Patriotism

[TomOfSweden]

*soapbox mode, on*

A patriot is a person who subscribe to the theories of Fichte and Herder. In short it means that people from the same nation share a common soul. They invented the concept of nations all on their own not so very long ago at all.

It's worth pointing out that they based their theories on German fairy tales. It's just taken out of thin air. Anybody who in light of this knowledge calls themselves a patriot has no fucking clue. It's just nonsense.

Patriotism implies that you take sides for your own nation no matter what idiocies it's leader does, and no matter which nation your country invades. So most people aren't really patriots, it's just something they say because they haven't thought it through properly. Real patriotism is for low-brows who like to get riled up emotionally without taking any emotional risk. I think it's pathetic.

I'm fanatically anti-patriot and anti-nationalist. I love Sweden but I piss on it's flag. For me the Swedish flag does not represent Sweden. Pickled herring in jars, northern lights on the horizon, blond chicks in skimpy clothes and it's language does. The king can go and fuck himself.

Concepts like freedom and democracy has nothing to do at all with nationalism/patriotism or what Herder and Fichte meant. Patriotism has nothing to do with preferred political system.

edit: it's better to decide what you like. Pick out what you like about your country, and support only that. Reject the rest. This is the inherently anti-patriotic stance. The problem with "Swedishness" is that it is very vague. It doesn't mean anything. Or rather, it means different things to different people. The same thing about being an American. Nobody can really be a US patriot, because it doesn't mean anything. It's just empty words. Anybody with a quivering lip that tells you they love America and all it stands for, is just bullshiting of the same reason. "USA" doesn't stand for anything. A country is it's people, and every person has it's own opinions. That is what America is, and whatever it's people like to do, that's is what USA stands for. I'll bet you a million billion US dollars, that we can never get them to agree on much at all.

*soapbox mode, off*