| Strategyking92 said: Being proud of your country is great. |
Lol, well the Marxist struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is a question for another day 
Its way more complicated than "good" and "bad" patriotism, as many people who do believe in their country and have "good" patriotism are duped into supporting people who completely contort this country's values. And that's not really "good" patriotism, its more like "lazy" patriotism.
Its more like this:
Informed patriotism = good patriotism
Uninformed patriotism = bad/lazy patriotism
And sometimes being a good patriot means criticizing your country.
Staying informed about what the government is doing and criticizing the government for abusing its power either at the ballot box or by discussing these things is the only meaningful way a person can be a good patriot. You can talk all you want about how Farmer Fred who slaps American flag bumper stickers on his car and drones on about how much he loves the military is more patriotic than me. But the fact is that Farmer Fred probably doesn't know a damn thing about what the government is actually doing and probably doesn't even know that much about what it means when the government IS abusing its authority.
What does Farmer Fred know about his Due Process rights and what it means that the government must provide Equal Protection under the law to citizens within its jurisdiction? Does Farmer Fred even know any of the names of the Supreme Court justices currently on the bench? Does Farmer Fred even know when the government has done something unconstitutional? I bet you Farmer Fred can tell me who last season's winner on American Idol was though. That is essentially the average American in a nutshell: ignorant by choice.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
