Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Quote of the Day – America
“People say America is like 50 countries in a trench coat… eh… It is more like 200 countries bouncing on a trampoline. – Jack Wylder
This is excerpted from an essay available on Larry Correia’s webpage. (Click on the link and read the whole thing. It is worth it.) In it, the author asserts the US is made up of a collage of intermixed but different cultures and identities. It is true and part of the genius of America. There are so many choices that everyone can find some place they fit in.
Certainly it was true with me and with my late wife Janet. We both grew up in Michigan, but never quite fit in. After college, we moved from Michigan to Texas. Suddenly it felt like we had come home. Being Texans fit us, and we never left. If we had stayed in Michigan, I suspect we would have lived on, feeling vaguely uncomfortable and never quite fitting in.
Part of the reason this collage works is because historically Americans have been tolerant of the other neighboring cultures. This is not to say there has not been friction, sometimes bad enough to break out in violence. Individual groups have varying levels of prejudice and intolerance, but it is generally contained.
Examples of generations-long sectarian violence such as those seen between the Irish Catholics and Protestants are diminishingly rare in America. Yes, one group will speak disparagingly of another. Yet it rarely went beyond words. At the bottom, folks were willing to mind their own business, as long as the other group reciprocated. If you could not mind your own business, you moved on to someplace else, where you could live your life as you wished.
This tolerance for other groups, the willingness to let them go their way and hold their own opinions seems to be fraying in the last few years. A meme that well illustrates this trend has one person saying to another “You’re entitled to your opinion,” and the other person insisting, “Yes, but my opinions have to come out of your mouth.”
This is the heart of cancel culture. It is the belief that everyone has to think the same, be the same, and hold the same beliefs and goals. It forces everyone to fit the same procrustean bed of thought. It is profoundly Un-American, striking at one of the country’s biggest strengths: diversity of opinion and the willingness to behave independently.
Published in Group Writing
The goal of the left is the unmaking of America.
Well, yes. Unrelenting and forced homogeneity is one of the tools they are wielding.
This is a very inspiring quote and ty for the link to the full article by Larry Correia.
It might be that I lack the perception necessary to notice cultural differences. I moved 1100 miles, from northwestern Minnesota to middle Tennessee, where I’ve lived for a little over two years. I’ve noticed almost no cultural differences. People here swear a little less and use their turn signals a lot less. They vote differently but live very much the same, as near as I can tell. In both cases, I’ve lived just outside of a town with a population of about 30,000. There’s probably a bigger cultural difference between living in Nashville and Cookeville (100 miles apart) than between Moorhead, MN and Cookeville, TN.
But on the plus side, at least you no longer have to admit to having Governor
SmokingTampons In The Boy’s Room.The key is you moved from like to like – small town, near rural, same basic culture. But move to downtown Memphis from where you are now. Or move to coastal Louisiana. Move to a University town or a capitol city. (There is a reason they call Austin the blueberry in the tomato soup of Texas.)
Sometimes the differences are subtle, too and other times they hit you in the face like a brick. Texans are generally friendly and helpful, for example. But in rural East Texas they are proactively friendly. Back in the 1990s (before cellphones) if your car broke down in Galveston County, after a while someone would stop to help. When my car broke down outside Mountalba (in Anderson County) the next car that came along stopped to help. So did the next one. And the next one. I had blown a hose. One guy patched it with duct tape while someone else went and got new water for my radiator. Two others escorted me 10 miles to Palestine to make sure I got there okay.
Indeed. When people say we need to break this country up because the states are so entirely different from each other, I shake my head. A California farmer probably has more in common with a Missouri farmer than either of them have in common with a college professor from one of their own state’s largest cities.
Correia made that point, too.
Choosing Florida over California was an excellent choice, on so many levels. FL has become a red state with an incredible governor. Even though a gated community seemed like a good choice at the beginning, I think it will be an even better choice if things blow up.
Cities rot people’s brains.
Keeping in mind, though, that sometimes people think that once a state – or a country – is running smoothly, it’s okay to swap in someone like a Charlie Crist – or FJB – so they can get more free stuff while assuming that everything will just keep chugging along like it was.
DeSantis can’t run again in 2026. Who do you think will be next?