To think that America wasn't that great in the first place?

Has anywhere ever been "great" every country has had its historical context and dark history.

Where did I say that? Please don’t put words in my mouth

Washington and Jefferson were both slave owners and they banished Thomas Paine for being too liberal. It might have been groundbreaking for the time, but let’s not pretend they were morally superior.

I agree with @Ddakji

The founders were British men of their times. As for throwing stones, the British live in a very fragile glass house.

The Declaration of Independence was the first document to codify freedom of religion, freedom of the press and state that ‘all men are created equal’. Very limited for the reasons OP says, but still a massive and historic step forward.

Well, Andrew Jackson, who sent the Native Americans off to die on the Trail of Tears, was born in the US and of Scottish and Irish descent. But please do continue to blame all of the historic and modern wrongs of your country on the English, as so many Americans do.

FWIW my husband is from the US and can’t wait to get out of there. For myself, I find there is lots of things I like about the USA and Americans. And lots I don’t like, from my experiences there and my husband’s experiences. So I do feel I have a right to an opinion. As for people in glasshouses, I’m sure a lot of Americans have opinions on other countries, including ones they’ve never been to. I mean, especially ones they’ve never been to. To hear my in-laws talking about the UK, you’d think they lived here. They’ve never been out of Texas.

Let’s face it, nobody really liked the Puritans 🤣. They probably didn’t even like themselves.

And where do you think the majority of the “white settlers who committed genocide” (you don’t need the word “mass” in front of “genocide”, by the way. It’s already implied) came from? Why do you think we speak English? People in glass houses…

I’m an American. I love this country. Nothing wrong with that. If you don’t live here, you don’t really know what you’re talking about.

I heard a podcast the other day that said Massachusetts was founded by puritans. Pennsylvania was for those who didn't really like the puritans 😁

If you're really interested there are some great podcasts on this. Empire has a season on it, American history hotline is good. Throughline is good on how things like institutions have evolved.

This calls for Will McAvoy …

The modern US was great for the religious refugees (Puritans) who were basically being made not welcome in the UK and so set up over the pond to live in religious freedom. It was always a secular state, which most of Europe wasn’t at that time. It’s always slightly bizarre to me that it’s ended up being a country where religion plays a much bigger part than in most European countries, including this one which even has a state religion!

Obviously they trampled all over other people in the process, so not great for them. Also not unusual for that time. Empire in one form or another across the globe was normal.

Well given it was largely Brits doing the settling, the genocide and the slavery I’m not sure we’ve any place to judge.

The USA was great for certain folks, but that greatness for them was often at the expense of others. The G in MAGA is basically 'great' for some and 'garbage' for others.

You're not wrong but they aren't all awful. Just that the racist ones seem to have got a lot louder recently. Much like here in the UK.