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[–] 200 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I'm German and learned about this via a friend from the US. When they mentioned it, I thought their teacher was a lunatic. Then they told me that this is normal course of action. Just what in the absolute fuck.

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  • [–] 140 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Yes. It's far more than "a little weird". It's how you breed nationalists.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    USA hasn't run into the consequences of nationalism hard enough yet when it backfires.

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  • [–] 45 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    It depends on where and when in the US. In areas that are Democratic (the more liberal party) it doesn't really happen much anymore, but in areas that are Republican (the more conservative party) it still happens at the start of every single school day.

    And the custom of doing this was started by a salesman trying to sell flags and magazine subscriptions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bellamy#Pledge_of_Allegiance

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  • [–] 44 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I mean that’s just an unfortunate coincidence given it predated the rise of naziism.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Oh yeah, it definitely is in that sense. The point is that patriotism is hard to discern from facism. That they happened to use the same symbol here is just a good illustration of that. Ultimately, the Hitler Salute also started out as a symbol of patriotism before it all turned to genocide.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    It's state law where I live IIRC. They force you to say it, because of legal precedent, but the school can apparently get in trouble with the state if they don't say it at the start of the day.

    It was always funny when we'd all stand up and only the teachers and maybe three students would say it.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    it’s an anachronism from the red scare in the 50’s.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    An anachronism because there aren't still powerful forces in America trying to witch hunt people with left-leaning ideas?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    C'mon, don't be ridiculous! If the US was so anti left, Sanders would never make it to become president! We don't want to live in the timeline where the Republicans won the 2016 election because the Democrats didn't dare to send Sanders because he's too far left.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Growing up, for a time my folks were way into the evangelical thing and I attended a totally batshit religious school where we recited 3 pledges back-to-back every morning. To the U.S. flag, the Christian flag and the Bible. Then had to recite entire chapters of the Bible we had per force committed to memory that week. Failure to do so was grounds for savage corporal punishment. No other experience in life so inoculated me against authoritarianism and organized religion. It also let me know at that tender age that sadists existed.

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