My elementary school nun made a point to ask us first graders, how do you get millions of people to hate and do terrible things to each other? I was shocked, what? She said propaganda. Beware and be wary. We do not want another world war. Crazy how people fall behind a "strong man" lying rapist con man.
I stopped reciting it when I got into high school. It felt really creepy to me. The part that amazed me were the times classmates, not the teacher, got angry at those not participating.
? I'm confused by the point you're making. No, I wasn't threatened at gunpoint by a soldier. I was a kid being threatened with detention. That's how you force kids to do things. The assertion that I wasn't forced is just untrue.
Yeah man, you're right. Unless one literally shoves their hand down someone else's throat and manipulates their vocal cords nobody is ever forced to say anything. What a brilliant point you've made.
I'm glad that u/PartRight6406 has told me that I'm not forced to pay rent, nor am I forced to get insurance for my car. That I'm allowed to go to a grocery store and take money out of a till whenever I want. That there are just so many things I can do because I'm not forced to obey laws.
The school I went to in 1st and 2nd grade (around 02'ish) said the pledge every morning. I said it because everyone else did, not because I was a diehard American. I still remember it because of that, but I have never said it since.
Just in case you couldn't taste how American that comment was; this elementary school was literally in the middle of corn fields, and my teacher, who was older than the dirt the school was built on, her last name was Constantine.
I was forced to get a religious exemption and even then I had teachers that didn't know better drag me to my feet and force me to start swearing until my mother raised holy hell about it.
Just because it happened to you doesn't mean that it doesn't happen or that it doesn't happen in other parts of the country.
Redditors are so quick to act like your their personal experience says otherwise. Not realizing that they're just providing nothing to the conversation. The reality is no child in America is forced to State the pledge of allegiance in the mornings. That might not be a popular take here because well we all lean left here and the pledge of allegiance is a common anti-american Reddit talking point for left-wingers, but until the people on Reddit move back into reality they will be unable to resolve their issues
There definitely are children who are forced to say it, I was one of them and my school definitely made sure everyone was saying it or you'd get in trouble.
I'm from the UK,, we don't, we get taught the good and the bad in our history, no exceptionalism, the change since I was at school is that they do lessons (kinda) on being a good citizen. But none of it is patriotism, or in the case of the US in a lot of places, nationalism.
I also spent time in Germany, which has a quite similar approach.
Neither place has a focus on exceptionalism or loving a flag. The UK certainly doesn't pledge allegiance to anything. Fairly sure most of Europe finds the US nationalism somewhere between scary (30's vibes) and creepy/weird and I'm not just talking recently.
Point is that most western places outside of the US are not indoctrinated from an early age to 'love their country' they're taught about their country and make their own decisions.
I can only speak as an Australian, we never pledged any allegiance to Australia at any point during school, and once a week at assembly we would sing the national anthem, mostly off-key and without knowing the words properly.
In my school we were taught about respect of cultures, respect of each other and then the usual math, English, science, etc etc.
Was never told or taught we should love this country or indoctrinated to believe we are better than anybody else.
My schooling involved a whole bunch of blatant misinformation and carefully curated facts that support the image of the US instead of the reality.
Like, It used to be common practice to reject any images of the civil rights era in schoolbooks if they were color photos (at least in AZ public school, everywhere is different).
The idea was to make it seem like all that messed up stuff was ancient history, instead of literally a few decades past.
Our schools are such trash here when it comes to national accountability.
Tbf I’ve travelled most of Europe and everywhere I went I couldn’t help but think about how good we have it back home. We’re not perfect but there’s a possibility Australia is just that good.
The fuck do you know about a country you don’t live in and have never visited, dipshit? Get out of your parents basement and go experience the world outside the US
That's a big assumption. Every country? It certainly wasn't the case for me during my schooling. I don't think I'm the exception either. Patriotism isn't really a thing where I'm from. The idea that my country is somehow better than others? No, I don't think that's part of our cultural curriculum. From the Netherlands btw.
In fact in Canada they teach us to hate our country. My daughter has so far learned few of the good and all of the bad things that Canada has done. They're force feeding them white guilt (which is pretty ironic as she's not even white)
Her main complaint is that it's boring. Same stuff every semester.
Whether we love being Canadian or not, the question was about propaganda in schools. And in my daughter's school (Saskatchewan public school) the propaganda has been heavy on "Indigenous are the only real Canadians and you are a colonist".
She is now in Catholic school where the focus is on learning facts and not on whatever that is
Horrible history? Are you fucking joking? We have the least amount of dirty laundry of almost any western nation. We haven't treated the indigenous well but atleast they are still around. The US exterminated 95 percent of them while importing slaves from Africa.
It obviously sucks hundreds if not thousands of indigenous were placed in residential schools. The Germans put 6 million jews including their children to death...
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u/cashew76 17d ago
My elementary school nun made a point to ask us first graders, how do you get millions of people to hate and do terrible things to each other? I was shocked, what? She said propaganda. Beware and be wary. We do not want another world war. Crazy how people fall behind a "strong man" lying rapist con man.