John Fugelsang: America at 250: The Best & Worst of Everything, Turned up to 11

[highplainsdem]

If you’re not feeling terribly patriotic this particular July 4th, I understand. I hope you'll give this one a look. johnfugelsang.substack.com/p/america-at...

— John Fugelsang (@johnfugelsang.bsky.social) 2026-07-04T19:21:36.383Z

https://johnfugelsang.substack.com/p/america-at-250-the-best-and-worst

If you’re not feeling terribly patriotic this year, I understand. I won’t be asking you for any celebration of the nation in this present incarnation.

But please remember; it has, in fact, been worse. “All men are created equal” was essentially branding for one of the largest slave societies in the world.

You can feel every kind of moral outrage over this current corrupt cabal of grifters, or the unjust rulings of this aristocratic master-race Supreme Court, and still believe the United States matters because of our people, our constitutional traditions, our great contributions, and our ongoing and quite handy capacity for self-correction.

American history has always contained overlapping periods of deep injustice, fear, and deeply stupid men in power hurting large numbers of people.

-snip-

And this is a louder version.

Much more at the link.

[Biophilic]

1. Gave me much to think about.

[underpants]

2. Great read. I will point out that there was internet in 1976

ARPA awarded contracts in 1969 for the development of the ARPANET project, directed by Robert Taylor and managed by Lawrence Roberts. ARPANET adopted the packet switching technology proposed by Davies and sought input from Baran. The network of Interface Message Processors (IMPs) was built by a team at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, with the design and specification led by Bob Kahn. The host-to-host protocol was specified mainly by graduate students, led by Steve Crocker at UCLA, along with Jon Postel and others. The ARPANET expanded rapidly across the United States with connections to the United Kingdom and Norway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

[highplainsdem]

3. Only a tiny percentage of the population had access to it. Usenet didn't exist till 1980. The World Wide Web

Last edited Sat Jul 4, 2026, 05:56 PM - Edit history (1)

didn't exist till the end of the '80s. Before the Web, it was sometimes necessary to have multiple ISP accounts - which could get expensive - to stay in touch online with family, friends and business connections using different ISPs.

Correction: Online services, not ISPs.

[underpants]

4. I'm just saying. Correct me if I'm wrong...

The original purpose was to transmit blueprints and schematics between DC (Pentagon) and MIT.

[highplainsdem]

5. You're right that ARPANET got started that early, and to transmit that sort of info.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/ARPANET

Its initial purpose was to link computers at Pentagon-funded research institutions over telephone lines.