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“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America…”
I mean, you can stop right there. The rest is all fucked up too, but that shit’s weird. How can one owe allegiance to a flag, of all things?
And, it’s not “as representing the Republic for which it stands”, it’s “and to the Republic for which it stands”. The flag is a separate thing, the second clause is about allegiance to the republic, but the first part is just about the fucking flag.
the pledge of allegiance is brainwashing at NK levels.
I never liked doing it. Got in trouble a few times for not doing it, though that didn’t matter to me since I got in trouble a lot when I was in school. Those dipshits (the counselor) thought I had “Gender Identity Disorder” and was reacting because of “distress” (Not because I wouldn’t say the pledge, I did many worse things than that), they also used the fact that I also had long hair and sometimes would wear a skirt as evidence I had GID. What fun people I spent my childhood with sarcasm I’m glad my parents are and were nice people otherwise I might not be here today.
This shit has always been creepy. Always. Greetings from Germany o/
True, but they start you off doing it at the age of 4 or 5 so it is completely normalized before our brains are developed enough to question it
I moved to the US as a kid, and this shit gave me massive cult vibes from the start. I refused to participate.
I was suuuper popular in middle school…
Internet Germans convinced me to sit down for it in high school. And yeah its such cult shit
Agreed
“Our country is really the best, all the other countries suck… God bless Johnson & Johnson…”
Brought to you by McDonald’s, on behalf of Nike.
Good choice with the forward slash. Good choice.
Dear America:
Most countries don’t do this shit. At all. It’s weird and off putting
Does anyone else also fly bombers and fighter jets over stadiums at the start of a game? Do you take 2-5 minutes to honor some guys in the military during half time?
NK does i believe
When you connect the dots of modern history, you realize America was most of the way to fascist dictatorship the entire time.
Many of us have been waiting for it to drop the facade for decades.
Fascism is just capitalist imperialism turned against your own citizens.
YuppppP
to be fair, that one (afaik) is a legitimate training exercise. it’s useful to train pilots to be at an exact place, in an exact formation, at an exact speed, at an exact time… and if you can get marketing and morale out of it, welllll why not
You can train the pilots in other time and area. The combination with an unrelated game makes it propaganda.
you can, but as i said at the end of the comment: you have to do it anyway… you either entirely waste the fuel, maintenance, and pilot time, or you use it for something
in a couple of comments people have said they think it’s “plain old cool” and “a mini air show”
propaganda? perhaps
but people also seem to enjoy it… better than entirely wasting it
Also, jets are just plain old cool. Everyone likes a mini-airshow.
I mean yes, I love airshows, but there’s something about a mass celebration of these machines of death where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees gives ick in a way that normal airshows, even with all the military recruitment and propaganda don’t.
It doesn’t even apply to all flyovers, sometimes it’s like F-14s or Chinooks or WWII era planes where the message isn’t so dark.
where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees
I know this probably makes it worse, but the Afghan child most likely wouldn’t even have a chance to see the plane (or more likely, predator drone) that fired the missile that killed them.
It’s one of the many reasons these children are fucking terrified of clear skies and sunny days.
yyyyyyyes but it’s also expensive and thoroughly weird when compared to the rest of the world… so whilst it does serve a legitimate purpose, it’s worth noting those points too
Piling on the list of negatives - they use leaded fuel, which is bad for you. I still like planes though
No they don’t. Jets use jet fuel not avgas.
You’re right, my bad.
It’s also dope AF. Frankly, I’d rather have those planes boosting morale here than dropping bombs somewhere else. I see it as a win-win.
The whole purpose of those flybys is to glamorize and advertise the same planes they use to drop bombs.
In many other countries, their military acrobatics teams don’t even use true military jets.
New Zealand’s Black Falcons use propeller-based trainers. Japan’s Blue Impulse team uses Kawasaki T-4 based trainers. Britain’s Red Arrows and Finland’s Midnight Hawks use BAE Hawk trainers. Australia’s Roulettes use turboprop trainers. Canada’s snowbirds use Canadair Tutor trainers.
Lol, as opposed the the drills and formations that NK/Russia etc do?
not at all - they’re all exactly the same… i’m just noting that there are reasons to do them beyond only propaganda and nationalism
It’s fucking weird and creepy
There was always one kid that sat down during the pledge in my class. None of us thought he was annoying or weird. I admired him.
I sat down because I was lazy.
My kids refused to do it and I supported them. We started sending them to online school after that. The pledge was thought up and implemented by White Christian nationalists to commemorate 400 years since Columbus “discovered” America. Prior to World War 2 students didn’t put their hands over their heart, they did the Bellamy salute AKA the Nazi salute. Choral repetition and responses are used to brainwash people.
