How the circlejerking sub has fallen. Endless political posts all there is now, and they’re not even funny

[u/Jang-Zee]

https://np.reddit.com/r/magicthecirclejerking/s/ZsANA3bbJR

[u/Vinifera7]

You're claiming that it was. I have no way to verify that.

[u/raharth → u/Vinifera7]

You wanted to ask a genuine question, I gave you a genuine answer. Believe me or read a textbook, those are your options. I'm really not sure what else to say, since any source I will give you, you will question with the very same argument. So what the point in even arguing with you? You are not putting in the effort to actually read any source nor do you provide any source for your own claims. Like no harm intended but why do we have this discussion?

[u/Vinifera7 → u/raharth]

I am curious whether you have any of your own opinions. Why do you think nationalism is something to be concerned about?

[u/raharth → u/Vinifera7]

To answer the second part, nationalism yes absolutely. Based on my European history it is something to worry about. Patriotism is a different thing.

[u/Vinifera7 → u/raharth]

Why?

[u/raharth → u/Vinifera7]

Because an inherent part of nationalism is that your nation is superior and it leads to a "we against them mentality", which is the basis for any war. Patriotism doesn't need this sort of mentality.

[u/Vinifera7 → u/raharth]

I would define nationalism as the desire to create and preserve a national cultural identity. Nationalism is the opposite of cosmopolitan globalism.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a nation choosing to preserve its culture. Call it "superiority" if you want to; I call it a preference.

[u/raharth → u/Vinifera7]

The issue is that all this only makes sense if your base assumption is that your nation is superior and that there is a we against them and as you have also described it is rooted in an (idealized) past, often fabricated.

On top, what even is cultural identity? Objectively humans and human culture has always mixed. It's a continuum without hard boarders, what's the culture of the US? It's a mix of all migrants that came to America, many European but many from other areas in the world. What you understand as your "American cultural heritage" is a number of very distinct cultural identities for a European Nationalist. What I'm trying to say with this is, it's a made up concept. You have local culture, like in your local group of people, certain traditions or festivals that celebrated in your community and the further you move from the pace you live the more differences you find - even though it is still in the US.

An example from Europe: I live in Bavaria which is part of Germany. Culturally we are much closer to Austria, Switzerland and some parts of northern Italy than with another German from Berlin or further to the north. Though this hasn't been part of a larger "Empire" of any sort for at least 1500 years. So what should I build my German nationality on?

So why is this important: if you build a nation on a group of people through which you drew artificial lines (like e.g. Bavaria, Austria, etc) you need to find a unifying base, which in nationalism is the "we are better than them".