Patriots Only
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@jolly said in Patriots Only:
Or name calling is the last refuge of a coward.
Sorry, but that's bollocks. Name calling is the last refuge of somebody who's run out of decent arguments. Not very pithy, I know. Running away is the last refuge of a coward.
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@doctor-phibes said in Patriots Only:
@horace said in Patriots Only:
“Patriotism is inevitable and participated in by everybody to some extent. If it is taken to insanely destructive extremes, then stop calling it patriotism. Find a better word.”
-Horace, TNCR
That quote really resonates with me.
Yes, but you can replace the word 'patriotism' in that sentence with any number of words.
My point being, it is a convenient turn of phrase to take a word that doesn't have a negative moral connotation, and put it in a negative light just by saying it can be taken to horrible extremes.
You're more than happy to see the word "patriotism" take on a negative moral connotation, because that's your bias - you tend not to like people who like the concept. Even as you admit you feel it yourself for your own home country, while struggling to re-word it. I'm just trying to be a realist about the concept. We all feel it, unless we're culturally suicidal. (As many on the left are. Recall Mrs Obama saying she had never been proud of her country until she was voted in as First Lady by her country's electorate.)
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If chocolate is taken to extremes, it gets pretty ugly. And who doesn't love chocolate?
My argument is not that the extreme of patriotism is bad, that's obvious. My argument is that patriotism is frequently hijacked by cynical people as an excuse to do bad things. I'm not saying that patriotism is bad. I'm saying that people who claim to be very patriotic can be bad.
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@doctor-phibes said in Patriots Only:
@jolly said in Patriots Only:
Or name calling is the last refuge of a coward.
Sorry, but that's bollocks. Name calling is the last refuge of somebody who's run out of decent arguments. Not very pithy, I know. Running away is the last refuge of a coward.
The initial quote is bollocks. I'm just riffing off of it...
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@jolly said in Patriots Only:
The initial quote is bollocks.
It's not, though. How many times have dreadful people made an appeal to patriotism?
Patriotism isn't bad, but the people who appeal to it can be.
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@doctor-phibes said in Patriots Only:
@jolly said in Patriots Only:
The initial quote is bollocks.
It's not, though. How many times have dreadful people made an appeal to patriotism?
Patriotism isn't bad, but the people who appeal to it can be.
Yep, absolute asshole...
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Are you guys deliberately misunderstanding me or are you just being a bit thick?
I say bad people have a tendency to do something. This is completely discredited by someobody who did the same thing who was not a bad person?
Or should I just declare victory by application of inverse Godwin's law?
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...as in the case of Hitler.
There. It's done.
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@mik said in Patriots Only:
@jolly said in Patriots Only:
If the citizens of a country are not proud of their country, it won't be long before they are not citizens. The country will not exist.
This.
...as in the case of Hitler.
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The argument that Germany lost WW2 due to it being insufficiently patriotic has novelty on its side, if little else.