Microblog Memes

As soon as I was old enough to understand what “pledge allegiance” meant, I refused to participate. It’s antithetical to everything America was supposed to be about. Allegiance is something a subject owes to a sovereign. If you live somewhere that still has ties to monarchy like Canada or the UK, then it would make some amount of sense. In the US, however, it’s literally nothing more than authoritarian indoctrination.

Needless to say, that got me in trouble a lot, especially in new schools or with new teachers.

No no, liberty and justice for all [cishet white men]

It was always about obedience.

you know that meme where its the guy saying he prefers the original, and multiple options are thrown at him where he keeps saying "no the real original"

I feel like we have a case of that here, except its what Makes an American, and it continues getting reductive until you've narrowed it down to a Jingoistic or Ultranationalist/Manifest Destiny type WASP (White, Anglo-saxon heritage, Protestant faith christian)

I always thought the pledge of allegiance stood out as a bit of a strange brainwashing exercise for the free and fair democracy the United States seeks to be. In fact IMO the nationalism it represents and instils in Americans opened the door to MAGA.

Speaking of the pledge...

First, why pledge allegiance to a "flag"? It's weird, right?

Second, they added the phrase "under god" later after the pledge had already been adopted. But they also say, "indivisible". If atheists are full citizens, then it cannot be both "under god" and "indivisible", because you've just divided people into atheists and theists in the words immediately preceding.

When you start to put all the pieces together, the pledge is a bunch of nonsense that isn't even consistent with itself. How can you even make such a pledge?

you were SUPPOSED to internalize the unwavering loyalty to a distant concept of authority, not the principles of mutual goodness and existing within a community you woke little shit

At least they didn't make you do it the original way, with the Bellamy salute:

Even in 1st grade in 1989 we used to say “and justice for oil”

How is that not cult behaviour? Sounds like indoctrination and grooming to me.

They thought you knew that “all” was short for “all white people”

I was a bit edgy in high school and had to write a 1-page paper to the principal to be allowed to sit after refusing to recite the pledge lol

My 4 paragraphs where about the separation of church and state, injustice, my own freedom to sit, and how cultish it felt.

It still sickens me how in America children in school need to swear allegiance to the American flag all the time.

What the fuck is wrong with you? No wonder patriotism over there is so weird and cringeworthy.

A Magazine Made Up The Pledge of Allegiance To Sell US Flags

In 1891, the magazine The Youth's Companion invited readers to write and ask for cards bearing the following message: "This Certificate, representing a 10 cent contribution, entitles the holder to One Share in the patriotic influence of the School Flag." When the enterprising tyke had sold 100 of these 19th-century NFTs, they'd send the proceeds to The Youth's Companion and receive a flag in return. That's about $300 per flag, in 2021 dollars.

And why were young readers so willing to put in unpaid hours as salespeople raising money to buy flags? Because of the campaign started by The Youth's Companion called the "Flag Over Every Schoolhouse" movement. They advertised this movement to schools directly as well as in their publication, and to really give schools a reason to want flags, the magazine created the Pledge of Allegiance.

The magazines' marketing department came up with the pledge, and had an on-staff minister to do the wording (though not the "under God" clause, which was added decades later). They got Congress's support, aiming to get the whole country reciting the pledge by the 400th anniversary of Columbus' birth. It seems like the magazine also did care about instilling national pride, but it was the subscriptions department who were behind these campaigns; the editorial department wanted no part in it. They sold hundreds of thousands of flags at what sounds like significantly above cost.