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The Problem Of American Patriotism
In which I once again attempt to dissuade my fellow countrymen from falling for the fallacy of American exceptionalism
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“This aggression must not stand.” ~The Dude
It’s Memorial Day weekend — again. I don’t know why I’m always so surprised, but I tend to lose my shit around every ridiculous American holiday fetishizing the American military as the sole keepers of patriotic faith. Memorial Day. Independence Day. Veterans Day. Even Labor Day, which isn’t even logical because it celebrates the union members who fought and died, killed by our very own police and soldiers, for giving us the weekend. September 11th is equally incomprehensible, since it remembers a day when the American military spectacularly failed to do anything at all.
American Patriotism is a perfect encapsulation of our inability to recognize the absurdity of honoring our own self-professed exceptionalism through the practice of fetishizing our ridiculous ability to wage war as if we were defending something even remotely honorable. Every war we’ve ever fought has been over economic power, not honor, and certainly not freedom. Why do you think…
