Why are Americans so Patriotic?

[LaserChild9]

lol

You're acting as though we're unaware. We just don't care. BTW, you'd all have been under Stalin's rule if not for us, so there's that, too. But, no, keep being a cunt for the sake of being a cunt, I guess.

BTW the USA would not exist without the European colonies. Whats your point? We can all look back and say what if, but some of us can look back further than others.

[Slant]

Pretty standard for you Europeans, really. How many revolutions and wars have you had in the three hundred odd years since we stopped being colonies?

Let's see... Europe existed for 2k years... that's a pretty long time, dude. We've forgotten more wars than you lot started. But for us it resulted in free democracies and civil liberties. We're pretty much at peace with each other. How's the racial tension going that you guys are sporting for basically the entire lifetime of your country's existance? Keeping it well groomed, I hear? We may have had more wars, but we figured out that you need a break from it once in a while... we learned that a long time ago.

[Dastreus]

Answer is the same as why others are crazy about their geographical birth place: T R I B A L I S M

Also I should post this.

[Slant]

That must be why all of Europe now refers to it as soccer. Oh wait, they don't, it's not soccer, fucking deal with it.

You're from the UK? You should know that Association Football (hint: FA) was a thing to distinguish it from rugby. Hence soccer. I find it amusingly elitist when English try to tell the world they didn't invent that word when they in fact did. :P

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To be honest it was called football because they had to play it on foot and not on horse.

No, it wasn't.

[LaserChild9]

We are fat, loud and stupid...which makes the rest of the world even more pathetic that they live under the boot of fat, loud, and stupid people.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but America is only as strong as it is because of its geographical location. You have no threats on your doorstep, nobody has ever invaded you, you have just been left alone to grow and prosper, that's hardly something to hold over the rest of the world.

[Independent voter]

This is too much even for the US.

[ArguesWithStrangers]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but America is only as strong as it is because of its geographical location. You have no threats on your doorstep, nobody has ever invaded you, you have just been left alone to grow and prosper, that's hardly something to hold over the rest of the world.

You are essentially correct, but to be fair, most Americans don't think about the rest of the world enough to hold anything over it. You guys complain about us far more than we bother to think about you.

[Fyersing]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but America is only as strong as it is because of its geographical location. You have no threats on your doorstep, nobody has ever invaded you, you have just been left alone to grow and prosper, that's hardly something to hold over the rest of the world.

If the only thing that made the U.S. a powerplayer was geographical in nature, the initial settlers would've been staved off by the Amerindians; so, you're wrong, and there's the correction.

The original question, "Why are Americans patriotic?", is simply too broad-stroke and generalized to be accurately answered in even a single paragraph. As someone stated early in this thread, consider the relative size differences between some of the major contenders in Europe like the UK or Germany (also, for comparative purposes, some of the smaller bodies like the Ukraine or Romania) and the United States.

The population of the UK is 64.1 million (2013), spread across 94,058 square miles. ~650+ people per square mile.
The population of Germany is 82.1 million, spread across 137,903 square miles. ~596 people per square mile.
The population of the Ukraine is 42.6 million, spread across 222,588 square miles. ~192 people per square mile.
The population of Romania is 20.1 million, spread across 92,043 square miles. ~218 people per square mile.

The population of the United States is 324.7 million, spread across 3.7 million square miles. ~86 people per square mile.

The reason it's important to fully, fully, understand the scope of the landmass we're talking about is because once you've done as much it's very easy to understand just how different a population can be from one side of the nation to the other; and while the United States is fortunate not to have linguistic hold-ups in the way they exist in places like Germany or the UK (meaning, we can all pretty much understand one another from coast-to-coast in the U.S., which isn't always a given throughout most of Europe even without considering foreign-born people) we've managed to drift apart politically and culturally in many ways, shapes and forms over the last century or two.

I struggle to see how almost all of the people posting here from northern and western Europe can on one hand recognize tiny distinctions between their countrymen, countrymen who often live within 100-200 miles from them, and hold to the opinion that those differences are massively polarizing and yet on the other hand be incapable of recognizing how a country that is in some cases 10-30 times larger than theirs would have the same issues, but which diverge at an exponentially faster rate.

Just because the U.S. doesn't happen to be splintering into different linguistic directions (which, it actually is, just not quickly) doesn't mean that the population is, or ever could be, culturally unanimous.

If you wouldn't assume that the people of Amsterdam, Netherlands and Marseille, France should theoretically behave almost identically, barring language differences, then why would you expect the people of Washington D.C. to behave identically to the people of Little Rock, Arkansas or Topeka, Kansas? Let alone between places like Boston, Massachussets and Boise, Idaho or Olympia, Washington?

Edit: To clarify the point of the last paragraph, the distance between Amsterdam and Marseille is enormously short compared to the distance between places like D.C. and Olympia, WA. So it's peculiar, to me, that people have no issue recognizing that differences would naturally emerge, over time, between Amsterdam and Marseille... but would then abandon that strain of logic when talking about places which are, in some cases, four or fives times further apart than the aforementioned Dutch and French cities.

[Macaquerie]

Let's see... Europe existed for 2k years... that's a pretty long time, dude. We've forgotten more wars than you lot started. But for us it resulted in free democracies and civil liberties. We're pretty much at peace with each other. How's the racial tension going that you guys are sporting for basically the entire lifetime of your country's existance? Keeping it well groomed, I hear? We may have had more wars, but we figured out that you need a break from it once in a while... we learned that a long time ago.

