• @[email protected]
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    595 months ago

    At this point, is being American basically a religion? Such weird cult-like displays of patriotism…

      • @[email protected]
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        75 months ago

        Yes I know nearly every country has elements like this. But in the US it’s a bit more than just some elements.

        I can see it in American advertisements, TV series, movies, political speeches, and a lot of rather loud opinions.

      • @[email protected]
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        55 months ago

        Patriotism is ingrained from birth like religion — They’re forced to pledge allegiance to the flag through schooling, taught little about the world outside the US, and constantly propagandised by politics, hollywood, and capitalism from all angles; non-stop affirmation that the USA is the greatest Democracy™️ in the world, and their Freedoms™️ are the free-est free that ever freedomed.

        • Lemminary
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          5 months ago

          And an irrational hate for “dirty commies”, gays and jews for some reason. Maybe it was just the Midwest in the early 00s, but that was my experience throughout high school.

          (I know, I know, McCarthyism and the Cold War all shaped public perception, but all the kids were screaming it to each other and I didn’t understand why back then.)

      • @[email protected]
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        45 months ago

        Only a couple countries on Earth where every member of Congress has¹ to wear a pin: the US and North Korea.


        1. Yes there’s no law, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have to.
      • FlashMobOfOne
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        105 months ago

        And they can’t afford to miss a day of work to vote, thanks to that other 60%.

        • @[email protected]
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          85 months ago

          Yeah, that’s about right. Not voting is just as bad as voting for the wrong person. There’s this giant chunk of America that’s sleepwalking everyone else into chaos.

    • @[email protected]
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      165 months ago

      There are few large countries in the world where this isn’t the case. Nationalism, in general, is absolutely a cult.

    • @[email protected]
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      35 months ago

      Pretty much. Secular education tends to begin with Columbus sailing across the Atlantic and seldom ventures north or south of our boarders – let alone touch on the rest of the planet until World War 2, after which a lot of curriculums just end. Elective courses are better… which is why nearly every year at least one of the states try to ban them.

      Most of our protestant schooling likes to make special note of the fact that people fled here to escape religious persecution, that this or that sect wouldn’t be possible without American Freedoms™. Hell, Mormon scripture straight up says the US is a promised holy land.

    • Flying Squid
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      25 months ago

      No, it’s just what’s on my passport. There’s not much I can do about it.

  • @[email protected]
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    265 months ago

    I just wanna see the person who decides that this art is cool and all but they really do need a few packs of Coke Zero so…

  • @[email protected]
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    215 months ago

    This may come off as ignorant, but what is that whole “We will never forget” supposed to mean? Like for what purpose will you keep reminding yourself of this?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      245 months ago

      I think it was just the brand of right wing patriotism under Bush. That’s back when people used to wear NYPD hats and t-shirts even though they weren’t cops.

    • @[email protected]
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      105 months ago

      Control.

      “You have to take off your shoes at the airport and then let a random person take pictures of you naked before getting on a flight because we need to prove that you’re not a terrorist. Remember what happened the last time we didn’t do that? You can either submit to us, or we can have another terrorist attack.”

      It also marks a time in history when people started going back to church in order to find some semblance of an explanation, and the churches like the increased attendance. They’ve got to keep us scared that the “terrorists” are around every corner, and they have the only solution.

    • Flying Squid
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      95 months ago

      It was pretty much stolen from Holocaust survivors. The original idea was ‘never forget the Holocaust so that people will understand that hatred leads to genocide.’

      It has no concrete meaning in this context as far as I can tell.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    i bet all the innocent afghanis whose lives were destroyed so the us could find and “kill” their former ally won’t forget either

  • @[email protected]
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    175 months ago

    I’ll never forget… when you could buy a 12pk of brand name soda for under 5 bucks. Got a 12pk of mtn dew baja (well the free 3 cans ver.) and coke last week… 20 bucks! 😿

    • @[email protected]
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      65 months ago

      There is a sale this weekend at a nearby store, 2/10$ and It felt like the soda apocalypse in there with everyone running around grabbing up case after case. I don’t get it, one can and my mouth feels nasty while my body is demanding water to wash it down. I guess if your body is addicted to it you get a different reaction.

      The really disturbing part was seeing all the kids gleefully freaking out as they helped carry case after case (some could barely carry one case because they were so young). I have addictions myself and the parent’s purchase is their own prerogative, but I would never let my kid participate in my bad habits.

      • @[email protected]
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        45 months ago

        Definitely understandable, I am addicted but I’m trying to be better… But where the 2 for 10? 🤔

  • @[email protected]
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    175 months ago

    …Is this putting shoppers in the role of the hijackers?

    “A second customer has hit the tower.”

  • Flying Squid
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    165 months ago

    It was 23 years ago now. It’s entirely possible that the manager who had that put up doesn’t even remember 9/11.

  • @[email protected]
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    165 months ago

    The answer to the question “who thought this was a good idea?” Is Coca Cola. The companies (and distributors) selling these products to stores negotiates with those stores to build these displays and decides what they look like.

    Fuck em.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    Yet we’re still doing business with Saudi Arabia, who actively participated in planning the attack at a state level

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      The reason, same with Israel, is because the US needs allies in the Middle East. A lot of “shock and awe” was launched from bases in Saudi Arabia. Which is extremely unsettling. But it highlights why the US keeps these countries as allies.

    • مهما طال الليل
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      5 months ago

      who actively participated in planning the attack at a state level

      None of this is true. He was an outlaw in Saudi Arabia and left it in the 1990s and never returned. The US though was still working with Alqaeda in Central Asia before 9/11/2001.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 months ago

        there were state officials sending video in DC etc. They’ve found evidence of all that after. State officials played a role in helping.