Faux-Patriots

July 4th week brings out all sorts of people trying to display their patriotism.  This used to be a very simple thing, like American flag waving, wearing red, white, and blue apparel, or attending parades highlighting veterans with marching bands playing old patriotic melodies.

More recently, in the past five years particularly, many Americans have drastically changed their personal definitions of what it means to be a patriot, in ways that are actually the opposite of the word's meaning.

These so-called 'patriots' are basically cut from the same cloth.  They are all on the extreme edges of their political parties.  They all parrot the same rhetoric from the fringe media sources they follow.  They think government is bad -- you know, the same government they desperately looked to when they needed to fend off a pandemic that economically disenfranchised millions, and killed hundreds of thousands of people in the country along the way.

That isn't patriotism.  They don't love their country.  They dislike their country to the point they will resort to -- and even promote -- violence to get their way.  How can you be less patriotic than that?

That isn't to say there's an equal number of faux-patriots on both sides.  No, they are sharply tilted to the Republican side, where conservative extremism has become the norm thanks to a mentally ill ex-president who they somehow excused to make incessant lying and grifting something worthy of their praise (not to mention their vote).

Their stained idea of patriotism has now reached the point that they rationalize armed insurrection is OK, as long as it's meant to stop a democratically-elected government they don't like.  Basically, they are fans of the Civil War, which is further manifested in their promotion of white, Christian, straight, males -- preferably all carrying guns for which they have no permit.

It's gotten to the point of cringing when I hear people use the word 'patriot'.  I don't want their idea of American patriotism conflated with mine: Belief and action towards a free society, with democratic majority rule, capitalism with a social safety net, equality and human rights for all races, genders, religions, and sexual orientations.

That's what the majority of Americans believe in.  That's patriotism.