(no subject)

[haptalaon]

When you're not really awake enough to remember what words mean and start vaguely proposing some sort of "Nationalist Socialism", and are still trying to walk it back psychologically three weeks later. Gross.

(As in, inspired by the Young'Uns album: the concept of nationalism - love for your fellow man, history, culture - blended with socialism - prosperity and pleasure for all, not only bread but roses, solidarity with workers across borders, decisions about the environment, education and health made for the good of the common man. And then specifically the mix between the two, that our national pride could be rooted in pride for how well we're taking care of one another, and our sense of heritage be a sense that we've had a long history of collective organising, international compassion, and prosperity.

Not as in: the literal Nazis.

Apologies as I go and take fourteen showers and try and rethink how I phrase this one...)

Comments

[alexseanchai]

I think 'nationalist' itself is too Nazi a word for this purpose; it certainly would be in a US context

[haptalaon]

It definitely would also be an implicitly nazi/fascist/white-supremacist/godawful word in a British and European context as well.

Patriotic, perhaps?

I guess I've been thinking about how deep-rooted and powerful this kind of desire is to people, really going all the way back into our lizard brain desire for "my tribe" "my home" "my family" - see how often notions like "fatherland" or "motherhood" or "our children" are co-opted by nationalists.

& like seeing what damage can be done to a country by dumbasses who wave the flag in the right ways.

So the question is, is there a way to stake those narratives as OURS, in ways that lead to stronger nations not defined as in "fewer Muslims" but as in "we have a strong social safety net and take care of everyone", not defined in "a bigger army" but in "longer lifespans, better mental health, more effective healthcare". Like, if we're going to go for nationalist narratives as love of family and nation, why don't those narratives produce loving outcomes?

As well as wanting to proactively claim concepts from homesteading to folk music as inherently antifascist.