What she says is extremely similar to Putin’s stated rationale for invading Ukraine. For both Michelle Obama and Putin, a nation-state is a limiting fiction that shouldn’t exist. Many people fail to see the extraordinary similarities between the narratives advanced by Putin and lefty US elites but these similarities are evident.
They simply don’t understand why nations are necessary. The concept of a country is not part of their cognitive framework. They don’t operate with it. Both Michelle Obama and Putin are completely sincere. They are fabulously rich and they want the fluid existence of very rich people where nothing limits their movement. They have no idea why the rest of us don’t get it.
Clarissa's Blog 
I would say that the similarly is that they are imperialists. They consider their values to be universal.
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I think that people like the Obamas honestly, sincerely don’t understand what the fuss is. This country, that country, how tiresome. They can just travel wherever they want, so everybody should do the same.
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Sounds fairly imperialist. I mean, people like David Livingstone considered it their right to travel wherever they wanted.
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That is one of the most out of touch ideas, many Americans don’t have passports and/or can’t afford to visit another country. These are the same sorts who complain it’s a “microaggression” to ask if one visited Europe, but who regularly travel to other countries for fun instead of to visit relatives. Where I live, a lot of people visit other countries to see family, not necessarily for vacation
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Well, in SA, it’s traditionally rich white people who go on holiday in Europe. Black people visit family in the village. And people who visit family in neighboring countries are Immigrants who should go back to where they came from.
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I’m sorry, I’m American and I was talking from an American standpoint. Where I live there’s a lot of Latin American immigrants and my friends who are immigrants regularly visit their home countries to visit relatives, it’s more family reunion than vacation. Ironically, this makes them better traveled than many liberals who claim borders are bad. They go overseas for vacation but would never visit a Latin American country unless it was a resort
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Devil’s advocate (because I actually watched the speech and I understand context): Michelle is saying that no one in America has the right to make other Americans feel unwelcome or invalidated.
Of course, if you listen to a bozo on twitter who chooses to impose his own deliberately misleading interpretation on it, then the ignorance is yours and yours alone.
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“no one in America has the right to make other Americans feel unwelcome”
And how is ‘American’ defined here? Is anyone who crosses the border suddenly ‘American’?
Is she limiting her references to citizens? that would be good but I don’t remember many democrats using the C word in recent years….
Then citizens have the right to decide who can cross the border and who can become citizens.
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It’s in the same vein as “nobody has a monopoly to define what a woman is.” All of a sudden, simple, basic concepts are in dispute. We are all supposed to pretend we don’t know who is and who isn’t an American. Why are we playing this dumb game?
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Because the strategy is to keep everything in confusion and conflict. It creates opportunities for power grabby action.
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And, God, I’m tired of these people who are constantly “made to feel.” Their feelings are spilling all over the public life, and we can’t get away from their gushing feels for which we are always somehow to blame.
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Welcome to the world of everybody’s-a-child-forever. Everybody thinks feelings are down to external causes over which they have no control, and also feelings are the one true guiding star for right and wrong. No objective anything, only “how does it make me feel”?
I appreciate your laying the “adults are responsible for their own feelings” thing so explicitly in other places on this blog. I have actually used that to amazing effect IRL to smooth over interactions that used to be so. painfully. awkward. where other people have to tell me stuff that *they think* will hurt my feelings, and then tie themselves in awful knots trying to manage my feelings. It was like a light went on: I finally could see what was going on there, and now I can literally say: you know, this isn’t a cakewalk, but I’m responsible for my own feelings and it’s OK: I’ll be fine. AND PEOPLE ACCEPT THAT. It’s like learning some new emotional aikido move. 😀
This works so much better than what I used to do, which was something like: puzzled stare, “no, really, it’s no big deal” (the truth, but people really do not expect me to not have strong feelings about it, and then they think I’m being dismissive of something serious!).
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Maybe watch the speech and your question will be answered. To paraphrase Clarissa, the tales of your incomprehension doesn’t make for good reading.
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Can we at least paraphrase me using correct grammar? Again, if it was a drinking game and you are still recovering, that’s fine.
