Hey, so again, I used to be a big fan of you with your internet videos in like 2008-2010, and now I'm diving down this rabbit hole of your articles.
I'm also a writer (duh, I'm on Medium) (PS follow me too!) and I feel like taking inspiration here to write something because you're touching on several interesting issues because my major in college was human geography and it's not spending your college education on bettering your skills at playing where in the world is carmen sandiego, there are some really useful concepts which you're touching on.
Since Human Geography was added to high schools as an AP course
(http://dsnyds.com/MWH/AP/APHG%20Terms%20&%20Definitions.pdf) a lot of it's been put on the internet, because dumb kids want easy study tools.
So without using a lot of fancy words, I think you need to look beyond the US to a sample size of every country on the planet (roughly 200) and see that countries have different centrifugal forces and centripital forces that enhance national unity. Part of this is the country's origin story and national myths.
The challenge each country faces to create patriotism and to justify its existence is that not all of them have great origin myths. Canada basically never broke up with England. I did a study abroad to Mexico and much of that country's history consisted of murdered presidents and dictators and ousters. They had a revolution from Spain and the two leaders in charge fought a war with each other for power pretty immediately afterwards. Imagine if the Civil War happened five years after the Revolutionary War, would we be feeling like the Revolutionary War was as big of a deal? that's why their national mythology centers around Cinco de Mayo.
My point is that all countries have to create some type of national symbolism, however ridiculous it sounds or looks. Patriotism in some form is a necessity. It's not a lie or a truth, it's simply a minimal attempt at establishing a common ground outside of a constitution.
It will always be used by politicians to accuse the other side of being un-American and in almost all cases it's a lazy argument (except maybe anyone who supports the January 6th insurrection since trying to overthrow the US, is certainly not acting in support of it) but patriotism, to me, is a state-created idea but a necessary symbolic one. If we don't pledge allegiance to the American flag or our lawmakers don't swear to its constitution, we don't have a common language to say what we're fighting towards. And yes, of course, being critical of ways in which we're straying away from the constitution is never wrong.
The other part I think is worth discussing is that I wonder how much of patriotism automatically has to do with being loyal or having a sense of pride in your state. If patriotism is a means of giving your government meaning, you can't deny that it's specifically part of our government that it's not about the guys in Washington but the people in every state house because the constitution gives power to them.
Do I really care about my state's autonomy to do good if another American state like Texas is using that autonomy to do bad? Do I respect Texas's self-governing capability? I think it's all the United States to me (where most of our patriotic energy is directed to) so why do we care about "states rights". That requires a whole other form of patriotism to which the existing mythology we built, doesn't really exist anymore.
