acronymesis

Quite the whiplash indeed!

Well, then, it was definitely unconstitutional as hell!! Just brazen indoctrination from on a hilarious/terrifying level...

The long and short of it is that the pledge of allegiance is exactly what it says on the tin; you are pledging that your loyalty is to the flag (by proxy, to the United States). However, as a US citizen, one has a 1st amendment right that is supposed to protect you from being forced by the government to say the pledge (otherwise known as compelled speech). Constitutionally, you cannot be arrested or otherwise punished for not saying the pledge, or for expressing distaste for the pledge, leaving out the "under God" part while reciting the pledge, or even saying that you think the flag is nothing more than a nationalist propaganda symbol.

That all said, I feel like there is at least one or two stories a year where a student is accosted by a teacher because they refused to recite the pledge. Any teacher who does this is setting themselves and the school up for a lawsuit, as accosting/punishing a student for not reciting the pledge is flat out unconstitutional..

On a different note, as an American who grew up mindlessly citing the pledge throughout my K-12 years, it was a pretty harsh realization when I learned that this is essentially a kind of indoctrination. I honestly feel a bit gross when I go to my kid's school events and the first thing they do is trot out the flag and start the pledge. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a push to have it removed as a regular thing at public schools in the US (nor would I be surprised at a reactionary response from the "patriots" in our country if there was a movement against the pledge...).

We were forced to attend John Birch Society events in school

Damn, that sounds unconstitutional as hell. I imagine you went to some time of Christian private school?

Following in the footsteps of Wells Fargo, are we BoA? Glad I quit them way back when.

Couldn’t help but notice this issue (or something similar?) happening on Reddit before I left. Pretty sure something funky is going on on imgur’s end.

I mean, hell, we can forget the “c-word” and we still have this huge issue with foreign (and even domestic!) bad actors stirring shit up with disinformation campaigns in our society. When will our government acknowledge it and actually fucking DO something??

“She is missing birthdays and holidays for this. She truly believes this is all real and we are the crazy ones for trying to get her to come home. But she won’t, I don’t believe she will ever come back from this. We are in mourning.”

We truly have a sickness in our society. Sure would be nice if certain politicians - who are quick to blame mental health issues for our societies woes - could focus on things like the Qanon Qult tearing apart families rather than, oh, you know, the gays.

Hard to imagine losing a professional license for someone who dropped you like a sack of potatoes after throwing caution and profession to the wind to go to bat for them.

This, folks, is the result of actual Trump Derangement Syndrome. 🤷🏽‍♂️

"Once they can be convinced again that the activities are safe, then they will go back," he said. "The human nature is to think, 'Well, this will happen to other people. This won't happen to me. I will be more careful.'"

There is never a shortage of hubris, in other words. 🤦🏽‍♂️

I like to think of it this way; I believe in universal suffrage, but I sure wish some wouldn’t exercise it (at least, not the way they do…).