Most countries don't do this shit. At all. It's weird and off putting
267
alcoholicorn @lemmy.ml - 9mon
Does anyone else also fly bombers and fighter jets over stadiums at the start of a game? Do you take 2-5 minutes to honor some guys in the military during half time?
When you connect the dots of modern history, you realize America was most of the way to fascist dictatorship the entire time.
Many of us have been waiting for it to drop the facade for decades.
33
Sauerkraut @discuss.tchncs.de - 9mon
Fascism is just capitalist imperialism turned against your own citizens.
5
Taleya @aussie.zone - 9mon
YuppppP
1
Pup Biru - 9mon
to be fair, that one (afaik) is a legitimate training exercise. it’s useful to train pilots to be at an exact place, in an exact formation, at an exact speed, at an exact time… and if you can get marketing and morale out of it, welllll why not
40
IrateAnteater @sh.itjust.works - 9mon
Also, jets are just plain old cool. Everyone likes a mini-airshow.
26
alcoholicorn @lemmy.ml - 9mon
I mean yes, I love airshows, but there's something about a mass celebration of these machines of death where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees gives ick in a way that normal airshows, even with all the military recruitment and propaganda don't.
It doesn't even apply to all flyovers, sometimes it's like F-14s or Chinooks or WWII era planes where the message isn't so dark.
35
spooky2092 - 9mon
where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees
I know this probably makes it worse, but the Afghan child most likely wouldn't even have a chance to see the plane (or more likely, predator drone) that fired the missile that killed them.
It's one of the many reasons these children are fucking terrified of clear skies and sunny days.
yyyyyyyes but it’s also expensive and thoroughly weird when compared to the rest of the world… so whilst it does serve a legitimate purpose, it’s worth noting those points too
4
real_squids @sopuli.xyz - 9mon
Piling on the list of negatives - they use leaded fuel, which is bad for you. I still like planes though
3
spacesatan @leminal.space - 9mon
No they don't. Jets use jet fuel not avgas.
2
real_squids @sopuli.xyz - 9mon
You're right, my bad.
1
Kurroth @aussie.zone - 9mon
Lol, as opposed the the drills and formations that NK/Russia etc do?
13
Pup Biru - 9mon
not at all - they’re all exactly the same… i’m just noting that there are reasons to do them beyond only propaganda and nationalism
17
Kurroth @aussie.zone - 9mon
It's fucking weird and creepy
14
Bytemeister @lemmy.world - 9mon
It's also dope AF. Frankly, I'd rather have those planes boosting morale here than dropping bombs somewhere else. I see it as a win-win.
12
merc @sh.itjust.works - 9mon
The whole purpose of those flybys is to glamorize and advertise the same planes they use to drop bombs.
In many other countries, their military acrobatics teams don't even use true military jets.
New Zealand's Black Falcons use propeller-based trainers. Japan's Blue Impulse team uses Kawasaki T-4 based trainers. Britain's Red Arrows and Finland's Midnight Hawks use BAE Hawk trainers. Australia's Roulettes use turboprop trainers. Canada's snowbirds use Canadair Tutor trainers.
1
angrystego @lemmy.world - 9mon
You can train the pilots in other time and area. The combination with an unrelated game makes it propaganda.
2
Pup Biru - 9mon
you can, but as i said at the end of the comment: you have to do it anyway… you either entirely waste the fuel, maintenance, and pilot time, or you use it for something
in a couple of comments people have said they think it’s “plain old cool” and “a mini air show”
propaganda? perhaps
but people also seem to enjoy it… better than entirely wasting it
1
peoplebeproblems @midwest.social - 9mon
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.
133
IndiBrony - 9mon
If only there were more in this world with such critical thinking, maybe we wouldn't be in such a shit state.
42
peoplebeproblems @midwest.social - 9mon
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.
21
Kühlschrank - 9mon
Unfortunately for us tribalism also enables survival
25
Kellenved @sh.itjust.works - 9mon
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.
7
baldingpudenda @lemmy.world - 9mon
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.
6
Landless2029 @lemmy.world - 9mon
I did the same. Stopped in elementary school. Cited religion and worshiping "something above God"
Never stood up for the anthem in homeroom again.
