When will the BBC be held accountable for their lack of patriotism

What is this 'we', claig? What is 'this country'?

That you take these things as self-evident is precisely why I think most but not all right-wingers are just a bit thick. It shows an utter ignorance of history, politics and philosophy.

There is no 'we', there is only the we we decide to be. Which means by default it needs questioning. And there is no 'country', only that which we defend against threat. But a cosmopolitan world view knows it is OK to do this while at the same time accepting change.

Blimey what a weird thread....

There are some soldiers who desert from their regiments and go AWOL. It is not because they don't feel loyalty to their particular regiment and might possibly feel more loyalty to another regiment. It is because they do not feel the same loyalty to their country as the other soldiers do. Soldiers in wars become selfless because they are part of a greater cause than just themsleves, they feel loyalty to their country and their people. If they didn't, then they would abscond.

BTW I don't think it's a sickness to love your country......it's a free world, you can think what you like, "free from external forces".

You must see the irony in what you are saying?

Are you saying that all soldiers are right wing

Have you been on the sauce tonight, claig?

I don't believe that all or most soldiers are motivated by patriotism. There loyalties are far more likely to be at the squad/regiment level. I feel no loyalty to my company, and it shows me none. I do feel personal loyalty to my immediate colleagues and team. I doubt soldiers are terribly different.

'you actually got scientific evidence to show more right wingers than left wingers love their country?'

I haven't got scientific evidence. But you only have to read MN and you will see how few conservatives don't love their country and how many on the left think that it is a sickness to love one's country.

'People on the right who spout this shite mean their type of country. They don't mean all the low life scroungers, single mothers and immigrants. They only love a country according to their rules, which by it's very essence is therefore shite.'

Do you think that the young men and women who fight for their country and who sometimes come back without limbs, don't do it for all of the country? They do it for the sick, the elderly, the homeless, the drug addicts, the prostitutes, the feckless and all of their neighbours, whether they like them or not. They may even be abused by some as the coffins are brought home, but they do it for the country and even for those who don't love their country.

They even fight and die for politicians who they don't agree with and who may not equip them with enough equipment, but they know that these politiicians aren't the country, they know that they are doing it for the country. They may not love these politicians or thoae who abuse them, but they love their country, that's why they do it.

But TheCoalitionNeedsYou, it is to lack of democracy and communism that it will inevitably lead. Why do you think that few conservatives do not love tyeir country and more left wingers do not feel love for their country?

Life is about diversity and freedom and self-determination and individual consciousness. It is about self-actualisation in a free and fair system, free from the control of external forces. That's why we fought the Second World War against the Nazis, to prevent ourselves losing our liberty to an external force. We wanted to run our country by ourselves, because we do things differently to other countries. We wanted to preserve our liberties and our customs because they are different to those of other countries. It is also why the Soviet Union eventually had to collapse, because artificial constructs that deny the truth that people are different and that they love their countries and they want to preserve their individuality and diversity, are systems that are doomed to fail, because they are anti-human and anti-nature, they deny the reality of the human spirit and the human soul, both of which naturally love their country, and are even prepared to die for it. This is because their country is them, it is their community, it is their heritage and their history. It belongs to them and they belong to it. That is nature and that is why the majority are patriotic.

What a strange OP - why do you think Britain is the best country in the world??

I mean come on.

'Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.'

As for the rest of the post

Jesus, what a load of shit

People on the right who spout this shite mean their type of country. They don't mean all the low life scroungers, single mothers and immigrants. They only love a country according to their rules, which by it's very essence is therefore shite.

People 'love' their small part of the country, the bit they belong in/dictate, they don't love all the country, especially those who don't play by their rules

Claig - apart from the international communism, and the lack of democracy, that all sounds a jolly good idea.
Prioritizing your country over others is pure selfishness.

'Is it not just Social Identity Theory?'

It is about real feeling and love and duty and service. Things that are not fashionable in certain political circles. Those who don't feel like this are mainly on the left, even though they also belong to the country as well.

These people don't feel love for their country, they don't feel the bonds, they feel deracinated. They have become alienated from the community, they stand above country, and tend to love other countries more than their own. They don't believe in country, they believe in the global. They are one worlders, globalists, who hold the global dearer than the local. They prefer global institutions to parliament, they see no difference between countries, they believe in free movement of all the world's people. If their dream comes true it will eventually mean the end of democracy and national self-determination. The flame of liberty will be extinguished, and an international communism will hold sway and will reign over the entire globe and there will be no more love of country.

Is it not just Social Identity Theory?

Being part of a group

You could just as well love any country, so long as you feel part of it

Yes, you can love a country. People love God. People love ideas and ideals, like Plato said. People love beauty and justice and truth and it is for ideals that people sacrifice their lives. People will fight and die for ideals, for freedom, for liberty, for family, for country. That's why they join up and serve their country and risk their lives for love of their country. Most people are patriotic, because it is natural and healthy.

I am not sure it is possible to love a country. It is an inanimate and subjective object.

every cab driver will tell you that lots of people talk about getting out and leaving the country. It's not because they don't love the country, it's because they think it has gone to the dogs, and has been mismanaged by the politicians in charge. Lots of people grumble and moan about the country, but they are still patriotic.

There is lots wrong with the country and the public knows it has been ripped off by the bankers etc., they may want to leave and go to Australia etc. for the hope of a better life, with lower taxation and where they can make a good living, but they still love their own country. They just don't like what the politicians have done to the country.

Yes you are right. I think that the majority or centre are patriotic and love their own country, just as the Chinese and Russians and Americans and every other people in earth also love their country. Those who don't love their own country are usually left of centre.

Whether you are left or right depends on where you think the centre is.

Then why did the Director General of the BBC say that the BBC was guilty of "massive left wing bias" in the past, and never say the same about right wing bias?

The BBC gets flak from both "left" and "right" and is often accused of being both... so it must be doing something right.

I guessed that you certainly couldn't be right wing. Conservative and right wing are both different to left wing.