I agree with this, but I think we should have some kind of linguistic distinction between pride as in ‘I’m proud I’m not one of those inferior people’ and pride as in ‘I am not ashamed of my heritage’. Because having one word being used both ways has led to people with wildly diverging interpretations of the same sentence.
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This is why I'm always confused when people get upset with me for not being "patriotic" or whatever. The state and country I'm born in is just dirt surrounded by water. I could not care less about it. It's just where my mom plopped me out at. Everything else is arbitrary nonsense.
I still cringe when people still seem to hold onto some notion that America is the greatest thing ever. I'm not even talking about MAGA. Like people foolishly still believe a war mongering state like the US should forever be known as the greatest thing ever. Like legit. In their eyes, no other country has come close and no other country does anything just as good. The US is the only leader in anything in their eyes. They make it so dramatic about how much pride they have in the country when they've been fed propaganda all their lives. lmao
To them I say, it's not about U.S. vs the rest of the world. It's about us, the people, against the corrupt and the state. Like John Lennon says, "no country to die for". It's just about people man. Fuck the state. Fuck your borders bullshit.
it's tribalism, and I hate to say it because people throw this phrase around too much but I genuinely believe it's low IQ behavior
It is
It's very easy to see who clings to this sort of shit
It's people who have achieved nothing of actual value
Divide and conquer is one of the oldest tricks rulers use. the people cant stand up to you if they hate each other.
When people have nothing to be proud of they will take anything they can get
This is true but it also makes sense why youwould wanna be patriotic(not nationalistic, important distinction). Youre born somewhere, and you dont have a choice in that, but you still grow up with people arround you who have a certain culture, who raise you, who youre freinds with. You can associate with them and try to improve your community without pushing down others. I think this is the concept patriotism is based on. Also i never get these posts, do these people truly not understand how a racist, or a nationalists mind works? The same way you should be able to put yourself into the shoes of someone recieving hate, you should be able to see from the perepective of the one hating on others. I guess that explains why there are so many asinine approaches to politics from both sides. Dont get me wrong, i hate the right, but the reason theyre outplaying us is because they can see from our perspectives better than we can see from theirs, which is very dissapointing when we should be the empathetic left. Something might not make sense but you should still understand how someone gets to that conclusion, especially since i have a pretty big problem with this specific qoute. Two of these groups, irish and italian, have recieved a lot of discrimination. Wouldnt you be proud of who you are if they discriminated against you, wouldnt you fight back? Its the same with being queer, its not a choice, thats exactly what were trying to communicate to the right, yet you have pride for the exact same reason italian and irish americans have pride, to show you are here. This qoute is basically this guys sufferring, or hate or something similar packaged in a way that makes it look smart instead. And im not blaming the guy, something drove him to react this way.
Ahh, after reading hes irish american. See? He shouldnt be pride to be born irish, instead be proud of his people and himself for going through discrimination. Today this is much less of a thing but being born in 1937 couldnt have been easy in an irish immigrant family. Theres always more to the story is all im saying. Nuance, you know.
Then why are billionaires proud of their wealth when they were already born into it?
I think an American Indian who is proud of keeping their cultural identity alive when countless others were lost to genocide has more right to pride than rich people who lord their meaningless "accomplishments" over others.
Because there is nothing special about them as an individual. I'd imagine they surround themselves with money to prop up their self-worth because people wouldn't pay attention to them otherwise. They are about as important as anyone else that isn't good at anything but much more significant because they have wealth. And they realize that.
For me, that's the différence between a nationalist and a patriot: the nationalist thinks their country is the best, the patriot wants the best for their country. A patriot will see the flaws in the system and will try to correct them for the benefit of the community. A patriot will be happy when other people will want to join the community to make it better, or to change it. A patriot is happy when the community evolves, and will work for it. A patriot can be a foreigner initially. Doesn't change anything. The nationalist cannot accept change. Therefore, they don't accept anything that can make their community evolve. They don't realize their country changed in the past, they idealize a vision completely unbalanced of history and cannot see the flaws in the system.
Unfortunately today, the patriot is a nuisance and the nationalist a useful tool for the nefarious people which wants just more power and more money.
It's easy to sell something to someone who thinks nothing should change, it's hard to contempt someone who wants to change a system.
Have you ever been to a cultural parade, even when you're not part of that culture? They are so fun, especially if you're only being accepted as the culture for a day or so. Some cultures are much more family oriented too, so they're going to understand each other and rise above most things together. I get it.
While i agree, many people are proud of their genetics, or their team, or or or
I don't really get the "being proud of our history" part. Some other people did it and it's not your achievement in any way. But I do get enjoying your rich historical and cultural heritage in the form of museums, archeological sites and cultural events.
For example, as a dual national, I never liked the polish Christian traditions which are all about martyrology and are mostly sad and boring but I do enjoy Spanish traditions which are mostly about just having fan. Spain also has richer history with traditions, language and cuisine spanning way more different cultures. I wouldn't say I'm proud of it but I do enjoy it.
