this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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rulebreaking (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by MonsterCity7732@sh.itjust.works to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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[–] FirstMajesticComet@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 6 days ago

I never liked doing it. Got in trouble a few times for not doing it, though that didn't matter to me since I got in trouble a lot when I was in school. Those dipshits (the counselor) thought I had "Gender Identity Disorder" and was reacting because of "distress" (Not because I wouldn't say the pledge, I did many worse things than that), they also used the fact that I also had long hair and sometimes would wear a skirt as evidence I had GID. What fun people I spent my childhood with sarcasm I'm glad my parents are and were nice people otherwise I might not be here today.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

the pledge of allegiance is brainwashing at NK levels.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America..."

I mean, you can stop right there. The rest is all fucked up too, but that shit's weird. How can one owe allegiance to a flag, of all things?

And, it's not "as representing the Republic for which it stands", it's "and to the Republic for which it stands". The flag is a separate thing, the second clause is about allegiance to the republic, but the first part is just about the fucking flag.

[–] drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I sat down because I was lazy.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

You're welcome

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 266 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Dear America:

Most countries don't do this shit. At all. It's weird and off putting

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 98 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Does anyone else also fly bombers and fighter jets over stadiums at the start of a game? Do you take 2-5 minutes to honor some guys in the military during half time?

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 85 points 1 week ago (1 children)

NK does i believe

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

When you connect the dots of modern history, you realize America was most of the way to fascist dictatorship the entire time.

Many of us have been waiting for it to drop the facade for decades.

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[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 36 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

to be fair, that one (afaik) is a legitimate training exercise. it’s useful to train pilots to be at an exact place, in an exact formation, at an exact speed, at an exact time… and if you can get marketing and morale out of it, welllll why not

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You can train the pilots in other time and area. The combination with an unrelated game makes it propaganda.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone -1 points 6 days ago

you can, but as i said at the end of the comment: you have to do it anyway… you either entirely waste the fuel, maintenance, and pilot time, or you use it for something

in a couple of comments people have said they think it’s “plain old cool” and “a mini air show”

propaganda? perhaps

but people also seem to enjoy it… better than entirely wasting it

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Also, jets are just plain old cool. Everyone likes a mini-airshow.

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I mean yes, I love airshows, but there's something about a mass celebration of these machines of death where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees gives ick in a way that normal airshows, even with all the military recruitment and propaganda don't.

It doesn't even apply to all flyovers, sometimes it's like F-14s or Chinooks or WWII era planes where the message isn't so dark.

[–] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees

I know this probably makes it worse, but the Afghan child most likely wouldn't even have a chance to see the plane (or more likely, predator drone) that fired the missile that killed them.

It's one of the many reasons these children are fucking terrified of clear skies and sunny days.

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[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 133 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

I stopped in elementary school.

At the time, it was because I was convinced that the pledge was essentially worshipping a false idol, and if I continued to do it, I would go to hell. Teachers couldn't fight that argument. Students didn't fuck with it either. I stood. I didn't cross my heart, and I didn't say it.

About 6th or 7th grade, I started challenging my "faith" and realized that the pledge was essentially swearing fealty to something that was supposed to serve the people, not the other way around. By highschool, I didn't even stand for it anymore. It was nationalism.

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If only there were more in this world with such critical thinking, maybe we wouldn't be in such a shit state.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It doesn't make sense. Critical thinking enables survival. Sometimes it's not fun. Sometimes it doesn't feel great.

But it's typically more rewarding that not. That's what I don't understand.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately for us tribalism also enables survival

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[–] jaschen@lemm.ee 95 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Fiest time I had to do the pledge, I just got to America from Taiwan and I honestly thought the pledge was a Christian/religion thing because of the "....under god" thing. So I told my teacher that my family is Buddhist and can't do the pledge.

[–] easily3667@lemmus.org 57 points 1 week ago

You weren't wrong, exactly

[–] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 51 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Fun fact! “Fun”, actually.

Under God wasn’t in the original version. It wasn’t added until 1954 because they didn’t to be like communist countries and be seen as a secular government.

Good old fashion forcing religion on your citizens.

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[–] t_berium@lemmy.world 59 points 1 week ago (6 children)

This shit has always been creepy. Always. Greetings from Germany o/

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Internet Germans convinced me to sit down for it in high school. And yeah its such cult shit

[–] Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 week ago

True, but they start you off doing it at the age of 4 or 5 so it is completely normalized before our brains are developed enough to question it

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[–] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 57 points 1 week ago

Generally, the main problem with being "far left" is being ridiculed for being right earlier than everyone else.

[–] astro_plane@lemm.ee 56 points 1 week ago

I sat down every time and my teacher would get pissed. I finally told her that my grandpa fought in WWII for my right to protest and that shit her up real fast. I'm not going to pledge my aliegence to an inanimate object, I shouldn't have to prove my love for my country with a pledge.

