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Writer's pictureDean Bruce

The U.S is a Bad Boyfriend: Working on Communication with your Country


Communication and trust are vital in any relationship. So why is the US any different? Photo by Dean Bruce

Like every relationship, on the surface, the average American’s interactions with the US feel relatively positive. The American way, as Superman would call it, involves freedom, truth, justice, all of these qualities that would be lovely in a relationship. However, one quality that Superman doesn’t speak on


The Meet-Cute

The celebration on the day of the election of Joe Biden proved to be an uproarious one for many people on the left-leaning side of the political spectrum. While many had to be convinced of his competency throughout the election process, including myself, most liberals and leftists, in the end, felt excited that the man who terrorized Twitter finally left office.


The Honeymoon Phase

Biden had made big promises throughout his campaign, from providing free public college for lower and middle class families, to ending online gun sales. The wide range impressed me, and it certainly seemed nice to see a president attempt to tackle issues on pretty much every topic.


The Rough Patch

However, about two weeks ago, at the time of this writing, Joe Biden made the highly publicized move to retaliate against rocket attacks on US targets in Iraq by bombing buildings in Syria said to house Iranian militia. The strikes killed around 22 people, and put the US and Syria at two opposite ends of the spectrum. Syria called the attacks “cowardly aggression”, the US called them “self-defense”, and I’m going to go ahead and call it stupid. The reason that troops still occupy Syria remains completely unclear to me, and the only real excuse for the United States being in Iraq resulted from the bombing of Solemani, a decision that still baffles me.


What His Friends Think

Pretty much all the articles on the first page of Google only come from the day the bombing went public, and the only other one gets written as a weird little attempt at a band-aid over the situation that said that Biden “avoided a second strike against Syria to not kill civilians”. This, in any other world, would be known as the bare minimum. Everyone seems very proud of you for not killing any extraneous people, Joe.


Problems We Should Work Through

Americans base way too much of their political ideals around the politicians as opposed to the policies themselves. Too much of politics nowadays falls into the blind following of either Trump or Biden and the blind hatred of everyone else. Neither party in the establishment has more than a few people willing to go the extra mile to condemn members of their own party when talking directly to the American people. The Senate will have votes fall completely down party lines, when I’m a thousand percent sure that someone won’t budge one way or the other because of a lack of bravery. They don’t want to face the backlash of those in power, which I find interesting, because last time I checked, the most powerful voice in a democracy comes from the people.


Couples Counseling

It just frustrates me when we spend so much time watching words and looking for quotes, and when a negatively impactful event happens, we get shut out in communication. The infographics on social media I see all the time (which I absolutely love) thrive on quotations. When the government doesn’t speak to the people, we lose out on being able to critique them, which in turn means we lose out on amplifying our voices further. It’s hard to stay vigilant in a 24 hour news cycle, because us teenagers also have to sleep, and do schoolwork, and desperately try to maintain our mental health (which oftentimes for me means I try to avoid the news). So, please, step outside the hivemind and tell us how you really feel. We want you to be better, but you shouldn’t put the whole weight of our relationship on our shoulders.


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