Patroitism?

I remember me and my friends got really pissed when people started throwing flags on EVERYTHING. their cars, houses, shirts, backpacks, fucking pencils. I didn't turn into a patriot then and I won't now. But to all the fuckers that were for the war and now are against, we told you so.

And yeah, I'm definitely down for flag burning, I just don't want to waste money.

I've never liked the massive surge in patriotism. I don't really understand the patriotism. I can't see myself being so happy with whichever country that I lived in that I displayed symbols for my country everywhere. I only like the national anthem because it's an amazing song musically. Bah. I'm just cynical.

I don't care for knee-jerk patriotism any more than I care for knee-jerk anti-patriotism. I love this country, its land, its Constitution, and the ideals upon which it was founded.

I don't have much love for the evil little oxpeckers who have been "running" it for the last several decades, but that doesn't mean I have to hate my country.

This subject is funny to me because where i live and i am from, american flags are a symbol of a group of people who are frustrated by their situation and think that putting flags in every single lightpost equals statehood or better relations with the US. I am talking about Puerto Rico for those that didn't know.

I personally like what i have gotten from the US, and i did sign up for the U.S. Coast Guard and made a promise to defend a country that i am not entirely part of. Even with the stupid bigotry that i encountered and bad expiriences from living in a certain state i don't regret any second of it. My family is one of those anti-american who in 9/11 celebrated what happened in NYC. I hated their closed mindedness specially when i lived in NYC and saw the damage that was caused that day not from a TV half way into the ocean.

Even if what i feel about the US is not like its my whole country, i still love the half it occupies...

I feel no connection to this country its just where I live. Government wise we are assholes fucking around with other peoples cultures, exploiting and stealing.

^what he said.

[QUOTE=morey]I feel no connection to this country its just where I live. Government wise we are assholes fucking around with other peoples cultures, exploiting and stealing.[/QUOTE]

I'll be moving to Ireland to set up residency and citizenship this year. There's very little about America or Americans that I still find heartening. The best parts of this country got sucked into the black hole that is Middle America.

To point a finger at the representatives of the greater population is missing the point. They're the leaders, the spokesmen, of the people. Your fault is with Americans. And I agree.

/we suck.

Mostly what bothers me about the flag ubiquitousness is the fact that most of them are made in China or Taiwan.

Cheap nylon or plastic scheisse that is essentially meaningless.

And the tattered car version ones bother me too.

Why would you want to sport a ratty, dirty foreign-made example of the flag on your foreign-made SUV?

I see bumper stickers that say "United we stand" or "Proud to be an American" or similar sentiments, but the fact of the matter is when you paste those things on a Nissan or a Honda I can't take you seriously.

My rides reflect my affiliation, and as a result I don't need the sticker.

Driving a 1979 Camaro screams I love the USA.

Driving a 1986 Chevy Pickup proclaims "I support the union jobs"

I am the fucking icon.

I don't need a slogan.

I am.

[QUOTE=Mulrooney]

/we suck.[/QUOTE]
Racist.

Enjoy your queen.

Having no connection with the country and not giving a shit about the goverment is such an american trait. Hell, look what it took to make these surface patriots to start a frenzy only to die out a year later.

Hey what other country has such a low voting participation and is still functional(sort of)?

We don't need to vote, they vote each other in anyway.

^angry morning?

[QUOTE=Six On The Dot]You're [I]supposed[/I] to burn your flag before it get tattered or damaged at all. All these flamboyant displays of "patriotism" are as unpatriotic as you could get. You're not supposed to use the image on anythig disposable (Hello, USA napkins), hang it damaged (Hello, you stupid, torn, battered fucking car flags), and you are NEVER supposed to throw a flag away with the trash. It's to be burned in respect.
Not to mention it should NEVER be worn or be attatched to any picture, words, mark or insignia. So fuck your teeshirts.
All we've done with this recent explosion of patriotism is make a mockery of the flag. It's our new Golden Arches, Playboy Bunny, Peace sign, Happy face, whatever the fuck.
It means nothing.[/QUOTE]
Well sixy it has never meant anything. If any meaning it had came from the stupid traditions that are supposed to be done, exactly the ones you mention. The so-called sacrifice is what it gave the meaning to that flag. I am still trying to find the right oportunity and dig out the box from a military base that is supposed to contain: the gun, knife and matches. Any prior service or military family member heard about that rumor?

