That's all obvious but being proud of things not just I that had no input into, but people I have never met and never knew, is beyond me. Rabbits and Deer and their genes are also survivors of countless horrors and triumphs, so I imagine are spiders and certainly rats, I mean wow rats, imagine, persecuted by humans and predators for millions of generations, wow, the pride.
There are countless shitty human beings whose genes are also the survivor of countless horrors and triumphs. Each of us has the unavoidable opportunity-challenge of making good on whatever legacy our genes gave us but the genes themselves are entirely irrelevant in our life choices and outcomes.
sure to an extent my direct ancestors, i get that, I come from a line of people who did this and that and blah, blah.
making my ancestors a vicarious source of pride when it is 'my great-great-great-great grandfather was a homesteader who went west in the 1850s', well ok, I can get the pride there that makes some sense.
But 'the white race', what, the white race in the USA? is this the white race before or after the Irish got included? Before or after the Italians started to get included? Are catholics even allowed in, because depending on what year you are in and who you are talking to, they may or may not be part of 'my' constituency. Ask a Klansman in the 20s if a catholic is a white man. But nowadays they are. confusing stuff this white identity I am supposed to be proud of, when it covers a greater % of the white population today than it did 100 years ago. I see some complete asshole in a bar, acting like an asshole, I condemn and judge him internally but I am conflicted, there is this man who is despoiling my white heritage I am so proud of. goddam him for dirtying the legacy of my people but hey, I am proud of him anyway, he is just another one of the horrors and struggles and triumphs of my genetic identity I guess I'd better put up with it.