There is a utility in having some national pride, in the same way as there is in having some pride in your place of residence. If you feel some pride for your home, you are more likely to invest time and resources in caring for and improving it. If you don't care about your home you are unlikely to put any effort into taking care of it.
Nothing is quite as long-term damaging to a nation as convincing its own people to think poorly of it.
Personally I think a fair amount of the damage that the US is doing to itself now is a result of foreign influence campaigns repeatedly targeting the US's worst international blunders. These criticisms are valid and true, but they are not the entire truth and the selective lense is intentional.
A common response to self-loathing is a defensive, reactionary display of narcissism.
An alternative view is that National Pride reduces people's pressure to improve their country and especially reduces the pressure they put on the elites leading the country to improve it.
Certainly were I was born - Portugal - the peak time of celebrating the past glories of the country (basically, the stuff that happened during the age of maritime discovery) was during the Fascist Dictatorship, when the country was in such a bad state that it received Food Aid from the rest of Europe.
My own experience living in Britain also adds up to this impression: the people there who were most loudly proud of the country and its past where those doing the most to destroy it with Brexit.
A very similar effect is visible in the US - those who are loudest at harping about the greatness of the country are those helping the present day elites pillage it, de facto bringing it down (there is no such thing anymore as The American Dream).
In my experience National Pride isn't an incentive to do better, it's the very opposite.
People will apply this to something like gay pride, black pride, etc. But those forms of pride are about standing in opposition to prejudice, oppression, and hardship, where the inherent aspects of your existence are demonized, stereotyped, or seen as lesser. The pride is in making it through the world and accepting/celebrating yourself despite all the hate and dangers others force onto you.
Having pride in being part of a marginalized group isnt about feeling superior to other groups. It is about rebelling against those who feel themselves superior to you.
Understanding nationalism from a left perspective requires that we understand what a nation is. In Marxist theory, a nation is a "historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture." Nationalist movements are therefore struggles for sovereignty. Nationalism must be understood from its relation as a nation. Nationalism of oppressor nations and nationalism of oppressed nations are both struggles for sovereignty, the core difference being that oppressor nations have already gained the ability to determine their own future, and this progressive movement turns into its opposite, supremacy.
This is why we can say that the nationalist movements in Palestine, Ireland, indigenous Americans, and so forth are undoubtedly progressive in gaining that right to self-determination. This is also why we can say that Euro-American nationalism is a supremacist ideology. This is why nationalism can be difficult to understand in relation to internationalism, but the simple truth is that an internationalist stance requires the right of self-determination for all nations. This is the bedrock of internationalism and a greater international human identity. It isn't an erasure of culture and national identity, but a celebration of all of them.
TL;DR: nationalist movements in oppressed nations like Palestine good, nationalist movements in oppressor nations like the US bad.
You can develop a sincere love for the people of your nation as countrymen. I don't understand it passed that.
Pride is the wrong word. You are grateful to be born into a certain country like you are grateful to not have a predisposition for cancer
It does feel like if you switched the nouns to be black/Mexican/gay/trans this would read as hate speech.
I'm not saying he's right or wrong, but this feels like the kind of railing against "identity politics," that your crazy uncle spouts off at Thanksgiving.
Queer pride comes from a place of resilience in hate—that we keep on being, existing, thriving, even though there’s legislation and bad faith arguments and assholes and propaganda that undermines and demeans us.
Same thing could be said about a lot of nationalities, especially nations without a state, or captive under a hostile or indifferent one.
Irish is literally the first example Carlin lists and we lived with Britain spending 800 years trying to make us stop being Irish. Still can't work with Brits without hearing casual slurs and stereotypes, but if Carlin had one blind spot it was his own privilege. A reminder he was human after all.
That makes sense, but I do have follow-on questions. Genuinely asking, not trying to be antagonistic.
Would you then say that gay pride is ridiculous in a nation that doesn't have issues with hating gay people? Like, in a well run country where homophobia/transphobia is marginalized out, should gay pride be viewed the same as having Irish pride?
The argument against that in my mind would be that it's honoring the work of the people who came before who had to deal with historical bigotry. But I feel like the counter to that would be the Irish, in that they also had to deal with systematic bigotry in this country. We're not so far gone from "No Irish Need Apply," and people having to change their names to hide their Irish ancestry to find jobs.
A nation will always have issues with homophobia, because even if it’s not an enshrined position, it’s something that its constituent citizens can sometimes believe in.
I live in Portland, Oregon, and I deal with transphobia all the damn time. And yet I’m explicitly protected by the law, which doesn’t mean all that much at the end of the day.
Hence, trans pride.
But there is no un-hated group. Heck, there's still a not insignificant portion of the population who hate the Irish/Catholics still. There is no group that isn't hated by someone.
Hell, there are a not insignificant number of people who hate white people. Does that make it okay for them to be "proud of being white" just because some people hate them for it?
I don't disagree that there will always be people who hate gay people. But I do think there are plenty of countries though where the percentage of the population that do is low. At least as low as those who hate whites/Catholics/etc.