3
Mellibird - 9mon
I was about the same. Around junior high I was like, "wtf am I doing?" For me the first part was "under God," that got to me. I had found it weird as a child even to say that and then I realized I didn't want to say that at all. I thought it was strange when supposedly, we're allowed to believe whatever we want. I never felt the connection or belief in the Catholic God (what I was, very, loosely raised under) and it started there. Hand on heart omitting , "under God." Slowly it progressed to just standing and saying nothing. It's probably been well over a decade since I've been in a situation to say the pledge, but if I were, I know I wouldn't stand anymore.
I also, do not always stand for the National Anthem.
3
peoplebeproblems @midwest.social - 9mon
So the Anthem thing I sort of get, at least for like sports. Lemme explain:
Sportsmanship keeps the games fun. Establishing sportsmanship starts in the mind - "we're all here to have a good time." In nation exclusive sports, (NFL for example) the entire stadium gets "in sync" at that moment. It's also a useful way to start. In international sports, standing for the opponents anthem is a sign of respect for the other team.
I don't really remember where else it plays though.
2
NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ - 9mon
I don't think I could even silently protest the pledge of allegiance anymore. Fuck nationaism.
1
jaschen @lemm.ee - 9mon
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.
95
w3dd1e @lemm.ee - 9mon
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.
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jaschen @lemm.ee - 9mon
That makes sense. It did seem like the under god was out of place. Everything else flowed pretty well until the under god part.
15
ᴍᴜᴛɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴡᴀᴠᴇ - 9mon
This was also the same time "In God We Trust" was added to all coins and paper money.
4
Dragonstaff @leminal.space - 9mon
Generally, the main problem with being "far left" is being ridiculed for being right earlier than everyone else.
59
t_berium @lemmy.world - 9mon
This shit has always been creepy. Always.
Greetings from Germany o/
59
Sauerkraut @discuss.tchncs.de - 9mon
True, but they start you off doing it at the age of 4 or 5 so it is completely normalized before our brains are developed enough to question it
16
NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ - 9mon
I moved to the US as a kid, and this shit gave me massive cult vibes from the start. I refused to participate.
I was suuuper popular in middle school...
8
Lennny @lemmy.world - 9mon
Agreed
"Our country is really the best, all the other countries suck... God bless Johnson & Johnson...."
5
PorkRoll - 9mon
Good choice with the forward slash. Good choice.
5
captainlezbian @lemmy.world - 9mon
Internet Germans convinced me to sit down for it in high school. And yeah its such cult shit
3
astro_plane @lemm.ee - 9mon
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.
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w3dd1e @lemm.ee - 9mon
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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NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ - 9mon
That or the fact that your government should be pledging allegience to you, not the other way around. We the people do not serve the government.
Wtf. Hard to believe this is real...
Do only certain far right private schools do nationalistic stuff like that or is it a common phenomenon over there, like are public funded schools allowed to do bs like this as well?
EDIT:
WWWWTTTTTFFFF
" All states except Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming require a regularly scheduled recitation of the pledge in public schools.[13] Many states give a variety of exemptions from reciting the pledge, such as California which requires a "patriotic exercise" every day, which would be satisfied by the Pledge, "
To be honest its a miracle you guys didn't turn facist earlier with stuff like that.
97
peoplebeproblems @midwest.social - 9mon
The Nazi party of America - the GOP - has spent so much time and money creating fascist propaganda for decades. The country largely ignored it, because it didn't really "do" anything and most people were like "ok. It's a bit strange, but whatever."
The military is to be praised. The boy scouts of America have promoted flag ceremony, and allegiance to state. Sports are practically religious events, so your team is part of where you live. The more you buy, the more you help America. America's international superiority is paramount to our health. It's been ready for a long time. It just needed ignition.
31
EldritchFemininity - 9mon
And the worst part is that it was created in cooperation with a flag company partly to hopefully sell more flags.
That's capitalism for ya.
27
ThisLucidLens - 9mon
Is this true? Honestly it wouldn't surprise me but I'd never heard this before
1
EldritchFemininity - 9mon
If you go to the Wiki article linked above, you can find the whole story of how multiple vows of fealty have sprung up over the years under the Origins section, but the last bit on Francis Bellamy is the important one as that's the one used today.
