It's the damndest thing...

When I was growing up, they made me say a pledge every day that said "liberty and justice for all."

They taught me "the golden rule."

They sent me to church to learn about a guy who said we should help the poor and the sick, we should show love to each other.

They told me that "but everyone else is doing it" wasn't an excuse for my own bad behavior.

And now when I advocate for the things that they taught me, they call me a socialist or a communist.

@usdosp
Why did any of us agree to chant that stupid pledge every morning like a bad scene from an Orwell novel?

The Pledge of Allegiance is a loyalty oath, and a loyalty oath has no place in a free country. If the state wants our loyalty, it should earn it by doing things that benefit the masses.

Most of the rest of the world thinks the Pledge is [bad word] weird. We're the only ones that can't see that because we're the targets of this indoctrination.

@tofugolem @usdosp always found the US pledge of allegiance odd. I live in a country with a monarch who is still our head of state, and we don't even do something like that.

That and the obsession with the US flag.

Both bizarrely American.

@localzuk @usdosp
Look at the backlash to criticism of the loyalty oath.

Americans are among the most indoctrinated on the world, and our current politics show that we failed at the freedom thing.