unfair equivalent and deeply offensive’ WE KILLED 12 MILLION NATIVES! WE ENSLAVED ALMOST 11 MILLION PEOPLE! Hell, poverty alone, based on a 2019 study, kills over 180k a year – in America, the richest nation apparently, while China uplifts 800 million of it’s people out of poverty in 40 years. ‘Unfair equivalent’ did you not see the source earlier about how we influenced Hitler with our brutality? If you believe that some people outside the US, especially the third world, deserve to suffer for your comfort, or that they aren’t as important as you – you’re no different than a Nazi. Your cowardice and robotic minded behavior makes you no different from the Nazi civilians who silently accepted slaughter and invasion of lands for the lie of supremacy. If Hitler was alive today he’d say America continued the vision while cosplaying as a liberal democracy – because of course it has, liberalism is the left-wing of fascism.

“Your arrogance is unlimited, there is no logical reason to be proud in the US as a government or a nation. Being proud of your local community, being proud of your background or contributions to art or food and the like, being proud of your cultural roots, these are more rational than being proud to be associated with this government.

“July 4th is nothing but an expression of American arrogance and pride in an illusion built and maintained off bloodshed, theft, and destruction.

“And no, I won’t ‘if you don’t like it, leave’ – because to quote Paul Robeson ‘my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.‘ I will stay and fight because while arrogant cowards who protect evil, like you who say such vile expressions, want to protect this bastard government of killers and thieves, people like me will make sure their tyranny is opposed every step until it stops.”

On Palestine, Israel, and the Rotten Core of Empire

I’m not going to dance around it: I stand with Palestine. Not out of trendiness, not because it’s the “left” thing to do, but because I believe in justice, liberation, and the end of colonial domination wherever it shows up, however it dresses itself. And in this case, it’s wearing the face of a U.S.-backed apartheid state.

Let’s get this out of the way: critiquing the Israeli government is not antisemitism. That’s a deflection tactic used to shut down valid criticism of a violent, militarized system of occupation. If you’re more outraged by someone saying “Free Palestine” than by the bombing of schools, hospitals, and entire apartment blocks, you might want to take a long, hard look at your moral compass—and maybe replace the batteries.

This isn’t a “both sides” issue. That framing is a cop-out. One side is occupying. One side is being occupied. One side has nuclear weapons, tanks, and billions in U.S. funding. The other side has rocks, desperation, and a memory of their homeland before the bulldozers came.This isn’t ancient history. This is now. This is 2025. This is settler-colonialism on full display.

And if you think this has nothing to do with you—if you’re watching from your couch in the U.S. thinking this is just another faraway tragedy—think again. Your tax dollars are funding this. Your government sends weapons, signs off on the bloodshed, and spins the PR machine to paint genocide as “self-defense.”

We’ve been trained to accept empire as normal. Palestine reminds us what happens when people refuse to roll over for it. That’s why they’re demonized. That’s why their resistance is painted as terrorism while the bombs dropped on their homes are called “precision strikes.” Orwell would be exhausted.

Do I condemn violence? I condemn occupation. I condemn systems that force people into cages and then act surprised when they fight back. I condemn pretending that peace can be brokered while one side is holding all the cards and the other is buried under rubble.

The solution isn’t another round of U.N. scolding or a new “peace plan” written by war profiteers. The solution is decolonization. Land back. End the siege. Dismantle apartheid. Let Palestinians live, breathe, return.

Until then, no justice, no peace.

And if that makes you uncomfortable, good. It should.

Hitler, Guevara, and Lenin and the Line We Walk

There’s a reflex in our culture–especially online–to flatten political history into a moral binary. You’re either on the side of the good guys or the monsters. In this simplified universe, to admire Lenin or Che Guevara is to place yourself in the same camp as those who admire Hitler. That comparison isn’t just historically false, it’s intellectually lazy.

Let’s draw a clear line, shall we?

Admiring Lenin or Che is not the same as admiring Hitler. It’s important to understand why, especially if we want to engage in political conversations that go beyond slogans and settle into substance.

Their goals were fundamentally different.

Hitler’s ideology was rooted in racial supremacy, conquest, and genocide. His vision required extermination. It was designed around hate. There is no version of Hitler that isn’t a fascist or a mass murderer.

By contrast, Lenin and Guevara operated under a radically different vision, however flawed. They saw themselves as liberators, fighting systems of exploitation and imperialism. Lenin wanted to smash the czarist monarchy and capitalism to empower workers. Che fought for global revolution against colonialism and U.S. theory, about freedom, equality, and solidarity, not domination and extermination.

Does that mean they got everything right? Hell no. The crimes can’t be ignored though.

Lenin authorized the Red Terror and laid the groundwork for the state repression in the USSR. Che oversaw executions of political enemies in revolutionary Cuba. They believed violence was a necessary tool of revolution. That can’t be whitewashed or excused with historical whataboutism.

However, here’s where critical admiration comes in.

You can admire someone’s courage, clarity of purpose, or strategic brilliance without endorsing every action they took. You can appreciate Guevara’s fearless commitment to anti-imperialism and still mourn the people who died because of him. You can study Lenin’s revolutionary theory and still criticize how it was implemented.

There’s a difference between admiration and apology. Admiration is honest. It sees both the brilliance and the brutality. It doesn’t romanticize, but it also doesn’t erase the context or potential of revolutionary struggle.

Apology is denial. It minimizes or justifies atrocities, insisting the ends always justify the means. That’s where things get dangerous.

If your admiration turns into excuse-making–“they had to do it,” “it was for the greater good”–you’ve stopped thinking critically. You’re no longer admiring. You’re worshipping. And revolutionary icons don’t need worship, they need interrogation.

Bottom line is history is messy and so are its heroes. We don’t need to build saints out of revolutionaries, and we don’t need to pretend they’re all devils either. The left does itself no favors by refusing to wrestle with the full truth of its icons. And the right discredits itself by comparing every revolutionary to a fascist.

So yes, I admire Lenin and Guevara. I admire their courage, their clarity, their willingness to challenge empires and imagine a different world. But I don’t ignore their flaws. I don’t excuse their crimes. And I don’t pretend they didn’t make serious mistakes at the cost of real lives.

That’s not an apology.

That’s what it means to learn from history instead of being trapped by it.