[–] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 53 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is the kind of shit that leads to nationalism over patriotism. Blindly teaching kids to pledge allegiance without teaching them what comes with that or why.

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[–] Visstix@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

Americans are cultists

[–] Jean_le_Flambeur@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Pledge oft what? Eli5 pls

[–] MonsterCity7732@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Jean_le_Flambeur@discuss.tchncs.de 98 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (11 children)

Wtf. Hard to believe this is real... Do only certain far right private schools do nationalistic stuff like that or is it a common phenomenon over there, like are public funded schools allowed to do bs like this as well?

EDIT: WWWWTTTTTFFFF

" All states except Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming require a regularly scheduled recitation of the pledge in public schools.[13] Many states give a variety of exemptions from reciting the pledge, such as California which requires a "patriotic exercise" every day, which would be satisfied by the Pledge, "

To be honest its a miracle you guys didn't turn facist earlier with stuff like that.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 31 points 1 week ago

The Nazi party of America - the GOP - has spent so much time and money creating fascist propaganda for decades. The country largely ignored it, because it didn't really "do" anything and most people were like "ok. It's a bit strange, but whatever."

The military is to be praised. The boy scouts of America have promoted flag ceremony, and allegiance to state. Sports are practically religious events, so your team is part of where you live. The more you buy, the more you help America. America's international superiority is paramount to our health. It's been ready for a long time. It just needed ignition.

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And the worst part is that it was created in cooperation with a flag company partly to hopefully sell more flags.

That's capitalism for ya.

[–] te_abstract_art@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Is this true? Honestly it wouldn't surprise me but I'd never heard this before

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If you go to the Wiki article linked above, you can find the whole story of how multiple vows of fealty have sprung up over the years under the Origins section, but the last bit on Francis Bellamy is the important one as that's the one used today.

Some useful highlights from that section:

The Bellamy "Pledge of Allegiance" was first published in the September 8, 1892, issue of The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and to encourage children to raise flags above their schools.[28] According to author Margarette S. Miller, this campaign was in line both with Upham's patriotic vision as well as with his commercial interest.

Francis Bellamy and Upham had lined up the National Education Association to support the Youth's Companion as a sponsor of the Columbus Day observance and the use in that observance of the American flag. By June 29, 1892, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a proclamation making the public school flag ceremony the center of the Columbus Day celebrations. This arrangement was formalized when Harrison issued Presidential Proclamation 335. Subsequently, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World's Fair), Illinois.

James Upham "felt that a flag should be on every schoolhouse,"[27] so his publication "fostered a plan of selling flags to schools through the children themselves at cost, which was so successful that 25,000 schools acquired flags in the first year (1892–93).

[–] te_abstract_art@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the detailed response. That is absolutely wild

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah, it's absolutely insane, which is why I remember it lol.

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I get the sense Lemmy people are generally less likely to participate in this weird shit, as I also sat it out and we kind of select into this sort of "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" mindset by rejecting mainstream apps.

I didn't know it was an option in elementary, but as early as I remember I always adjusted the words to make it silly. I especially remember saying "under frog" when they got to the under God part, with liberty and French fries for all.

[–] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think the pledge has fallen off in recent years honestly. The year after covid lockdowns ended I was in highschool and I remember one of my first classes 0 people stood for the pledge.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

High schoolers have every reason not to stand for the flag after COVID, so that's nice to hear.

[–] 1SimpleTailor@startrek.website 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Yeah I stopped doing it in High School after realizing that it's some North Korea level bullshit. Got a few other kids in my homeroom to stop too, which really angered our teacher. She was a military spouse and would actually yell at us for refusing to participate. In the end, we compromised by standing but not reciting it. Was the begining of my political and social awakening.

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[–] AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago

I used to piss people off by adding a very loud, drawn out, "amen" to the end to show how fucking weird and cultish it is to make kids say it every day. come like 7th grade tho I just stopped participating at all.

[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

My kids refused to do it and I supported them. We started sending them to online school after that. The pledge was thought up and implemented by White Christian nationalists to commemorate 400 years since Columbus "discovered" America. Prior to World War 2 students didn't put their hands over their heart, they did the Bellamy salute AKA the Nazi salute. Choral repetition and responses are used to brainwash people.

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I have never once done the Pledge of Allegiance. Grew up a Jehovah's Witness, who think that giving allegiance to a country would mean putting that country over God. Even if any of my teachers didn't like this reasoning, they were obliged to keep quiet and accept it. There was a Supreme Court case about this exact issue.

Left JWs as an adult, so I never had to do it.

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 18 points 1 week ago

Being the person that won’t stand for the national anthem at a hockey game is fun too. You fully expect some asshole to give you shit but it hasn’t happened yet.

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