THE American dream...

...reposted these at RD.net today, cuz they felt relevant to the discussion.

"The American Dream", how they got the chickens to side with Colonel Sanders.

Meaningless slogans.

And rereading them, it finally hit me why the phrase "the American dream", bugs me.

I mean, it sounds good, and I want to believe in it, but part of it always bugged me and gave me a creepy feeling, and I could never quite nail why.

And what hit me was, I was overthinking it.
I rolled up my sleeves, and dug into the muck of the application of it, and the nightmare that is "the American dream", according to dishonest manipulative Orwellian fucks, etc, etc....

But it comes down to the phrase itself.

And the word that's been causing all the trouble, is "the".

It's been right there under my nose the whole time.

THE American dream.

Like there's only one.

Like one size fits all.

Like we're all the fucking same.

No wonder it gets warped into a coldblooded marketing slogan by constipated regressive thugs, the dishonesty is right there in that one little word, "THE".

And that's why it hid from me so well for so long.

American sounds good, I'm an American.

Dream sounds good, I'm a dreamer.

Who could oppose an American dream?

And what's the last one?
The.
Oh, The American Dream.
Who could be against that?
"The", is harmless, let's move along.
Your brain literally skips it, like a decimal in a calculator answer.

But that's where all the trouble leaks in.

THE American dream.

Fuck you, I have MY American dream, and you've got yours.

THE American dream is how they sneak in Jesus, and flags, and Orwellian code meanings for "family", and "concerned", and then can go on to say you're "un-American", for not fitting in that mold.

Hey, let's all have our own American dreams.
That's what "THE American dream", was originally supposed to signify.

If your American dream involves me having to uncritically march in robot-step with your American dream, then we've got problems.