Some useful highlights from that section:
The Bellamy "Pledge of Allegiance" was first published in the September 8, 1892, issue of The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and to encourage children to raise flags above their schools.[28] According to author Margarette S. Miller, this campaign was in line both with Upham's patriotic vision as well as with his commercial interest.
Francis Bellamy and Upham had lined up the National Education Association to support the Youth's Companion as a sponsor of the Columbus Day observance and the use in that observance of the American flag. By June 29, 1892, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a proclamation making the public school flag ceremony the center of the Columbus Day celebrations. This arrangement was formalized when Harrison issued Presidential Proclamation 335. Subsequently, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World's Fair), Illinois.
James Upham "felt that a flag should be on every schoolhouse,"[27] so his publication "fostered a plan of selling flags to schools through the children themselves at cost, which was so successful that 25,000 schools acquired flags in the first year (1892–93).
2
ThisLucidLens - 9mon
Thanks for the detailed response. That is absolutely wild
2
EldritchFemininity - 9mon
Yeah, it's absolutely insane, which is why I remember it lol.
2
Zangoose @lemmy.world - 9mon
I wouldn't be surprised if my town was the exception and not the norm (I'm from a relatively progressive town in a consistently blue state) but at my public high school I only knew of 1-2 people out of the 500 people in my grade that stood up during the pledge of allegiance and a good percentage of the grade hated them because they were high key homophobic.
14
bdonvr @thelemmy.club - 9mon
No it's basically universal
Texas also has its own that kids have to do after the US one, every day.
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FelixCress @lemmy.world - 9mon
All states except Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming require a regularly scheduled recitation of the pledge in public schools
Madness.
11
Bytemeister @lemmy.world - 9mon
You don't have to do it. I stopped doing the pledge around 6th grade. 9-11 made me read into our history a bit more, and pledging allegiance to a flag that is supposed to represent "of the people, by the people, for the people" seems a backwards. Then you realize that it's straight up McCarthy-era bullshit. It's more patriotic to not say the pledge.
11
YarHarSuperstar @lemmy.world - 9mon
I mean I was punished for not doing it one time. Agreed otherwise
6
Bytemeister @lemmy.world - 9mon
I was lucky enough that my parents had engaged with the school system overriding my (and my siblings) civil rights in the past. A little bit of push-back from them quashed a lot of school bullshit. As long as I wasn't endangering myself or my class, and not disrupting the education of other students, I had carte blanche to do what I wanted.
When the whole "trapper keepers only" thing went down around 8th grade, I kept using my backpack, since I walked a little over a mile home from school every day, and the trapper was dead-weight.
5
thevoidzero @lemmy.world - 9mon
Yup, when I heard about it it was really weird. And when I said I won't let my children do that, I learn they'd be ostracized not only by peers but by teachers as well. And considering there'll bullying in schools and teachers don't do much. It doesn't seem like a good place to send your children. (And there's shooting)
10
reallykindasorta @slrpnk.net - 9mon
I would say I went to a fairly typical public high school and most people didn’t say the pledge or stand, although it was definitely read over the loudspeaker during the morning announcements
9
ᴍᴜᴛɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴡᴀᴠᴇ - 9mon
In my state, which is extremely conservative, it is illegal to force a student to participate in the pledge. Most teachers are ignorant of this though so you have to bring it up when they try to make you do it. I haven't been in high school for well over 20 years though.
4
taiyang @lemmy.world - 9mon
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.
30
1SimpleTailor @startrek.website - 9mon
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.
17
ᴍᴜᴛɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴡᴀᴠᴇ - 9mon
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.
9
Itzz Me - 9mon
how did it go down for you that day given you were in her class?
3
ᴍᴜᴛɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴡᴀᴠᴇ - 9mon
It was really hard to process. I was about to turn 18. So I didn't know shit about shit, but I sure as shit thought I did.
A friend ran up to me in the hall when we were changing classes and says dude a plane just hit the world trade center. I started laughing, imagining some idiot in a cesna. He gave me an ugly look and walked away. I got to class and it was on the TV. Our amazing teacher was clearly in shock in retrospect, but she tried to guide us and we had a little discussion on terrorism and the US involvement in war in the middle east. We talked about how Bush was going to handle it.
