Pride should stem from good personal decisions or accomplishments given one’s situation and life circumstances. Being born somewhere isn’t a decision nor an accomplishment.

  • 3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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    7 months ago

    Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as “reasonable self-esteem” or “confidence and satisfaction in oneself”. Oxford defines it as “the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s own importance.” Pride may be related to one’s own abilities or achievements, positive characteristics of friends or family, or one’s country.

    But it is about accomplishment, pride is directly related to self-esteem, self-confidence, self-satisfaction. In America there are way too many people who are “proud to be American” without really thinking much beyond that.

    I think it’s okay to be proud of one’s own community if they’ve taken part in shaping that community and made it better in some way.

    • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      “Proud to be an American” is a manufactured, measured out, and heavily marketed slogan, not actual pride. Hell, every nation does this. It’s only one method of control among many, though.

      Secondly, it’s wiser to not cite dictionary sources unless your argument is syntactical; socioeconomic strata are very unlikely to be accounted for in whatever abridged morsel those references offer — to say nothing of the psychological variance inherent in such a topic. Furthermore, vernacular morphology is real.

      Keep looking for answers, though. (This is less an “Unpopular Opinion”, and simply a seedling of a thought needing some attentive guidance.

    • scrion@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      You can’t go with that narrow of a definition. What about a parent being proud of their kid? That’s also pride.

      Nationalism can easily become a bad thing, I agree. But I can also see why people would feel a certain pride to be a part of a community that accomplished something positive, and while they may have not been around to participate, the pride may be what inspires them to contribute in the future.

      Ignorance, and an unwillingness to reflect on your countries recent history while spouting propaganda (i. e. “X is the best country in the world”), yes - that’s bullshit.