It is like a religion, it has to be internally consistent. No blasphemy is allowed.
Through this ritual they establish both: norms of correct emotional response, emotional response itself, and [special ingredient X]
Their reverence for the flag becomes a knee-jerk thing, it is intertwined with so many things: Freedom(TM), fallen soldiers ;_;7 , the white man's burden ;_;7 , a future for white children 卐, doing air pollution $$$, getting that oil $卐$卐$ ;_;7 for Freedom(TM)
Much of American patriotism is like a type of trauma bonding.
By intertwining (complecting) so many things, people don't know how to disentangle themselves from the lies, and cannot on an emotional level "throw out the baby with the bathwater".
Edit: to be clear: patriotism feels like something, it is that soaring feeling of hope, dignity, justice, tragedy, freedom they need to construct, amplify, and bind onto the imperial flag.
[special ingredient X] is a provided interpretation of the emotional response, it becomes assumed, axiomatic.
Have to be very careful though in discarding existing interpretations of emotional responses.
It is an entry point to radicalization, fundamentalism, and conspiracy thinking.
When the pieces of their ideology fall apart, people always scramble to salvage what they can.
It tends to be healthier if people learn another ideology first, before discarding their previous one.
The feeling of that music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaUojFGYqs) is summoned, complected, with everything else.
American patriotism is like an extension of evangelical Christianity; it is trauma bonding.
It is psychological technology. Religion mostly evolves on its own, its architects are themselves mostly indoctrinated.
Liberal psychiatry exists in part to discredit people that can see and explain these things.
Loss of ideology is called disillusionment; can easily become "nihilism", "doomerism", "jokerfied", "scientism".
There are correct interpretations of emotions, but those are not easy to explain or internalize.
Oh I'll tell you what they are accomplishing.
[CW: anti-religion longposting]
It is like a religion, it has to be internally consistent. No blasphemy is allowed.
Through this ritual they establish both: norms of correct emotional response, emotional response itself, and [special ingredient X]
Their reverence for the flag becomes a knee-jerk thing, it is intertwined with so many things:
Freedom(TM), fallen soldiers ;_;7 , the white man's burden ;_;7 , a future for white children 卐, doing air pollution $$$, getting that oil $卐$卐$ ;_;7 for Freedom(TM)
Much of American patriotism is like a type of trauma bonding.
By intertwining (complecting) so many things, people don't know how to disentangle themselves from the lies, and cannot on an emotional level "throw out the baby with the bathwater".
Edit: to be clear: patriotism feels like something, it is that soaring feeling of hope, dignity, justice, tragedy, freedom they need to construct, amplify, and bind onto the imperial flag.
[special ingredient X] is a provided interpretation of the emotional response, it becomes assumed, axiomatic.
Have to be very careful though in discarding existing interpretations of emotional responses.
It is an entry point to radicalization, fundamentalism, and conspiracy thinking.
When the pieces of their ideology fall apart, people always scramble to salvage what they can.
It tends to be healthier if people learn another ideology first, before discarding their previous one.
The feeling of that music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaUojFGYqs) is summoned, complected, with everything else.
American patriotism is like an extension of evangelical Christianity; it is trauma bonding.
It is psychological technology. Religion mostly evolves on its own, its architects are themselves mostly indoctrinated.
Liberal psychiatry exists in part to discredit people that can see and explain these things.
Loss of ideology is called disillusionment; can easily become "nihilism", "doomerism", "jokerfied", "scientism".
There are correct interpretations of emotions, but those are not easy to explain or internalize.
(for more of my searing hot takes on religion: (but seriously try to watch that complecting video first) opium destroys the soul)
(to be clear, I do not want to malign religion altogether, but expressing the synthesis all at once takes far too long)