The fact people are so butt hurt about a flag when they aren't calling for the US flag to be taken down is nonsense. How many natives were killed under the star spangled banner? The US supported slavery for a hundred years be for the confederate flag even existed. More death and hate have happened under the American flag than ever for with the confederate.
Uhmmm... I guess I kind of am by default. I come from a military family and my boyfriend was in the Army for 8 years. He's a reservist now.
America gets a bad rap in general, though, and it's totally our own fault. And it sucks. I hate that whole "Just one or a few can ruin it for all" whatever thing.
The difference is that when the nation realized their wrongs and tried to correct them, they were met with "smurf YOU DON'T TAKE OUR SLAVES".
This is true for America, and it's also true for many other first-world countries such as England, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and so on. Once upon a time the world was made for conquerors; that is simply a historical fact.More death and hate have happened under the American flag than ever for with the confederate.
Native Americans have had a poor time of it with the British, the Spanish, and the Mexicans, not just white people under the American flag. That doesn't excuse the mass genocide and land-stealing, but America has tried in small ways to make amends for where we smurfed up bad hundreds of years ago. Obviously we have realized the wrongs of it because we aren't genociding them all currently still.
And of course, the point in all of this is that currently, we don't advocate slavery, genocide, hatred or killing under the American flag. It's supposed to be the symbol of unity and progression of our nation and the freedoms in which we are able to appreciate that many others do not. The confederate flag is literally just "we used to own slaves and we still wish we had slaves and as contemporary racists we're still sore about it." There is no value whatsoever to the confederate flag other than some old world southerners clinging to it as a symbol of their slave plantations and wishing they could run it on free labor and exercise themselves as a "superior species." It is not a symbol of anything other than prejudice, and it isn't comparable to the nation's flag in the slightest.
You do know the Civil war was not primarily fought over slavery? It was because the south had almost no say it the way things were going and were being raped by the north. Blacks fought willing and unwillingly on both sides.
And we don't advocate killing genocide and hatred now? So we torture and bomb other countries for only the absolute most worthy causes? I don't think so...
The Civil War was flat out fought to abolish slavery. The slave states who tried to secede into the Confederacy did it with reasons plainly associated with their slave operations. If they were "getting raped by the North", it was because they wanted to keep perpetuating the unwholesome trout in the south and the North slammed them down for it.
Additionally, I don't think arguing for the Confederacy is a particularly good position to be in.
As for the war business, I thought that example might come up, and all I can say is that no, I don't think we are a nation who propagates war and hatred and genocide, but that we have been at the mercy of some particularly poor leaders who have chosen such courses of action.
Im more patriotic when the people in charge arent being assholes. Right now they are. I guess Im what you call a fair weather fan.
Kefka's coming, look intimidating!
Have a nice day!!
Last edited by Zanmato; 06-27-2015 at 11:45 AM.
But you love it when I say all American's wear plaid, baseball caps, and eat junk food! :o
Anyway, I love England and being English. I love English food, that we hate looking people in the eye in public, that we apologise for everything, that we have sayings like tally ho. THAT WE DRINK OUR GODDAMN TEA, and that we're just awesome - probably more now that I live abroad. But my God we have some smurfing imbecile English people around. Although, it's kind of nice because you can make fun of them and stuff.
Yeah... The Katyń thing was pretty sad, but it's in the past and there's no reason to blow it up like it's 9/11 or something. The way our politicians try to push forward conspiracy theories as fact is just nauseating.
I love Poland and I love that we do not have a history with imperialism that we have to repent for, but I'm also pretty exasperated by the blatant racism, sexism, and homophobia that is perfectly acceptable in this country. Heck, every movie about the holocaust that does not show Poles as perfect saints who didn't abuse Jews themselves is labelled "anti-Polish", whatever that means. Covert anti-semitism is really strong here.
But while a lot of the people suck, at least the place is beautiful I especially adore Suvalkija, my home region.
Your opinion is sincere and well justified - I like it! :3
I'm just neutral and I'm not into patriotism, that's it.
I hate when people treat cosmopolitans as anarchists - this is an obvious manifestation of ignorance on their part.
As for this photo - this is a beautiful place, indeed! <3
Living on the other side of the world has made me feel a lot more attached to England.
I'm still not blindly patriotic: I KNOW there are things that need to be improved.
But, being away for four months has made me realise that there are a lot of things I love about my country.
The Stars and Bars represent an amazing opportunity. I'm very patriotic to the ideals that have formed that opportunity.
However, it's certainly not the only country to afford those opportunities, and there are many more countries that have done a far better job of doing so. Currently the words "freedom, liberty, opportunity, and sovereignty" get thrown around by individuals with all the power and money to make sure they can continue to have all the power and the money. So many everyday individuals have been brainwashed by the crap they're fed on the TV and talk radio that they truly believe the economic and social issues they face (working too many hours, not having enough money to care for their kids, not being able to save for retirement) are the cause of minority special interest groups, or those opposed to their views. Those in power have also done an amazing job of tying their values to Christian values (when they are almost completely unChristian), convincing their constituents that their values are American values because they're Christian values (the two were never joined at the hip, that's one of the major points of this nation), and that anyone opposed to their views isn't a true patriot.
tl;dr
The idea of what this country should and could be is great. What a certain group of very powerful and very rich assholes has convinced a large section of the population those values are has set us back at least 50 years and have ruined a lot of lives.