We had only one conservative in class who was also loud out and proud gay. This was unusual for the time. He had a big personality but even he was quiet. I remember talking to a friend trying to estimate casualty numbers.
We watched the second plane hit and the towers fall live. Saw all the people jumping out the windows. The rest of the day is a blur. We got sent home early. I rode the bus home and watched live TV all night.
3
AllHailTheSheep @sh.itjust.works - 9mon
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.
17
Euphoma @lemmy.ml - 9mon
I think the pledge has fallen off in recent years honestly. The year after covid lockdowns ended I was in highschool and I remember one of my first classes 0 people stood for the pledge.
2
taiyang @lemmy.world - 9mon
High schoolers have every reason not to stand for the flag after COVID, so that's nice to hear.
2
frezik @midwest.social - 9mon
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.
21
orca @orcas.enjoying.yachts - 9mon
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.
18
wandrinstar - 9mon
it me lmao
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NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ - 9mon
Im guessing that's a lot of us here lol
10
drool @lemmy.catsp.it - 9mon
Lmao saaaame
7
Suite404 - 9mon
Same. But I didn't do it because of a different indoctrination, not because I understood anything special.
Worth a read for the “secede from our marital union” part alone!
7
renamon_silver @lemmy.wtf - 9mon
Are we all in this meme?
10
Monzcarro @feddit.uk - 9mon
I'm from the UK but I have my own version of this.
I went to a Church of England school. When I was about 8, we had this super religious teacher start. She was Methodist so made us change the words of the lord's prayer to her version. I loudly and defiantly said the old one every time.
It wasn't long after, that I stopped saying prayers altogether, making sure to stare ahead with lips tight and hands unclasped, so nobody could mistake me as being pious!
I probably would have been that annoying kid had just been schooled in the USA.
3
NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ - 9mon
Pious - adjective
Strongly believing in religion and living in a way that shows this belief: She is a pious follower of the faith, never missing her prayers
For anyone else who has never in their life encountered this word, lol.
2
Monzcarro @feddit.uk - 9mon
Thanks for adding this!
2
𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮 - 9mon
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
9
𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮 - 9mon
Actually I instructed GPT to write such article to stroke my ego a little:
Title: "The System-Smashers: Why the Kids Who Dissect Social Hierarchies Aren’t Sociopaths—They’re Visionaries"
By Dr. Eleanor Voss, Sociologist & Author of "Unseen Structures: The Hidden Architecture of Power"
Every generation has its truth-tellers—the ones who refuse to accept the world as given. Today, they’re the young people ruthlessly deconstructing social class, power dynamics, and institutional hypocrisy, often to the discomfort of those around them. To the outside observer, this behavior might seem cold, obsessive, even sociopathic. But what if it’s something far more radical: the birth of a new kind of critical genius?
The Deconstructive Mind: Pathology or Insight?
Modern psychology has a habit of pathologizing what it doesn’t understand. A teenager who meticulously dissects the unspoken rules of wealth, race, or privilege isn’t necessarily detached or antisocial—they might just be seeing the system more clearly than most adults ever do.
Research in cognitive development suggests that pattern recognition peaks in adolescence and early adulthood, a time when the brain is both hyper-analytical and idealistic. Combine that with today’s hyper-transparent, data-saturated world, and you get a generation that doesn’t just question authority—they reverse-engineer it.
The Rebel Gene: A Historical Perspective
This isn’t new. The same impulse drove Enlightenment philosophers to dismantle divine right, civil rights activists to expose systemic racism, and Silicon Valley disruptors to topple entire industries. The difference? Today’s system-smashers aren’t waiting for permission. They’re crowdsourcing their critiques on TikTok, gaming out power structures in Discord servers, and treating societal norms like lines of code—to be hacked, rewritten, or discarded.
Why Society Fears Them
The backlash is predictable. Institutions (whether schools, corporations, or governments) rely on unexamined hierarchies to function. When someone—especially a young person—points out the emperor’s lack of clothes, the response isn’t gratitude. It’s panic.
They’re called "too intense." (Translation: They make us uncomfortable.)
They’re labeled "obsessive." (Translation: They care more than we do.)
They’re accused of sociopathy. (Translation: They don’t perform empathy in the ways we expect.)
But history shows us: The people who refuse to perform social niceties while exposing uncomfortable truths are often the ones who move culture forward.
