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> socially awkward to opt out random aside, there was a kid in my Texas high-school who stopped saying the pledge around the time of the 2003 Iraq war. While I
by __sy__ 7y ago
> socially awkward to opt out
random aside, there was a kid in my Texas high-school who stopped saying the pledge around the time of the 2003 Iraq war. While I didn't necessarily agree with the method, a few of us did appreciate the fact that he did that; it showed that sometimes the most patriotic thing you can do is not blindly support your government.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoTexas even requires parental consent on opt out, so the kid had to have a good support network.
- __sy__ 7y agoRandom q: where were you based in China?
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoBeijing. I was working for MS China.
- __sy__ 7y agoInteresting, I was curious. Personally, I feel like the nationalism has gotten a lot worse / uncomfortable in Guangdong in recent years. I don't feel like it used to be this way in anything-goes Southern China.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoI don’t think it was that bad in 1999, 2002 or 2008. Indoctrination was still a thing, but most Chinese kids didn’t take it seriously. It took some populism combined with nationalism from Xi to really turn things around.
- __sy__ 7y agoMy time in China doesn't go back that far, but it certainly feels different from when I first went there. Guangdong used to feel pretty chill about that stuff, probably a combination of HK-Proximity and the Emperor-is-Far/Mountains-are-high attitude. Nowadays, you can't drive anywhere without seeing Xi's 12 fucking thoughts plastered everywhere. Even Hua Qiang Bei has speakers blasting out propaganda.