Do people in France have flags on their cars? Do they sell clothing with the flag for Zimbabwe everywhere? Do people dress as their country’s mascot for every day events?
Only when there are modern overpaid gladiators from different countries try to kick a plastic ball into the oponents net.
A.k.a. “Football World cup” and “Football Europa cup”.
OK, also when there are olympics.
And there are those eternal yesterdays that again would like to fly a red flag, with a white dot and a black swastica… those are still a growing minority. Lets hope ot stays that way.
None of the Western ones. Probably not Zimbabwe either, although I could be wrong about that. Africans are usually aware of how much development is ahead of them.
China is a lot like America in other ways, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they do that stuff, and North Korea is obviously rabidly nationalistic in it’s own way.
Canadian flags in unnecessary places are becoming more common, but that’s basically us aping you, because we get all your media and define our whole identity as a contrast to America.
No, we have broken off the Soviet union.
No, I was from Soviet Union
I think I misphrased my comment I meant to say that we are no longer in a dictatorship, so we do not have such propaganda
Also, why does nobody here know that their mindless nationalism is weird? I’ve seen military guys stop traffic to stop their cars in the middle of the road and stand with their hand over their heart towards the nearest flag when they play the trumpets at the end of the work day. ( on a military base) But seriously, why would you stop rush hour traffic to virtue signal your worship of an inanimate object. Those people should not be allowed to use firearms. There is seriously something wrong with that. My coworkers did the same thing, but not while they were driving. It’s beyond bizarre.
You’re supposed to stop your car for colors. You don’t necessarily need to get out, but hence the rush to get there and inside before colors.
No.
I live in Denmark but used to live in the US. I see a LOT of the Danish flag around (Dannebrog 🇩🇰) but it’s a lot less nationalistic. The level of “I love my country” is a bit weird but it’s the “it’s the best country and all others suck and wish they were us” that’s incomprehensible.
I think David Cross said something like this:
If you’re in Europe and someone tells you how your country sucks and isn’t free, you know they’re American
Do people in France have flags on their cars
Waving a french flag under almost any circumstance would be regarded a very weird
The most “I love my country” thing i have seen was someone dying their hair to represent the country flag
I have seen more people in my country wear the USA flag than my countries flag
Do you remember the time Marco Rubio repeated the same thing twice during a presidential debate ? His speech included calling the US “the greatest nation in the history of the world” but no one minded that.
In most countries you would be ridiculed for saying something like that, but from what I understand Americans are taught that their country is the best in basically everything and they are very lucky to be born there because every other place is worse off.
In Spain yes. We call them “patriotas de la pulserita” because they always have wristbands with the spanish flag.
We don’t have flags on poles, put people put the spanish flags on the balconies.
US has alot of propaganda through various means, but its greatest affect is on conservatives, they are much easier to convince. copaganda, military propaganda, performative politics for the military.
North Korea is.
Turkmenistan has some amazing propaganda and surprisingly, interesting music on the propaganda channels. Never would want to go there, though.
The fuzzy hat horse sing-along segment goes surprisingly hard? 16:31, pre-stamped:
In public spaces and every day life no.
Sports yes.
Pledging allegiance to the flag in school? That is absurd.
No.
Americans don’t realise how strange this hyperpatriotism is.
From the outside, “pledging allegiance to the flag” is cult behaviour; it’s seen as brainwashing.
I visited LA last year and you almost cannot exist in any space anywhere in the city without having at least one american flag visible. Often there are dozens of flags visible from any given sightline. This is not usual. Most countries will fly a flag over important buildings, or maybe in any given city there will be a few national flags in key locations. If the city has a good flag design, maybe the city flag is displayed frequently, such as in Amsterdam.
But outside America, people don’t have this need to express how much they love their country. In America it looks like a competition as to who can adore their country the most. That’s really not healthy citizenship as imo it discourages criticism.
Canadians responded to the American presidential threat by throwing flags up everywhere and let me tell you, that shit does not sit right with me.
I prefer to support my country in a less colonial way, personally.
So I just took a small sample (outside of major business districts) with Google maps street view dropping random pins in L.A. and searching for American flags. 0/3.
Same with Paris. 0/3.
I guess I got lucky? People can do their own samples and will likely see the inverse of my results.
