In my 27 years in the USA I never ceased to be amazed at the disparity between US citizens’ ideas about the country and the reality. Whereas in Italy everyone accepts the fact of endemic corruption, people in the USA have no clue that it’s just as corrupt there. Instead, a bizarre Disneyesque reality-distortion shield seems to paralyze the brains of most people so they live inside a cartoon fantasy version of the country that bears zero reality to actual events. Political corruption in the USA has for decades been at a level unknown in other Western nations. Elsewhere in Europe only Russia and Ukraine come close.

The USA is, far from being “the greatest country in the world,” so far behind most of the OECD on every score: spends twice as much as the nearest OECD nation on health services but has outcomes near the bottom; abysmal primary and secondary education outcomes; abysmal quality of life outcomes; locks up more citizens than any other nation on Earth; has more homeless per capita than any nation outside of a war zone; contributes more greenhouse gas per capita than any other nation on Earth; has farming practices that are literally illegal in many other OECD countries.

And that’s just a partial list!

If people spent less time fetishizing a piece of fabric and more time looking at reality, perhaps then something might be attempted to fix some of the many systemic problems the USA suffers from. But, hey, it’s so much easier just to sing a trite anthem and then scarf down a ton of junk food. So let’s opt for that instead! Oh, say, can you see…?