Gallup poll shows American pride at all time low

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Record-Low 38% Extremely Proud to Be American

A record-low 38% of Americans say they are extremely proud to be Americans.

news.gallup.com

Lowest among those 18 - 34. And why should they be proud? Shit political system. Shit economic prospects. Authoritarian takeover attempt and a Supreme Court hellbent on stripping away rights in “the land of the free”.

 

[Eric]

Record-Low 38% Extremely Proud to Be American

A record-low 38% of Americans say they are extremely proud to be Americans.

news.gallup.com

Lowest among those 18 - 34. And why should they be proud? Shit political system. Shit economic prospects. Authoritarian takeover attempt and a Supreme Court hellbent on stripping away rights in “the land of the free”.

Yep, hung my flag for the 4th and have been regretting it since. The country is something I now put up with, I certainly don't love or feel any need to celebrate it.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Yep, hung my flag for the 4th and have been regretting it since. The country is something I now put up with, I certainly don't love or feel any need to celebrate it.

Ever since Trump got elected when I see a US flag I get a sense of dread. At best whoever is flying it is all hopped up on white washed mythology propaganda.

 

[GermanSuplex]

People who love their kids don't coddle them and not discipline them when they are out of line, and let them get away with everything.

I love this country, but damn there is a lot wrong with it and hiding behind stupid slogans, flags and symbolism is a waste of time and does nothing to solve anything.

 

[Joe]

This was the first year I didn't celebrate July 4th, and I know many others that felt the same way. The US is heading in the wrong direction with this hijacked Supreme Court.

I saw someone on social media post how people always say the military fights for our rights. Well, where are they as the Supreme Court guts rights?? Where are they? They're supposed to be fighting for our rights....but where are they?

Republican fascists have ruined the flag for me. Every time I see some crazy far right fuck he's waving the US flag. I love this country but I wont fly the flag. I dont' want someone confusing me for some fascist republican. It's the same reason I got rid of an old pair of oakley sunglasses. Someone said they made me look like a Republican lmao My Maui Jims are classier anyway

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

This was the first year I didn't celebrate July 4th, and I know many others that felt the same way. The US is heading in the wrong direction with this hijacked Supreme Court.

I saw someone on social media post how people always say the military fights for our rights. Well, where are they as the Supreme Court guts rights?? Where are they? They're supposed to be fighting for our rights....but where are they?

Republican fascists have ruined the flag for me. Every time I see some crazy far right fuck he's waving the US flag. I love this country but I wont fly the flag. I dont' want someone confusing me for some fascist republican. It's the same reason I got rid of an old pair of oakley sunglasses. Someone said they made me look like a Republican lmao

On the White Flag podcast Joe Walsh sometimes ends the podcast by asking his guest to name one thing they love about the country. A lot of times “the people” is given. Maybe it’s because I don’t get out a lot in recent years, but “the people” is rapidly becoming less loveworthy on a national scale.

There are some highly patriotic immigrants (and I’d argue better Americans than most), but most of these flag humpers only did “the hard work” of being born on US soil and then quickly got to complaining about the country they supposedly love.

 

[Eric]

This is how they celebrated it in Sacramento, not going to say I blame them either.

 

[Joe]

On the White Flag podcast Joe Walsh sometimes ends the podcast by asking his guest to name one thing they love about the country. A lot of times “the people” is given. Maybe it’s because I don’t get out a lot in recent years, but “the people” is rapidly becoming less loveworthy on a national scale.

There are some highly patriotic immigrants (and I’d argue better Americans than most), but most of these flag humpers only did “the hard work” of being born on US soil and then quickly got to complaining about the country they supposedly love.

The flag humpers are usually the worse human beings you could ever meet. I steer clear from them.

 

[Yoused]

About 21 years ago, after that thing with those lunatics, a department at work hung a flag from the upper deck of their big machine (vertically). Even at the time it made me deeply uncomfortable, in a with-us-or-agin-us kind of way. To me, it felt like a threat, but I had no ground to say anything about it.

Flags are ipso facto martial in nature. Their use is heraldry, to identify which side the combatants are on (i.e., who is their king). So any time someone tells yu "America is a peace-loving nation", take a look at flag worship in the context of what national flags are for, and come to my neighborhood on the evening of the 4th to listen to several solid hours of war-like explosions that are symbolic of this "peace-loving" nation.

 

[Eric]

About 21 years ago, after that thing with those lunatics, a department at work hung a flag from the upper deck of their big machine (vertically). Even at the time it made me deeply uncomfortable, in a with-us-or-agin-us kind of way. To me, it felt like a threat, but I had no ground to say anything about it.

Flags are ipso facto martial in nature. Their use is heraldry, to identify which side the combatants are on (i.e., who is their king). So any time someone tells yu "America is a peace-loving nation", take a look at flag worship in the context of what national flags are for, and come to my neighborhood on the evening of the 4th to listen to several solid hours of war-like explosions that are symbolic of this "peace-loving" nation.

Then you have militant cops flying their blue lives matter flag, which is nothing but the bastardization of the US flag for their authoritarian purposes. How about if BLM took it and put a single black stripe in there, think they would be okay with that?

