In Germany we had plenty studies done, turns out there is no functional difference between patriot and nationalist. Those who checked patriot boxed had the same sentiments as nationalists in othering others, being prone to authoritarian thought, diminishing fascism etc.
Also I want to highlight that the talk Skoubalon does led to the following sentence:
Of course not, Germans should be rightly proud of the good things about their culture.
This strengthens the ideas of Germans existing as a distinct people, strengthens the ideas of a good culture of Germany (which Skoubalon did previous also claim to have existed and be (more) relevant than Fascism - thus continuity of it till today and the things before leading to it) and that it is okay to be "proud of ones culture", which is often a hard dog whistle. Not thinking they are dog whistling, but sure that they are using talking points that would get applouded by the reactionaries in Germany.
I agree with pretty much all of this, and I get that any display of cultural attachment can be fraught at best in Germany. "Proud" can be a (softer) dog whistle here too, and I perhaps used the wrong term.
"People of any origin who live in Germany are allowed to like and feel attachment to good things that happen to be in Germany, both current and historical. The Fischbrötchen isn't Fascist." is what I was aiming for.
That said left needs to be able to say that it's ok to like the place you live in, while engaging with the fact that all the good things are always tangled up in an antagonism with the bad parts. One that can't be fully resolved, only progressed.
To be internationalist doesn't mean to float in a disembodied sea of enlightenment universalism, or to say only the cultures of the Third World have any validity (even though they must be defended from imperialism.) To engage with local culture in the west without enabling Fascism is a hard problem for leftists but we need to work with it.
In Germany we had plenty studies done, turns out there is no functional difference between patriot and nationalist. Those who checked patriot boxed had the same sentiments as nationalists in othering others, being prone to authoritarian thought, diminishing fascism etc.
Also I want to highlight that the talk Skoubalon does led to the following sentence:
This strengthens the ideas of Germans existing as a distinct people, strengthens the ideas of a good culture of Germany (which Skoubalon did previous also claim to have existed and be (more) relevant than Fascism - thus continuity of it till today and the things before leading to it) and that it is okay to be "proud of ones culture", which is often a hard dog whistle. Not thinking they are dog whistling, but sure that they are using talking points that would get applouded by the reactionaries in Germany.
I agree with pretty much all of this, and I get that any display of cultural attachment can be fraught at best in Germany. "Proud" can be a (softer) dog whistle here too, and I perhaps used the wrong term.
"People of any origin who live in Germany are allowed to like and feel attachment to good things that happen to be in Germany, both current and historical. The Fischbrötchen isn't Fascist." is what I was aiming for.
That said left needs to be able to say that it's ok to like the place you live in, while engaging with the fact that all the good things are always tangled up in an antagonism with the bad parts. One that can't be fully resolved, only progressed.
To be internationalist doesn't mean to float in a disembodied sea of enlightenment universalism, or to say only the cultures of the Third World have any validity (even though they must be defended from imperialism.) To engage with local culture in the west without enabling Fascism is a hard problem for leftists but we need to work with it.