Re:The U.S. Isn’t Prepared for the Next Recession
by danans on Thursday November 02, 2017 @01:21AM
(#15608039)
This critique is overly focused on shallow aesthetics ("gauche", "pickup-trucks"), which really have nothing to do with patriotism, and more to do with some kind of tribal name-calling, which I'm sure takes place on both left on right. It is just as patriotic to acknowledge and grapple with a country's flaws as it is to express pride in one's country. There's no contradiction between the two.
Re:The U.S. Isn’t Prepared for the Next Recession
by toasterlovin on Thursday November 02, 2017 @10:32AM
(#15610720)
In my experience, there is a deep vein of antipathy toward America on the left. I brought up condescension toward the flag because I think it is emblematic of that antipathy. I mean, the flag is just about the purest symbolic representation of America that exists. So if your attitude toward it is that you wouldn’t deign to adorn yourself or anything you own with it, and you disparage it as fitting only of some lower class, what viable interpretation of that fact is there other than that you feel negatively about the thing which it represents?
Or perhaps another way to think of it: if you had a friend who, every time a certain person came up, immediately started to enumerate that person’s flaws, what would you conclude about their feelings toward that person?
Look, I come from the left. Growing up, there was definitely the sense that it is in poor taste to express enthusiasm about America or being an American. That it was something reserved for red necks who drive pick up trucks. The American flag, as a symbol, was considered gauche and the only time you would wear anything with the flag on it is if you were being self-consciously ironic. There was no sense that America was great. Instead, the focus was almost exclusively on America's flaws.