American Nationalism: It's not bad!

[Ranger2]

Far too many Europeans (and Americans for that fact too) think that if you support America, then you support the President and would do whatever he wants.
That's not true.
American Nationalism has been twisted into a "I supported an invasion of Iraq, I love oil, oil, oil, and I love my President!"

I am against the invasion of Iraq, I know we need to get off of our oil addiction, and I do not support Obama blindly.

But if someone asks me if I am patriotic or if I love America, I'd say yes.

I love America.

I don't love the capitol, or the President. I love its ideas of freedom and justice for all.
I don't love ignorant idiots that America has. I love the geniuses that it houses too.
I don't love apple pie and baseball. I love American culture.

I don't love the war in Iraq or our oil addiction. I love that we have done miraculous things in the past, and that we will continue to do so.

Simply, it's my homeland. I was born in America, and I could never move or abandon it. I will always be an American. It's part of me.

I am a nationalist. I deeply love my country. It may be going through a tough time, but I know that we will get out of the mess we are in using American ingenuity. History will repeat itself. We will rise out of poverty and weakness to triumph again, not through war, but through peace and the fulfillment of the happiness of the American people and the world.

I don't blindly follow my government; I would do anything to ensure my country's safety.

Is it wrong to feel this way about America, or your own country? Nationalism is not supporting the government. It's supporting your country and your fellow citizens.

I love America.

[megakill]

lovely. its a good job you settled that matter for us all.

i can finally sleep easy...

[The-word-destroyer]

Simply, it's my homeland. I was born in America, and I could never move or abandon it. I will always be : an American. It's part of me.

That's how everyone is you love your country and the people and want it to strive to be better. Just Don't have to like the fucking shitty government which 90& of countries have.

[yurgenburgen]

At 11/2/09 06:55 PM, Ranger2 wrote: Far too many Europeans (and Americans for that fact too) think that if you support America, then you support the President and would do whatever he wants.

Um, Europeans generally don't think that way. You will find a lot of British people who support Britain but don't support their government, and so they can easily empathise with anyone from any other country in that way.

[X-Gary-Gigax-X]

I'm American. I like the culture, I like the cuisine, I like the history and I like the sports teams.

What I DON'T like is the wildlife. You wanna know what the pallet for my backyard is?

Brown, brown, brown, brown, brown, tan, brown.

[Scarab]

No, I don't think it's wrong to love the aspects of your homeland. Those things can give you great attributes as a person, and physically, it's a great thing to love a country, because landscape (and even cityscape, as hard as that may be to believe for some) can be beautiful. Without moving on to outside arguments, it's a good thing to have some dedication in something, something that keeps you happy. I can enjoy aspects of my own land and culture; as much as culture is man-made, it's a still a wonderful thing to see thought being produced in whatever way.

The problems come when this concept is used as an excuse to place blame on others, as a scapegoat, for problems that stem from elsewhere. Compare the most extreme uses (or even some of the more casual forms) of ethnic nationalism. This is where living in the 21st century suddenly becomes very depressing, when you step back into the '50s and you learn that one of the only things that's given prominence is not the objective of progress, but the objective of argument, and blame is its result. When the idea is used like this, it's never sufficient, never mind plain blind at times. It's not appropriate for the way of work today. It's perfectly fine to love one's country and the great things it may stand for, but a more worldly view is practically required today more than any other time. It would be a shame if your nationalistic values (though as far as my opinion goes, the individual needs the power to believe in a value themselves; it's no good to just say, "that's what the country believes", and my concept of "freedom" at this point may be very different to yours indeed) got in the way of that. Throw "they hate us, so we should hate them" out of the window. The hateful population of Earth is still in a minority if you look from the bottom-up. It would be a real shame if that were different, because then I'd have another reason to say the least.

And I've seen you make American-centric threads a few times before. Rest assured, most Europeans don't hate the United States as far as I know. As an American Studies teacher once told me in general, "there's one reason why a lot of young people today may dislike the United States. It's one name.". I'll leave you guess it. Me? I love American culture, and that's why I have so many books on it, and DVDs by American artists. I think nationalism is irrelevant there, but I'm just one of those guys with a hopeful happy smile plastered onto my face, haha.

Ow, this expression hurts.

[X-Gary-Gigax-X]

Fuck your long-ass post, Scarab.