Dear America:
Most countries don't do this shit. At all. It's weird and off putting
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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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.
If only there were more in this world with such critical thinking, maybe we wouldn't be in such a shit state.
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.
Unfortunately for us tribalism also enables survival
To get those rewards you typically have to endure some hardship or struggle first tho, and many people can’t tolerate that. They just want their creature comforts. It’s how you get hoarders drowning in their takeout buckets.
Given a choice, the brain will always take the laziest path. Which is why watching a screen and turning off your brain is so easy. The fact that it's also designed to give you a dopamine hit makes it hard to stop.
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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.
You weren't wrong, exactly
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.
That makes sense. It did seem like the under god was out of place. Everything else flowed pretty well until the under god part.
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This shit has always been creepy. Always. Greetings from Germany o/
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
I moved to the US as a kid, and this shit gave me massive cult vibes from the start. I refused to participate.
I was suuuper popular in middle school...
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Generally, the main problem with being "far left" is being ridiculed for being right earlier than everyone else.
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.
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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Americans are cultists
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.
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.
I had an amazing American Government and Politics teacher in senior year of high school, but I knew about her much earlier. She kept a file of print-outs of the section of State law which codified that no child could be forced to participate in the pledge. She was so awesome. I happened to just arrive at her class after the first plane hit on 9/11. I don't think there could have been a better place for me to be trying to make sense of that.
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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.
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Pledge oft what? Eli5 pls
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.
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.
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.
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I wouldn't be surprised if my town was the exception and not the norm (I'm from a relatively progressive town in a consistently blue state) but at my public high school I only knew of 1-2 people out of the 500 people in my grade that stood up during the pledge of allegiance and a good percentage of the grade hated them because they were high key homophobic.
No it's basically universal
Texas also has its own that kids have to do after the US one, every day.
All states except Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming require a regularly scheduled recitation of the pledge in public schools
Madness.
You don't have to do it. I stopped doing the pledge around 6th grade. 9-11 made me read into our history a bit more, and pledging allegiance to a flag that is supposed to represent "of the people, by the people, for the people" seems a backwards. Then you realize that it's straight up McCarthy-era bullshit. It's more patriotic to not say the pledge.
Yup, when I heard about it it was really weird. And when I said I won't let my children do that, I learn they'd be ostracized not only by peers but by teachers as well. And considering there'll bullying in schools and teachers don't do much. It doesn't seem like a good place to send your children. (And there's shooting)
I would say I went to a fairly typical public high school and most people didn’t say the pledge or stand, although it was definitely read over the loudspeaker during the morning announcements
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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.
My son is in second grade and ha, chosen to not to say the pledge of allegiance (his own decision because we talk about how the country won't take care of its people). He says he teachers never force him, but subs always do claiming we're the greatest country in the world.
I stopped in third grade. I walked to school so had to hang out till the busses were gone and I asked my teacher after school one day why I had to say it. She said I didn't have to if I didn't want too but that I should stand. It made sense to me . Never said it again.
I asked the same teacher why she said Columbus "discovered Smerica" when there were already people here. She could not answer that one and I don't think the thought ever crossed her mind. I knew school was all bullshit after that and didn't really participate much after that
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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.
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.
Worth a read for the “secede from our marital union” part alone!
Less of the annoying kid more of an annoying teacher, admin, and staff. Like peer pressure and desire to follow along made me do it but the teacher and the staff couldn't explain why we should and that made me question it and leading me to consider the kid right
I still have a feeling that me breaking down the whole classes in elementary school alone was a glimpse of genius and not some kind of sociopathy
In any case I am in the business for an article on how I was right all along, nurturing my indomitable rebellious spirit of America or something
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There was always one kid that sat down during the pledge in my class. None of us thought he was annoying or weird. I admired him.
That was me!
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