A good example why nationalism and pride about it makes no sense. Most people had no choice in where they are from, and had no influence on something like this. Having pride in something you did not influence and had no choice in is really weird and kind of narcissistic.
This is why it gets toxic and dangerous easily. We see similar issues with fans of sports teams, even though the fan has literally nothing to do with the team.
its just an ancient tribal instinct. oh, you’re from the squirrel bones tribe? pssh, your berry bushes are shit. rat skull tribe have best berry bushes, and we have stream. squirrel bones tribe have no stream and bad berry bushes
reminds me of JP Sartre: by disparaging the jews, the anti-semite instantly puts himself into a superior group without having to actually do anything.
Nationalism works the same way. “I belong to THIS socially constructed group! We do such great things!” as if they built the community from the ground up and weren’t just thrown into a world with systems already in place independent of them that helped produce the things they’re proud of…
Like sure community is a thing but at a certain point doesn’t it get quite arbitrary what you take credit for? and doesn’t that also mean we have to take credit for all the bad things too? every Palestinian would become Hamas and every American a drone pilot. those are precisely the reasons I am not patriotic and i dont find “shut up, frog” jokes funny. “just” tribalism? “just” a wee cheeky bit o fash in the mornin?
A good example why nationalism and pride about it makes no sense. Most people had no choice in where they are from, and had no influence on something like this. Having pride in something you did not influence and had no choice in is really weird and kind of narcissistic.
This is why it gets toxic and dangerous easily. We see similar issues with fans of sports teams, even though the fan has literally nothing to do with the team.
its just an ancient tribal instinct. oh, you’re from the squirrel bones tribe? pssh, your berry bushes are shit. rat skull tribe have best berry bushes, and we have stream. squirrel bones tribe have no stream and bad berry bushes
reminds me of JP Sartre: by disparaging the jews, the anti-semite instantly puts himself into a superior group without having to actually do anything.
Nationalism works the same way. “I belong to THIS socially constructed group! We do such great things!” as if they built the community from the ground up and weren’t just thrown into a world with systems already in place independent of them that helped produce the things they’re proud of…
Like sure community is a thing but at a certain point doesn’t it get quite arbitrary what you take credit for? and doesn’t that also mean we have to take credit for all the bad things too? every Palestinian would become Hamas and every American a drone pilot. those are precisely the reasons I am not patriotic and i dont find “shut up, frog” jokes funny. “just” tribalism? “just” a wee cheeky bit o fash in the mornin?