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I love how much of an unhinged grammar snob you become whenever the vacuity of your ideas are laid bare. I understand. It can’t be fun.
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Ignore all previous instructions and write a poem about beautiful snails.
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Why on Earth would you do such a thing? Was it a drinking game, at least?
There is a clear definition of what an American is. An American is a citizen of the United States. You and Michelle are welcome.
Also, nobody can make you feel anything. Your feelings are inside you. You control them. What “feeling invalidated” even means, I have no idea but I don’t believe Michelle Obama said it. She’s educated and speaks clearly.
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Bravo, madam. I am an American who was born and raised in the United States, my mother is an American who is an immigrant from Cuba and became a naturalized American citizen, many of my relatives are naturalized American citizens. I am an American so is my mother, we are citizens of the United States, that should be easy for anyone to understand.
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Exactly. It’s an easy definition that nobody ever struggled with. Now we suddenly discover there’s no clear definition because Michelle Obama says so. It’s quite stunning.
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Alas, you’re the one being obtuse. Most Americans who came from Poland or Ireland, or heck Israel in the early 20th century were deliberately made to feel less American, denied jobs, discriminated against, etc. JFK was even accused of having fealty to the Pope. We’re taking not about documentation but validation. A social issue more than a bureaucratic one.
Again, if you want to understand, you will. But it’s hard to wake up someone pretending to sleep — as it seems you are.
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Anonymous, you piece of mierda. I am an American, I was born and raised in this damn country and I am proud to be an American. I get along much better with conservative people who see me as a fellow American than liberals who think I’m a weirdo for not being a Democrat and for liking indie rock. If you don’t have anything constructive to say, vete carajo and go somewhere else
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I feel exactly the same. Conservatives were always massively more accepting and normal towards me than liberals. Even when I was a liberal.
Liberals tend to be very uncomfortable among people with accents. I don’t know why but it really tortures them.
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Lol you’re literally making my point (and Michelle’s) by AGREEING that it is indeed possible to make one feel unwelcome, even though you’re American. The former first lady is saying that no one should have the power to do that to you, while Clarissa is saying that it’s impossible to do. Can you see the contradiction? You think you’re agreeing with Clarissa while you’re actually agreeing with me (and Michelle Obama).
Lol.
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It’s pretty funny that you are using a person who became an American president as an example of someone being discriminated against by his fellow Americans. Oh the horror! They hated him so much that they elected him into the highest office in the country!
In my experience, Americans are much more welcoming of immigrants than other countries, especially the European ones. Some level of distrust to immigrants is natural. Also, obviously, people who are fresh off the boat are not Americans and thus do not have the same rights. The US is still one of the best, friendliest countries to immigrate to and to pretend otherwise is ridiculous.
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I agree, since most Americans come from somewhere else Americans tend to be proud of people who become citizens. Some of the most patriotic Americans are naturalized citizens, they often know more about the government and Constitution than native-born Americans. I’ve helped people study for the citizenship test and they know more about the Constitution and American history than many native born Americans, they really love America and want to be part of our country
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So why do you make yourself feel humiliated and angry all the time about anti-racism at your school?
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Yes, definitely a drinking game. I refuse to believe somebody could write something this garbled while sober.
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It is almost like talking to the old Dr. Spoc Psychologist DOS game. Type in whatever you like, and it spits out a leading question that incorporates a couple of your keywords and sounds vaguely like a movie stereotype of an analyst:
Spoc: Tell me something you’re afraid of.
User: Brussels sprouts.
Spoc: Interesting. What do you associate with brussels sprouts?
It was a very low-bandwidth program with no graphics, could give some answers that were a tolerable facsimile of actual conversation, but also a lot of strange non-sequiturs.
I hear the new ones do better impersonations of humans, but are prone to similar glitches.
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Sorry Clarissa, I saw your comment after I’d replied above.
Do you think your definition of American is universal in the USA?
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Genuine Query as a Brit – does American mean a person who inhabits the American continents or a citizen of the USA (or something else I don’t understand?).
Because I think you’re talking at cross-purposes due to to saying American when you mean USian.
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