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Originally Posted by Pippadoc
Lmao - Born in the USA isn't a song about being proud to be American!
It's a criticism of the Vietnam war and the way veterans were left to return to civilian life without enough assistance and understanding.
I know that and Bruce gets mad when politicians use this song on the campaign trail. But underlying that sentiment is a sense of patriotism. Like I said no matter what crap country you come from you call it home and you think fondly of it somehow.
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Originally Posted by Tuma
usa has a tendency to cut ppl off from their past heritage and national pride. literally if you say the word 'mexican' in front of the right group of dummies they'll look at you like you said something offensive.
Sure there are a lot of ignorant people. I live in California so I see a lot of Mexicans everyday. Yo hablo Espanol solomente un poquito pero yo oido mas. I mean it's not like every country doesn't have people who don't like foreigners and that are racist. I know there are a lot of xenophobes and racists in France and it's really hard to get citizenship there. There are a lot of foreigners in America and we are in the spotlight with a large population.
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Originally Posted by Sensimuse
Ironically enough, it’s the blind patriotism being described that led thousands to go to war in droves rather than critically assessing America’s involvement or purpose. “Protect your country”, “fight for freedom”, all the rhetoric stands as a motivator that shields the truth, and the sick part is that any criticism against such blatant manipulation is largely considered unpatriotic. Sad state of affairs.
A true patriot isn’t afraid to stand up against their own country if it exhibits tyranny, deception, oppression, or just ineptitude. It’s similar to the idea of supporting one’s family regardless of their choices or actions. You can’t just shrug off their wrongdoings or destructive behavior as “welp, they’re family”
Tbh, the whole idea of “supporting your country” is pretty esoteric. Besides things like feeding the local economy by buying from American business, being politically informed and active, giving back when you can, I’m not sure what it means. I think it’s the sort of rhetoric that’s used as a tool to convince people to look the other way when shady things are going on.
Yeah I agree with your whole post and especially the last paragraph. I think I understand what Twain means by "supporting your country all the time but your government only when it deserves it" but I can see it as being misconstrued to just be used as propaganda to get the uninformed masses to blindly follow the state. I worry that America is going to become more like China and that we are going to become slaves to the state in all but name. Thank god we got the 2nd amendment. They have to fight us to take our rights away all at once, but I fear they might be slowly ebbing away...