As bad as race relations can get in America, European countries do a far worse job handling it, or at least they would if their populations were anywhere near as racially diverse as that of the US. The reaction of even the most notably progressive and open minded European countries toward the Syrian refugee crisis has been nothing short of disgraceful, mirroring the kind of nativist rhetoric you would've heard coming out of the US 150 years ago.

[PizzaSHARK]

Let's see... Europe existed for 2k years... that's a pretty long time, dude. We've forgotten more wars than you lot started. But for us it resulted in free democracies and civil liberties. We're pretty much at peace with each other. How's the racial tension going that you guys are sporting for basically the entire lifetime of your country's existance? Keeping it well groomed, I hear? We may have had more wars, but we figured out that you need a break from it once in a while... we learned that a long time ago.

Dunno, our racial tension's not quite as bad as yours is. I mean, all that refugee stuff and how y'all suck at handling it properly because you've all been so insular for so many years and that leading to a rise in ultra-nationalism. Sure, that's definitely something you learned "a long time ago" and not something that's been a major problem for the past couple years.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but America is only as strong as it is because of its geographical location. You have no threats on your doorstep, nobody has ever invaded you, you have just been left alone to grow and prosper, that's hardly something to hold over the rest of the world.

It's strong because we never had reconstruction costs like other countries did. We also made even more money by helping other countries with their post-war reconstruction.

Geography does help, though. We're far larger than any individual European nation, which beyond room for our people also means access to far more natural resources. We also have a sea border with both the Atlantic and the Pacific, which makes trade much easier for us.

So, yeah, geography is definitely a factor, but so is our being able to avoid post-war reconstruction costs. Geography is mostly why we were able to, I suppose.

[kail]

I think it's fair to call things as they are.

Gridiron Football is a game played with an egg-shaped ball frequently carried in the hand. Thus, Handegg.

Association Football is a game played by grown men crying in a field. Thus, Crying in a Field.

But you'll give the name "Football" to a sport where less than a percent of the play is done via the foot.

[Nitro Fun]

Dunno, our racial tension's not quite as bad as yours is. I mean, all that refugee stuff and how y'all suck at handling it properly because you've all been so insular for so many years and that leading to a rise in ultra-nationalism. Sure, that's definitely something you learned "a long time ago" and not something that's been a major problem for the past couple years.

What USA do you live in? Racial tensions are pretty bad in USA, at least it was when I lived there and I doubt it has changed much, seeing how movements like BLM are gaining traction.

[PizzaSHARK]

What USA do you live in? Racial tensions are pretty bad in USA, at least it was when I lived there and I doubt it has changed much, seeing how movements like BLM are gaining traction.

The same USA I've lived in for over 30 years? It's nowhere near as bad as people like to make it out to be.

[Nitro Fun]

The same USA I've lived in for over 30 years? It's nowhere near as bad as people like to make it out to be.

Yeah, that's why movements like BLM are gaining traction, I guess.

Regardless, you continue doing you, turning a blind eye to the situation.

[Holofernes]

europeans dont force pupils to salute the flag and sing the hymn every fucking day. Thats what americans call patriotism.

its like when your parents are hardcore catholic and u have to go to church every sunday,

as US-american pupil u must sing and salute every fucking schoolday. It was very hilarious to me as i was an exchange student in north dakota 20 years ago.
They REALLY are forced to do this shit, if they dont its a very big deal lol. Its way worse than to not go to church on sunday.

[PizzaSHARK]

Yeah, that's why movements like BLM are gaining traction, I guess.

Regardless, you continue doing you, turning a blind eye to the situation.

I'm not sure what your point is. So we're judging the strength and effectiveness of countries based on social media crap?

[Nitro Fun]

I'm not sure what your point is. So we're judging the strength and effectiveness of countries based on social media crap?

I was unaware that rioting and looting was social media crap. Thank you for putting me in place and saying that it's social media crap.

[stomination]

Let's see... Europe existed for 2k years... that's a pretty long time, dude. We've forgotten more wars than you lot started. But for us it resulted in free democracies and civil liberties. We're pretty much at peace with each other. How's the racial tension going that you guys are sporting for basically the entire lifetime of your country's existance? Keeping it well groomed, I hear? We may have had more wars, but we figured out that you need a break from it once in a while... we learned that a long time ago.

Technically two of the countries lead the airstrikes in Libya and only asked us to tag in then asked us to leave.....now its well full of isis as well.

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What USA do you live in? Racial tensions are pretty bad in USA, at least it was when I lived there and I doubt it has changed much, seeing how movements like BLM are gaining traction.

Only the inner cities are having these problems where the poorest of ppl live.

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europeans dont force pupils to salute the flag and sing the hymn every fucking day. Thats what americans call patriotism.

its like when your parents are hardcore catholic and u have to go to church every sunday,

as US-american pupil u must sing and salute every fucking schoolday. It was very hilarious to me as i was an exchange student in north dakota 20 years ago.
They REALLY are forced to do this shit, if they dont its a very big deal lol. Its way worse than to not go to church on sunday.

I havent saluted the flag or sang a hymn for 20+ years and we might have done it like in music class during elementary also the majority of Americans don't attend church.

[Irian]

From the moment we enter school we are basically beat over the head with patriotism. Children are punished for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in the US, and it goes by without the blink of an eye. Whether US citizens know it or not, the message sinks into their heads. It's no wonder many of us grow up into such passionate and vehement supporters of ideals we don't really understand are common or even more prevalent in other countries around the world.

[OperationFerret]

Motherfuckin' Freedom Fries for only 50 cents, that's why.