Are you a nationalist or a patriot?

Nationalists believe in a nation based on common values and cultural and/or ethnic heritage. 'Patriots' just mindlessly support their government whether it's right or wrong.

Actually it's the other way around.

Nope. Cultural Nationalists and/or Ethnic Nationalists (I'm the former) both routinely mock stupid flag wavers. We call them Patriotards.

"Nationalism is a belief, creed or political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a nation."

It's a foolish ideology. People are people, the nation is the nation. The nation can collapse, but the people still stand.

Nationalism is actualy a new concept. It means your culture and politics are the same thing. People can disagree and have different views about politics and still be Patriots.

I could care less about flags and national anthems.

In order of preference I'm a Theocracist first. (Notice that Big T. It's there to indicate my hope in the eventual reign of Almighty God.) I am second an anarchist and an anarcho-libertarian third.

Dude, I didn't know you were a full-on AnCap. That's great!

I've been slowly building this small group of us on SH so that we can put up a unified presence on poll questions dominated by statists. No pressure if it's not your cup of tea or anything, but I'd be honored to have you join.

http://www.sodahead.com/unite...

Most of the self-proclaimed "Patriots" I've met (the overwhelming majority) are actually Nationalists. When a true Patriot calls out our government for their illegal and immoral actions they immediately chime in with the "You're un-American" rhetoric and tell them to leave if they don't like it.

Nationalists are what the elite want us all to be, and we have far too many of them in this country.

That's not what a nationalist is.

A right that some want? Is there harm? If no, then it should be legal.

I'm an anarchist

Thanks for asking

I love my country and the ideas and principles it represents. But I know that the history of our nation is checkered and the actions of government have not always been perfect. One of our greatest freedoms is the right to criticize the government without fear of retribution. One of the greatest threats currently is the idea that patriotism comes with a political litmus test. One of the greatest insults to the principles that this nation was founded on is the "Real" American idea. That unless you adhere to one political party's ideaology you are not a patriot.

Neither, I'm a Citizen of Humanity.

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind" - Albert Einstein
He fled Nazism which made both a State Religion.

"One Man's Patriot is Another's Terrorist"

One of your "patriots", Oliver North, was a Criminal & a Liar.
A bit over a century ago a Patriot was regarded the same as a Nationalist or a Fanatic.
You're just fooling yourself playing a 'shell game' with words, the meanings overlap.

"A Fanatic is someone who won't change his mind or the subject"
Sir Winston Churchill

Well if we're going to throw around quotes:
"Before the camps, I regarded the existence of nationality as something that shouldn't be noticed—nationality did not really exist, only humanity. But in the camps one learns: if you belong to a successful nation you are protected and you survive. If you are part of universal humanity—too bad for you."
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

That's referring to the Holocaust, sounds like you're supporting me, but make no attempt to rectify the situation. only the Aristocracy gets well-treated, others are cogs in the machine.

Actually it's referring to the Gulags, although it's obviously the same logic the Zionists used after the Holocaust. The bottom line though is that its easy to dump on national pride (which yes, can be irrational) or talk about "universal brotherhood" or "the human race..." But when push comes to shove both are total abstractions at best. The only people that you can really turn to are "your people" and if they're not around to band together with against whoever is trying to oppress/kill you you're screwed. Also notice that the biggest opponents to nationalism these days aren't even the left (there are certainly left-wing nationalists even nowadays), it's multinational corporations and western powers that both have an interest in destroying it.

Thanks for the polite correction (the name should have tipped men off but they're could have been Soviets in the Holocaust too). Another SH sent me a video of the Stanford Prison Experiment Looks like any 'Body", be it business or authority, has a 'critical size' when the head starts to get a 'mind of its own' and does things that run counter to the rest of the organizism. Perhaps a confederation (as in Canada, we're not as martial) would damp this tendency down.

http://endoftheamericandream....

http://video.google.com/video...

Thank you. I was aware of both actually, there's also the normalcy bias and bystander effect which I think explain a lot of why the US is in such a bad state....

Check out TherimenTrees' channel on YouTube, talks a lot about religion, psychology & conformity. There's also the bandwagon effect & go fever (Challenger disaster). I think I viscerally understand Human Nature 9it ain't so humane)

http://www.youtube.com/user/T...

look up lemmings on YouTube also, individually they're ferocious (wild west) but in overpopulated groups… Civilization????

according to Oscar Wilde, patriotism is a virtue of the vicious...
dont really like that comment, but there is some truth to it.

A patriot would rather see his whole country destroyed and its guiding principles held high, than see it exist for a single day devoid of those principles. This is what caused men like Franklin to insist that those who would give up essential liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety, and Jefferson to remark that, “...rather than [the French Revolution] should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is.”

A patriot will burn his own flag if the nation behind it isn't living up to its ideals, to try and get it to return again to those ideals, because the ideals are greatest to him. A nationalist will throw the patriot in jail (or worse) for burning the flag because, to the nationalist, the ideals are secondary – when they figure in at all – and the nation (through whatever hollow symbols he might consider as defining it) is greatest.

I love my Country even when i don't agree with it and i will never follow any man or woman blindly.

(P.S. Don't tell my wife i said that)

The Last Four Years , Obama Has Been Like A Flaming Bag Of DOG CRAP On The Front Porch Of America ! -- You " WANT To Stomp It Out " ..........But it would be an Even Bigger Mess and besides that , A Flaming Bag - O - Biden would just wind up there tomorrow !

Always

I just never got into the title thing. I did join the Army, so that would kinda make me a patriot. But to stop the country from doing wrong, well bout all I can do now is vote. getten old, Im getten old.

I love freedom and believe the constitution is well thought out and written. The men who wrote the constitution had just won this country through dedication and violence based on the values of God and freedom. They warned that we would have to fight again in order to remain free and I think that time has come. I don't care what political party you side with, if you over step the constitution you are my enemy.

For me, there's no question.

Great question. The difference between the two is something too many right wingers sadly don't understand. I love my country, but it doesn't mean I think our policies are always right just because they're our policies.

Unfortunately, so many politicians have called themselves patriots when they were really nationalists that even the word "patriot" makes me cringe. It shouldn't, and I think people who like freedom should strive to regain that word from the people who have co-opted it for their own purposes.

As an American who loves the culture, traditions, and natural beauty of the American continent, I would definitely call myself a patriot. But as a radical libertarian who really doesn't even believe in the institution of government in the first place, there's no way I could call myself a nationalist.

neither, I am a citizen of the world not a country.

Well, since An American Nationalist is generally to be considered to be Am American Patriot

unless the Democrats have come up with a Patriotic sounding name like the NAZI did in WW@. to fool Americans

All Americans should be.

Of these choices, I'm closer to a patriot.

Heres the deal. I just want a government who takes care of America first, starting with their employers who are the working people of this country, reduce spending so we can have more disposable income to boost the economy, then we need serious entitlement reforms. Then start fixing our infrastucture like you're supposed to. Highways, bridges, etc. Keep our military strong and equiped.
Take care of our country FIRST!
Call it being a Patriot or whatever else you want to. I'm sick of labels. I think we just want some respect and to get rid of the current elitist attitude that our corrupt government clearly has.

Definitely a patriot...our nation wasn't founded on 'blind faith'...

I can see the good with the bad regarding my country. It is not perfect but nothing ever is. I do always love my country, but like the definition you supplied reads, I do not always love or tolerate what my country does.