This is such neoliberal nonsense. I feel for you USians but to just attack the struggle for Irish independence is not the way to go. Please read a history book.
If you've done nothing for it, why are you personally proud of it?
It's the people who fought for Irish Independence who should be proud, very proud, of it, not some rando who shares with them nothing other than, purely by chance, having been born in the geographical area others freed from the British yoke, and a rando who for all we know if they had been born back then would've sided with the Brits.
Be proud of what you're doing now, not what totally different people did way back then. If you have no reasons to be proud of your own deeds, well then, that's on you.
In the country I was born in, the most loud celebrations of past national glories were done during the time of the Fascist dictatorship, when the country was such a poor shithole that it even got Food Aid from the rest of Europe. Interestingly, after the Revolution that brought Democracy, that stuff was seriously toned down.
National Pride is a scam to keep the plebes supporting whomever is in power now, long after the people that did the great deeds are dead and buried, as if the present day elites pillaging the leftover wealth of greater days when greater people built the country up are in any way, form or shape similar to those in power when the great deeds were done - Britain with their Empire and WWII obsessions is a great example of that.
I’m ashamed that my country 🇳🇱 just gave up and allowed the Nazis in. I’m proud that my country has succeeded in adding very progressive policies for poverty, work conditions, that pride can also be a source for inspiration.
The neoliberal movement of only thinking about one’s own actions and interests has gutted many social institutions and protections in my country.
I lived in The Netherlands for almost a decade (kan selfs nederlands spreeken)
There has been little to be proud of for the country in the last 2 decades or so - it has actually been going back in the good things it had.
Plenty of Dutch people still alive do have reason to be proud in what they did for the country 50 years ago or so, and I guess even today most should be proud on how Dutch culture is right now (most notably it's openness and tolerance), because they ARE part of making it what it is everyday, yet in lots of things (Economics, Wealth Discrimination, Fairness even the Openness and Tolerance) as far as I can tell of late the place has just been going backwards, which is nothing to be proud of.
More broadly and as I mentioned before, in my experience National Pride is mainly used to suppress pressure on the governing elites to improve the country, which is why the Fascist dictator in my homeland - Portugal - was so incredibly big on celebrating great things that were done by completely different people 500 years ago.
My experience living in Britain is pretty similar - the very people fucking up the country by mismanaging it like crazy (most notably with Brexit) were the ones most loudly proud of the Empire and Britain's role in WWII.
And, no, I'm not proud of my homeland, Portugal.
I see a lot of wishy-washy, half-baked ideas here trying to make "patriotism" sound like a reasonable alternative but no. If at any point the heads of the country, or even the whole population of it stood for something unreasonable and/or immoral, would you still be a "patriot"? It's all very ad-hoc, and extremely unwarranted if you're in one of those settler/ colonial/Imperial vassal places. The only thing that can unite us in earnest is our beliefs and convictions, and those divisions and connections run through the whole world. Of course, it's much better than idk, violent jingoism and white supremacy, but it's still nonsensical. At most, you can just say you appreciate/enjoy/can't complain much about being X/facets of X/being born and raised in the land of X (and even then if you haven't in earnest been around Y and Z people you can't even compare it. Maybe it actually would've been better to be born in the Y community, and that can be acknowledged even if it can't be changed). Any sort of "pride" makes no sense in this context, besides whatever pride you feel by making your community/country better. If you can't shake off the feeling that seeing things this clearly is somehow a betrayal to your country or people, or that there's something immoral about it, trust me when I tell you you're still a bit too propagandised to see it for what it is.
In addition to what has now become boundless greed and the fact that one can and must make money from the news, all forms of nationalism and its degenerate sibling, patriotism, pose a fundamental problem for communal coexistence.
As long as we do not see ourselves as a species hurtling through the void on a tiny speck of rock (a void that can kill us in the blink of an eye) nothing will change. As long as our self-image is not that of a single species, we will continue to think in terms of wealth, race, interests, and ridiculous lines on a map, thereby destroying at the very outset everything we could ever hope to achieve.
I feel like you can take pride in your country when your country does good things. Lately I’ve felt all of zero pride in my country.. :(
Ok this is gonna be risky so please read and undertsand i'm not coming from a milicious place. I've always looked at nationalistic pride on a similar plane as LGTB Pride. Alot of folks did not respect their right to exist and want the culture removed from the earth. Same with the Poles, Romanians, Irish, Ukrainians etc. The Pride is often fu** you people or countries that want me and my people dead!!! Were here, we deserve to be and we are gonna be loud about it!!! Sorry if im off swilt.
It is all about the Tribe. It will always devolve into tribes.
What gives them identity is preferred over individualism, because deep down, most people recognise that there isn't a power to individualism compared to, at least, two other people willing to oppose you.
Because Americans have lost their national heritage through the “melting pot” so now they believe “I’m white” Or in the case of former slaves, had their heritage severed without consent.
It’s really “team sports mentality” and, IMO, childish.
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