• hOrni@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Did You watch John Oliver recently? When You get American citizenship, they make You listen to a god awful, pro American song while waving tiny American flags. This shit is so cringy.

    • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The play God Bless the USA when you complete Battlestations at the end of Navy bootcamp. There’s a projector and slideshow while everyone is standing in formation, receiving their “Navy” ballcap, officially becoming a sailor.

      Looking back… Yeah, it was cringe af.

        • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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          1 month ago

          This is definitely the only memory I have of it, yeah. Brightly lit room after running hither and yon across base all night… and being too tired to give a shit what was going on…

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The version tjey made me do also had “One nation indivisible under god” which is some racist theocratic bullshit.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The “under god” BS was added in 1954. It was never intended to be there because it’s obviously a violation of church and state. Gotta show we’re not like those godless commies!

  • tortina_original@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    When i left my ex-communist country for greener pastures, many years ago, one of the biggest shocks was learning about “lobbying”.

    What we backward peasants from communism considered plain corruption, was perfectly legal and normal in the USA. Less so in Western Europe, though. Not only normal but seems to be one of core means of getting into power (and holding onto it), whether it is business or politics. Mind you, I never lived in the USA but based on everything I see/hear that is absolutely the case.

    I am still flabbergasted by it…

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      What we backward peasants from communism considered plain corruption, was perfectly legal and normal in the USA.

      The purpose of propaganda is not to convince people of this and or that.

      It’s purpose is to make people not see the obvious.

      And the US is far, far more successful at that than the USSR could ever have hoped to dream.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The pledge in schools is relatively new, I think it was passed under reagan or something. Your grandparents weren’t doing it.

    • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      That’s not relatively new; it’s about 20% of our entire existence, with multipliers for technology gains.

      This country is young, and we have been heavily propagandized for decades.

    • bunkyprewster@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      They made me do it back in the 1960s. I remember learning they added “under God” during the McCarthy red scare days

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Yes, and in hindsight, it’s pretty disgusting stuff.

    Especially considering everything they withheld from me about our history, trying to tell me it was the plague that killed off native people, when in fact it was slavery, war, murder, and torture. Or the times when white mobs destroyed black towns, such as in Tulsa. Or the time when cops and soldiers bombed labor agitators trying to get better working conditions. Or, my favorite, the battle for Blair Mountain.

    It’s 100% indoctrination, and I’m glad I like to read history books as an adult or I’d have no idea.

  • skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Not only that, but they made the children in Special Education sing “I’m Proud to Be An American” (as if that’s all they have) instead

    Reading this as an American (who voted) living in Denmark—where all those things are covered—hits hard…

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    One of the few things that are good about growing up Jehovah’s Witness. Never did the pledge, and I don’t think I could recite it from memory if you asked.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I was probably 5th grade when I stopped pledging. I really thought about it, like what I was saying and realized I didn’t agree with it. Like, that’s what you do when you’re an adult going into the armed services. Not something you should be forcing kids to do. And that’s not even including the “under god” crap.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The pledge of allegiance is stupid but it’s a non-issue. Everybody just rolls their eyes and blah-blahs through it.

    The general point is right fucking on though.

  • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    All of those things that the twitter person says we don’t have are definitely available and achievable in the USA. It’s nothing but a useless doomer post.