Still working to recover. Please don't edit quite yet.
Patriotic Correctness
Exaggerated patriotism is only the beginning of Patriotic Correctness. Browbeating of political opponents for not being patriotic, and a chilling effect on opponents and allies alike who might venture criticism. Propaganda techniques, techniques of promoting ideologies, are used to state that ideologies are essentially patriotic, and that opposition to the ideologies is unpatriotic.
Propaganda increases exponentially in times of war, and the various Wars declared by the US (War on Drugs and War on Terror and every War there is a Czar for) are no exception. There was a tendency to use the term Flag waver[1] as a compliment for genuine nationalistic pride during WWII, with its 'don't you know there's a war on' attitude and numerous legal provisions to silence critics with censorship, but the use of the term may possibly be growing again[2]
The Patriot Act's very name is an indication of the use of propaganda techniques typical of Patriotic correctness, in this case, Propaganda#Appeal to authority and Propaganda#Bandwagon techniques to establish supporting it as a required duty. A phrase from the act adds a requirement for support for minorities to the already established requirement for support for emergency services (which was soon to be followed by support for military personnel, see Pot calling the kettle red#Greater good):
- Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Mohammed Salman Hamdani
The Third Reich's use of 'The Fatherland' to describe Nazi Germany, and the USSR's similar use of Motherland, is echoed in the neologism of Homeland Security, to the extent that many were surprised that neocons would be so unwise or blatant to use it.[3]
- "The name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably, Homeland isn't really an American word, it isn't something we used to say or say now." - Republican speechwriter Peggy Noonan, in a 2002 column[3]
Note that even in disparaging this neologism used to induce or compel Patriotic Correctness, Noonan invokes patriotism.
See Also[edit]
- Flag waving
- Operation:IRONY
- Enabling Act
- Espionage Act of 1917
- Patriot Act
- Pot calling the kettle red
- Reichstag Fire Decree
Citations[edit]
- ↑ Flag Waving definition from Merriam Webster online. Retrieved August 2009.
- ↑ Roger Ebert critique of film career including early 20th C
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Craig Unger. American Armageddon: How the Delusions of the Neoconservatives and the Christian Right triggered the descent of America - and still imperil our future.
