patriotism annoys me...

"Team Earth" I like that! Citizens of the world unite!

Patriotism isn't inherently xenophobic, separatist or insulated. It isn't inherently about supporting your current government or your country's military exploits.

I'm from Britain, and I like a lot of the aspects of our culture and environment. One of the aspects of our culture I don't like is how passionately against patriotism so many of us are (especially my generation). We look to American stereotypical displays of patriotism and fascist examples of nationalism (BNP, Nazism) as representations of patriotism; we associate merely LIKING our own country as having some kind of extreme leaning (right or left).

Well I will say this. For me, the UK has a lot to be appreciative of. But there are negatives too. A desire for your country to change for the better is an expression of patriotism. It need not be a desire for your country to be SUPERIOR, or a desire for your country to be ISOLATED. Simply wanting better for your society and enjoying the positives is patriotism in my view.

It is a stance of optimism.

Good post! We do what government tells us like mindless slaves!

Patriotism annoys me too. But you sound like a douche.

pa·tri·ot·ism
   [pey-tree-uh-tiz-uhm or, especially Brit., pa-]

noun
devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty.

I actually agree with almost everything you say, although I wouldn't put it quite as you say it.

I believe patriotism is not a logical way of thinking. I don't understand why someone would feel loyalty toward the part of the earth they were born on. Better to fight for everyone than to fight for your piece of rock.

I think it is important to make a distinction between two types of patriot:

1) The patriots are loyal to their country for its own sake.

2) The patriots who are loyal to their country because they have compared it to other countries critically and decided they like the way their country does things.

The first type of patriot is the one I don't like. Being blindly loyal to the place you are born has always struck me as close-minded and the sort of attitude that eventually breeds hatred of people from other places and who have different ways of seeing things. Supporting it in sports is different, because you are not supporting anything too serious or tangible. Supporting it in war just because you were born there effectively stops you from effectively criticising it, and without criticising things the world stays the same; there's no progress.

The second type of patriot I don't have a problem with. It would be more accurate to say that these people don't love their country, but I love what their country does. They don't love it just because their country does it, but because they genuinely believe it is the right thing to do after having looked at what other countries do. These people could still be called patriots, but are not unconditionally loyal.

Now for the things I don't agree with in what you say. I don't agree that the US is the biggest threat in the world, that prize goes to China and North Korea. But that's a whole other debate.

I'm up for debate and discussion if anyone wants it, just keep it clean and insult-free :)

if you dont back up our troops,then stand in front of them

Thank you! You have voiced all the things I have been thinking about. Patriotism is nothing but bullshit and I'm sick and tired of it!

patriot: one who loves his or her country and supports its authority and interests.
from Latin pater father.
If you call yourself a patriot, you are an authoritarian who agrees with a male dominated society.
The people of the USA are not the problem. The corrupt United States government is.
We should all try not to use -ists and -isms, as these only cause divisions among us.
United we stand, divided we fall. (Aesop)

I don't mind patriotism. The problem comes when one justify the need to put down another nation/race/colour/etc. as some form of patriotism. People who have the urge to insult/discriminate usually have insecure feelings of their own nation/race/colour/etc.

From a proud New Zealander.

You don't like your country? Fine then, you can leave.

unite all people a problem. europe united and what? strong do not want to feed the weak and go out. there will be many international conflicts. I agree . my homeland is a planet earth, and not pieces of land with colored rags. wishing your country better than others, you automatically want others worse. this is typical of people standing at the lowest level of morality. To die for something that was created artificially, by the hands of politicians, is humiliating

I do see us as equal. It does not mater where the troop came from they were all fighting for their country/some not even by chose. You have to realize that this is the land you were born on and if you like it or not that is what your going to be judged on. If your an American(Your a fat and stupid), if your British(you have terrible teeth), if your from France(your obviously gay).

Now of course these might not always be true but that is how the rest of the world will judge you. So might as well have pride in your country and where you came from since the rest of the world is going to judge were you are from. No matter how good of a person you inspire to be.

Why the US now proudly sings Yankee doodle. That song was made to mock the US but they said "You know what that's right. We are Yankee doodles and we are still awesome". You cant expect the world to be mature since most people are idiots and are not going to respect us for accomplishments or even character. They acknowledge you by heritage and assets. Patriots embrace who they are and proudly announce it.

From day one of "civilization" people have naturally fallen into groups that have similar traits, ideas, tendencies etc; And when you have these separate groups just like a team or how you might be with your own group of friends you tend to be proud of each other and the collective as a whole. Now sometimes this can turn you and your friends or in the bigger picture you and other citizens into uneducated douche-bags if you let pride and arrogance take over respect and civility. So to say that patriotism is for "cunts" is if your defining it by the people from that second example. If you think about the majority (which you don't hear from because we keep quiet) it happens that most people are respectful and educated. Although the U.S. might be the only place who thinks american football is the best thing on Earth and other countries might play cricket or live under different forms of governments and have various religions doesn't mean I can't be patriotic while still respecting the rest of the world.

In my opinion, patriotism is fine to some extent. I think it's okay to like your country. It's when people LOVE their country that I start to get worried. I think that humans need to be proud of something, and loyal to something. But when it becomes borderline nationalism, I think it's too much.

It isn't that cut and dry. There will always be massive groups looking for power, even if we were all one team. Instead of it being a war between countries, it would be civil war, which makes things far worse, because then wars are fought in the places where innocents just want to live their lives.

I hope one day humanity unites, and I do believe a new form of goverment should be in place, a goverment ruled by the people, not rules by representatives, like it should be; the people in power.

But, it will never be that cut and dry, or it will take thousands of years for it to ever come to true peace.

I think to appreciate your country and understand patriotism you must understand how close our country has come to being invaded by the Japanese and the Nazis during WWII. Would you rather be free to come and go as you please throughout the entire country or being stopped at every state line by men with machine guns to check your comings and goings. It's obvious you have little knowledge of history and don't know what the men and women in the military have done to insure the freedoms you enjoy. Pick up a history book of WWII and see where they sank a Nazi sub right off the coast in Louisiana. Unless you would rather be saying Hail Hitler.

“My country, right or wrong,” is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Defendant

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious"

-Oscar Wilde

Afghanistan is in hell with or without US occupation. I'm sure you know that, though.

I do like your point about thinking for ourselves, but I have my own twist on it. How about we worry about ourselves individually instead of every human on Earth. Personally, I don't give a flying fuck about anybody else but myself. In today's world, it really needs to be "every person for themselves."