this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

That was me!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I still have a feeling that me breaking down the whole classes in elementary school alone was a glimpse of genius and not some kind of sociopathy

In any case I am in the business for an article on how I was right all along, nurturing my indomitable rebellious spirit of America or something

[–] [email protected] 57 points 4 days ago

Generally, the main problem with being "far left" is being ridiculed for being right earlier than everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

Worth a read for the “secede from our marital union” part alone!

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 days ago (4 children)

I get the sense Lemmy people are generally less likely to participate in this weird shit, as I also sat it out and we kind of select into this sort of "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" mindset by rejecting mainstream apps.

I didn't know it was an option in elementary, but as early as I remember I always adjusted the words to make it silly. I especially remember saying "under frog" when they got to the under God part, with liberty and French fries for all.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I stopped doing it in High School after realizing that it's some North Korea level bullshit. Got a few other kids in my homeroom to stop too, which really angered our teacher. She was a military spouse and would actually yell at us for refusing to participate. In the end, we compromised by standing but not reciting it. Was the begining of my political and social awakening.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I had an amazing American Government and Politics teacher in senior year of high school, but I knew about her much earlier. She kept a file of print-outs of the section of State law which codified that no child could be forced to participate in the pledge. She was so awesome. I happened to just arrive at her class after the first plane hit on 9/11. I don't think there could have been a better place for me to be trying to make sense of that.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago

I used to piss people off by adding a very loud, drawn out, "amen" to the end to show how fucking weird and cultish it is to make kids say it every day. come like 7th grade tho I just stopped participating at all.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This is the kind of shit that leads to nationalism over patriotism. Blindly teaching kids to pledge allegiance without teaching them what comes with that or why.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I have never once done the Pledge of Allegiance. Grew up a Jehovah's Witness, who think that giving allegiance to a country would mean putting that country over God. Even if any of my teachers didn't like this reasoning, they were obliged to keep quiet and accept it. There was a Supreme Court case about this exact issue.

Left JWs as an adult, so I never had to do it.

[–] [email protected] 132 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

I stopped in elementary school.

At the time, it was because I was convinced that the pledge was essentially worshipping a false idol, and if I continued to do it, I would go to hell. Teachers couldn't fight that argument. Students didn't fuck with it either. I stood. I didn't cross my heart, and I didn't say it.

About 6th or 7th grade, I started challenging my "faith" and realized that the pledge was essentially swearing fealty to something that was supposed to serve the people, not the other way around. By highschool, I didn't even stand for it anymore. It was nationalism.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I did the same. Stopped in elementary school. Cited religion and worshiping "something above God"

Never stood up for the anthem in homeroom again.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If only there were more in this world with such critical thinking, maybe we wouldn't be in such a shit state.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It doesn't make sense. Critical thinking enables survival. Sometimes it's not fun. Sometimes it doesn't feel great.

But it's typically more rewarding that not. That's what I don't understand.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago

Unfortunately for us tribalism also enables survival

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

To get those rewards you typically have to endure some hardship or struggle first tho, and many people can’t tolerate that. They just want their creature comforts. It’s how you get hoarders drowning in their takeout buckets.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Given a choice, the brain will always take the laziest path. Which is why watching a screen and turning off your brain is so easy. The fact that it's also designed to give you a dopamine hit makes it hard to stop.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago

Being the person that won’t stand for the national anthem at a hockey game is fun too. You fully expect some asshole to give you shit but it hasn’t happened yet.

[–] [email protected] 95 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Fiest time I had to do the pledge, I just got to America from Taiwan and I honestly thought the pledge was a Christian/religion thing because of the "....under god" thing. So I told my teacher that my family is Buddhist and can't do the pledge.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Fun fact! “Fun”, actually.

Under God wasn’t in the original version. It wasn’t added until 1954 because they didn’t to be like communist countries and be seen as a secular government.

Good old fashion forcing religion on your citizens.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

This was also the same time "In God We Trust" was added to all coins and paper money.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

That makes sense. It did seem like the under god was out of place. Everything else flowed pretty well until the under god part.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 4 days ago

You weren't wrong, exactly

[–] [email protected] 56 points 4 days ago

I sat down every time and my teacher would get pissed. I finally told her that my grandpa fought in WWII for my right to protest and that shit her up real fast. I'm not going to pledge my aliegence to an inanimate object, I shouldn't have to prove my love for my country with a pledge.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 days ago

Americans are cultists

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