this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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[โ€“] [email protected] 52 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (15 children)

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.

[...]

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

Justice Robert H. Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

While it's true that this ritual is commonly practiced in the US, it is also true that everyone has the protected right to not participate, which has been upheld in court (Frazier v. Alexandre).

Personally, I feel that choosing to exercise your civil rights is a highly patriotic act.

[โ€“] towerful 5 points 1 week ago

I was 8 when I moved to the US. It was bizarre. Obviously, as an outsider, I felt I had to fit in. I never questioned it. I didn't understand it. I just said the words.
I guess at some point you understand the words (I left the US before then), but by that point it's probably become a habit. It's still the thing that everyone else in the class does. And you still want to fit in.
Never mind understanding the politics of the US that you have the right to not do something that is habitual and seems completely normal.

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