this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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Americans:
"praise the supreme leader!" - wow, brainwashing much?
"I pledge allegiance to the flag..." - Yup, this is fine.
Okay, but tbf, pledging allegiance to the flag/country is much better than to the self alleged dictator.
Is it though? We are currently seeing the forced nationalism be weaponized.
That's because people confuse nationalism with patriotism. I love my country, which is why I want it to be better. Others love their country because it gives them permission to be worse.
To be clear, it's still not good. I support any kid that wants to sit out for the pledge or sit or kneel for the national anthem. It should always be non-obligatory. In fact, I don't love the word "allegiance" to begin with.
But it would be significantly worse if the pledge of allegiance was to Donal Trump. Ultimately, that's what many people are following, but it's not default in schools to pledge allegiance to him or anything.
I just cannot understand why somebody living in a colonial country can truly say they love their country unless they're brainwashed or completely ignorant to its history.
I'm from Canada and we are not better, there's just not as much of an issue of rampant nationalism disguised as "patriotism". Our countries were built on the graves of the native inhabitants, by the hands of slaves. At no point in the history did they stop abusing natives and the descendants of slaves, they just found new ways to hide it and new names to call it (how does a prison make a profit, anyway?).
I love and am proud of my community, but that is the extent to which my pride reaches. I cannot feel proud of a country that was built on the blood of the innocent.
Not even sure how to respond to this kind of vague emotional ideology. When people say this kinda stuff to me in person, I back away slowly.
I want America to prosper and I want to protect American values from right-wing radicals that are in charge. I'm very passionate about it. In fact, I live in a red state and I want it to just be better and no longer radicalized by lies and hate.
I very passionately want America to heal from this illness of hate and apathy.
If that makes me a bad person, then fuck me I guess.
The values of the US settler-colonial project, are native eviction, and genocide.
The values of the indigenous peoples were not considered worthy to the european settlers, so they did their best to wipe out hundreds of peoples/tribes/cultures. You either don't know that history, or worse, you are proud of it.
I highly suggest reading both An indigenous people's history of the US by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, or her Not a nation of immigrants.
"American values" are freedom for a few selected individuals, this shit is ass.
The values that you probably want is incompatible with capitalism and never truly existed in America, you love the idea of it not the reality.
The US Empire is a genocidal settler-colony. It cannot be rescued from itself, it needs to be overthrown.