lots of bullshit writing at The Atlantic

[kanzeon_2040]

Despite being skeptical of what has become yet another billionaire's vanity media shop (after a long history of independent journalism), I wanted to read more of what The Atlantic has to offer, so I bought a subscription, and I'm finding so much bullshit. I don't mean stuff I disagree with, I mean stuff that is poorly argued. I subscribe to the

Comments

[matrixmann]

Nationalism also has a very basic psychological function beside these negative overacted irrational effects. This is often very forgotten, when talking about it...

Drawing a "nation" also has the effect of making it clear to people what kind of features they have in common. To unite them, to create a group. To form a bunch of aimlessly straying people who don't think they have anything in common with their neighbor into a bigger group or kin that sticks together.
If you don't overdo it, nationalism can even have some positive effects - as strange as that may sound like (especially coming from a German...).

Also, what it can lead to is: To take care of the ground you live on. If you understand something as a "home", then you don't give it up at the slightest storm. You keep making efforts and invest time and work into it to make it a good place living at until you're content with what you see.
If everyone around you does the same, more quickly than later you'll have a functioning community which the people who live in it consciously

[kanzeon_2040]

I like this idea of "what we have in common", though I wish it didn't stop at an arbitrary line drawn on a map or patrolled by armed and uniformed guards. For me, it is what all people have in common, a global community. But I also wonder now whether such a "globalism" could also be taken advantage of by the amoral and the ambitious. I'm having a cynical morning.

[matrixmann]

I would have my doubts that you'd get this many people to agree in a particular issue.
You know, as much as it's said "we just all want the same, don't we?", as much everyone practically imagines something else under this predicate...