Oh yeah, no I hear you. I’m mixed and the police have fucked with me a time or two. But I am like mystery meat, so like…idk? Sometimes things are chill, sometimes things are bad. I can imagine in wealthier areas if you’re not seen as a novelty you’re probably a pretty easy target. Sounds like you might be mixed too, maybe not ethnically but culturally? Or maybe both, cause who the hey knows? I am going to guess part-Palestinian? On account of hearing similar stories, but then again the refugee story is pretty similar across the board. Could be Somali just as easily. Or if they’re immigrating by land second go round - Viet or Korean Venezuelan. Okay, yeah no. A lot of refugee stories can come from the same pot. Ugh. Nevermind, I’m gunna stop playing guess-who of ethnicity.

I come from immigrants (both sides) too, but I have no emigrated myself. I have wandered all over the US. But I’ve only traveled NA as a whole. On account of being small, relatively impoverished (although I’m doing okay right now), a vagina-holder, and incredibly gay. My own country wasn’t here for me, and I don’t have faith in many others being there still. I agree you get it from all sides in this country, but I don’t really know anywhere there’s a collection of humans in which this isn’t true. And collectivism is beautiful, and homogeneity can make for easier politics, but I also believe it carries some real issues too. I’d say the simplest one I’ve experienced in my own life is that it’s very easy to be manipulated in the name of the greater good. As the child of a collectivist individual. But I will also say I think individualistic societies can be so self-centered and broken up that even the family unit can be comprised of “a group of strangers, all living under one roof as roommates.” I also think there is a “forever young” sentiment that gets passed around and I have seen a lot of people never grow out of being in their late-teens/early-twenties even with dependents. And I am not saying don’t have fun. But it tears me up inside when I see kids getting abused (and I was gunna go in on some of the stuff I’ve seen but I just waved it off because it’s hard to express in a cohesive way but for sure I’ve seen people at the bottom work their asses off to make sure their children have better lives (and in turn-their children’s children) or being totally-self absorbed drug-addicts who destroy everything around them). I also don’t have children, so the only skin in the game I have here is just you know…being a humanist.

I think…the media machine is huge and I get what you’re saying because America is a huge-producer of “culture.” But I would argue that there’s equal footing in a couple of other countries (predominantly because culture-wars are easy to spin-up in these modern times). Anddddd, like you said - every culture does it. I gave up on what any of it means. And a huge part of why I made a PieFed account was to avoid seeing so much spammy bullshit. Because I think most news articles are just chatter. And a huge reason why I wanted nothing to do with Reddit is because it was ALL bullshit. But it was also a place where people…once conversed? Sometimes you would get a little drip-feed of conversation among a sea of stupid joke-y responses. It was so fucking cringy.

But a ton of stuff is mind control. I wrote more but I just trashed it cause I hit the limit. Eh! Either way, thank you for your response. I am glad that you have found peace in your life. Because no matter where you are, it’s good to find your fit.