[urbancatfitters]

do u guys understand how creepy the pledge of allegiance is though like every day when ur a kid everybody just chants how great america is every morning it’s creepy

[holmes-sweet-holmes]

You do that every morning???

[jolivet]

EVERY MORNING.

[youblowuponesun]

wait

wait

is this a real thing i thought that was just in the simpsons

[jolivet]

no son

[youarelookingatthis]

Wait, other countries don’t do this.

[wholock-rab]

*whispers* Not even Russia

[bemusedlybespectacled]

I remember when my dad had a conversation with me

because I asked him what the Austrian pledge of allegiance was (because he’s from Austria)

and he said “we don’t have a pledge of allegiance”

and I said “why not?”

“honey, think about what training your children to mindlessly pledge to a flag, without really knowing what they’re talking about, sounds like to Austrians”

“oh. hitler.”

“exactly”

[foxanddanapetrie]

RE FUCKING TWEET

[dailypattondoodle]

You don’t realize just how creepy it is until you are the only one not doing it

[saraconcoco]

I realized it was creepy and immoral in 7th grade (how can you ask children to pledge loyalty to something they’re only just learning about? where is our choice in the matter??) but didn’t get the courage to not do it until 9th grade. And even then, throughout high school I still stood so I wouldn’t get in trouble, I just didn’t say it or put my hand on my heart.

[linguisten]

how can you ask children to pledge loyalty to something they’re only just learning about? where is our choice in the matter??

If that was not a rhetorical question:   It’s the point! Like with other ideologies that could not withstand scrutiny, those propagating them tend to infect young minds before it’s too late, i.e. before those young minds have a chance to realize they’re being brainwashed. This is what totalitarian regimes have been doing for millennia. It is essential for them in order to maintain the status quo. People like Reagan, Bush² and Trump don’t rise to power without a broad base of people who just blindly follow someone who knows how to play their nationalist pride. A pride that was put into their brains by rituals like this one and the cult surrounding national symbols. 

As a German, I cringe every time i see things like this because all I see is half a million Hitlerjugend kids pledging allegiance to the man who regarded them nothing better than last-resource cannon fodder.