In the long run it’s dumb and cringe.
Source: I’m American and old.
The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But 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 glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
Arthur Schopenhauer
It may a 200 year old quote, but the only thing that has changed is that we have since found even worse things to be proud of.
I am proud of my nation and its progressive, socialist nature, yet I am fully, and painfully so, aware of it’s shortcomings and problems.
But despite the problems, it’s extremely hard for me not to feel pride for the way we handle things within and without, especially in comparison to the rest of the world. We’ve been consistently at the top of the most socially progressive charts of the world, having also been denoted the worlds happiest country for over 5 years in row, and so on.
I do have my own prides, things I’m not ashamed to claim being very good at, and I do have a lot of very loud criticism against my nation too. But I remain overall proud just because we dare to be, against most odds, progressive and socialist.
I would defend my country, even picking up arms, because the chances are, the invader will simply be worse. Lead to worse overall situation here. Anyone surpassing us on either social or progressive counts, would be almost certainly not invading anyone, let alone us.
Maybe I am the fool the quote talks about, the good-at-nothing simpleton falling back to national pride for lack of any of my own. But I do not feel like one and I certainly have a lot more, explicitly outside the concept of a nation and this specific nation too, prides and accomplishments to be proud of.
I don’t think national pride is all that bad. I think it can be reasonable if the nation is best at its class on things most important and dear to you. Of course most national pride around the world is rooted on shitty stuff, and most nationally pride people usually being neo-nazi assholes, yet I still remain steadfast in my opinion that it need not be so.
It can be fine. I am sure of that.
It’s hard to comment on the flavors of national pride in nations other than the one I live in, but I think if you’re an American patriot, you either 1) are proud of horrendous, immoral things, 2) are proud of a mythologized nation-state that stands for liberty and justice which never actually existed.
all patriotism is tribalism: i.e. undeserved vicarious pride in accomplishments one had no part in achieving
Like sports clubs, but deadlier
And they are all based on lies because every nation was founded in a bloodbath
Eh, I’m proud to be an American. But I also generally like the people around me, and when I think of “Americans”, I think of my friends who I like. I’d also note that I’m pretty proud to be a Coloradan. Our state government kicks ass!
You can be proud of the good things your country has done or is doing. So long as you don’t forget the laundry list of dodgy shit it has also done.
I liken it to being proud of yourself as a person. You can take pride in yourself and your achievements but you should never forget all the times you fucked up.
I believe true patriotism isn’t just about loving your country, it’s about holding it accountable to its ideals. I love America deeply, and I honor those who sacrificed to uphold its founding principles. But I also see how words like ‘freedom’ and ‘patriotism’ have been misused, often twisted into tools for division or control. To me, being a patriot means seeking truth, learning from history, and speaking out when those values are betrayed. It’s about striving to make the country better, not pretending it’s perfect.
wanting your country to be better if the only valid patriotism.
thinking you’re better because some arbitrary borders might as well be a mental disease.
Patriotism is being proud of being born and grown up in a certain random place.
This is what is left for those who never achieved anything worthy of being proud of on their own.
I was raised around a lot of “patriotism” (closet nationalism) and have had to adapt the feeling now that I understand better what America actually is and has been. I found that trying to abandon the feeling altogether was making me feel cynical and alone. The parts of America that I love in fact tend to exist despite our government and dominant culture, which steals and appropriates the things I love about us and turns them into the things people know about us and dislike for good reason. I love the source materials, not the end result. As a white person born into privilege on stolen land, my existence is not entirely apart from this, but all’s I can do with that is try to make something better of it.
There’s a salt-of-the-earth working-class segment of this country that’s getting screwed over, knows how and why they and others are getting screwed over, and has learned to survive together in spite of it. People that make families out of communities. Rail hoppers, union organizers, queer punks, the list goes on. That spirit is not unique to this country but there do exist uniquely American forms of it. I’m more proud of these people than words can express, and that’s about as close to patriotic as I can feel these days.
Maybe I just like seeing our shitty protestant labor worship turned to something more productive. Maybe I just spent too much time in the mountains to not fall in love with the land itself. Or maybe I just love banjos.
Patriotism. It’s the food of the wise man but the liquor of the fool.
My take is that patriotism is a corruption of the feeling of belonging we get from community.
It’s not a ‘corruption’, it’s just tribalism in the modern day
For an example of the corruption of the feeling of community, that would be politicians milking their base for donations by stirring up community fear: i.e. MS13 is going to rape your pets, send me money to be tougher on immigration
But just patriotism is what happens when humans live in groups larger than a hundred or so
It’s also really dangerous in itself, even without intentional corruption and abuse
I don’t attribute anthropomorphism to a country. Improve your environment(mental/physical/emotional), help others; systems of government can come and go.
Id rather be happy than loyal to a fault.
anthropomorphism /ăn″thrə-pə-môr′fĭz″əm/
noun
Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.
The representation of the Deity, or of a polytheistic deity, under a human form, or with human attributes and affections.
The ascription of human characteristics to things not human.
It’s literally a sin. Stop it.
It ain’t worth a damn to me. Maybe if your country doesn’t suck lol. There truly are things about my country I love. In some ways, we’re the best in the world. An American can be white, black, asian, hispanic, arab or anything else really. It’s a very beautiful thing to me. I find it deeply depressing that those in power want to strip this country of what makes it great. Also having no social safety net is not acceptable obviously. There’s far more I can shit on this country of mine for than I can praise it for right now. I sincearly hope that changes. I’d like to be proud to be American. I’ve always wanted that. Sadly, it’s never been a reality for me and millions of other Americans.
It’ll fuck your country up real bad.
Patriotism is really good to have, as one loves it’s country and will defend it, but also sees its issues and tries to address them in some constructive way.
This is not to be confused with Nationalism, where the thought that your country is the only richeous one and all others are shit to the point you feel superior to the citizens of other nations and don’t want to admit the issues of your country or fix them in any way.
Note: These are loosely based interpretations from me as its 3:30am and I cannot sleep.
