i've come to feel that the power of nationalism is that there is a hard limit to how much increased awareness of geopolitical realities can change peoples' minds. like, someone, maybe even the average american, can fully comprehend and believe that an entire people is being massacred by a US ally with weapons given to them by the US, and support it. there's no moment of disillusionment, because they aren't supporting the abstract tenets of some ideal of the nation, but the nation per se. they say "my country, right or wrong" and they mean it 100%.