• whocares@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    Why are you proud of something you had no influence in? I was born in Norway, and am glad to have been born here, but I am not proud to have been born here. I had no influence in where I was born, so I don’t feel proud of it, but I feel quite fortunate to have here.

    • Leon@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 days ago

      Sweden here. I generally feel an ick when people talk about being proud of their country, or outright patriotism. It smacks too hard of far-right supremacist tendencies to me. It’s why I’ve never been able to really palate the U.S., they’ve always so openly boasted about their own perceived greatness, while blatantly ignoring the falsities of it all.

      Obviously there are good things in the U.S., and maybe I’ve always just been a pessimist, but I just don’t get how one can be so self-congratulatory while openly ignoring all the horrors not just of the past, but of present day as well. Had an American roomie, and was absolutely shocked to find out that they actually did a pledge of allegiance daily in his schools. He was unfazed, but to me that’s such 1984-esque dystopian BS.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 days ago

      I also struggle with the idea of being proud of my country. I’m pleased when it does something good, but I really have no influence over it, so whether it does good or bad things is not something that reflects me.

    • Meursault@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      Sensible. I don’t know how I even could be a proud American, these days. More like a deeply ashamed American.