The Future Belongs to the Systems-Thinkers
The kids aren’t just alright—they’re ahead. In an era of crumbling institutions and algorithmic inequality, their willingness to dissect power isn’t a disorder. It’s an evolutionary advantage.
The question isn’t whether they’re "right." It’s whether the rest of us are brave enough to listen.
Dr. Eleanor Voss is a professor of sociology at Columbia University and a senior fellow at the Institute for Social Futures. Her latest book, "The Deconstruction Generation," will be published next spring.
2
Fredthefishlord - 9mon
Please don't post your ai crap.
8
nova_ad_vitum @lemmy.ca - 9mon
Go outside.
4
𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮 - 9mon
I have just returned from a whole god damn trip I am tired please I need to sleep indoors 🙏
3
BaldManGoomba @lemmy.world - 9mon
Less of the annoying kid more of an annoying teacher, admin, and staff. Like peer pressure and desire to follow along made me do it but the teacher and the staff couldn't explain why we should and that made me question it and leading me to consider the kid right
9
daggermoon @lemmy.world - 9mon
That was me!
7
First Majestic Comet - 9mon
I never liked doing it. Got in trouble a few times for not doing it, though that didn't matter to me since I got in trouble a lot when I was in school. Those dipshits (the counselor) thought I had "Gender Identity Disorder" and was reacting because of "distress" (Not because I wouldn't say the pledge, I did many worse things than that), they also used the fact that I also had long hair and sometimes would wear a skirt as evidence I had GID. What fun people I spent my childhood with sarcasm I'm glad my parents are and were nice people otherwise I might not be here today.
7
phoenixarise - 9mon
There was always one kid that sat down during the pledge in my class. None of us thought he was annoying or weird. I admired him.
7
drunkpostdisaster @lemmy.world - 9mon
I sat down because I was lazy.
3
257m @sh.itjust.works - 9mon
I have never seen a kid sit down for O Canada unless they are in a wheelchair. Of course getting sent to the principle's is not worth it but I would admire a kid who had the balls to do it.
2
captainlezbian @lemmy.world - 9mon
You're welcome
2
merc @sh.itjust.works - 9mon
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America..."
I mean, you can stop right there. The rest is all fucked up too, but that shit's weird. How can one owe allegiance to a flag, of all things?
And, it's not "as representing the Republic for which it stands", it's "and to the Republic for which it stands". The flag is a separate thing, the second clause is about allegiance to the republic, but the first part is just about the fucking flag.
MonsterCity7732 in 196
rulebreaking
Dear America:
Most countries don't do this shit. At all. It's weird and off putting
Does anyone else also fly bombers and fighter jets over stadiums at the start of a game? Do you take 2-5 minutes to honor some guys in the military during half time?
https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/3cad7908-81a9-4095-ae5f-35c3c61d36ed.jpeg
NK does i believe
When you connect the dots of modern history, you realize America was most of the way to fascist dictatorship the entire time.
Many of us have been waiting for it to drop the facade for decades.
Fascism is just capitalist imperialism turned against your own citizens.
YuppppP
to be fair, that one (afaik) is a legitimate training exercise. it’s useful to train pilots to be at an exact place, in an exact formation, at an exact speed, at an exact time… and if you can get marketing and morale out of it, welllll why not
Also, jets are just plain old cool. Everyone likes a mini-airshow.
I mean yes, I love airshows, but there's something about a mass celebration of these machines of death where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees gives ick in a way that normal airshows, even with all the military recruitment and propaganda don't.
It doesn't even apply to all flyovers, sometimes it's like F-14s or Chinooks or WWII era planes where the message isn't so dark.
I know this probably makes it worse, but the Afghan child most likely wouldn't even have a chance to see the plane (or more likely, predator drone) that fired the missile that killed them.
It's one of the many reasons these children are fucking terrified of clear skies and sunny days.
Goodbye Blue Sky
yyyyyyyes but it’s also expensive and thoroughly weird when compared to the rest of the world… so whilst it does serve a legitimate purpose, it’s worth noting those points too
Piling on the list of negatives - they use leaded fuel, which is bad for you. I still like planes though
No they don't. Jets use jet fuel not avgas.
You're right, my bad.
