The Pledge of Allegiance

[ВАЛТЕР]

It's funny 'cause it's true! :laugh:


618U-_8o31k

[Regicollis]

The US is fucked. In most other places in the developed world people would laugh their asses off if it was proposed to have schoolchildren say a pledge of allegiance...

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I'm glad we never said the thing in most of my classes. I remember one time there was someone who was like "I'm tired of people being unpatriotic, we should do the pledge of allegiance." The conservative teacher was like "Hell yeah!"

Five people stood up and did it :laugh:. Epic fail.

[Agent Ducky]

I had a substitute once who yelled at kids who didn't say the Pledge for "not supporting the troops." Most kids in that class weren't saying it because they didn't give a fuck.
I got up and argued with this guy, which would've been fast except he noticed the communist/anarchist patches on my jacket. So he attacked me for those and proceeded to engage me in a 30-minute long debate in front of the whole class. Because screw whatever the teacher told us to do, THERE ARE UNPATRIOTIC COMMUNAZIS IN THE ROOM WHO MUST BE RE-EDUCATED.

[cynicles]

Ew, I'm glad I never had to say any type of pledge of allegience. That shit is fucked up.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

I've mentioned this before, but I never said the pledge growing up. I'd stand in elementary school because I was a kid and felt awkward not doing it. By high school I just sat there, usually napping. Only one teacher, in high school, ever gave a shit, and she fucking blew up on me. She started yelling about how her kids were in the military 'fighting for my freedom' (post-9/11), etc, the usual crap. I told her she can't legally force me to stand up or say the pledge. She didn't bother me again.

[Welshy]

My school system stopped having us do it once we got into middle school. I think they thought they were effective enough at indoctrination when we were elementary school.

[Ostrinski]

For some reason they stopped doing it at my school in the middle of my sophomore year. Must have been some kind of controversy but I never learned what it was, nor did I really care.

[citizen of industry]

I had to do it in elementary but in middle school they stopped, same as Welshy. I remember in elementary being a bit bewildered by it. "One nation, under god?" I was already confused about god because my parents told me church was "god's house" but the guy was never home. Then in school they were telling me in the pledge that god was running the country. That line just made my head run in circles.

[Ismail]

Having it start in elementary school every single day is pretty dumb at any rate. By the time one reaches middle school it just becomes something you "do," there's no emotion or anything behind it.

In the Eastern Bloc by contrast pledges were associated more with organizations (e.g. young pioneers) and weren't done every single day so that the pledges themselves become meaningless.

[RedHammer]

I had to say the pledge through high school. Everybody had to rise and say it. Needless to say, it became meaningless.

We need a pledge to the working class!:D

[TheRedAnarchist23]

In my country stundents had to do something like that pledge of allegiance, but that was when my country was fascist.:D

[RedHammer]

In my country students had to do something like that pledge of allegiance, but that was when my country was fascist.

When was Portugal ever a fascist state?

[TheRedAnarchist23]

When was Portugal ever a fascist state?


From 1922 to 1974.
I say this so often yet you still doubt me.

[smellincoffee]

In high school someone from the office would come on the intercom and lead us in the pledge -- and by us, I mean the teachers and me, because I was the only person who ever stood up to do it. Those were my conservative days (I was rabidly Republican, a young-earth creationist, etc), but I earnestly believed in 'America'.

Back in January I attended a super bowl party and the host -- who describes himself as an archconservative and listens avidly to Rush Limbaugh -- demanded that everyone stand up. I did so amused at the hypocrisy of trying to force people to pledge allegiance to freedom.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

In high school someone from the office would come on the intercom and lead us in the pledge -- and by us, I mean the teachers and me, because I was the only person who ever stood up to do it. Those were my conservative days (I was rabidly Republican, a young-earth creationist, etc), but I earnestly believed in 'America'.

Back in January I attended a super bowl party and the host -- who describes himself as an archconservative and listens avidly to Rush Limbaugh -- demanded that everyone stand up. I did so amused at the hypocrisy of trying to force people to pledge allegiance to freedom.

Haha, like that image

'Stand up and salute the land of the free, or else!!!'

Equally amusing and disturbing...I always think of images of German children with raised right arms when I think of these classroom pledges. (a very tried and tested comparison, I know).

[Misanthrope]

Teacher tried to write me a detention in seventh grade for not standing then reported me to the vice principle who basically said I have the write not to stand. My Catholic conservative dad bribed me with a laptop, typical republican ways. I refused and haven't stood since. I should have taken the laptop.

[Positivist]

There used to be kids at my school who saluted during the pledge of allegiance. Idiots.

[Radikal]

I had to say the pledge through high school. Everybody had to rise and say it. Needless to say, it became meaningless.

We need a pledge to the working class!:D

The Internationale, my friend!

[Igor]

From 1922 to 1974.
I say this so often yet you still doubt me.

