Patriots?

[Smaccoms]

Okay, I realize I might be slandered for...a lot, but I don't really care.

I hate patriots. I think most of the time, extreme patriots are people simply arrogant snobs looking to throw their weight around. I mean, America is not the best country in the world, we're different. We have a unique culture and a unique way of life, but that doesn't make us better than everyone else. Grow up. It's taken me so many years to figure out what America represents to me, and why that's so important to me just because there's some obnoxious freak on the tellie screaming about America's "superiority" not to mention the shear stupidity of the average person in our country.
Is it okay for me to think that? Having "against the grain" opinions is always scary, especially when you suck in the subject to begin with.
That's what politics is right? Opinions?

 

[Smaccoms]

is there no way to delete a thread? I mean really. My computer froze so I tried reposting and suddenly it posted it twice, wtf?

 

[Zeuhl34]

Well, there is a difference between jingoism and true patriotism which often gets confused (or simply discarded) in political dialogue.

 

[HazelGod]

I understand your meaning, but be careful you don't confuse patriotism with jingoism.

 

[HazelGod]

Too funny...I responded to the other thread in exactly the same way before I opened this one.

Z is right...true patriotism isn't a bad thing. The qualities and behaviors you're actually excoriating are called jingoism.

 

[Bbucko]

Z is right...true patriotism isn't a bad thing. The qualities and behaviors you're actually excoriating are called jingoism.

Actually, I'd call it Nationalism and have decried it repeatedly.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

is there no way to delete a thread? I mean really. My computer froze so I tried reposting and suddenly it posted it twice, wtf?

Ask a mod to delete the other one, if there are no posts yet apart from your OP.
If there are additional posts there, have a mod merge the two threads.

Edit: I see both threads have posts. So ask that they be merged.

 

[Smaccoms]

I understand your meaning, but be careful you don't confuse patriotism with jingoism.

I have never heard that term before, good to know

 

[Smaccoms]

Ask a mod to delete the other one, if there are no posts yet apart from your OP.
If there are additional posts there, have a mod merge the two threads.

Edit: I see both threads have posts. So ask that they be merged.

uuuuhhhh, how do I do that? lol I feel so stupid :smashfreakB:

 

[Smaccoms]

nvm I figured it out :biggrin:

 

[CuteBoiSAV]

There's a difference between patriotism and foolishness. I'm a Patriot. I love the US, and I'd defend her till my death. But, that doesn't mean I think the US is better than everything else.

 

[Lucky_Boy]

Interesting. I hate people who hate patriots. They tend to be worthless malcontents.

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

Merged at OP request.

 

[Lucky_Boy]

You don't have to think that your country is better than all others in order to be proud of it. Some sense of loyalty to your nation is healthy, if you ask me. Personally, my patriotism makes me want to defend liberties in my country and to speak out to regain those that have been taken away. It makes me want to improve the country that I live in, while recognizing how good I already have it here.

 

[Smaccoms]

Interesting. I hate people who hate patriots. They tend to be worthless malcontents.

why do you say that? America can represent different things in different arenas. I'm reading this book which explains the sense of self (well, it's called loneliness, but it is quite a good book). There are three different ways of referencing the self.
A Personal self (without anyone else in the picture, just one's one characteristics, tastes, bare facts)
A Relational Self (in relation to the people closest to you)
A Collective self (in reference to larger groups one is a part of)
I want to understand who I am as an American in all three areas. What's it mean to me personally by myself, what's it mean between me and the people closest to me, plus what it means to be an American citizen, among people I don't know personally. If I don't all three, it feels like blind passion, which I am not a fan of.

 

[Smaccoms]

Merged at OP request.

THANK YOU!!! :biggrin1:

 

[Smaccoms]

Actually, I'd call it Nationalism and have decried it repeatedly.

In your personal opinion, what's the difference between nationalism, and patriotism?

 

[Bbucko]

In your personal opinion, what's the difference between nationalism, and patriotism?

Up until I lived in Paris for several years in the early 90s, I always thought that I was an American merely as an accident of birth, and in my (rather naive way) considered myself a "citizen of the whole world". It took quite a bit of adjustment to discover that, at present, there is no such thing

Patriotism is pride in the culture of one's birth and where one was raised. I shall probably die in Florida but remain a Bostonian at heart. That's not to say that FL is outside the boundaries of the US, it's saying that I identify strongly with and take enormous pride in being from New England generally and a Bostonian specifically. I equate this regional pride with patriotism. That's not to say that I don't recognize other regions' contributions to the national culture, just that I self-identify most strongly with the culture in which I was raised.

Nationalism is the concept, not just of pride, but of innate superiority of the culture of one's birth to the exclusion of all others: it goes beyond condescension into contempt. This lack of respect allows people to justify all manner of evil, because the person held in such contempt is dehumanized because of his/her culture. Genocide is the extreme (and all-too sad) result of nationalism run amok.

 

[helgaleena]

I am a Finnophile. Though I have never been there, and only learned of its culture as a third-generation descendant, I find many aspects of Finnish culture to be superior to the place where I was born. And I think the Finnish-Americans in that place made it much better to live there and grow up there.

But I do not think Finlanders should take over the world. They would not do a good job running Indonesia or Kenya, for example. So I guess I am not a Finnish patriot.

 

[Smaccoms]

Up until I lived in Paris for several years in the early 90s, I always thought that I was an American merely as an accident of birth, and in my (rather naive way) considered myself a "citizen of the whole world". It took quite a bit of adjustment to discover that, at present, there is no such thing

Patriotism is pride in the culture of one's birth and where one was raised. I shall probably die in Florida but remain a Bostonian at heart. That's not to say that FL is outside the boundaries of the US, it's saying that I identify strongly with and take enormous pride in being from New England generally and a Bostonian specifically. I equate this regional pride with patriotism. That's not to say that I don't recognize other regions' contributions to the national culture, just that I self-identify most strongly with the culture in which I was raised.

Nationalism is the concept, not just of pride, but of innate superiority of the culture of one's birth to the exclusion of all others: it goes beyond condescension into contempt. This lack of respect allows people to justify all manner of evil, because the person held in such contempt is dehumanized because of his/her culture. Genocide is the extreme (and all-too sad) result of nationalism run amok.

So patriotism is to nationalism as condescending is to contempt?