Lol, as opposed the the drills and formations that NK/Russia etc do?
not at all - they’re all exactly the same… i’m just noting that there are reasons to do them beyond only propaganda and nationalism
It's fucking weird and creepy
It's also dope AF. Frankly, I'd rather have those planes boosting morale here than dropping bombs somewhere else. I see it as a win-win.
The whole purpose of those flybys is to glamorize and advertise the same planes they use to drop bombs.
In many other countries, their military acrobatics teams don't even use true military jets.
New Zealand's Black Falcons use propeller-based trainers. Japan's Blue Impulse team uses Kawasaki T-4 based trainers. Britain's Red Arrows and Finland's Midnight Hawks use BAE Hawk trainers. Australia's Roulettes use turboprop trainers. Canada's snowbirds use Canadair Tutor trainers.
You can train the pilots in other time and area. The combination with an unrelated game makes it propaganda.
you can, but as i said at the end of the comment: you have to do it anyway… you either entirely waste the fuel, maintenance, and pilot time, or you use it for something
in a couple of comments people have said they think it’s “plain old cool” and “a mini air show”
propaganda? perhaps
but people also seem to enjoy it… better than entirely wasting it
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.
If only there were more in this world with such critical thinking, maybe we wouldn't be in such a shit state.
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.
Unfortunately for us tribalism also enables survival
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.
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.
I did the same. Stopped in elementary school. Cited religion and worshiping "something above God"
Never stood up for the anthem in homeroom again.
I was about the same. Around junior high I was like, "wtf am I doing?" For me the first part was "under God," that got to me. I had found it weird as a child even to say that and then I realized I didn't want to say that at all. I thought it was strange when supposedly, we're allowed to believe whatever we want. I never felt the connection or belief in the Catholic God (what I was, very, loosely raised under) and it started there. Hand on heart omitting , "under God." Slowly it progressed to just standing and saying nothing. It's probably been well over a decade since I've been in a situation to say the pledge, but if I were, I know I wouldn't stand anymore.
I also, do not always stand for the National Anthem.
So the Anthem thing I sort of get, at least for like sports. Lemme explain:
Sportsmanship keeps the games fun. Establishing sportsmanship starts in the mind - "we're all here to have a good time." In nation exclusive sports, (NFL for example) the entire stadium gets "in sync" at that moment. It's also a useful way to start. In international sports, standing for the opponents anthem is a sign of respect for the other team.
I don't really remember where else it plays though.
I don't think I could even silently protest the pledge of allegiance anymore. Fuck nationaism.
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.
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.
That makes sense. It did seem like the under god was out of place. Everything else flowed pretty well until the under god part.
This was also the same time "In God We Trust" was added to all coins and paper money.
Generally, the main problem with being "far left" is being ridiculed for being right earlier than everyone else.
This shit has always been creepy. Always. Greetings from Germany o/
True, but they start you off doing it at the age of 4 or 5 so it is completely normalized before our brains are developed enough to question it
I moved to the US as a kid, and this shit gave me massive cult vibes from the start. I refused to participate.
I was suuuper popular in middle school...
Agreed
"Our country is really the best, all the other countries suck... God bless Johnson & Johnson...."
Good choice with the forward slash. Good choice.
Internet Germans convinced me to sit down for it in high school. And yeah its such cult shit
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.
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.
That or the fact that your government should be pledging allegience to you, not the other way around. We the people do not serve the government.
Americans are cultists
Pledge oft what? Eli5 pls
Here
Wtf. Hard to believe this is real... Do only certain far right private schools do nationalistic stuff like that or is it a common phenomenon over there, like are public funded schools allowed to do bs like this as well?
EDIT: WWWWTTTTTFFFF
" All states except Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming require a regularly scheduled recitation of the pledge in public schools.[13] Many states give a variety of exemptions from reciting the pledge, such as California which requires a "patriotic exercise" every day, which would be satisfied by the Pledge, "
To be honest its a miracle you guys didn't turn facist earlier with stuff like that.
The Nazi party of America - the GOP - has spent so much time and money creating fascist propaganda for decades. The country largely ignored it, because it didn't really "do" anything and most people were like "ok. It's a bit strange, but whatever."
