I don't like to go to this place too often because I know about fostered coups and destabilization and torture and drones and though what I feel most of the time is an apology for my country, I can tell you from living abroad that in spite of these things people LOVE you.

Reciting the wrongs of America is basically a religious recitation for me, and I'm very good at it.

But foreigners? They ADORE you. They find out I'm from New York and they flip. They wanna know about the guns. They wanna know about the fashion. They want every detail you can give them about America because it's been their dream to go there since they were little.

"The diversity is so cool!"

Some are even more serious. They want to go to university, get married, live there, even become citizens. And it's because they're *so* intent on seeing something good in you, and it's heartbreaking to watch.

Because you're not fooling me.

The Capitol siege is another tragic chapter in a book well on its way to publication. It may not be the only country I know, but it is certainly *an* America I'm deeply familiar with.

So many people give up so much in their lives at the altar of our country, and they do so because they love it more than its own citizens do.

America means something, dammit.

I ALWAYS run the risk of jingoism and capitulating to our nation's over-inflated sense of our worth to the world, but it is true — America means something.

To its citizens and to the world.

And this is how we choose to act, unleashing the monster from behind the veil.

Look, I knew that the country of imagination for many didn't exist, but that doesn't mean I take pleasure in the crestfallen faces of people who thought we were better.

And sure, I know grisly and unseemly truths about America and I know we buy our own branding and I know we like to play policeman of the world, and I know other countries are sovereign and don't need our constant meddling.

And despite that, they still love America more than any of the fucking traitors that attacked it or the seditious sycophants that egged it on.

America means something to me, too. It's my home.

They are trying to steal the home I love and exterminate my friends and family.

And I don't have to let them do it quietly, without condemnation, I don't have to offer unity, I don't have to "reach out" — I don't have to let them steal my country without telling them in the strongest possible terms to go fuck themselves — & you too, if you support them.