Anybody else just think patriotism is bollocks?

[Changeyncchange]

World cup got me thinking. I just feel no affinity to England as a concept. I was raised by 2nd gen immigrants who supported their parents international teams and the background of most of the kids at my school were similar so we didn't really get into it there.

Neither do I have no affinity to my grandparents country having not been since I was a child, I know many people from that country and immigration is still common but neither they nor I see us as sharing a nationality.

I just don't see the point. I think my own example shows how arbitrary and meaningless the whole concept of nationality and patronism is.

I'm interested to know if this is a quirk of my heritage or do others with different, more "English", backgrounds feel similar.

Nope. I’m proud to be Asian :)

Anyone born in Great Britain is British, including English people. So by definition you are British English.

Patriotism is just narcissism in its base form.

I was born here therefore this place is the best in the world!

Patriotism is just narcissism in its base form.
I was born here therefore this place is the best in the world!

that's nationalism though. Patriosim is nothing to do with anywhere else, outside of say a football match where there should be some kind of friendly rivalry

Patriotism is not now called Nationalism, they are NOT the same thing!

that's not what i said. Try again

I wasn't talking to you! It was a general comment based on what someone else said earlier up the thread!

We are an English family but immigrants. We really enjoy supporting our host nation. Love it. They are deeply passionate about football and I love getting involved. My daughter is basically a national and very keen. I really enjoy. Then invariably the team in question gets kicked out and we are left to support England. Which I also love. I love it all. If you come to the tournament with anger and resentment, yes, switch off for 4 weeks. We have huge fun. Tomorrow all the immigrants are taking their kids out of school early to support the team. ! Woop!

OP thinks that patriotism (whatever that is, and the definition is a major issue!) is a lot of bollocks. I've been thinking about how to counter this, because I don't agree. I'm happily patriotic and I don't let anyone shame me about it.

I've said upthread that patriotism for me is a totally benign emotion and one which enables me to relate to other nationalities in their patriotism. For eg, I love to see sports teams singing their national anthems etc. The best way I can explain it is: I've heard religious people say that they find it easier to relate to believers of other religions than they do to non-believers, and I find it a point of contact with people from other countries if they have a love of their country.

I think it probably boils down to whether people have a positive or negative attitude. I know OP isn't rubbishing the UK - but when people start on that (the UK's rubbish, what a terrible country, why can't we be more like Sweden, we should bow our heads in shame for our appalling history blah blah) I tend to give them a swerve and leave them to it.

Kind of pleased you are finally letting Northern Ireland go our own way.