 

[Joe]

Then you have militant cops flying their blue lives matter flag, which is nothing but the bastardization of the US flag for their authoritarian purposes. How about if BLM took it and put a single black stripe in there, think they would be okay with that?

A few years ago they were pissed during Pride Month when people made the US flag in rainbow colors...but they're ok with a black and blue BLM US flag.

 

[Yoused]

This is interesting, if accurate,

Francis Bellamy (wikipedia)

… was a Christian socialist who "championed 'the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources, which he believed was inherent in the teachings of Jesus.'" In 1891, Bellamy was "forced from his Boston pulpit for preaching against the evils of capitalism", and eventually stopped attending church altogether after moving to Florida, reportedly because of the racism he witnessed there.

A flag salute was to be part of the official program for the (400th anniversary) Columbus Day celebration on October 12 to be held in schools all over the US. The pledge was published in the September 8, 1892, issue of the magazine (Youth's Companion, which was pushing to get flags to all the nation's schools), and immediately put to use in the campaign. Bellamy went to speak to a national meeting of school superintendents to promote the celebration … (the) original Pledge (authored by Pinko Socialist Bellamy) read as follows:

I pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.​

​

The guy who wrote the most holy and sacred Pledge of Allegiance was diametrically opposed to basically everything the White-wing R Party steadfastly promotes (and to the left of most modern Ds).

 

[Eric]

This guy gets it...

 

[ronntaylor]

This guy gets it...

I was with him till the Bernie BS at the end. Well, I guess I agree with it all besides that.

 

[DT]

This is how they celebrated it in Sacramento, not going to say I blame them either.

It's worth reading through the comments in that thread too.

 

[GermanSuplex]

On the White Flag podcast Joe Walsh sometimes ends the podcast by asking his guest to name one thing they love about the country. A lot of times “the people” is given. Maybe it’s because I don’t get out a lot in recent years, but “the people” is rapidly becoming less loveworthy on a national scale.

There are some highly patriotic immigrants (and I’d argue better Americans than most), but most of these flag humpers only did “the hard work” of being born on US soil and then quickly got to complaining about the country they supposedly love.

God, I remember when Joe Walsh was the bottom rung of conservative. He’s a shining star now. Not sure if he mellowed out or conservatives just got worse - or both - but I enjoy his opinions.

Trump gives me a newfound respect for conservatives I disagree with on just about everything (see George Bush, Liz Cheney).

But on the truly important matter of democracy, I’m in lockstep with them.

 

[Runs For Fun]

Ever since Trump got elected when I see a US flag I get a sense of dread. At best whoever is flying it is all hopped up on white washed mythology propaganda.

The GQP has literally ruined the flag for me. Any time I see someone driving a pickup truck with a full sized American flag flying off the back, I just automatically assume now that they are some homophobic, racist, Trump worshiping, conspiracy nutjob. And usually that assumption is correct because then I see the Don't Tread on Me flag next to it and the fuck Biden and let's go Brandon stickers.

 

[DT]

Republican fascists have ruined the flag for me. Every time I see some crazy far right fuck he's waving the US flag.

We talk about this all the time, that now, if someone is flying the American flag, the knee jerk reaction is they're a crazy trumper/Q/extremist. Around here, it's unfortunately true more times than not, and like on a car? For sure. A boat? Most probably.

The daughter didn't even want us to have one up, and I actually made a point of putting one up, and then telling people, "fuck no, I don't support trump in any way".

 

[Yoused]

then I see the Don't Tread on Me flag

Spoiler: this is the only proper Gadsden flag

 

[lizkat]

I remember thinking during the Dems' 2016 nominating convention that at least the Ds were making a point of asserting a shared claim --for all Americans-- on the symbolism of both the American flag and "family values" including religion and caring for each other... but of course when the Clinton v Trump general campaign ensued, it became clear that for the Republicans, flag and family were consigned to the back burners of mere symbolism again, by a GOP determined not to let things like Trump's personal misogyny and amoral business practices get in the way of a path to victory.

The national R leadership could have signaled refusal to stoop to his level but didn't, and haven't, even now. I wonder what it will take to let half the country really feel like flying our flag again. But it will take something more than the so-called leadership of the Republican Party has elucidated so far. Just the disdain they show for Liz Cheney these days tells me they're still lost in the Trump bubble. She's clear evidence that her party has lost its way, perhaps permanently.

I look forward to the November elections, even while being concerned that "pocketbook issues" may shift the House back to the Rs. It remains to be seen whether revulsion over the Rs' failure to rein in Trump's anti-democratic, self-serving tactics that culminated in the 1/6 insurrection can outweigh concerns about inflation and the Rs' ongoing efforts to define the opposition as "socialists".

Meanwhile I hope the 1/6 committee continues to uncover and reveal evidence that the Trump administration looked the other way and appeased Trump as he sought to bring his "president for life" scheme to fruition. It's shocking to me that people flying American flags on their pickup trucks still think he stands for anything like "America First". He was never about anything but Donald Trump, and never cared a whit about actual governance past getting what he wanted for himself and cronies, including power accrued and meant to be retained in perpetuity.

We need to remember that we tossed out the last tyrant King we never elected, else we'd still be flying the Union Jack.