20 Things America Should Regret, But Doesn't
America has a special talent for turning mistakes into monuments. Instead of fixing the problem, the country often frames it, salutes it, and sells it on a mug. Somewhere along the way, regret became optional and nostalgia became a national coping mechanism.
Odd choices survive because they make people laugh or because they remind everyone of a time when things were simpler and slightly wrong. They float through TV reruns, souvenir shops, and holiday barbecues as if nothing happened.
Look closely at the decisions, events, and inventions that somehow earned a free pass. Here is a tour through the stuff America should regret, but somehow doesn’t.
Offshoring: Jobs on the Move
Corporations relocated manufacturing from the Rust Belt starting in the 1980s, promoting cost efficiency over community stability.
HFCS: Sweetened Overload
Corn syrup infiltrated processed foods from the 1970s, becoming the standard flavor despite long-term health consequences.
Muscle Cars: Gas-Guzzler Glory
1960s–70s vehicles ran on massive fuel while symbolizing freedom, power, and unapologetic American engineering.
Crime as Entertainment
Media outlets and streaming services turned violent criminals into stars since the 1970s, packaging fear as guilty pleasure.
Prison Labor: Cash Over Justice
From the 1980s onward, incarcerated workers fueled profit in rural and correctional facilities under “punishment” pretense.
Financial Deregulation 2000s
Banks and regulators in early 2000s Wall Street triggered the 2008 crash while calling it market inevitability.
Latin American Dictators
US interventions from the 1950s to–80s toppled democracies in Chile, Guatemala, and Nicaragua under anti-communist justification.
Prohibition: Crime is Fun
US Congress’s 18th Amendment (1920–33) outlawed alcohol, indirectly elevating speakeasies and gangster chic.
Gerrymandering: Lines of Power
State legislatures manipulated districts nationwide since the 19th century, normalizing unequal representation as legal strategy.
Cars Win, Trains Lose
Automobile industry lobbyists dismantled urban transit from the 1940s–60s, glorifying road trips over rail networks.
Redlining America
HOLC, banks, and developers enforced housing segregation from the 1930s to 1960s, maintaining the “American dream” myth.
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
From 1932–72, the Public Health Service denied treatment to Black men in Alabama while presenting science as trustworthy.
Opioid Crisis: Pills Over People
Big Pharma and permissive doctors spread fentanyl in Rust Belt and Appalachia, shifting blame onto addicted individuals.
Iran Coup 1953: Oil Over Democracy
CIA and Eisenhower orchestrated Operation Ajax in Tehran, framing the overthrow of Mosaddegh as Cold War necessity.
Japanese-American Internment
Roosevelt’s 1942–46 order detained citizens on the West Coast in internment camps, justified as national security.
Trail of Tears: Forced Relocation
Andrew Jackson’s 1830 law sent Native Americans from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to Oklahoma under the guise of Manifest Destiny.
Dred Scott: Legal Nightmare
The Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling denied African Americans citizenship, appearing as a historical misstep overshadowed by Civil War reform.
Atomic Decisions
Truman authorized atomic bombings in August 1945 over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, framing the devastation as lifesaving.
Iraq 2003: WMD Bingo
George W. Bush’s administration launched an invasion in March 2003 in Iraq, insisting freedom and stability justified the false intelligence.
Vietnam: A Noble Mess
US Presidents Johnson and Nixon escalated a 20-year war across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia while claiming heroism over catastrophe.
