Overall, 39% of U.S. adults say they are “extremely proud” to be American in the most recent poll.
Meanwhile, only 18% of those aged 18-34 said the same, compared to 40% of those aged 35-54 and 50% of those 55 and over.
18% is still too high. As Obama’s pastor said, God damn America! Americans have very little to be proud of at this point.
By that argument, there isn’t ever any pride to be had aside from personal forms, because even a multitude of 1 other isn’t completely knowable.
If a kid has good grades, but there’s a window of opportunity where the kid could be vandalizing things after school, your logic says their parent would be ridiculous for saying they’re proud of them, because you don’t fully know.
I’m not proud of America, don’t get me wrong, but it’s ok to be proud of one thing without omnipotence coming into play. Those that support big military have a great reason to be proud of America, and they can still be upset about the horrible education we give our kids. When pride is a buzzword it’s generic but when people actually feel pride it’s specific. Proud of your grades, proud of your maturity, proud of my nation’s healthcare, proud of my family’s cohesiveness, etc.
Being afraid to be proud, for fear of supporting or being associated with the wrong group, that’s defeatist talk.
A parent is either proud of their child because of what they accomplished in raising the child- or they are proud for their child because they care about their child and are happy they have accomplishments.
I did not mean knowing every other member completely, that is obviously impossible and I assumed that was trivial. My point was that you can not be proud of people if you have no clue who they are and what they are doing and that this is inevitable in a group over a certain size. How that logic is supposed to be falsified by your example with the child evades me because usually parents know their children particularly intimately.