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You may be thinking to yourself, “Ugh, another Bored Panda article bashing on America!” However, it comes from a place of utter fascination. It’s the land of the free for a reason!

Where else in the world can you achieve all your wildest dreams? Where else are you allowed to be yourself to the fullest extent, knowing that there will be people that understand you? Where else will you find a bullet vending machine? Intriguing place. Now, that’s not to say that it doesn’t have its negative sides, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.

We’re back again featuring the posts by the Facebook group called “Wow, That’s Violently American.” Bored Panda has covered them before, and you can find a link to the article here. But now, let’s dive into the wonderfully chaotic pictures that showcase all the different sides of what American life is like.

Upvote your favorites, leave some comments, share your experiences, and don’t take everything super seriously—life’s too short for that as it is!

More info: Facebook

#1

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

America, the land of the free, home of the brave! But there’s a sister definition, going by Amurica, the land of beer-drinking rednecks, home of the red, white trash, and blue! We can thank the Urban Dictionary for the latter. These two sentences showcase the two extremes between which the different American experiences fall.

All of those then find a home in the Facebook group called “Wow, That’s Violently American,” because, truthfully, there are very many things that scream “USA!” that are complete opposites of one another. The founder of the group previously told Bored Panda that rarely do people consider “the complexity that truly exists in this country,” all thanks to its diversity.

#2

Image credits: kennedytcooper

#3

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

The founder of the page, who used to be a military musician who traveled all over the US, believes that stereotypes about the United States tend to overlook the “layers upon layers of social and governmental infrastructure.”

“It’s a sign that they don’t (or won’t) view the identity of this country as associated with minority or diversity, which is a lie that reinforces divisiveness and literally excludes non-white demographics from the image of America,” they stated. “Considering the truth of our diversity as told through statistics rather than rhetoric, this country is far from only white or conservative. It’s far from that.”

#4

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

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Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

#6

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

Although the page has over 131k followers, with many of them loving the content, the creator has been met with a lot of criticism and outright hate. “I’ve been called a libtard, lukewarm centrist, commie, nazi, conservative… you name it,” they told Bored Panda. “The people who behave this way are unironically the real content of the page, no less than the posts itself.”

Irony seems to drive a lot of what we’re speaking about here: the posts themselves, the meaning of being American, and the history that the famous “Star-Spangled Banner” is built upon. The words that ring in every American’s ears about freedom and bravery take on new meaning when one looks further into the Washington summer of 1835, but I’ll let you explore these notions in your own time.

#7

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

#8

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

#9

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

Regardless of it all, America is a place many call home. “Conceived in liberty,” as Abraham Lincoln noted, “and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” the nation and its people have survived many long nights of war and trial. As Sonny Fulks states, “We fought Great Britain (twice), we fought ourselves (The Civil War), we fought the World Wars, the Korean War, and wars unspeakable since 1776” for the freedom Americans have today.

However, freedom comes with responsibility, which seems to be understated in a lot of aspects, especially when we consider recent history with the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is America and therefore I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do,” could be heard and seen in the news as mandates and restrictions fell upon Americans.

“[S]o far as a man has a power to think, or not to think; to move, or not to move, according to the preference or direction of his own mind, so far is a man free,” stated philosopher John Locke, but what that fails to note is consequence and impact, showing freedom to be quite an individual endeavor.

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Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

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#12

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

Freedom is tragic. As explained in Simply Philosophy, if freedom is the essence of a person, then, consequently, it acts as a duty; man is enslaved by his freedom. Even simple political freedom, freedom of choice, of beliefs and deeds, is a heavy and responsible duty, as it directly correlates with what happens in the world.

Paul Vitols believes that to become free, we must first seek knowledge of the way things really are, and then put ourselves into the correct relationship with that knowledge. Yet, politically, the most important freedom is freedom of speech. We need this for truth, good thinking, tolerance, open-mindedness, humility, self-confidence, love, and humor.

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It’s a special kinda beautiful

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

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Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

#15

Image credits: ExtraBaconPls

As Paul Stearns states, we develop the virtues of tolerance and open-mindedness only when we are free to hear disagreeable ideas. We develop humility when our ideas are tested in a free public arena, while self-confidence arises from those ideas that survive these tests. We love only in freedom as we learn to love others in spite of their ideas, not because of them. And we can laugh deeply only where there is freedom to potentially offend.

We hope that this article didn’t offend any of you, dear Pandas, and that you’ll continue scrolling onward, upvoting your favorites. Leave us your thoughts in the comments, and I hope to see you in the next one!