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  3. What is your opinion on national pride / patriotism?

What is your opinion on national pride / patriotism?

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  • N [email protected]

    My take is that patriotism is a corruption of the feeling of belonging we get from community.

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    wrote on last edited by
    #27

    It's not a 'corruption', it's just tribalism in the modern day

    For an example of the corruption of the feeling of community, that would be politicians milking their base for donations by stirring up community fear: i.e. MS13 is going to rape your pets, send me money to be tougher on immigration

    But just patriotism is what happens when humans live in groups larger than a hundred or so

    It's also really dangerous in itself, even without intentional corruption and abuse

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    • F [email protected]

      The philosophy behind that is that only individual choices matter.

      What you're saying is logical, but only if you're on-board with an individualist worldview to start.

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      wrote on last edited by
      #28

      ridiculous and unproductive navel gazing, the basic unit of human consciousness is the individual

      If we were a hivemind species your vapid dilletance might be valid but I really don't see a purpose in theoretical psychology.

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      • ph3ra@lemmy.mlP [email protected]

        It's a coping mechanism that gives people who achieved nothing in their life something to brag about

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        wrote on last edited by
        #29

        Fucking thank you, this is so much more concise than what I wrote and encapsulates it fully

        like sports clubs but a bit deadlier

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        • F [email protected]

          Some of my life-achievements involved contributing to my nation.

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          wrote on last edited by
          #30

          Ok, good, that's you, a productive citizen following the social contract

          BUT

          Most people who wear the flag and shout that they are patriots have been nothing but leeches on the nation

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          • dandomrude@lemmy.worldD [email protected]
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            wrote on last edited by
            #31

            I have some national pride, usually about small things that I know my country cares overly much about and some cultural quirks I care about (how to serve coffee, the structure of a conversation, obscure literary references and so on).

            I have some patriotism, as in: I want my country to be the best version of itself it can be. Keeping the good parts (not many) and evolving the rest.

            Then, I am very cynical, so the little patriotism is submerge by a distant distaste and expectation of everything to fuck up.

            (European here)

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            • sharkfucker420@lemmy.mlS [email protected]

              It can be a useful political tool in the imperial periphery when used correctly. In the imperial core it is a tool of oppression.

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              wrote on last edited by
              #32

              Hate to break it to you buddy but those pithy words were created before militaries could deploy anywhere worldwide within nine hours

              EVERYTHING is periphery nowadays, I figured 9/11 clued everyone in on that

              And it's still a tool of oppression

              sharkfucker420@lemmy.mlS 1 Reply Last reply
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              • A [email protected]

                ridiculous and unproductive navel gazing, the basic unit of human consciousness is the individual

                If we were a hivemind species your vapid dilletance might be valid but I really don't see a purpose in theoretical psychology.

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                wrote on last edited by
                #33

                indubitably

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                • A [email protected]

                  Tribalism is tribalism whether or not they reach national borders

                  The only reason you think they are 'cute' is that they don't have military power

                  Give the Limburgers a military that can compete on the world stage and in a few years they would be just the same as any other nationalist power

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                  wrote on last edited by
                  #34

                  Every tribe gains military power when I'm a member.

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                  • dandomrude@lemmy.worldD [email protected]
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                    wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                    #35

                    I was raised around a lot of "patriotism" (closet nationalism) and have had to adapt the feeling now that I understand better what America actually is and has been. I found that trying to abandon the feeling altogether was making me feel cynical and alone. The parts of America that I love in fact tend to exist despite our government and dominant culture, which steals and appropriates the things I love about us and turns them into the things people know about us and dislike for good reason. I love the source materials, not the end result. As a white person born into privilege on stolen land, my existence is not entirely apart from this, but all's I can do with that is try to make something better of it.

                    There's a salt-of-the-earth working-class segment of this country that's getting screwed over, knows how and why they and others are getting screwed over, and has learned to survive together in spite of it. People that make families out of communities. Rail hoppers, union organizers, queer punks, the list goes on. That spirit is not unique to this country but there do exist uniquely American forms of it. I'm more proud of these people than words can express, and that's about as close to patriotic as I can feel these days.