The military is to be praised. The boy scouts of America have promoted flag ceremony, and allegiance to state. Sports are practically religious events, so your team is part of where you live. The more you buy, the more you help America. America's international superiority is paramount to our health. It's been ready for a long time. It just needed ignition.
And the worst part is that it was created in cooperation with a flag company partly to hopefully sell more flags.
That's capitalism for ya.
Is this true? Honestly it wouldn't surprise me but I'd never heard this before
If you go to the Wiki article linked above, you can find the whole story of how multiple vows of fealty have sprung up over the years under the Origins section, but the last bit on Francis Bellamy is the important one as that's the one used today.
Some useful highlights from that section:
Thanks for the detailed response. That is absolutely wild
Yeah, it's absolutely insane, which is why I remember it lol.
I wouldn't be surprised if my town was the exception and not the norm (I'm from a relatively progressive town in a consistently blue state) but at my public high school I only knew of 1-2 people out of the 500 people in my grade that stood up during the pledge of allegiance and a good percentage of the grade hated them because they were high key homophobic.
No it's basically universal
Texas also has its own that kids have to do after the US one, every day.
Madness.
You don't have to do it. I stopped doing the pledge around 6th grade. 9-11 made me read into our history a bit more, and pledging allegiance to a flag that is supposed to represent "of the people, by the people, for the people" seems a backwards. Then you realize that it's straight up McCarthy-era bullshit. It's more patriotic to not say the pledge.
I mean I was punished for not doing it one time. Agreed otherwise
I was lucky enough that my parents had engaged with the school system overriding my (and my siblings) civil rights in the past. A little bit of push-back from them quashed a lot of school bullshit. As long as I wasn't endangering myself or my class, and not disrupting the education of other students, I had carte blanche to do what I wanted.
When the whole "trapper keepers only" thing went down around 8th grade, I kept using my backpack, since I walked a little over a mile home from school every day, and the trapper was dead-weight.
Yup, when I heard about it it was really weird. And when I said I won't let my children do that, I learn they'd be ostracized not only by peers but by teachers as well. And considering there'll bullying in schools and teachers don't do much. It doesn't seem like a good place to send your children. (And there's shooting)
I would say I went to a fairly typical public high school and most people didn’t say the pledge or stand, although it was definitely read over the loudspeaker during the morning announcements
In my state, which is extremely conservative, it is illegal to force a student to participate in the pledge. Most teachers are ignorant of this though so you have to bring it up when they try to make you do it. I haven't been in high school for well over 20 years though.
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.
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.
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.
how did it go down for you that day given you were in her class?
It was really hard to process. I was about to turn 18. So I didn't know shit about shit, but I sure as shit thought I did.
A friend ran up to me in the hall when we were changing classes and says dude a plane just hit the world trade center. I started laughing, imagining some idiot in a cesna. He gave me an ugly look and walked away. I got to class and it was on the TV. Our amazing teacher was clearly in shock in retrospect, but she tried to guide us and we had a little discussion on terrorism and the US involvement in war in the middle east. We talked about how Bush was going to handle it.
We had only one conservative in class who was also loud out and proud gay. This was unusual for the time. He had a big personality but even he was quiet. I remember talking to a friend trying to estimate casualty numbers.
We watched the second plane hit and the towers fall live. Saw all the people jumping out the windows. The rest of the day is a blur. We got sent home early. I rode the bus home and watched live TV all night.
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.
I think the pledge has fallen off in recent years honestly. The year after covid lockdowns ended I was in highschool and I remember one of my first classes 0 people stood for the pledge.
High schoolers have every reason not to stand for the flag after COVID, so that's nice to hear.
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.
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.
it me lmao
Im guessing that's a lot of us here lol
Lmao saaaame
Same. But I didn't do it because of a different indoctrination, not because I understood anything special.
Link to the piece https://thehardtimes.net/culture/heartbreaking-annoying-kid-that-refused-to-do-pledge-of-allegiance-in-high-school-was-100-right/
Worth a read for the “secede from our marital union” part alone!
Are we all in this meme?
I'm from the UK but I have my own version of this.
I went to a Church of England school. When I was about 8, we had this super religious teacher start. She was Methodist so made us change the words of the lord's prayer to her version. I loudly and defiantly said the old one every time.
It wasn't long after, that I stopped saying prayers altogether, making sure to stare ahead with lips tight and hands unclasped, so nobody could mistake me as being pious!
