Happy 4th Of July Fellow Patriot

I love the 4th of July. It's a time when we Americans can treat ourselves to what we treat the rest of the world to everyday; fireworks. Except the fireworks we watch here don't destroy our essential water resources, destroy red cross stations, burn crops, kill millions of innocent people and create hell on earth like the usual fireworks paid for by our taxes.

Fuck patriotism. I tried to explain my view to my parents, but my mom got "offended". I told them that it's not that I hate Americans, but what America as a country stands for in the world; the only military superpower. My mom says that respecting the flag and being patriotic has "nothing to do with politics". Of course it does! It has everything to do with politics. Being patriotic is about understanding the "grandness" of your home country. This doesn't necessarily mean that you view all other countries as worse, or inferior... but it does to a lot of people. Even if it doesn't mean that to you, it gets you on a subconcious level. When America does something in a world you will think "it's my beloved America afterall, no harm will be done". My whole view on the matter can be summed up in one bumper sticker: "There isn't a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing thousands of innocent people." And this is true, not even the "dreaded soviets" have killed as many people. Not nearly as many. Not even Nazi Germany or the Khmer Rouge for that matter. When a Nazi kills an innocent, is it somehow worse than when an American soldier kills an innocent? Think about that to yourself. As the beloved RATM says "a yellow ribbon, instead of a swastika."
If I ever did believe in patriotism, it would that "dissent is patriotic" (another bumper sticker) type of patriotism. It would be the type of patriotism that Jefferson advocated. The type that doesn't blindly follow any dumb ass president or corporate regime. Speaking of the president, how the fuck can somebody be expected to be patriotic when our country doesn't even allow it's people to elect a president? And then lie to us to get us into this fuck-off war for oil. No, fuck that.
I think my parents are very wrong when they say that patriotism has nothing to do with politics. Then how do you explain "support our troops" slogans? How do you explain "these colors don't run" slogans? These are not slogans of hardcore right wing ultraists, they are slogans seen on average joe t-shirts and cars. Slogans seen on average 'patriots'. I think these people are the real traitors. Their blind optimism hands our country over to corporations on a silver platter. If these type of people are swayed by George Bush's half-assed non-sensical excuses for speaches, imagine if they were in Nazi Germany under Hitler (an impressive speaker, unlike Bush). Think about how fast they would eat up all that shit about how Jews are making the world so terrible.... Almost as fast as us Americans ate up the shit about how 'dirty commies' are making the world so bad...

50 Stars to Blind your Eyes
13 Stripes to Hypnotize
-CV