Unpopular Opinion

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Flag is just a piece of cloth (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

127 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I don't understand this weird American obsession with flag. I was looking at some photos of Trump's rallies. Flags everywhere - on shirts, hats, glasses etc. And this bizarre cult of the flag - "it cannot touch the ground" etc.

At the end of the day the flag is just a piece of cloth. If you worship any flag or take offense to any flag, you need to get a life.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The context of the origin of the US' pledge of allegiance is it came shortly after the end of their Civil War when there was still a lot o political tension. A desire was born to instill national loyalty in children.

"Historians point to surges in American patriotic oaths and pledges to the flag after the Civil War, when tensions surrounding political loyalties persisted, and in the 1880s, as rates of immigration increased dramatically"

However, today as mentioned by another commenter, students cannot be legally compelled to recite the pledge, nor punished for not reciting the pledge as decided by the Supreme Court in 1943 using the first amendment as the base.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I mean, i'm swiss and we did a thing called "Geistige Selbstverteidigung", mental self-defense, with mythos of Wilhelm Tell & focus on independence in WW2. But we don't anymore. Why do you still do?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Probably comes from a combination of belief in American exceptionalism, tradition, and either popular opinion remains with reciting the pledge or a lack desire to change.

States are managed individually for the most part and only 47/50 still require reciting the pledge (with some exceptions). Without a call for change from the people, it would be political suicide for any lawmaker to come out for a change like this. Opponents could use this decision as a claim of lack of patriotism.