What is patriotism?

[QuadsOverQuads]

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Ad hominen is a phrase thrown around by those who want to sound smarter than they are

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And the streak continues.


q/q

[Ray Zee]

glad you said the nielsio. i was worried i was way off base here but when i get attacked by the extremes on both sides i must be somewhere around the right track on this, although maybe not right in the middle.

[Cyrus]

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Our country is not being attacked and our troops are not fighting for freedom. I dont ... agree with the process of the military on how they get the troops and what they do with them. Those that blindly follow orders from any source are indeed brainwashed in my mind.

[/ QUOTE ]That's absolutely spot on.

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I do commend our troops and support each and every one of them.

[/ QUOTE ]Supporting those who blindly follow orders and are killing people for some cause other than freedom or defense of homeland is supporting the mentally handicapped. It's supporting the weak and the unlucky. It's being charitable.

[Cyrus]

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When i get attacked by the extremes on both sides i must be somewhere around the right track on this, although maybe not right in the middle.

[/ QUOTE ] So when one extreme attacks you harder, you are pushed towards the other?

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[TaintedRogue]

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I would sum it up in one word. That word is loyalty.

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"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government."
Thomas Paine

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporal safety deserve neither."
Benjamin Franklin

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President."
President Theodore Roosevelt



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I see lots of people who don't want to do what they need to do. They want to complain and criticize and that doesn't contribute anything positive, it only makes enemies.

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"I love American more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for that reason, I insist upon the right to critcize her perpetually."
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

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There is supposed to be something magical about this country. There is supposed to be some mystical process by which everything turns out in the end.

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A fairy tale you read in the history books maybe?

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Between the market and the good will of the people, things are always supposed to get better. I don't see that working very much lately. I see it is strained, and hope it isn't broken. If it is, we really are screwed and it is pretty stupid to be patriotic, because what used to be isn't anymore.

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The "strain" you see is nothing compared to that prior to the Civil War.

[Nielsio]

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glad you said the nielsio. i was worried i was way off base here but when i get attacked by the extremes on both sides i must be somewhere around the right track on this, although maybe not right in the middle.

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Truth has no middle-way.


What is immoral for one (murder) must be immoral for all.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/molyneux7.html

[RedBean]

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I think 'my country right or wrong' is one of the dumbest things someone can say but feel free to pursuade me I'm wrong. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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My Country, When right keep it right; when wrong, set it right.

That's patrotism in a nutshell, love for one's country.

Some love it so much it may blind them to it's transgressions. Others love it so much that it drive them mad to see transgressions occurring and not being corrected.

Many liberal, anti-war radicals are patriots. Many right-wing conservative war hawks are patriots.

In fact, most everyone with an interest in the goings-ons and strong opinions either way are patriots.

They just disagree on who is right and who is wrong not for their love of country, but over their implementation of policy.

Both sides are patriots, one side thinks we are currently in the right, the other thinks we are in the wrong and is attempting to set it right. Either way, regardless of who is really 'right', they are both patriotic in their intentions and actions as they beleive them.

If you cast a ballot, you are a patriot. It matters not for whom you vote, whether it be right, left, middle, or independent, or even if you write in your own damn name.

Being anti-war does not make you unpatriotic, just being for the war does not in and of itself make you a patriot.

Caring about your country, it's direction, and it's future makes you a patriot.....and whether you agree or disagree with current policies or the administration doesn't change that.

[tomdemaine]

Well this has certainly been fun though it devolved into a slanging match somewhat.

For the record I agree with the patriotism means "keeping what's right changing whats wrong people" but with one small change. I think I am patriotic to my species rather than my country. I couldn't give a crap about my country but I think I'm very "patriotic" about the things humans as a whole are doing.

[Cyrus]

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I couldn't give a crap about my country but I think I'm very "patriotic" about the things humans as a whole are doing.

[/ QUOTE ]Noet that the former is, at the outset, an abstraction.

It be real if and only if.

[Copernicus]

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Well this has certainly been fun though it devolved into a slanging match somewhat.

For the record I agree with the patriotism means "keeping what's right changing whats wrong people" but with one small change. I think I am patriotic to my species rather than my country. I couldn't give a crap about my country but I think I'm very "patriotic" about the things humans as a whole are doing.

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putting quotes around "patriotic" doesnt make it any more meaningful in the context you are using it. What are you really trying to say? (Other than that you have no allegience to a "country", which went without saying).