What's with this whole "blind patriotism" thing?

Its quite bizarre that so many Americans still claim that their country is the “land of the free”. It locks it’s citizens up in jail at a higher rate than any other country, tens of thousands of Americans per year are shot to death and the country doesn’t even have a universal health care service, leaving the poor to beg and scrape and rely on charity health care where they can find it or just suffer ill health in silence if they can’t afford to pay for it. Advanced country? Seriously??

Too many Americans tend to scream their patriotism to anyone who'll listen (and many who won't) without having the first clue as to what the principles and values this country truly embodies. They wrap themselves in the flag as if it's a magical cloak, they wield the Constitution as a membership document of superiority and personal allowances rather than a document of equality for all, they throw empty, misunderstood terms in the direction of the very fellow citizens they share "the greatest nation on earth" with and they refuse to address its ills like people ignore their vehicle engines making a strange sound.

Blind patriotism is dangerous because without a compass to guide it it eventually consumes itself and the bearer. Patriotism is respecting and having pride in one's country. Loving something means fostering it, cultivating it, making it better with every action. We're not doing that these days and in the absence of true care and respect, we stand to lose the very things we love about this country.

Perfecto 👌 heard a few people talking the other day on how America was the the greatest country, no basis whatsoever, these people have never even left the state. Laughed my ovaries off

Exactly! I know people who happen to love their country of origin, people who love another country more than their own, people who criticize the state (and know the difference between the state and the nation). And also I know people like me who couldn't care less about nations and just love places based on their experiences there. No, I don't feel like crying every time I hear the national anthem, I don't feel awe in front of my country's flag, but you know what? I help my country's people, I care about my country's problems and I don't pollute my city's environment etc. I show my love with actions. And I'm wondering how many of these "patriots" really love their country, just because they love repeating the phrase "homeland, religion, family".

Well said. The whole “love it or leave it” thing is even more bizarre. God forbid you might want to effect some positive changes in the country you live in, stop the presses.

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer

It's SO annoying when people say "Americans do this and that..." SOME DO!!!!!

Nobody's telling you that you have to be patriotic. Nobody's forcing you.

As for who I, or anyone else, shit on, no, you don't get to decide that for me. You have every right to speak your mind. You have absolutely no right to tell people who or what they're allowed to criticize.

When we hear the left criticizing their own they'll have a little credibility. The hypocrisy is loud and obnoxious.

This is not very good topic to discuss, people are sensitive

I like America

Best country in the world

And one more from old man Bakunin:

“There is nothing more absurd and at the same time more harmful, more deadly, for the people than to uphold the fictitious principle of nationalism as the ideal of all the people's aspirations. Nationality is not a universal human principle; it is a historic, local fact. ... We should place human, universal justice above all national interests. The less developed a civilization is, and the less complex the basis of its social life, the stronger the manifestation of natural patriotism.”
— Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin

We are never blind. We See. There are no patriots and those that use this blith to reach the rhetoric of People will be spanked.

Man

I think its really just a response type deal.

Like, I love America, The Free, The Beautiful, The greatest goddamn country on earth.

I [i]hate[/i] modern politics, beaurocracy, and everything [i]about[/i] modern America, its a shitty place for Americans, immigrants, and everybody else.

Well said, you’ve nailed it.

Well said. I agree.

its because they are below the STupid threshold.

Nicely put.