My son is in second grade and ha, chosen to not to say the pledge of allegiance (his own decision because we talk about how the country won’t take care of its people). He says he teachers never force him, but subs always do claiming we’re the greatest country in the world.
I stopped in third grade. I walked to school so had to hang out till the busses were gone and I asked my teacher after school one day why I had to say it. She said I didn’t have to if I didn’t want too but that I should stand. It made sense to me . Never said it again.
I asked the same teacher why she said Columbus “discovered Smerica” when there were already people here. She could not answer that one and I don’t think the thought ever crossed her mind. I knew school was all bullshit after that and didn’t really participate much after that
I don’t think kids should even stand for it. Our loyalty should be to the people, to our communities, to the scientific pursuit of truth, to the health of the planet, and to defending the unalienable god given right of dignity for all people.
I stopped in elementary school.
At the time, it was because I was convinced that the pledge was essentially worshipping a false idol, and if I continued to do it, I would go to hell. Teachers couldn’t fight that argument. Students didn’t fuck with it either. I stood. I didn’t cross my heart, and I didn’t say it.
About 6th or 7th grade, I started challenging my “faith” and realized that the pledge was essentially swearing fealty to something that was supposed to serve the people, not the other way around. By highschool, I didn’t even stand for it anymore. It was nationalism.
If only there were more in this world with such critical thinking, maybe we wouldn’t be in such a shit state.
It doesn’t make sense. Critical thinking enables survival. Sometimes it’s not fun. Sometimes it doesn’t feel great.
But it’s typically more rewarding that not. That’s what I don’t understand.
Unfortunately for us tribalism also enables survival
To get those rewards you typically have to endure some hardship or struggle first tho, and many people can’t tolerate that. They just want their creature comforts. It’s how you get hoarders drowning in their takeout buckets.
Given a choice, the brain will always take the laziest path. Which is why watching a screen and turning off your brain is so easy. The fact that it’s also designed to give you a dopamine hit makes it hard to stop.
I was about the same. Around junior high I was like, “wtf am I doing?” For me the first part was “under God,” that got to me. I had found it weird as a child even to say that and then I realized I didn’t want to say that at all. I thought it was strange when supposedly, we’re allowed to believe whatever we want. I never felt the connection or belief in the Catholic God (what I was, very, loosely raised under) and it started there. Hand on heart omitting , “under God.” Slowly it progressed to just standing and saying nothing. It’s probably been well over a decade since I’ve been in a situation to say the pledge, but if I were, I know I wouldn’t stand anymore.
I also, do not always stand for the National Anthem.
So the Anthem thing I sort of get, at least for like sports. Lemme explain:
Sportsmanship keeps the games fun. Establishing sportsmanship starts in the mind - “we’re all here to have a good time.” In nation exclusive sports, (NFL for example) the entire stadium gets “in sync” at that moment. It’s also a useful way to start. In international sports, standing for the opponents anthem is a sign of respect for the other team.
I don’t really remember where else it plays though.
I don’t think I could even silently protest the pledge of allegiance anymore. Fuck nationaism.
I did the same. Stopped in elementary school. Cited religion and worshiping “something above God”
Never stood up for the anthem in homeroom again.
Fiest time I had to do the pledge, I just got to America from Taiwan and I honestly thought the pledge was a Christian/religion thing because of the “…under god” thing. So I told my teacher that my family is Buddhist and can’t do the pledge.
Fun fact! “Fun”, actually.
Under God wasn’t in the original version. It wasn’t added until 1954 because they didn’t to be like communist countries and be seen as a secular government.
Good old fashion forcing religion on your citizens.
That makes sense. It did seem like the under god was out of place. Everything else flowed pretty well until the under god part.
This was also the same time “In God We Trust” was added to all coins and paper money.
You weren’t wrong, exactly
Generally, the main problem with being “far left” is being ridiculed for being right earlier than everyone else.
You’re welcome
This is the kind of shit that leads to nationalism over patriotism. Blindly teaching kids to pledge allegiance without teaching them what comes with that or why.
That or the fact that your government should be pledging allegience to you, not the other way around. We the people do not serve the government.
it me lmao
Im guessing that’s a lot of us here lol
Lmao saaaame
Same. But I didn’t do it because of a different indoctrination, not because I understood anything special.
I sat down every time and my teacher would get pissed. I finally told her that my grandpa fought in WWII for my right to protest and that shit her up real fast. I’m not going to pledge my aliegence to an inanimate object, I shouldn’t have to prove my love for my country with a pledge.
