Posted on July 2, 2026
Posted by John Scalzi
In no particular order:
1. No, I’m not feeling particularly engaged with the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, but that’s mostly because a malignant narcissist decided to make a national celebration mostly about himself, and that malignant narcissist is also an actual fascist, so that kind of sucked all the fun out of it this year. Clearly I’m not the only one who feels this way, as the Great American State Fair, the malignant narcissist’s monument to himself (which includes a scale model of the actual moment to himself he hopes to construct), has been a vastly underwhelming experience. This is par for the course for everything the malignant narcissist does, mind you. But it’s sad it’s affecting the nation’s birthday. This birthday should be bigger than the malignant narcissist. His legacy, as it involves the 250th anniversary of our country, is ruining it for the rest of us.
2. Also, the “250” flag? Really kind of meh! It’s just a “250” slapped into the middle of a Betsy Ross star circle, which honestly is the height of lazy, sterile, unimaginative graphic design that is right in line with the current administration. I don’t love it and did not get one for the house, because I respect my flagpole more than that.
The flag adorning our flagpole for this anniversary week is the Bennington Flag, which, aside from being a more interesting variation of the Stars and Stripes (note the reversal of the white and red stripes! The homespun appeal of the numbers! The unusual star arrangement!), is part of our country’s actual history, either having been flown at, or commemorating, the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Bennington, in which the American forces handily defeated the British and won a major strategic victory that is often seen as one of the most important of that war. That’s a flag worth flying for the 250th anniversary.
3. The occasion of the 250th anniversary, happening as it does during the administration of a corrupt and hateful felon, has been the cause of many a handwringing essay about the future of our nation, and whether it can endure as it is right now. My long answer to this would be its own essay, which I don’t want to write at the moment, so you get the short version, which is that I think we will indeed survive this moment and come out of it to something better (a low bar, but even so), but that it’s going to take a mighty effort, because this moment is the near-culmination of 60 years of planning by shitty people who hate the large majority of their fellow Americans. So this is what some of us, at least, will be doing with the rest of our lives: Smacking down these shitty people and reimagining our republic to be better than it is today.
As it happens, the occasion of our nation’s 250 birthday is a good and useful time and place to reaffirm that commitment. I will very likely not make it to the 300th anniversary of our nation’s founding, but I can work to make sure that the US gets there, and that when it does, the people alive for it will be in the mood to celebrate, and that the nation itself will be worth the celebration.
That’s a good goal! Committing to it is how I will commemorate this July 4th and this 250th anniversary. I encourage you to do the same.
— JS
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