Didn't the coup take place in 1926?

[Comrade Samuel]

Every single day we did it all I could think about is when we could go outside and play, there was not a single one of us who did it out of some sort of nation pride, respect or any of that kind of bull.

I'm actualy reassured by regicollis' post, looking back it reminds me of some sort of fascist indoctrination process.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

Didn't the coup take place in 1926?

Yes you are right. Technicaly Portugal only became a fascist country after the aproval of the 1933 constitution, but I consider the coup had already turned Portugal into a fascist country.

[Igor]

Yes you are right. Technicaly Portugal only became a fascist country after the aproval of the 1933 constitution, but I consider the coup had already turned Portugal into a fascist country.

i was just wondering about the 1922 you mentioned, not sure if something actually happened then or if it was a slip from your part.

[Rugged Collectivist]

I used to hate that shit. The teacher told us at the beginning of the year that we didn't have to do the pledge, but she would always insist that we stand quietly if we didn't want to. Everyone did it of course, but no one ever cared.

[X5N]

I remember always avoiding saying the word "god" when I was forced to do this in elementary school.

Everyone in the class said the pledge like good little tools, from what I remember. We also had a principal who was a Republican who called my father when I told her that Bush would start World War III if elected. Though, the school was pretty diverse -- I remember that one of my classmates was Muslim.

But overall, the place I grew up in was the kind of place where you're instantly suspicious if you walk down the street and happen to not be white.

And I didn't go to a real middle or high school...so I actually haven't said the Pledge since I was like 12.

[Agent Ducky]

My favorite thing about the Pledge is that it was contrived to sell more flags and before Hitler came to power in Germany with his signature salute, that salute is exactly what kids did while saying the Pledge.

So there's these pictures of rooms of kids that look like they're heiling Hitler to the American flag.

[Камо́ Зэд]

I've never had to repeat the pledge outside of my compulsory education. It's strange to me that it was only during my time as a child that I was compelled to pledge my allegiance to the country.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

My favorite thing about the Pledge is that it was contrived to sell more flags and before Hitler came to power in Germany with his signature salute, that salute is exactly what kids did while saying the Pledge.

So there's these pictures of rooms of kids that look like they're heiling Hitler to the American flag.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Students_pledging_allegiance_to_the_American_flag_ with_the_Bellamy_salute.jpg

[Comrade Samuel]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Students_pledging_allegiance_to_the_American_flag_ with_the_Bellamy_salute.jpg

Who the hell does that?!? Please tell me this is Photoshop or something.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Who the hell does that?!? Please tell me this is Photoshop or something.
That was the flag salute until the hand-over-heart replaced it in the 1940s (like Agent Ducky mentioned, because Nazis).

And it's an actual photo.

The Roman salute / Bellamy salute didn't have the stigma back then, until Mussolini / Hitler made it their official salute. Now those old photos have shock value.

[Igor]

We never had to pledge shit but every independence day we sang and stood up for the flag and it was compulsory. I didn't really care about that stuff as a kid though, didn't separate it from any other useless stuff we had to do in school, which included like obligatory praying sessions before school lunch and singing religious songs on Fridays

welcome to liberal secular Scandinavia ameriKKKans

[Landsharks eat metal]

The school I'm at now is mostly high-schoolers, so we have the pledge every morning. My class is all adults so we're all annoyed and are tired of being treated like children, but the instructor got a little angry when we groaned about it because "it's the least we can do for America to stand up and not complain" or something stupid like that. I was the only one who didn't stand up. The only thing I'm worried about is that the teacher has a class grade for work ethic, and that can affect our choice of internships or whether we get to go at all, and I'm worrying that she will be angry at me for not standing for the pledge or think I'm just too lazy and find some excuse to dock me work ethic points.

[X5N]

The school I'm at now is mostly high-schoolers, so we have the pledge every morning. My class is all adults so we're all annoyed and are tired of being treated like children, but the instructor got a little angry when we groaned about it because "it's the least we can do for America to stand up and not complain" or something stupid like that. I was the only one who didn't stand up. The only thing I'm worried about is that the teacher has a class grade for work ethic, and that can affect our choice of internships or whether we get to go at all, and I'm worrying that she will be angry at me for not standing for the pledge or think I'm just too lazy and find some excuse to dock me work ethic points.

What kind of school do you go to?

[Landsharks eat metal]

What kind of school do you go to?

vocational technical.

[Radikal]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Students_pledging_allegiance_to_the_American_flag_ with_the_Bellamy_salute.jpg

I imagine people doing this with a picture of Reagan\Thatcher. (I know that this was before WWII, but still :laugh::laugh::laugh:)

HEIL REAGAN!

[Veovis]

I work in a school now so I have to hear it over the PA system every morning. I forgot how much it reeks of fascism.

[Rugged Collectivist]

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of America,
And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

lol civil war.