I agree that there's a lot of overly generalized cynicism floating around and it can get tiresome, but it's not all ignorance. People have a habit of using sarcasm and self-deprecation like a defense mechanism and a rallying cry when we feel jaded and defeated. We're weary, worn down, we feel betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect us and powerless to stop them continuing to exploit us.

As they make less and less of an effort to hide it or dress it up we feel all the more vulnerable; a nation of remarkably proud people have been told their entire lives, entire generations, that they are exceptional and the very pinnacle of freedom, and here we sit humiliated by our own leaders with the whole world watching us stumble around making feeble, disorganized and ineffectual attempts to right the ship.

We watch our leaders make grandiose speeches and travel the world mimicking American excellence and preaching the gospel of money on the global stage while holding our leash behind their backs, and we know that everyone sees that leash and we are ashamed at what we have allowed to be done to us in the name of greed.

So many of us have until recently closed our eyes and covered our ears in denial of a truth that none of us wanted to admit; we've been lied to, this wasn't supposed to happen to us. This is America, this is the land of the free for god's sakes, We the People would never allow it. But we did, we facilitated our own betrayal at the hands of our fellow Americans, and shame on us all.

Now that we're beginning to move past the initial shock and denial, and the resulting feeling of hopelessness, we're getting angry. Properly fucking pissed, as a matter of fact. We're fighting a little harder, holding our chins a little higher, shaking our fists not out of spite but in defiance. Make no mistake, we are still a largely prideful people, and that fierce pride has been wounded. We are picking ourselves up off the floor and bandaging those wounds. There's a budding sense of camaraderie that was missing for so long in the face of betrayal. We are an impassioned and determined society of really fucking angry Americans, and we're slowly coming to believe again that a society of really fucking angry Americans can accomplish anything, overcome any obstacle, if we come together and fight.

We're all guilty of making statements more exaggerated or more sweeping than necessary out of passion, or anger, or just plain cynicism. You've done it, I've done it, the Pope has done it, your dear sweet grandmother has done it, and anyone that tells you differently is lying to themselves. It isn't always a result of ignorance or naivety that people overlook the minutae or gloss over the finer points, we're often aware that we've done it. It's a rallying cry meant to mock those who've wronged us, a war chant to let the traitors know that we're coming, a rebel yell that says "we know what you have done, and we will make you pay". Above all it's a way to cope, a reassurance, a confirmation to one another that we are compatriots in our struggle and that they cannot win if they cannot divide us, because we are still Americans after all, aren't we?

Of course some people are legitimately ignorant, and that's an opportunity to help them learn, because ignorance is not always willful or malicious and we wrong each other by treating it that way. I won't pretend that it's not often people who are just plain fuckin' hard-headed by choice and they're going to stay that way, and I'm not excusing misinformation or willful intent to undermine the truth, but oftentimes when you see this sort of thing it's a natural response to the betrayal that we continue to face, and let's be real, a battle cry just doesn't have the same effect if you have to make sure that you're covering every base and accounting for every scenario and making sure that you've covered your ass against inspection by the hordes of redditors (and people in general) who are always ready to pounce on every post on any topic and dissect it for inspection just to prove someone wrong or challenge a statement, because we know people get off on that shit, especially in subs like /r/worldnews. We're not all cross-checking references and pulling up citations and establishing legal precedent researching ancient scrolls every time we hit the save button on a reddit post; that doesn't make us stupid or ignorant, and we'll research the scrolls a lot of the time, but to do it constantly would just be exhausting and it doesn't provide that coping method that we're all looking for sometimes.