Both concepts specifically appeal to those who are unable to achieve anything on their own—they serve to recruit these people against their own interests and therefore have parallels with and often the same effect as religion.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 hours ago

      But stopping things like flag pledges that I mentioned would make the word less powerful for misuse.

      Well, I can see that you disagree and I don’t think we’ll ever see eye to eye on this.

      My opinion is that patriotism and nationalism cause far more harm than good. Of course, one can disagree, but I haven’t read a single comment in this entire thread that addresses why patriotism is so important or what positive effects it has.

      Only references to the fact that nationalism and patriotism are not the same thing, which is clear to me — still: interestingly, no one has addressed where the difference lies. And no one has addressed the actual statement, namely that both concepts are abused as instruments of power.

      That’s a shame.

      • atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        1 hour ago

        But stopping things like flag pledges that I mentioned would make the word less powerful for misuse.

        Would stopping people from using the word “patriotism” help to stop that?

        I haven’t read a single comment in this entire thread that addresses why patriotism is so important or what positive effects it has.

        Even though i personally dont care about the word, i believe that allowing people to so easily erase the meanings of words can be more harmful than not forcing fascists to go from one word to another