I don’t understand this weird American obsession with flag. I was looking at some photos of Trump’s rallies. Flags everywhere - on shirts, hats, glasses etc. And this bizarre cult of the flag - “it cannot touch the ground” etc.
At the end of the day the flag is just a piece of cloth. If you worship any flag or take offense to any flag, you need to get a life.
I get it. It’s not really a true choice though. Like bring born in the United States makes it difficult to move and become a citizen elsewhere, where I could waive a different flag (of choice).
It’s a simple as being born into it and being prideful of whatever it is you are. Typical pride involves surname, race/ethnicity, religion, state, country, brands of things… I mean… It’s whatever one is proud of having. Some things are by choice and others are by birth. 🤷
The difference between country and all those other “not a true choice” things that you listed is pointlessness.
A surname is still about your kin. Race is arguably also about kin*. Religion will probably dictate your behaviour, or at least principles. Brand is a damn silly identity, but I get that - it’s still about things that you enjoy.
Country though? In larger countries this boils down to “land that you never saw, people whom you’ll never interact”. In smaller ones it boils down to “a fraction of the lands you saw, and people whom you interacted with”. All because you pay taxes to the same government?
*I say “arguably” because race is still a damn silly identity, unless you use it to highlight oppression and gather other people to end said oppression. But past that I don’t think that anyone should see themself as an Amerindian, a black person, a white person, but rather as simply “a person”.
I completely agree. Especially when someone gets so upset about criticism of their preferred OS owner (Apple vs. Android fanatics).
I’ll also add sports teams into the mix. Some people get so ravenous about their support for a certain team, or criticism of said team.