Devil said:
Jinx_Dragon said:
I don't know... I made a joke about Americans forgetting what country they are in and requiring flags to remind themselves for a reason.
Yeah! Americans always waving their flags! It's not like those peaceful Australians, like you, who never do that!
Because it's only nationalism when it's in America, right?
Oh, buddy. I can find you dozens more of any country in the world who act the exact same. Get off your high horse, it's hilariously hypocritical.
As for the thread: Same reason people hate celebrities, they get all the fame, money, and pull they'd like. I mean, who doesn't dislike the rich kid on the block?
Waving flags at a national sport event where your country is going against another is considered normal. Waving flags on the street of a national holiday is also a normal place to see such things. Most are even bought on site of such events, and thrown out or lost in the days after because... we don't really give a fuck about our flag.
US on the other hand seem to stick the flag where-ever they can. There are whole streets over there where every second house has an American flag in front of it. No special event that would justify it, just a flag being flown 24/7 for the sake of bragging to your neighbors that you are more 'patriotic.' The sad part is the people who do this, they don't even realize that your actually being nationalistic which many would consider a negative thing.
That is what I am pointing out with the joke about not knowing what country you are in: Because it is not normal for any other country to have people flag waving daily.
I could understand the immigration office, but after decades of traveling the world even this is abnormal. Most airport immigration offices don't have flags hanging on the walls like tapestries of old. They might have one flying out-front of the airport and they do have them on the uniforms of the officers but outside of these places you don't see many flags being flown at all. Even in places where I would considered it normal your country still goes out of the way to 'over-do' it.
So yeah: Rare is the person who feels the need to fly the Australian flag out front of their house. It does happen, don't doubt that, but it is a rare occurrence over here. No matter how many pictures of Olympic events or war memorial celebrations you might produce, it does not come anywhere close to what I was pointing out. That it is not normal for other countries to fly a flag outside of every second house in a street.
Also, you made me laugh about the US being the 'rich kid on the block' when China and the Arab emigrants are floating your economy by covering your debts.
As a quick experiment I decided to google image search two terms: US flag house and Australia flag house.
For the US flag house test I got many pictures of houses, flying US flags... even flags being flown from street and lamp posts. Some houses had more then five flags flying at a time!
The search for Australian flag house brought back lots of flags flying from governmental buildings and I really had to search to find a handful of houses flying said flags.
This by no means is a conclusive test, but given what I have personally witnessed traveling the world I can tell you... it isn't surprising. Your country is bathed in nationalism, very much so in the southern states, to the point it is mind-boggling. You might not like the idea of being called a nationalistic country, I know your government made it a dirty word, but sadly: you are.