Not even military uphold those traditions anymore, they are the first ones to put the sticker and have the flag on their car.

i dont care much for your magic blankets

After the world trade center shit they started advertising those flags that you can put on the windows of your car. My mother had four. She put on on every vehicle. Everytime we went somewhere, the wind would catch it and you would constantly hear a rattle. My mom failed to notice that this was rediculous, though it was stunningly obvoius.
So one day the flag starts unravelling in the wind. I wanted to take the thing off because the look of this ratty American flag now brown and tattered was really sick. But my mom loved the thing, and after two more weeks of this horrible looking flag, she bought a new one to revamp our patriotism.
We don't have one anymore, eventually everyone forgot about patriotism and remeber free speech, the internet, and hating each other.

It seemed like right after the attack, everyone was freindly. Did it really take a terrorist attack to make people stop being assholes? Even so, the anti-asshole effect only last a few months. Everything is back to normal now, except there are those who are scared of seeing planes fly overhead.

[QUOTE=NightMonkie]Everything is back to normal now, except there are those who are scared of seeing planes fly overhead.[/QUOTE]
Well there are people who lock themselves in their own private prisons, just because there might be that rapist and burglar around the corner, see you saw that?

Long live USA, and the guns.

[QUOTE=Xk3zofrenik]I am still trying to find the right oportunity and dig out the box from a military base that is supposed to contain: the gun, knife and matches. Any prior service or military family member heard about that rumor?[/QUOTE]
It's not true.

[img]http://131.1.1.46/images/pgh/zlata3.gif[/img]

[QUOTE=Lazlosdead]I remember back when I was in high school there was a big discussion over whether or not it was constitutional to burn the American flag. THen 9/11 happened and stores sold out of American flags. Everyone was patroitic all of a sudden. Now three years later, what does everyone think? All I hear anymore are anti-American sediments... people hate Bush, hate war, hate what's happening with Iraq, etc.

Do any of y'all still consider yourselves patroitic?

Should we be able to burn the stars and stripes as "freedom of speech"?[/QUOTE]
patroitic, it's a term that has come to mean you are a cheerleader for your country's flag and support their every decision. i am not that sort of patriotic.
i'm the sort of patroitic that supports the freedoms granted to me, especially the ones that enable me to make my own argument, regardless if it is the same argument my country endorses. this country wasn't built for people to just blindly accept what their government tells them is truth, it was built to allow skeptics the chance to have their voice heard, and have their arguments not recieve punishment for being contrary to what their government currently argues.
i perfer living in this country to the possibility of living in some other country, but that's not to say other government's are "wrong" and i'm not going to support america's decision to force their form of government on other countries.
so yea, i'm patriotic, even though i don't own a flag.

I hate patriotism in all of its forms. All of it. I hate when people go like "Yuppi, we won the world championship in something!" Fuck no. Someone who happens to be born in the same geographical location as me has won and this has nothing to do with me. In Bulgaria people are really patriotic and nationalistic and all and I really can't stand it. Same for American patriotism.
Patriotism is just what happens before/during war.

I have to take exception to that statement. For those of us who need to drive recently new cars, for whatever reason, buying an "American" car is about as patriotic as stuffing a Chinese made flag up your ass and farting the national anthem.

Toyota and Honda have numerous plants based in the U.S. and typically pay equal or superior wages over the big US auto manufacturers. Meanwhile, Chevrolet is advertising their "American Revolution" of vehicles, which include two European designed cars and a third being produce in Mexico. Chrysler is operated by a German company and builds many of their cars in Mexico or South America. Ford, pinnacle of American heritage it is, is shipping jobs oversees as fast as they can. Both Ford and GM make most of their income off SUVs or foreign made cars. Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin (I think), and a slew of other European luxury cars are all owned by Ford. The Excursion, shining beacon of American pride it is, is manufactured by Volvo. The same goes for GM with Saab and a couple others.

If you want to buy a true American car, built by Americans in America using domestic materials, you have very few options - Saturn, Toyota Camry, Honda Accords, Neons, and a very small selection of SUVs and mid-to-low end sedans.