This is cool

[Genevieve]

I'm just saying I haven't seen a definition of nationalism that is dependent on ethnic groups, and you are just defining it yourself based on other examples of nationalism that also happen to have associated ethnic conflict.

And I think there is a bit of xenophobia in American culture at the moment re: muslim people and middle easterners in general.

[Gen. Volkov]

I'm just saying I haven't seen a definition of nationalism that is dependent on ethnic groups, and you are just defining it yourself based on other examples of nationalism that also happen to have associated ethnic conflict.

That's actually pretty much standard definition of nationalism Lucy. German nationalism was all about the fact that they were German, ditto French nationalism and every other nationalist movement. They all focused in their ethnic group, whether it be German or French or Spanish or Italian or Russian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_nationalism

And I think there is a bit of xenophobia in American culture at the moment re: muslim people and middle easterners in general.

No, there are people in America who are xenophobic, and they gets lots of airtime because they talk loudly, but most Americans don't care where you are from. We are such a mix that telling a middle easterner from any of another dozen different kinds of people from that area is almost impossible. Perhaps if you are obviously Muslim, as in you wear a burkha or something, you might get hassled a bit more, but given the events of 9/11, I'd be surprised if people weren't at least a little suspicious. Our reaction to Muslims in the post-9/11 world is still pretty mild though. Right after 9/11, it got kind of bad for awhile, but it's calmed down to a great extent by now. It's mostly the talking heads on Fox News that are keeping it alive, though even they are having to apply the defibrillator pretty much daily to do so. Americans just can't sustain any sort of xenophobia long term, we are too diverse, and our citizens have to deal with too many people on a daily basis to form any sort of rigid stereotypes that would allow xenophobia to persist.

The amount of xenophobia Australians display with respect to the asylum seekers, the "boat people" I think you called them, far exceeds any xenophobic tendencies present in the US today.

[Shores of Tripoli]

 Funny that this would come up but I found out that I girl I've known for almost 5 years is Arabic today. She's mixed with so many other races that I never would have guessed.

[Genevieve]

Dan, your assumption that I wouldn't agree that my country is more xenophobic than yours is painting me as somewhat patriotic myself.

I like that your post denying a level of nationalism in America ended with a "my country is better than yours" comment.

[Gen. Volkov]

Dan, your assumption that I wouldn't agree that my country is more xenophobic than yours is painting me as somewhat patriotic myself.

This is because comments you have made in this thread have given that impression.

I like that your post denying a level of nationalism in America ended with a "my country is better than yours" comment.

Actually it was a those who live in glass houses should not throw stones type comment.

[Gen. Volkov]

Completely apocryphal, blatantly nationalistic, but also relevant and I thought it was funny as hell:

http://www.samscorner.org/?p=1243

I originally saw this on Facebook, as a shared photo from someone, but I can't find it anymore.

[Ungatt Trunn II]

That is good. I chuckled. [fake]Then I sang the national anthem and sacrificed a chicken to the glorious union.[/fake]

[Captain Mortspear]

I agree, this song is awesome. I have it on my I-pod.  I actually wrote a Long Patrol version of this song. Semper Fidelis. 

[Captain Mortspear]

Yes, we developed quite a reputation in that war didn't we?

Actually in WWII many German soldiers were told by family who were WWI vets to "Be a good soldier and surrender to the first American you see" oh and Shores, Good luck with boot camp.

[stormsight]

Boot camp was almost the most fun I ever had.
Start refining your yelling voice now.

[Gen. Volkov]

Ah, found it:

[Rakefur]

Haha that's pretty funny.

[Captain Mortspear]

How do you post those pictures I can't figuer it out?

[Durza]

when you are writing a response, there is a little button under the BOLD symbol which says insert picture.  I believe that you get the source of the picture, put it between the brackets and then it should work

[Rakefur]

^Yep.

You could also just put the source in between these: