The Cult of the Flag

pa·tri·ot·ism

   [pey-tree-uh-tiz-uhm] noun

devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty.

Beware, Americans, of becoming a member of the Cult of the Flag.

The US government has brainwashed the ignorant of America to justify all manner of atrocities by veiling those sins in a cloak of "patriotism".  People have not only stood by while we have committed grievous acts, they have cheered resoundingly as citizens of other countries are devastated and killed by us.  Leaders have manipulated the masses through patriot propaganda to support a corrupt government, validate unfair foreign policy and agree to the mistreatment of countless citizens of our own country.

• 1947: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 110,00 innocent Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and placed in internment camps.  62% of those people were American citizens, but the vile act was justified in Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt because "the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national  defense material, national defense premises, and national defense utilities."  Few Americans protested, because they had been convinced that it was necessary to keep the country safe from traitors and espionage.
• 1950:  Senator Joseph McCarthy, an anti-Communist zealot, spent his 10 year career as a senator accusing innocent Americans of Communist ties.  Despite the fact that the cases were unproven, careers were destroyed, people were blacklist and families were shattered.  One vocal opponent, Senator Millard Tydings, was said to have committed "the most brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history."
• 2001:  After the 9/11 attacks, the war drums began to pound furiously.  According to President George Bush, "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."  It didn't matter that this war would kill, to date, nearly 1.5 million men, women and children.  All good patriots had to support the war, support our troops and support our blood-thirsty quest for control over the Middle East's oil supply  vengeance.  Flags waved furiously across the United States, with every flat surface belonging to good Americans plastered with a red-white-and-blue decal.
• Vietnam, Korea, Grenada, Lebanon, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Cuba, South America:  pick a destination on the globe and we've been told that it is our civic duty as Americans to blow it up.
• The Present: Over the past 10 years many laws have been passed that negate freedom in the name of Americanism.  The unPatriot Act, the establishment of the TSA, the NDAA, the American Expatriation Act, the anti-protest Trespass Bill - all of these have combined to make a mockery of the Constitutional principles that our country was founded on.  They've been presented in a way that an unquestioning general populace can feel snug and secure against domestic and foreign threats, when in fact the real threat to America is within the buildings of Washington DC.

Loving one's country doesn't mean blindly accepting the actions of the leaders.  When the leaders of the country abandon the Constitution, human conscience and morality, the act of a true Patriot is to question that and question it loudly.

The US government knows that the Cult of the Flag is the most powerful tool in the brainwashing arsenal.  By propagandizing through the special-interest-owned media, they intend to convince every American that it is his or her patriotic duty to support the President, right or wrong.  They intend to distribute the red-white-and-blue Kool-aid to persuade us to ignore our values and morals and blindly wave the flag.

Our patriotic duty is not to the government.  The act of a patriot is to question the acts of the government and to not be diverted from that call for accountability by a war-mongering, go-team rhetoric.  Our duty is to think critically and dissent when necessary.  You can love your country without loving your government.  We must be willing to defend our country from within, and that means risking discomfort, persecution and potentially, our lives.

BE A REAL PATRIOT.

LEARN.

QUESTION.

SPEAK UP.

CAMPAIGN.

MAKE A SCENE.

RESIST.

"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality.  Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it."

~  Malcolm X

(Credits: NinaO)

You Might Be a Patriot Extremist If............

.......  you pay for your coffee with cash

.......  you purchase storage containers and hydrogen peroxide at the same time.

.......  you use portals or anonymizers to shield your IP address.

.......  you shave off your beard or otherwise change your appearance before participating in paintball.

........  you incorporate hand-to-hand combat into your martial arts training. (did this suddenly become a non-contact sport?)

.......  you carry a backpack when you go to the mall, especially in warm weather.

.......  you own a gas mask or other biologically protective gear.

.......  you have left the country to perform charity work, particularly if it was religious in nature.

.......  you rent a boat for an extended period of time.

.......  you purchase a GPS device and batteries at the same time.

.......  you behave impatiently at the farm supply store.

.......  you deposit money orders, third party checks and payroll checks all into the same bank account.

.......  you purchase firearms and ammunition outside of hunting season.

.......  you make a large purchase from a retail store using cash.

.......  you ask for a room in a specific or remote part of a hotel or motel.

.......  you use a camera or video recorder at a bus, subway or train station.

.......  you purchase water-proofed match containers.

.......  you ask about the fuel capacity of a car you intend to rent.

.......  you pay your rent in cash, especially if you pay it ahead of time.

.......  you are either late paying the rent for your storage unit or you pay for several months in advance.

.......  you get a tattoo in a concealed spot on your body, particularly if you pay cash for it.

Today's list of threats to America has been brought to you by your friends at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  For more helpful hints check out their website, Public Intelligence

DHS: Rightwing Extremism is on the Rise

There's a new conspiracy theory in town, and this one has been created by the government.  The Department of Homeland Gestapo Security has released a 10 page report outlining the next great threat to the United States government. 

Ummmm......apparently it's us.

The report is a mix of so-called conspiracy theories described in language that makes them seem irrational.

For example:

Anti-government conspiracy theories and "end time" prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition and weapons.

Right-wing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of US jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures.  Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish financial "elites".

Because debates over Constitutional rights are intense, and parties on all sides have deeply held, sincere but vastly divergent beliefs, violent extremists may attempt to co-opt the debate and use the controversy as a radicalization tool.

....A correlation may exist between the potential passage of gun control legislation and increased hoarding of ammunition, weapons stockpiling and paramilitary training activities among right wing extremists.

The ten page report goes on to group together returning veterans, neo-Nazi skinheads, and anti-government conspiracy theorists as radical dangers to the United States government. 

The report concludes with a plea for information from the readers of this document to collect details about the suspicious activities of one's neighbors and immediately report them to the appropriate authorities.  It is complete with telephone numbers and contact numbers for the FBI, the DHS, and the NOCFusion email address.

This report attempts to take the  valid concerns of Americans and twist them into something crazy and extreme.  It is an effort to paint those of us who consider the Constitution the guiding document of law in our country as nutcases hiding behind trees in an attempt to pick off politicians.  It takes our very legitimate concerns about the state of our country and its leadership and trivializes those concerns into the rants of a bunch of kooks.  Decrying our veterans is a thinly veiled attack on groups like The Oathkeepers and The John Birch Society.

However, I think this piece of blatant propaganda is good news.

Why?

"They" know that we have their number.  "They" are scared.  "They" know that their limits have been exceeded and that the people are ready to stand up and say, "NO MORE."

This is a last-ditch effort on the part of an unConstitutional government to marginalize those of us who would defy the efforts to clamp down on the personal liberties this country was built on. 

Today, I intend to chatter angrily on the internet, arrange my cans of stockpiled food and organize my personal armory.  Later I might also walk the dog and participate in an encrypted conversation with a friend who is a veteran.  I also need to theorize about some more conspiracies.

Long live the revolution!