Nationalism as Loyalty Irritated

National Review ^ | 11/21/18 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

[ek_hornbeck]

What is nationalism? The word is suddenly and surprisingly important when talking about the times we live in. But we seem to be working without a shared definition.

“You know what I am? I’m a nationalist,” Donald Trump said in an October rally in Houston.

French president Emmanuel Macron slapped back at a commemoration ceremony for World War I in France. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” he said. “By saying ‘our interests first, who cares about the others,’ we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values.”

[ek_hornbeck]

This being a Dougherty op-ed in National Review, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt because of its typically mealy-mouthed, almost apologetic tone (he's one of those types who always makes an effort to say "I may agree with the Deplorables on some issues, but I'm not one of them - I'm respectable").

However, I do like his definition of nationalism as patriotism responding to a threat, be it internal or external. Patriotism is love of one's country, culture, and customs during normal times. Nationalism is what happens when these normal, healthy instincts are threatened by internal subversion or foreign attack. In America's case and that of Europe, the two biggest threats are the domestic left and mass immigration from the Third World. The rise of nationalist politicians, parties, and movements is the natural and necessary response to both.

[ClearCase_guy]

Another piece has explained that Macron was basically using an old Stalinist definition —

For Stalinists, “patriotism” is loyalty to the global Communist Party.
For Stalinists, “nationalism” is German Third Reich under Hitler.

Of course: nationalists are evil and patriots are good.

[BenLurkin]

“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism”

100% Orwellian.

[ek_hornbeck]

Macron’s “patriotism” is loyalty to the EU and to the various other alphabet agencies that enable it, not to France.

[ek_hornbeck]

Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism...100% Orwellian

By most accounts, during the later Brezhnev years of the Soviet Union, the government never really expected people to believe blatant "X isn't X" lies, it just demanded that you were cowed into submission to the point where you repeated such lies and claimed that you believed in them when you were told to do so. Contemporary liberal internationalism actually convinces people to believe statements such as "X isn't X" are actually true.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

I think that’s basically right, bit I really don’t see the point of using the term. If the globalist left is willing to cede the entirety of patriotism to us, and aside from Orwellian redefinitions such as that employed by Macron they are, then why not just occupy it?

[Liz]

......the definition of "nationalism" as patriotism responding to a threat, be it internal or external is spot on........
<><>"Patriotism" is love of one's country, culture, and customs during normal times.
<><> "Nationalism" kicks in when normal, healthy instincts are threatened by internal subversion or foreign attack

Amen.

[conservativeimage]

People alter the meaning of words when it suits them in their assertion of dominance which is the origin of unreasonable, pointless arguments and the kind of distorted law that led to Geman and Russian death camps. This kind of alteration of reality through word distortion leads eventually to the kind of deluded mind that can justify anything, even genocide.