Ask Lemmy

No. I saw a lady driving with two USA flags on the sides of her car yesterday. I assume this is her alternative to having a Trump sticker, since that shit would likely engender a negative response in the Bay Area (specifically Oakland / Berkeley). She just looked dumb as fuck. I was embarrassed for her.

Don't be ashamed to be ashamed of your country. If you're also a USA citizen, we have a lot to be ashamed about. But also don't give up. Fight back. Don't let them slow-roll to victory by causing us to go numb.

Not from the US but when I see my country's flag I don't really feel anything. In theory I've got two flags, both the Scottish one and the Union Jack but they both elicit the same lack of reaction. Countries are just social and geographical facts. Getting angry or elated at the sight of a flag is a bit like having an emotional reaction to the moon; I suppose it's possible in some circumstances but most of the time it's just there and you shrug.

Do USian school children still talk to that bit of fabric every morning - or is that a myth? From an outsider’s perspective I always put the US just below, uh, post-Weimar republic Germany in the excessive flag club chart placings. Always seemed excessively jingoistic.

Best of luck with your country…

Aw, you're turning English.

The St George Cross flag basically gets trotted out for football and racism. That's it.

If I see one on somebody's house and it's not Euros or World Cup season, then I automatically assume they're seething because they heard somebody have a phone conversation in a foreign language on the bus three weeks ago and that they should bring back smoking in pubs.

I haven't been proud to be an American in a long time. We were looking for a house, now we're debating if leaving is safer.

This country is doomed, and everyone who voted Trump deserves to burn in the fires they helped create. Fuck em, I have literally no sympathy left.

I have always had that feeling living in a fascist third world country (Turkey) welcome to the club

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" - I think Samuel Johnson's original meaning, of complaining about "false" patriots, strongly applies to your distaste for the flag. The idiots we see proudly waving their country flags (in Brazil, that'd be the bozonaristas) are using them as a cover for their prejudices and stupidity. They wouldn't be able to name a single thing they like about the country they love.

I don’t think you’re wrong at all.

Personally, I don’t hate the flag because for me it represents ideals that should be for everyone and that I should be fighting oppression of those against the dream. I have a very Captain America-esque view.

What I cringe and have disgust with are the citizens that want to tear down these just ideals or misrepresent and distort what we should be.

I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm from Russia.

I may have a chance to travel to Europe for the first time in my life, and I'm worried that the Ugly American stereotype will be factored in to my reception. Probably won't go until things calm down here/the nukes fly.

Nope, same thing happened to me in Canada after the clown convoy. Canada Day was never the same nor celebrated since

I felt this way a few years ago when we had the idiot convoy ride across Canada. The flag became a symbol for racist, anti-vax, just general assholes.

I never was a huge fan of flying the flag anyway, because to me it represents colonialism, but I never used to mind it as much. Now when I see it out of place, I just assume bad, unless it's one of our more cheerful variations like the indigenous design or the heart one that was used to show support for medical workers.

I see other people getting down voted for similar sentiments, but visiting the US always made me feel uncomfortable to see ALL the flags. I honestly haven't been to another country that takes that much pride in their flag. Until the convoy, I don't think I even ever saw anyone flying Canadian flag in their yard except maybe for Canada Day.

Idk, what I'm saying is, I feel for you, I understand it's a symbol of your national identity, but also, maybe take more pride in what actual good Americans do rather than in just some made up symbolism of what they should be.

You're in good company. Germans have a similar relationship with their flag.

No, you shouldn’t, because nearly half the country voted against Trump. It wasn’t enough, but it certainly indicates a significant portion of the country opposes him and the ideologies behind him. What we, as Americans, should be ashamed of is our pathetic educational system, which is at the root of this problem.

Both Republicans and Democrats are at the core of this problem. Republicans don’t want any public education at all and Democrats have polluted public education with Far Left propaganda that has fueled conservative rage and helped Far Right people divide the nation. Race and gender issues have eclipsed class issues, which are the real problems of the nation. As much as LGBT and racial groups deserve their particular rights, the real divisions at the heart of America are between the middle- and working-classes and the ultra-rich. Corporations are the prime devil that need to be taken down, not White men. Plenty of White men are suffering at the hands of corporations and they need to be woken up. The most recent election has shown that non-Whites are just as susceptible to Trump’s charms as anyone else. We need to stop focusing on superficial divisors such as race and gender and start focusing on class divisors much more.

I'd say the only reason you didn't feel that before was ignorance, the American flag is NOT a thing of good. It has been fucked up from the very beginning. And to us who are not Americans, it's very obvious how much your country absolutely forces brainwashing of all citizens from the second they're born. American patriotism and love for the flag etc. is in the same way that for example a priest shows how much they're against homosexuality and other sins like it then they're found with child-p (I don't want to fully write it) and stuff like that. It's the school bully that screams about how cool and strong they are, when they're exactly the opposite.

I kinda know what you mean... I used to not think anything weird about seeing an American flag, sometimes it even made me feel patriotic. Now when I see a car with an American flag sticker I assume the person driving probably has a loaded gun and is desperate to get into an argument about something

Don't forget who took that from you.

Every time I see flags out in public, it just reminds me of authority.

I don't like authority, from schools administrators to employers, or even parents, fuck them all, wannabe fascists.

Flags, school logos, corporate logos, or the concept of the "family name" its all the same. (I'd change the family name if it doesn't cause so much paperwork trouble)

Maybe this flag as a replacement?

youre not alone. the american flag makes me sick. overt patriotism has been coopted by magats, and its hard to see it any other way.

if someone feels the need to wave the american flag, i feel the need to be suspicious of your lack of empathy and possible fascist undertones. sorry.

The country where I was born and raised is 900 years old. This implies a lit of history, both good and bad.

The country was literally started because our first king decided he wasn't going to allow his mother and her lover to steal his father's lands. After that, the Pope demanded our country to pay the church a huge sum in order to be recognized, the king said "we'll eventually come to that" and never payed. We were taken over by our neighbouring country at some point because of blood ties and after 75 years we just said "enough is enough, these guys are getting housted". We fought Napoleon. We had a bloody civil war. Somewhere inbetween all of this we decided "Let's build a lot of boats and see where we can go." because the price of spices was to damn high. And more recently we got out of bed for a morning, threw down a fascist dictatorship, and went back to our quiet life. Nobody cares or notices us but yet we have one of the most powerful passports in the world.

But why all of this boasting?

It's cool to have all this history and background. But I don't owe my country nothing. I owe who I am to my family and friends and I owe to the future generations to remember where we come from and teach them the same I learned by myself: we are our country. We decide what we stand for and we represent the values we want to spread.

The government of your land may be corrupt today but it does not have or needs to represent you. And by refusing that, you put up your own resistance. No matter how small, that is resistance. And if you feel your flag needs to be reclaimed, put it upside down.

Stay strong, OP.

The greatest lie the Right ever told that the Left bought hook line and sinker was that they were the ones who represented America.

The thing is, while the US has it's horrible history and present, the people who fought for the ideals we're supposed to have are also just as much American as any conservative asshole. MLK Jr was American. Frederick Douglass was American. John Brown was American. Mister Rogers was American. Abolitionists. Suffragists. Union fighters. People fighting for fixing the problems, righting the wrongs, holding our country accountable for it's own ideals, are just as much a part of that flag.

The assholes laid claim to that flag and the people who are aware of the problems, who have legitimate concerns with the bullshit this country has done and continues to do, accidentally let them.