• Rob@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Also has a secondary interpretation: out of the many countries in the world, one of them. Putting the US on equal footing with the nations of old — despite not having a king with a divine right to sovereignty.

      I like this interpretation because anno 2024 it also counterweights US exceptionalism.

        • NABDad@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          There’s not much distinction. Either translation would be appropriate. I’m many years away from high school Latin, but I think the direct translation would be, “out of many, one”. However, that’s awkward in English, so it is often written as “one from many”.

          • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 months ago

            This is also true. 🤙🏼 Though, to be ahem “pedantic”, the statement above is more accurate as “E Pluribus, Unum” ~ “One From Many”.

      • brianary@startrek.website
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        3 months ago

        How precise is this translation?

        I’ve also heard “From many, one”, which can be taken two ways: the same celebration of the individual (presumably over other individuals), or that the many come together as one, which is a much clearer call to action.

        I prefer the Voltron version.

    • rsuri@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s kinda vague though. It could also mean “Out of many, there can be only one.” Thereby establishing a Highlander-like contest among nations to be the last one standing.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Not American, but here’s my 0.02 euros:

      The strength of the country was always in its’ diversity and the fact that motivated people came together to build better lives.

      Nowadays there are people who hate the former and in terms of the latter, immigration is pretty hard and the H-1B is a lottery that unfortunately favors sweatshops (and yes, I’m salty because I’m a software engineer with no formal education so y’all don’t want me).

      I get that there are legitimate reasons for limiting migration (your own people do want to work too, of course), but it does also limit economic growth and influx of different cultures.

      Being from a small country in the EU that nobody’s heard of, the EU and its’ open borders are sorta doing the same to us now: Don’t get me wrong, it’s still primarily other white people migrating here, but at least they’re people of slightly different cultures, with different experiences. It benefits everyone because we all have something to learn from one another.