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 +9001%
People who pledge allegiance to a flag and not values are bad - period!
Sustained freedom for everyone demands limits that prevent one person's free action from destroying the freedom of others. In other words, it demands an implicit pledge to that principle, at the very least.
@MartinFarrent @tofugolem @kkarhan
Agreed 100%
The one place where that gets dicey is when one's freedoms infringe on someone else's rights.
Which is why I say that if we cherry-pick rights, and who deserves them, then we don't actually have any rights, just privileges subject to the ever-changing whims of society.
@usdosp @MartinFarrent @kkarhan
Republicans are the most fanatical about making children chant this stupid thing, and they are the ones attacking our freedoms and launching violent coups against our government on an effort to overturn a free and fair election, so obviously the loyalty oath is not having the effect that you claim. It seems to be having previously the opposite effect.
I don't care about the existing loyalty oath in the USA... I am talking about loyalty to principles, rather than symbols.
P.S. People tend to forget that freedom also has a practical component. If you are legally free to go to university but can't afford to, that legal freedom is fiction.
US Dept of Shitposting
Tofu Golem
Kevin Karhan 
Martin Farrent