Do people in France have flags on their cars? Do they sell clothing with the flag for Zimbabwe everywhere? Do people dress as their country’s mascot for every day events?

    • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      24 days ago

      So I just took a small sample (outside of major business districts) with Google maps street view dropping random pins in L.A. and searching for American flags. 0/3.

      Same with Paris. 0/3.

      I guess I got lucky? People can do their own samples and will likely see the inverse of my results.

      Yeah, the pledge of allegiance is kinda stupid and has been cut from most schools at the start of the day. (That is likely regional though.) It’s still kinda weird that sports events still leverage national anthems too.

      Many people here see hyperpatriotism as kinda weird and is more closely associated with (the bad kind) of nationalism.

      To answer all questions like this, it depends on where you go. Some places are worse than others. Culturally important cities tend to be much more 'murica than others.

        • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Are you talking about Louisiana or Los Angeles? Both have beaches and malls… I could see there being a lot flags in Louisiana, Los Angeles not so much, unless it’s Memorial Day or 4th of July.

          • Crankenstein@lemmy.world
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            23 days ago

            As someone in Louisiana, I can attest to this.

            Also, the struggle of having to decipher if someone is talking about “L.A.” or “LA”.

      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Now do the same with Barcelona, just tried it and got at least one Catalonia flag, as I was sure I would since there are lots of people with flags in their balconies here. Although I don’t think people are the “bad” kind of nationalist here, it’s more of an independence feeling.

    • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Canadians responded to the American presidential threat by throwing flags up everywhere and let me tell you, that shit does not sit right with me.

      I prefer to support my country in a less colonial way, personally.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Don’t confuse patriotism with nationalism. Patriotism is love for one’s homeland, nationalism is a delusion of blood and soil.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      23 days ago

      Although the former seems like it will inevitably slide into the latter.

      We should aspire to be a good person in general first, and then decide if our nation is awesome or “we’re the baddies” after that.

  • zxqwas@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    In public spaces and every day life no.

    Sports yes.

    Pledging allegiance to the flag in school? That is absurd.

  • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 days ago

    Also, why does nobody here know that their mindless nationalism is weird? I’ve seen military guys stop traffic to stop their cars in the middle of the road and stand with their hand over their heart towards the nearest flag when they play the trumpets at the end of the work day. ( on a military base) But seriously, why would you stop rush hour traffic to virtue signal your worship of an inanimate object. Those people should not be allowed to use firearms. There is seriously something wrong with that. My coworkers did the same thing, but not while they were driving. It’s beyond bizarre.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Yea, and gladiators were “supposed to” die for the glory of Rome. When are people going to get past pomp and circumstance? It’s fucking pathetic.

  • HerrVorragend@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Rarely in Europe.

    If there is the Football World Cup or Euro Cup, you will see flags in European Cities and People wearing them are not uncommon.

    During a random Tuesday, this is very uncommon as people tend to remember in which country they live without having to be reminded.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          OP’s being a smart ass, but I recently learned that their statement is true, for a certain value of “read”.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States

          There is much literature (heh) that quotes the same numbers, or near enough. So yeah, I’m going to say most Americans can’t read. And BTW, this is one of the most shocking truths I’ve learned in life.

          • azimir@lemmy.ml
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            24 days ago

            Yeah, the US has reached an incredibly low standard of literacy for what is supposed to be a developed nation. The numbers on reading level are scary. Also look at how much people read as adults. We just don’t learn how and then we don’t practice during our lives. It’s a nation of partial literacy being kept together my hyper nationalism and smart phones to distract us with 6 second videos.

            • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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              24 days ago

              Yep, this is generations of slowly gutting public education at work.

              The privileged kids get to go to fancy private schools, many of which are ironically now funded by the public (who don’t get to send their kids there). Everyone else goes to underfunded public schools, which have tragically underpaid teachers who run the risk of losing their jobs if they don’t give every student a passing grade. Teachers in struggling school districts are just shoving their students’ deficiencies onto the next grade up, which continues to snowball until you end up with a majority of high school seniors graduating with a 7th grade reading level at best.

              In saying that, it’s not all doom and gloom, but it highlights a key disparity that affects some parts of the US more than others. Some US states actually have very good public school systems, up there with high performing countries in Europe and Asia. But when considering how bad the average is in the US, it means that there are a lot of states that are substantially worse than that, where things are just incredibly dire.

              Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lowest performing states are mostly in the southern US.

  • frank@sopuli.xyz
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    23 days ago

    No.

    I live in Denmark but used to live in the US. I see a LOT of the Danish flag around (Dannebrog 🇩🇰) but it’s a lot less nationalistic. The level of “I love my country” is a bit weird but it’s the “it’s the best country and all others suck and wish they were us” that’s incomprehensible.

    I think David Cross said something like this:

    If you’re in Europe and someone tells you how your country sucks and isn’t free, you know they’re American

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
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    24 days ago

    Hard no. I’ve been to 25ish countries (I’ve lost count), and US is the only country I’ve been to with so many flags and rituals around the state and its government.

    • National anthem before every sportsball game.
    • Pledge of allegiance.
    • Flags every where every day.
    • “Thank you for your service”.
    • Picture of President in any building that serves a government function (at least the ones I’ve been to… Not that many, tbh).
    • Naming anything and everything after presidents and statesmen
  • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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    23 days ago

    US has alot of propaganda through various means, but its greatest affect is on conservatives, they are much easier to convince. copaganda, military propaganda, performative politics for the military.

  • RandomVideos@programming.dev
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    23 days ago

    The most “I love my country” thing i have seen was someone dying their hair to represent the country flag

    I have seen more people in my country wear the USA flag than my countries flag

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    23 days ago

    None of the Western ones. Probably not Zimbabwe either, although I could be wrong about that. Africans are usually aware of how much development is ahead of them.

    China is a lot like America in other ways, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they do that stuff, and North Korea is obviously rabidly nationalistic in it’s own way.

    Canadian flags in unnecessary places are becoming more common, but that’s basically us aping you, because we get all your media and define our whole identity as a contrast to America.

  • Owl@mander.xyz
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    23 days ago

    Do people in France have flags on their cars

    Waving a french flag under almost any circumstance would be regarded a very weird

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    We Americans have little past by which to define ourselves, so we fall to “We’re the best!”. There’s a joke to be made about white supremacists doing the same.

    Love us or hate us, you gotta admit we’ve had one hell of a run in a very short time frame.

  • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 days ago

    In Spain yes. We call them “patriotas de la pulserita” because they always have wristbands with the spanish flag.

    We don’t have flags on poles, put people put the spanish flags on the balconies.