patriotism

Is patriotism love of one's country no matter what, or is patriotism love of an abstract ideal, historically associated with one's country?

More importantly, if patriotism is the latter, how can the ideal be held constant in the face of changing policies and character?

"Patriotism" has become the rallying cry of those who want to promote and perpetuate current US policy, no matter what that may be. This is not a right / left issue. The left is every bit as guilty of perpetuating policies which violate the ideals of the historic US as the right. Those who argue against the use of military force against petty dictatorships who represent no threat to the US populace are ostracized as outsiders no less than those who argue for the rights of consenting adults in the privacy of their home to behave however they please.

The voices who accuse the US of irresponsibly perpetrating violence against foreign powers, of devaluing the dollar, of weakening US industry precisely through bailout policies, of perverting the concept of liberty through systematic spying on unaccused and uncharged citizens and the systematic imprisonment of citizens without trial, are accused of being "unpatriotic." What the fuck, then, is this amnesiac "patriotism," this cognitive-dissonance, this fools-elevated-to-kings as wise policy, blind eye, rampant assumption that no-human-other-than-those-agreeing-with-my-ideology are rational, this batshit-stupid and close-minded destruction of rationality "patriotism" - this believe-the-TV-not-the-constitution "patriotism," this thought as defecation, wisdom as disease, ignorance as virtue "patriotism"? This pro-torture, pro-theft, pro-persecution and profiling, pro-overspending and devaluing currency, pro-secrecy fascism patriotism? Really, you donkey-fucking, lie-between-your-teeth, fake-hair, private-school, secret-society, fake-ass war hero, imam-loving bible-eating-shitting-breathing-but-disbelieving dipshit? Really? Read the constitution you motherfucking illiterate asshole!

Why does "change" mean taking all the current anti-constitution, self-defeating crap policies and doing them more? Is it not just "patriotism," but "new," "change," and "different" that are in danger of being rewritten, replaced, 1984-style, in the dictionary?

And how the royal fuck is it that a supposedly "free" system of political change, supposedly exhibiting the virtue of "choice," offers as alternatives an inexperienced dipshit who claims "new blood" and "change" while picking the most establishment, old-blooded running mate he can find and a wishy-washy idiot, riding on the well-worn wave of past glory, and willing to put the nation in the hands of the inexperienced and close-minded just to score vapid political points. And how different are their policies? Supposedly one is the candidate of peace, the other of the hardline, yet when a true international crisis emerged (Georgia!) - both demonstrated the exact same idiotic cowboy mentality and, in particular, the hypocritical, fuckface "patriotism" which dictates "staying the course" rather than reevaluating policy in the light of ideals!

Ideas are dead. Or, at least, the object of systematic genocide. Repeating, thoughtlessly, uncritically, slogans and soundbytes - this is not thought, these are not ideas, this is not new, this will not make the US great, this will not restore the dignity of the US in the eyes of the world, this will not induce change.

Why not read a book you ignorant shit? or two, or ten? and not some comedian-as-political-commentator, written-by-a-ghostwriter-in-the-last-3-years whaleshit propaganda toilet-paper-printed-with-platitudes, a real fucking book written by a freethinking human being.

Maybe if more people did it, this hypocritical, shit-hole-of-an-excuse-for-a-free-political-system would actually produce a candidate worthy to lead the free world, someone who is informed, can think for themselves, and protect the ideals which produced this great nation, not simply mouth the petty slogans of his speechwriters and protect the jobs of the limp-dicked bureaucrats who surround his worthless carcass and defend it from justly-deserved ********.