How important is patriotism, loyalty and glory to your country to you?

26 comments

1. It’s not something I spend a ton of time thinking about.

   Edit: I believe taking pride in one’s country, and having a desire to see it improve, is positive. Letting this pride turn into some kind of jingoistic fervor isn’t.

2. Patriotism to the ideals that the US was founded upon ( life, Liberty, property) is very important

   Nationalism to the existing State is cancerous

3. Before an answer, are you one who confuses patriotism with nationalism?

4. I am pretty anti-America. Maybe the least patriotic person I know. Unless a confederate guy comes around, in which case I back my boys in blue (Sherman’s army)

5. Not very. I like my country, but I’m not above criticizing it. You can love someone while calling out their shortcomings.

6. Is this question a joke? It sounds bizarre.

7. Loyalty to my country is about the people and not the government to me. Wanting my government to be the best it can be or be the most helpful and supportive to its citizens is where my head is at.

   But I wouldn’t step on a Canadian person to make room for a US-American person either.

   Patriotism, loyalty, and Glory to my country come from the people. When people in this country do well it makes me happy and proud.

8. Not important at all. There are aspects of this country I can be proud of but I’ve learned that the same values, efforts, and policies can also be found the world over and this it feels…awkward(?) to place so much value in the country I had no choice being born into. Like I get it, it could 100% definitely be worse but I get the feeling the immediate “post 9/11 patriotism fever” really desensitized me at a younger age so I’ve just never really been patriotic.

9. Excluding the “glory to your country” part (which I’m not sure quite what that means, and sounds a little jingoistic), to me personally, patriotism and loyalty are good things, but with the understanding that patriotism and loyalty can take a *lot* of forms. Patriotism and loyalty do not mean unquestioning acceptance of everything that the country does, unqualified support for our leaders, etc. It’s equally or more patriotic to acknowledge what our country could be doing better and to work, within the boundaries of the law, to advocate for your desired changes.

10. It’s not important at all.

11. I love my country but don’t subscribe to jingoism and blind patriotism.

12. highly unimportant (except for international sports, which cause me to become insufferable and toxically pro-USA)

13. Patriotism- important, as long as it’s not confused with nationalism.

    Loyalty- important. I know we’ve hit some rough times, but I’ll be here to help patch things up if I can.

    Glory- not important at all.

14. I feel fiercely loyal to my fellow Americans. I am critical and frustrated with my country often, and that is bc of how great I believe it can be. I don’t believe in blind patriotism or nationalism. to me, that’s un-american.

15. Not really that important. I’m grateful to be born here and live here and recognize the privileges that come with being born here, but outside of that I don’t think about any of those things that much.

16. It almost never crosses my mind at all.

17. Glory? Yikes.

18. I care about the people, not the country.

19. Very.

    Now the *government*…

20. Not at all really.

21. Very big in the first two, don’t really care about the third.

22. Glory is overrated, a relic of an antiquated world view of how countries should act. The closest modern analog is reputation, which for many reasons will always be muddied.

23. For me, those things are not important in any real way.

    Patriotism can be neutral, but it often slides into much nastier stuff. In general I dislike American Exceptionalism. We aren’t special for being American in a way that Italians aren’t equally special for being Italian (just as an example).

    Loyalty is a tough one, because many people interpret it differently. For me, I would say I am loyal in that I wouldn’t act to intentionally betray my country – but I wouldn’t fight for it or die for it, and I don’t salute the flag or say the pledge.

    Glory, I don’t really know how to interpret in this context.

    I was born here, live here, pay taxes here, and have a family here. I didn’t choose to be here, and I don’t really have a way to go elsewhere without losing more than I gain. So, I’m an American.

24. Not at all personally.

25. Not important. Like, please don’t commit treason or domestic terrorism, but otherwise I don’t really care. One of the things I love about America is that we are free to dislike America.

26. I’m patriotic and love the US but I’m not loyal to it in that I can see no faults or completely trust the government, in fact I’m rather the opposite. I also don’t know what you mean by glory, what do you mean?