So to love your country and to pledge allegiance to your country isn’t some blind oath taken in the dark that says you’ll never question it or criticize it or stand opposed to something it wants. It’s to say that you may be on opposite sides of an issue but you will never be on opposite sides of the table. You will stand by it through good and bad and you will give back to it even when it fails to give to you- in the hope and spirit of making it better, wiser, more noble and good.

So tl:dr- the differentiation is in blind and unquestioning allegiance versus a true allegiance where you aren’t alway a toady but you are always acting in your countries moral and other best interest even when you dissent. The scary pledge- the brain washing pledge isn’t the pledge itself but the culture. Wether a culture allows and encourages choice, questions, thought, individual judgment, or wether it would condition people to meet question, never criticize, never believer that they might know better than those in power.

“The United States of America” is not a country. It is a concept. This land was here before America and will be here after. It’s just land- and at one point many other flags and standards flew over much of it. The UNITED states- a nation is just its people not a place. United the people make the USA. During the civil war we had the union and confederacy- the states were not united- but each side believed they were “America.”

The concept of the USA- the nation, it’s people- that is what we pledge allegiance too. Not the government. Not the law. Our service and our allegiance is to our fellow Americans and to preserving and bettering the ideals that make the USA. Our politicians take an oath when entering office that they too are to serve and uphold the ideas and people of the USA. If they violate this oath we do not owe THEM any allegiance. If they would issue an order for law which would violate this oath we are under no oath to uphold it or recognize it.

This is not a “father/mother knows best” country. This is not a country where people are in service to political parties or rulers. Our rulers serve us, and they do so at our pleasure (in theory anyway...) and so the pledge of allegiance doesn’t make us beholden to rape or kill or be a party to that which we believe is wrong or hurts our nation or compromises the principals it relies on.

We pledge allegiance not to a ruler or a class or a party- but to a flag, a symbol of our values and virtues, and to our republic, our collective which exists by and through us for us and not the other way around. We pledge to liberty and justice for all- all. Not those our rulers deem should have it. Not liberty as we are told it should be- liberty and justice for all. Anything that would compromise this is against our pledge.

Scrolling down it felt like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A
The Mr/Ms/Mrs/Coach is whatever. I once threw an apple in a sideways direction... as she demanded being called Mrs. Apple. I had her for 4 grades between middle school and HS (she transferred with us; best 3 teachers I've ever had, I love her)...
...I'll get to the rest, just... gimme time.

Oh, @abrams you know that tide pod shit was just a joke, right? Only like 13 fucking idiots attempted it.

The constitution doesn’t specify anything about education- but school is a legal requirement as well as a universal human right under the declaration of universal human rights.
-@guest_
MY NIGGA YES
:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJUD0rEPWM
yeah I just found a fucked up way to call you daddy without it being gay.

He loves it when you call him Big Papa

@vitklim I'm convinced now you are a fascist. I'm also convinced that you don't even know it.

"tl:dr"... five posts. Is this a navy joke?

And I'm gonna take a piss and listen to "Yesterday" again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvugcOOUdJc
just cuz I really like it... again... listen to all 9 min; there is a

Pause. <____ <

@funkmasterrex- lol. You my boy blue. I did the tl:dr meaning well but then... well.... you saw. But I can’t edit a chat so I was like- “welp.... oopsie.”
@popsy- I thought you were Big Papa? Or Big Popsy at least.

What the fuck is wrong with funk today, lol.

Haha

lol

Ya that’s just called respect. It’s called being respectful to them because they are older, smarter and wiser than us.