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Are You Patriotic?

Posted by lotusb • 10/12/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: patriotic people

Since moving to Houston, TX I've encountered a lot of people who don't like me because I'm a liberal. Not that liberals are NOT patriotic, but I was raised to have a more humanist approach to patriotism. I appriciate the freedoms associated with living in the US, however, I don't in anyway feel the US is supreme over anywhere else, and that we are all sons and daughters of the same birth and the same fate.

Do you consider yourself to be patriotic? Why or why not?

User Comments

10/12/09

hatingtherain

Yes
I don't know why

[reply]
1. 10/12/09
  
  lotusb
10/12/09

trailofpen

USA USA USA USA!

My country ‘tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty
Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died
Land of the pilgrim’s pride.
From every mountain side

Let freedom ring

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10/12/09

blackwater

Don't feel bad, when I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, I was getting alot of shit because I was from the North.

As for patriotic, there are different variations of it.

[reply]
1. 10/12/09
  
  lotusb
  
  Being that you were "stationed" I'm sure your already more patriotic than I...
  
  What variation would you say you imbody?
2. 10/12/09
  
  blackwater
  
  Well you can be patriotic by just sporting your nations flag on your lawn, or patriotic by joining the military, or defending your country, or roughing it out though crisis.
  
  All are forms of patriotism.
3. 10/12/09
  
  lotusb
  
  And YOU specifically?
10/12/09

lotusb

Ok, well I'll just wait for the REAL answers to pop up...

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10/12/09

aningeniousname

I'm with Samuel Johnson on this one "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

[reply]
1. 10/12/09
  
  nothingprofound
  
  If Dr. Johnson were alive today, he'd say it was the "first."
2. 10/12/09
  
  aningeniousname
  
  I think you're onto something there.
10/12/09

Shiley

I love my county. We have freedoms that other countries don't. There are injustices in the world that are far worse than anything in U.S.A. In that sense I am patriotic.

In the sense that I don't go for American textbooks. I am not. Our textbooks when they don't lie they omit certain facts to ensure patriotism in our country. I Read a book by James W. Lowen once called "Lies My Teacher Told" and it made so much more sense to me and made me more interested in history than ever before. I can't respect that our government chooses to stupify us.

[reply]
1. 10/12/09
  
  lotusb
  
  I'll agree a lot of the historical texbooks are based on bias and contain a lot of holes. I think that is true in a lot of things relating to the government in the US.
10/12/09

Agit8r

Yes. Our founding fathers were liberal humanists. People need to deal with it.

[reply]
1. 10/12/09
  
  jeremyjanson
  
  Humanists anyways. Strictly speaking, real humanism is center-right to libertarian-populist to occasionally anarchist. Leftism tends to be very antihumanism with its hatred of human institutions, tradition, the way people naturally are - and cultural and technological achievement.
2. 10/12/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  "Leftism tends to be very antihumanism with its hatred of human institutions, tradition, the way people naturally are - and cultural and technological achievement."
  
  The notion that "man's greatness comes from God" is central to the thought of the classical left:
  
  "May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God."--Thomas Jefferson (to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826)
  
  But that human institutions stifled such said greatness
  
  “The Gothic idea that we are to look backwards instead of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, in religion and in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion & government, by whom it has been recommended, & whose purposes it would answer.” --Thomas Jefferson; letter to Dr. Joseph Priestly (Jan, 27, 1800)
10/12/09

Hels

I am very patriotic. I think Australia is a beautiful country and I would be reluctant to exchange our beach life style for any other.

However I am totally patriotic towards Britain as well, and visit every second year for our entire winter (June-July) holidays. Furthermore my family lives in Israel and just hearing the Israeli national anthem will bring tears of emotion. I lived there for 2.5 years and felt very patriotic.

Patriotism seems to be a very complex emotion.

[reply]
10/12/09

jeremyjanson

Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to criticize it, as my own avatar is evidence of.

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10/12/09

FredSr2009

I am very patriotic and a U.S. Air Force veteran.

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10/12/09

ToughCookieMommy

I am patriotic in some ways and ashamed in some ways, if that even makes sense.

[reply]
1. 10/12/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just" -- Thomas Jefferson
10/12/09

dbowles1017

Yeah, I blow up fire cracks and shoot my guns while driving and drinking whiskey

[reply]
10/12/09

clioandme

Well, I don't know how right-wingers can call themselves patriotic these days. So many cheered when Chicago didn't get the Olympics and groaned when their president won a prestigious prize. The world appears to be upside down on the right. www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss/entry/the-gops-alternate-universe

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