Don't call him unpatriotic

Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, explains that he isn’t unpatriotic, he’s anti-patriotic! In Why I don’t celebrate July 4th, Rothschild explains,

My heart does not beat faster at the strains of the Star Spangled Banner, much less at the sight of F-16s flying overhead to kick off the show.

You see, I don’t believe in patriotism.

You can call me unpatriotic if you’d like, but really I’m anti-patriotic.

I’ve been studying fascism lately, and there is one inescapable fact about it:

Nationalism is the egg that hatches fascism.

And patriotism is but the father of nationalism.

Patriotism is not something to play with. It’s highly toxic. When ingested, it corrodes the rational faculties.

It gulls people into believing their leaders.

It masks those who benefit most from state policy.

And it destroys the ability of people to get together, within the United States and across boundaries, to take on those with the most power: the multinational corporation.

By all indications, Matthew Rothschild is a real person and these are his real opinions. Admittedly, they seem more like some conspiratorial caricature dreamed up by a cabal of right-wing talk-show hosts.

On a related note, Gallup reports that more and more Americans describe themselves as “extremely patriotic”.

The increase in the overall percentage of Americans calling themselves “extremely patriotic” is driven largely by seniors, Republicans, and conservatives — all of whom are significantly more likely to say so than they were in 2005.

Even worse, from Mr. Rothschild’s perspective, 60% of liberals describe themselves as “very” or “extremely” patriotic, while 14% say they’re “not especially patriotic”.

Regrettably, Gallup doesn’t report how many describe themselves as “anti-patriotic”.