I never got the point of civil pride. I was born and raised in a third world country, and people left and right were saying how proud they are to be from there. The fuck y’all proud of? Trash everywhere? Tourists getting scammed and harassed? Your own government making people “disappear”? Your president building unnecessary bridges and crippling the economy?
It always sounded so stupid honestly
Yo fellow bridge president haver.
Sadly, the USA lost its former glory. Slowly it's marching towards to the inevitable end.
Never have been. I got a bad taste of what nationalism was all about very young and only grew to despise everything unjust about this country and it's bullshit "we're the best!" stuff.
Older Gen Xers as well. Actually, can’t really remember ever being proud to be an American.
I am proud, but by no means "extremely" proud to be American. I think a lot of European countries have a chiller attitude when it comes to national pride. They do have it, but with a few exceptions, they're not too in-your-face about it. And they're much more willing to recognize their shortcomings.
In the US you get these "America is the best country on earth" morons, as well as "all the world's ills are caused by evil US" morons. They're both stupid.
Agreed. I think it's also a bit different in Europe versus in the US because in Europe you are surrounded by people from other nationalities.
In Europe, where you're from is just matter-of-fact. It's in your language, food, culture, etc. So you normally don't fly your flags unless you're trying to make some sort of statement, and outside of sporting events, that statement is seldom good so people tend to avoid it.
The US is a bit different in that being "American" is harder to define and has a history littered with controversy about who counts and who doesn't. People have different ideas about what being American means, and so patriotism has been weaponized to support one cause against another.
When I graduated college in the 2008 I read Richard Rorty's "Achieving Our Country" as we entered the recession and were dealing with the shame of Guantanamo, Iraq, and Bush era generally. During this time we also started to experience the rise of identity politics. I was glad I read this, because it helped me avoid the pitfall's of what Rorty criticized as the "New Left" iirc. This is contrast with the "Old Left" "Progressive Left" he identified it. The New Left focused on America's shame from which there is no redemption. The New Left equates patriotism with John Wayne style Chauvinism, American Exceptionalism, and belligerence. With identity politics, it seems even worsened that the new left cares about ideological purity and sin which prevents coalition type movements.
The old left Rorty championed takes a different view. For him, patriotism or love and pride of country that is abandoned by the new left is a harm to the country. The analogy he makes is that similar to how self love and self respect is a necessary condition for an individual to self improve themselves, love of country and national pride are a necessary condition to the betterment of a nation. The old left was more able to balance or reflect on criticism and shameful acts in our nations history, but through love of country and national pride work to improve it. The old left was also more willing to tolerate and cooperate with groups that did not have 100% alignment on views or experiences. The blue collar workers put there flesh and bones on the lines during strikes, but alliance with elites is what made these strikes publicized in the news and move the needle at a national policy and political conversation.
It's a shame that so many young people are finding it hard to balance that love of country with critical national self reflection. People I have very similar political views gawk or chastise me when I describe my sense of pride or love for the US. It's strange how simply loving one's country or taking pride in it is taboo in young leftist folks today, and that makes me somewhat fearful of the future.
Paywall likely, but this Atlantic article does a decent job capturing the gist of the book: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/advice-for-the-left-on-achieving-a-more-perfect-union/531054/
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