Yeah, the pledge of allegiance is kinda stupid and has been cut from most schools at the start of the day. (That is likely regional though.) It’s still kinda weird that sports events still leverage national anthems too.
Many people here see hyperpatriotism as kinda weird and is more closely associated with (the bad kind) of nationalism.
To answer all questions like this, it depends on where you go. Some places are worse than others. Culturally important cities tend to be much more 'murica than others.
Now do the same with Barcelona, just tried it and got at least one Catalonia flag, as I was sure I would since there are lots of people with flags in their balconies here. Although I don’t think people are the “bad” kind of nationalist here, it’s more of an independence feeling.
My sample was not random because I went to populated areas where people/tourists are likely to go. I wasn’t saying it’s literally true that you cannot go anywhere without flags. But it was striking to both me and the person I was there with the sheer number of flags that seemed to be everywhere. We joked that there must be an unspoken rule that a business without a flag would be snubbed and seen as as an enemy of the state.
I’m sure random google maps locations don’t necessarily have flags, but if you visit you can’t deny the overwhelming prevalence of them in e.g. malls/high streets/the beach/in restaurants/etc.
Are you talking about Louisiana or Los Angeles? Both have beaches and malls… I could see there being a lot flags in Louisiana, Los Angeles not so much, unless it’s Memorial Day or 4th of July.
As someone in Louisiana, I can attest to this.
Also, the struggle of having to decipher if someone is talking about “L.A.” or “LA”.
Every country has their own brand and degree of nationalism. For example, in Europe, you won’t commonly see the national flag displayed in a private context in countries like France or Germany, but it’s very common as a decoration in Switzerland and Denmark. Doesn’t mean I’d really compare the Danes or Swiss to American nationalists though. I think what makes US-brand nationalism a special kind is the intense superiority complex, the feeling that they’re the greatest country on earth and everyone else doesn’t matter. No Swiss nationalist would think that their country could thrive without at least some degree of cooperation with other countries.
Maybe other large-population countries like China and India might be more similar. When I went to high school in China as an exchange student, they had a flag-raising ceremony once a week where the national anthem was played. But I guess that’s still tame compared to having the pledge of allegiance every day.
Yup, seeing a french flag in a private context feels off, you immediately get the sense that whoever put it up has very intense feelings about the Motherland/Fatherland.
I think what makes US-brand nationalism a special kind is the intense superiority complex, the feeling that they’re the greatest country on earth and everyone else doesn’t matter.
You’re spot on, to the extent that there is a concept describing exactly this: American Exceptionalism.
The Swiss might be a bad example. They are easily the craziest, most nationalistic people in Europe. I’ve dealt a lot with Swiss from all kinds of backgrounds over several years, and with foreigners living and working in Switzerland, and I can confidently say that I have never experienced anything comparable to how normal and ingrained xenophobia and an endless vicious hate for foreigners are in Swiss culture. The average Swiss seems to despise foreigners (who make about 50% of the workforce, btw) and views themselves and their country as superior to anything that might exist in the universe. This is not only a rural problem, it is common in several cities as well, perhaps most prominently in Lucerne. Their xenophobia has also been institutionalised with the Swiss police of several cantons enjoying the harassment of foreigners as their favourite pastime.
Not to down talk your experience, politically we definitely have a huge problem with the extreme right wing party passing laws that are extremely problematic. And I would probably also agree that the swiss are possibly more xenophobic than neighbouring countries, especually when it comes to things like aquiring citicenship which is quite frankly insane. One thing I have also heard mentioned from expats though is the concept of the “swiss stare”. Basically that we swiss tend to quite directly stare at strangers when they get on a train etc. Being socialized in Switzerland we probably don’t notice that we even do it but to foreigners it could possibly feel menacing or hostile. Another thing, Lucerne is very touristy to the point of over tourism and that will create tension anywhere not just in Switzerland, see the whole " tourists go home" movement in spain etc…
A buddy of mine in wales tells me that you basically can’t fly the flag there because you’ll get bullied by police to take it down except during football season.
I’m sorry but that’s not true. The Welsh are pretty nationalistic and proudly fly the Welsh flag everywhere. You don’t see the union flag as much but there’s no way you’d get in trouble with the police for flying either flag.
I lived in Wales for 8 years.
