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@liztai As an ASEAN-born person who naturalized into the US, one thing I painfully notice is that there are a *ton* of “thought killer phrases” that people use to prevent US citizens from criticizing their own country.

Things like “we are the greatest country in the world” and “we love freedom” and “I earned what I own” and any number of other trite appeals to just leave things alone is SO embedded into our national psyche, that it’s almost impossible to have a discussion that doesn’t get zapped by one of these trip wires. It’s more comfortable for people to withdraw into self-delusional circles where no one challenges the system, because you’ll find a great number of friends who do nothing but agree with you.

Because we are unable to talk about our problems, we aren’t able to appreciate that we *have* problems. It’s refreshing to see foreigners criticize the US on the Internet in a way that those short-circuit phrases cannot stop.