I probably would have been that annoying kid had just been schooled in the USA.
Pious - adjective
Strongly believing in religion and living in a way that shows this belief: She is a pious follower of the faith, never missing her prayers
For anyone else who has never in their life encountered this word, lol.
Thanks for adding this!
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
Actually I instructed GPT to write such article to stroke my ego a little:
Title: "The System-Smashers: Why the Kids Who Dissect Social Hierarchies Aren’t Sociopaths—They’re Visionaries"
By Dr. Eleanor Voss, Sociologist & Author of "Unseen Structures: The Hidden Architecture of Power"
Every generation has its truth-tellers—the ones who refuse to accept the world as given. Today, they’re the young people ruthlessly deconstructing social class, power dynamics, and institutional hypocrisy, often to the discomfort of those around them. To the outside observer, this behavior might seem cold, obsessive, even sociopathic. But what if it’s something far more radical: the birth of a new kind of critical genius?
The Deconstructive Mind: Pathology or Insight?
Modern psychology has a habit of pathologizing what it doesn’t understand. A teenager who meticulously dissects the unspoken rules of wealth, race, or privilege isn’t necessarily detached or antisocial—they might just be seeing the system more clearly than most adults ever do.
Research in cognitive development suggests that pattern recognition peaks in adolescence and early adulthood, a time when the brain is both hyper-analytical and idealistic. Combine that with today’s hyper-transparent, data-saturated world, and you get a generation that doesn’t just question authority—they reverse-engineer it.
The Rebel Gene: A Historical Perspective
This isn’t new. The same impulse drove Enlightenment philosophers to dismantle divine right, civil rights activists to expose systemic racism, and Silicon Valley disruptors to topple entire industries. The difference? Today’s system-smashers aren’t waiting for permission. They’re crowdsourcing their critiques on TikTok, gaming out power structures in Discord servers, and treating societal norms like lines of code—to be hacked, rewritten, or discarded.
Why Society Fears Them
The backlash is predictable. Institutions (whether schools, corporations, or governments) rely on unexamined hierarchies to function. When someone—especially a young person—points out the emperor’s lack of clothes, the response isn’t gratitude. It’s panic.
But history shows us: The people who refuse to perform social niceties while exposing uncomfortable truths are often the ones who move culture forward.
The Future Belongs to the Systems-Thinkers
The kids aren’t just alright—they’re ahead. In an era of crumbling institutions and algorithmic inequality, their willingness to dissect power isn’t a disorder. It’s an evolutionary advantage.
The question isn’t whether they’re "right." It’s whether the rest of us are brave enough to listen.
Dr. Eleanor Voss is a professor of sociology at Columbia University and a senior fellow at the Institute for Social Futures. Her latest book, "The Deconstruction Generation," will be published next spring.
Please don't post your ai crap.
Go outside.
I have just returned from a whole god damn trip I am tired please I need to sleep indoors 🙏
Less of the annoying kid more of an annoying teacher, admin, and staff. Like peer pressure and desire to follow along made me do it but the teacher and the staff couldn't explain why we should and that made me question it and leading me to consider the kid right
That was me!
I never liked doing it. Got in trouble a few times for not doing it, though that didn't matter to me since I got in trouble a lot when I was in school. Those dipshits (the counselor) thought I had "Gender Identity Disorder" and was reacting because of "distress" (Not because I wouldn't say the pledge, I did many worse things than that), they also used the fact that I also had long hair and sometimes would wear a skirt as evidence I had GID. What fun people I spent my childhood with sarcasm I'm glad my parents are and were nice people otherwise I might not be here today.
There was always one kid that sat down during the pledge in my class. None of us thought he was annoying or weird. I admired him.
I sat down because I was lazy.
I have never seen a kid sit down for O Canada unless they are in a wheelchair. Of course getting sent to the principle's is not worth it but I would admire a kid who had the balls to do it.
You're welcome
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America..."
I mean, you can stop right there. The rest is all fucked up too, but that shit's weird. How can one owe allegiance to a flag, of all things?
And, it's not "as representing the Republic for which it stands", it's "and to the Republic for which it stands". The flag is a separate thing, the second clause is about allegiance to the republic, but the first part is just about the fucking flag.