                    Maybe I just like seeing our shitty protestant labor worship turned to something more productive. Maybe I just spent too much time in the mountains to not fall in love with the land itself. Or maybe I just love banjos.

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                    • A [email protected]

                      Hate to break it to you buddy but those pithy words were created before militaries could deploy anywhere worldwide within nine hours

                      EVERYTHING is periphery nowadays, I figured 9/11 clued everyone in on that

                      And it's still a tool of oppression

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                      wrote on last edited by
                      #36

                      The US is not an imperial periphery. Being attacked doesn't make you periphery. Idk where you got that idea. These terms are primarily in regard to economic relations

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                      • dandomrude@lemmy.worldD [email protected]
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                        wrote on last edited by
                        #37

                        Patriotism. It’s the food of the wise man but the liquor of the fool.

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                        • J [email protected]

                          I tend to agree with Schopenhauer(other than it sounding quite arrogant/condescending the way he puts it…):

                          The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.

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                          wrote on last edited by
                          #38

                          Suffers from the same individualism as some other comments.

                          Most people know how to be proud of things outside their small self. It's only that Protestant individualist mindset that denies the reality of the collective, and with it collective pride.

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                          • F [email protected]

                            The philosophy behind that is that only individual choices matter.

                            What you're saying is logical, but only if you're on-board with an individualist worldview to start.

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                            wrote on last edited by
                            #39

                            You can be proud of your community and others you identify with without putting that pride on arbitrary bounds of organization regardless of how the organization is ran.

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                            • sharkfucker420@lemmy.mlS [email protected]

                              The US is not an imperial periphery. Being attacked doesn't make you periphery. Idk where you got that idea. These terms are primarily in regard to economic relations

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                              wrote on last edited by
                              #40

                              No, it is armchair wiki scholar talk ripped from the Romans like some freaking 40k fanboy.

                              It's not even a good comparison as an economic metaphor as in modern markets there is no geographical center

                              Just face it, you wanted to sound wise and it fell flat so now you're moving the goalposts. Fucking typical

                              sharkfucker420@lemmy.mlS 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • F [email protected]

                                indubitably

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                                wrote on last edited by
                                #41

                                Is that literally all you can bring? I thought we were having a discussion here...

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                                • A [email protected]

                                  Is that literally all you can bring? I thought we were having a discussion here...

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                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #42

                                  Most people don't take it as a cultural dogma that the individual is the be-all-and-end-all

                                  If you're an angry autist with that cultural dogma, I'm not gonna try talk you out if it. Most people find it easy to be proud of their ancestors or family or country.

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                                  • F [email protected]

                                    Most people don't take it as a cultural dogma that the individual is the be-all-and-end-all

                                    If you're an angry autist with that cultural dogma, I'm not gonna try talk you out if it. Most people find it easy to be proud of their ancestors or family or country.

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                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #43

                                    Wait, you think I'm a patriot? Media literacy is fucking dead...

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                                    • A [email protected]

                                      Wait, you think I'm a patriot? Media literacy is fucking dead...

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                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #44

                                      You think I think you're a

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                                      • dandomrude@lemmy.worldD [email protected]
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                                        wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                                        #45

                                        Pride in your country/state/etc is ok, nationalism is not. The US only knows indoctrination and nationalism. Canada is a little better about it with their buy Canadian movement, imo

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                                        • A [email protected]

                                          No, that's just having a strong sense of community

                                          The difference is you aren't blinded to the flaws that need to be fixed

                                          A 'patriot' will insist that American is the perfectbest and awesome and has zero flaws and if you insist there are flaws then you must be a damn communist and it is their moral duty to oppose everything you suggest for change

                                          And it's fucking our country so bad that we won't be a world power in 20 years

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                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #46

                                          And it’s fucking our country so bad that we won’t be a world power in 20 years

                                          Unfortunately, I very much doubt that. Look at Russia, it's even worse than the USA AND has a far worse economy, yet it's still a major power.

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