> Why are so many people, who believe these things, crying about America being delegitimized?
Well for me personally it's because of empathy. The United States, as you rightly point out, was founded on slavery and genocide. I agree with you, and I would also add that the US is responsible for the deaths of millions globally in the past century (let's take Iraq and Vietnam, and I think you're already over a million). Generally a force for evil.
But a nation's citizens are not responsible for the actions of its government. They do not deserve to lose their homes in forest fires, have their children attend school hungry, go bankrupt on account of having cancer, be steeped in lifelong debt just to afford an education, lose their child in a school shooting, et cetera. What Elon Musk is doing will make those things much worse. That's why people are upset.
There is a certain subset of people, who think no punishment is too great for the sins of the USA, and that all its civilians are enjoying unearned privilege -- and deserve to be humbled for their willingness to profit from such an evil system.
These are the same sort of people who fly planes into the twin towers in New York to kill civilians, (i'm not making any claim about this being restricted to any ethnicity or religion, just showing that such people do exist)
Your point being? You asked why people are upset about the gutting of public services. I gave you a reason why. This thing about 9/11 is a bit of a non sequitur.
My point is that your wonderful level of compassion and empathy wasn't heard by the people who voted for Trump. They only heard the first part of the message, of their complicity in evil, and culpability in profiting from the suffering inflicted by evil.
What i'm trying to argue for, is a softening of future messaging, that includes your warmth.
Well for me personally it's because of empathy. The United States, as you rightly point out, was founded on slavery and genocide. I agree with you, and I would also add that the US is responsible for the deaths of millions globally in the past century (let's take Iraq and Vietnam, and I think you're already over a million). Generally a force for evil.
But a nation's citizens are not responsible for the actions of its government. They do not deserve to lose their homes in forest fires, have their children attend school hungry, go bankrupt on account of having cancer, be steeped in lifelong debt just to afford an education, lose their child in a school shooting, et cetera. What Elon Musk is doing will make those things much worse. That's why people are upset.