4 ms·

I genuinely struggle to understand what people mean by being "proud" of one's country. Could you elaborate? Maybe I'm focusing on a different aspect than most

I genuinely struggle to understand what people mean by being "proud" of one's country. Could you elaborate? Maybe I'm focusing on a different aspect than most people. I understand the emotion of pride. But people seem to often be encouraging pride in some group or development. I can see why such encouragement makes sense when the audience meaningfully contributed to that praiseworthy state of affairs. But I don't see the justification for that for e.g. happening to have been born in a particular country.

mc32 5y ago
I think you may need to experience people’s opinions from non western countries. Often people from poor countries feel greater pride in their countries than people from advanced economies. If you talk about the bad things in the US a great many would nod in agreement. Do the same to someone who lives in Azerbaijan, China. Iran, Belarus, etc and you risk more pushback.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Often people from poor countries feel greater pride in their countries than people from advanced economies. I wonder if that's more specifically "[elite(ish)] people from advanced economies." There's this sort of transnational/globalist outlook thing going in some circles that looks down its nose at patriotism, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's mainly a Western cultural thing.
  - mc32 5y ago
    I think there is something to that. Educated elites feel as if they have transcended the nation state and may feel this is the superior take and ironically this can veer on a kind of bigotry.
- nebula8804 5y ago
  I have seen this before especially in immigrant communities to the US. It has baffled me. Has there been any introspection as to why natural born people are not as blindly patriotic to their country? My theory is that they understand that a country like the US only earned all of its amazing rights and freedom due to generations of people pushing against the status quo and that invokes the same non-pride as people are feeling today. Immigrants have not gone through the same upbringing as natural born citizens. As a result, they have a more rosy view of reality. It takes some group of people not to accept what is reality today to forge a better future. For example: BLM is heavily villainized by some groups in the US. Time will tell what the long term consequences of BLM will be(if any). But maybe we will look back decades from now when there is a turning point in the country and there ends up being equal justice and treatment for Black and Brown communities and maybe we will remember BLM as a contributor of change(but not the anti-US sentiment that went along with it).
avgDev 5y ago
I have a dual citizen Polish-American, I was born in Poland and I think I can answer this. I wasn't proud of being born in Poland until I went back in my 20's and went to the concentration camps and learned a bit more about the history. Poles are extremely resilient people and have a vast history. Seeing other poles do well in tech space, sports and now helping people from Ukraine just makes me feel good and happy.
- jansen555 5y ago

mc32 5y ago

I think you may need to experience people’s opinions from non western countries. Often people from poor countries feel greater pride in their countries than people from advanced economies. If you talk about the bad things in the US a great many would nod in agreement. Do the same to someone who lives in Azerbaijan, China. Iran, Belarus, etc and you risk more pushback.

tablespoon 5y ago
> Often people from poor countries feel greater pride in their countries than people from advanced economies. I wonder if that's more specifically "[elite(ish)] people from advanced economies." There's this sort of transnational/globalist outlook thing going in some circles that looks down its nose at patriotism, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's mainly a Western cultural thing.
- mc32 5y ago
  I think there is something to that. Educated elites feel as if they have transcended the nation state and may feel this is the superior take and ironically this can veer on a kind of bigotry.
nebula8804 5y ago
I have seen this before especially in immigrant communities to the US. It has baffled me. Has there been any introspection as to why natural born people are not as blindly patriotic to their country? My theory is that they understand that a country like the US only earned all of its amazing rights and freedom due to generations of people pushing against the status quo and that invokes the same non-pride as people are feeling today. Immigrants have not gone through the same upbringing as natural born citizens. As a result, they have a more rosy view of reality. It takes some group of people not to accept what is reality today to forge a better future. For example: BLM is heavily villainized by some groups in the US. Time will tell what the long term consequences of BLM will be(if any). But maybe we will look back decades from now when there is a turning point in the country and there ends up being equal justice and treatment for Black and Brown communities and maybe we will remember BLM as a contributor of change(but not the anti-US sentiment that went along with it).

avgDev 5y ago

I have a dual citizen Polish-American, I was born in Poland and I think I can answer this. I wasn't proud of being born in Poland until I went back in my 20's and went to the concentration camps and learned a bit more about the history. Poles are extremely resilient people and have a vast history. Seeing other poles do well in tech space, sports and now helping people from Ukraine just makes me feel good and happy.

jansen555 5y ago