Turns Out Mr. Wikileaks is Mentally Unstable

[Asher]

PSYCHE!

Think you mean 'jinx'.

[MikeH]

US nationalism is mostly scary when looked at through European eyes.

[MikeH]

Think you mean 'jinx'.

Different word for the same thing from circa mid 80s Reading.

[Elok]

The Pledge does have one arguably positive outcome: if you're a fourteen-year-old boy sitting in the back of the classroom, it gives you almost a minute to scope out every one of your female classmates from the back. That's the main use I got out of it. Oh, and the "under God" clause gives the ACLU's legion of lawyers something to do. Without it and the "In God We Trust" on coins, they'd be stuck picking their noses most of the time. These piddly, irrelevant violations of the First Amendment give them a steady workload. It's like a subsidy, only it doesn't cost the state a dime.

[MikeH]

Surely you can check out girls without cultish brainwashing.

[DriXnaK]

Speaking of the ACLU, why haven't they come out in defense of Juan Williams being fired from NPR?

[Elok]

Surely you can check out girls without cultish brainwashing.

How is it "brainwashing?" The kids pay absolutely no attention to what they're saying. It's just a boring little mini-chore they do at the beginning of the school day. You could have them reciting Hamlet's existential soliloquy, the chorus to the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace," or the old McDonald's Big Mac jingle ("two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese...") and it would have the same effect: none whatever. Well, the last option might slightly improve sales at McDonald's, but that's it.

[MOBIUS]

Yeah, every single day. The more suggestive slowly becoming brainwashed as the years go by...

The rampant obesity in your country is merely proof that the argument you use (McDonald's Big Mac jingle) is also a suggestive brainwashing influence - hence the fact that you have successfully destroyed your own argument.

[OzzyKP]

How is saying "Under God" not favouring monotheistic religions?

It promotes monotheism over polytheism and atheism. Don't be dense.

"monotheism" isn't an establishment of religion. There is no First Reformed Church of Monotheism. Atheism isn't a religion either.

Different word for the same thing from circa mid 80s Reading.

Hmm. Back in the 80s and early 90s psyche never meant jinx. At least around here (i.e. civilized parts of the world):
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=psych
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=psyche

[Elok]

Yeah, every single day. The more suggestive slowly becoming brainwashed as the years go by...

Have you ever actually been to America, or is this just a fun idea you got while sitting on one of Al's squat toilets?

The rampant obesity in your country is merely proof that the argument you use (McDonald's Big Mac jingle) is also a suggestive brainwashing influence - hence the fact that you have successfully destroyed your own argument.

No, that does not follow. At all.

[MikeH]

I don't know if it even meant that outside my school.

[MikeH]

How is it "brainwashing?" The kids pay absolutely no attention to what they're saying. It's just a boring little mini-chore they do at the beginning of the school day. You could have them reciting Hamlet's existential soliloquy, the chorus to the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace," or the old McDonald's Big Mac jingle ("two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese...") and it would have the same effect: none whatever. Well, the last option might slightly improve sales at McDonald's, but that's it.

The McDonalds advert does my work for me. Thank you for pointing out how it works.

[Elok]

We learn the pledge when we're too young to understand its meaning and recite it without thought from that point onwards. Do you know of any study revealing an actual connection between pledge-reciting and patriotism? Unlike commercial jingles, it's not put to a tune (it's recited in a bored sing-song with fixed pauses) and refers largely to abstract principles with no appeal to any human appetite.

[MikeH]

Yes, it's more like a mantra than a jingle.

[Hauldren Collider]

Whilst theoretically optional I've heard lots of stories of people 'opting out' of the pledge and being horrendously bullied for it. By pupils and teachers.

You might be used to it but as an outsider it's very creepy and unsavoury. Plus it has one nation under God in it, which is an issue in itself in a country with separation between religion and state.

I never say the under god part and get absolutely no trouble for it.