What are the differences between #FakePatriotism and #TruePatriotism?

Ask evocative questions about patriotism

My Azorian Hawaiian grandmother gave me a wallet with a 1964 JFK silver half-dollar encased in clear plastic on the inside of the wallet, along with an embossing of JFK's famous inaugural quote about patriotism.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for country.

But will you remember Trump's disingenuous inaugural doublespeak about patriotism?

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The bible tell us, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity."

The quotes below make further distinctions between fake and true patriotism.

Samuel Johnson: (Fake) patriotism is the last refuge for a scoundrel. A (true) patriot is one whose ruling passion is the love of his country.

Ulysses S. Grant: There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter want to be ranked with the latter.

Charles de Gaulle: Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate of people other than your own comes first.

Mark Twain: Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

What are the differences between true and fake patriotism?

These one-liners (below) make distinctions between fake and true patriotism. Use these ideas to create your own credo about true patriotism. What if it were considered to be the duty of every politicians and citizen to create, adapt or adopt their own credo of true patriotism.

Contrasting the systemic parameters between fake vs true patriotism

• Fake patriotism puts party before country to divide USA despite claims to the contrary.
• True patriotism puts country before party to unite USA for the greater good.

• Fake patriotism is bounded by the character flaws of megalomania, narcissism and sociopathy.
• True patriotism is founded on cultivating virtues, such as equity, altruism and transparent accountability.

• Fake patriotism is a deep root cause for exacerbating the unequal opportunities for wealth, health and wellbeing.
• True patriotism is about creating fair opportunities for all people to achieve their highest levels of wealth, health and wellbeing.

• Fake patriotism incites hyper-partisanship and dysfunctional polarizations to subvert our constitution. 
• True patriotism is about managing polarities between individual and community values to enhance how our constitution enhances the functioning of our democratic republic.

• The corporate credos of fake patriotism are driven by for-profit short-termism: serving shareholders, customers and employees in that order.
• The corporate credos of true patriotism are driven by conscious capitalism and long-termism: serving shareholders, employees, customers and stakeholders.

• The corporate credos of fake patriotism are driven by the linear economy of hyper-consumerism without regard to personal, public, global and planetary health.
• The corporate credos of true patriotism are driven by the circular economy to enhance personal, public, global and planetary health.

Contrasting characteristics between fake vs true patriotism

• Fake patriotism is the self-centered mindset about pursuing greed, dominance and power for personal gain.
• True patriotism is a humanitarian mindset about fostering generosity, egalitarianism and empowerment.

• Fake patriotism is about fermenting neo-terrorism: creating a divisive, uncivil war of words without regard to truth and virtues.
• True patriotism is about engaging in civil discourse about truth and virtues, in the spirit of inclusion and diversity.

• Fake patriotism is about amplifying alt-facts to create toxic divisive cultures.
• True patriotism is about verifying truth to create a culture of trust.

• Fake patriotism is a swamp for concealing incompetencies and corruption.
• True patriotism is a transparent vessel for developing competencies and integrity.

Contrasting styles between fake vs true patriotism

• Fake patriotism is about depreciating others, using dirty political tricks, paranoia, fear and hate.
• True patriotism is about appreciating and amplifying people's virtuous acts and behaviors.

• Fake patriotism is about flaunting one's flaws as virtues and reframing other people's virtues as flaws.
• Truth patriotism is about calling out fake patriots who refrain flaws as virtues, and vice versa.

• Fake patriotism is like a gang of schoolyard bullies who terrorize both children and the teachers, but on a national scale.
• True patriotism is like Winston Churchill taking a stand against Neville Chamberlain's appeasement to the rise of fascism.

Contrasting impacts between fake vs true patriotism

• Fake patriotism creates epidemics of fake news addictions.
• True patriotism is the courage to call out fake news and fake patriots.

• Fake patriotism enslaves gullible people to become servants of plutocracy: puppets, parrots and pit bulls of their propaganda machines.
• True patriotism liberates people to become free thinkers and political activists within a participatory democracy. 

• The fear-driven, propaganda machines of fake patriotism induce people into a mob trance that collectively indoctrinates them into closed-minded fundamentalist thinking.
• The learning platforms of true patriotism cultivate open-minded free-thinkers who seek truth, unconstrained by political ideology, identity, idolatry and loyalty.

• The deep state of fake patriotism perpetuates the vicious cycles of corruption and distrust to subvert our democratic institutions.
• The transparency accountability of true patriotism cultivates the virtuous cycles of integrity and trust to enhance the functioning of our democratic institutions.

How can we stop enabling fake patriotism?

Conflict-avoidant people are reticent to dialogue about the differences between fake and true patriotism for fear of exacerbating the uncivil war of dysfunctional political polarizations. This strengthens the fundamentalist fist of fake patriotism. Reticence will not break the stranglehold grip of fake patriotism that suffocates our constitution and democratic republic.

It takes courage to speak out against fake patriotism and hold fake patriot leaders accountable to the truth. It is impossible to destabilize dysfunctional political polarizations of fake patriotism, without generating conflicts. We must destabilize the statue quo, using the iron fist of truth, liberty and justice to set ethical norms for true patriotism.

• How can we deconstruct the deep state of fake patriotism to marginalize fake patriots?

Host town forums about patriotism

As digital citizens, we can use social media to invite mainstream media (MSM) to host town forums about patriotism for the #2020election. What if we invited all political candidates to publish their credos of true patriotism before such town forums, so that we, the people, can ask question them about their credos. And ask follow-up questions, such as:

How will you

• Live up to your credo of true patriotism?
• Reduce the political illiteracy about fake patriotism?
• Help people become free-thinkers
• Call out the fake patriot playbook and behaviors?
• Hold politicians with fake patriot personality disorder accountable to the truth?

We must keep re-asking these kinds of questions in the build up to the 2020 presidential elections, The purpose of these questions is to inspire positive emotions and motives that reverse the downward spiral into the abyss of fake patriotism and ascend the upward spiral toward the virtues of true patriotism.

Inspire true patriotism

What we focus on, we feed. Telling stories about true patriotism will expose the perils of fake patriotism and break the cycle of fake news addictions. We need the inspiration of true patriotism to:

• Heal the Divided States of America
• Unrig our rigged system
• Restore our republic and democracy

Read more: Will fake or true patriotism win the #2020election?

If inspired, comment and share your favorite one-liners about fake and true patriotism with your connections.

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