Being a nationalist is often viewed with extremely negative connotations these days. When someone thinks of Nationalist they have likely over time due to repeated media messaging begun to immediately think of "White Nationalists", or "White Nationalism". This by extension likely leads them to KKK, Nazis, neo-Nazis, and some might then make the jump to "Trump Supporter".
A nationalist in reality is not those things. At the root of it. They are someone who loves their country. They treat their country much like they may treat their house. They fix their house up as nice as they can, they make it comfortable to live in, they repair things that need to be repaired, and they may make it look nice to show they are proud of it. Then they might go forth and help other people with their homes as well if they want it. The key is they don't tend to let their house fall into disrepair and become a slum while they are busy making houses that don't belong to them look great and grand.
The "America First" slogan was about fixing your own nation first. That doesn't mean don't help other nations. It simply is basically saying that our nation, much like your house should be fixed, repaired, and working well before we worry about fixing other nations.
It also was not stating that people outside of America should be treating America first. In fact, most people that believe in "America First" think that people should be treating their nation first. "Brazil First", "China First", "Germany First", etc. Where you live. Fix your nation first.
I have begun to see what I think motivates some of the people that are against this simple idea. It is a matter of perspective.
If you have one house. If your house is destroyed where do you go? If your property is lost what do you do? That is the reality for most people.
There are people that have multiple homes though. While losing a home would still be unpleasant for them they still have other places to go. Thus, their perspective is going to be different.
Now what if these people have multiple homes in multiple nations?
If your nation collapses where do you go? For most of us that is a big problem.
For some people though that is not a problem at all.
I am a nationalist. I think my own house should be in order before I try to fix other houses.
I do have white skin. Though I have quite a lot of "Native American" ancestry as well.
I am beginning to see the true enemy as potentially lying within the ranks of those I am now referring to as the nationless. They have residences in many nations so they truly have a very different perspective if one nation collapses or not.
A lot less to lose as far as I see it...
What about Nationalism...
Am I for "White Nationalism", "Black Nationalism", or anything similar? Am I for La Raza or anything like that?
Absolutely not. That is racism thru and thru.
I am a nationalist. I think I should fix my own nation first.
That doesn't mean I think everyone that lives in my nation needs to share the same traits, beliefs, etc. as me. The only thing I would hope they have in common with me is a desire to keep their nation in good condition.
The Nationless
I think the nationless have weaponized the label "Nationalist" and "Nationalism" and that they are using propaganda techniques to make us ignore things that if we were wise we would be not ignoring. It is purely about manipulation and control.
I don't want to be controlled by very big cockroaches that scurry from one nation to another when the light shines upon them.
EDIT: My Nation - The United States
If I were to compare it to my home. The walls and siding are extremely old and starting to tatter and fall apart. We occasionally put something fancy in the window or plant a nice flowering bush to give the illusion it is doing better than it does. We paid for that flowering bush by getting some dupe to give us yet another high interest credit card as we've been living on many different credit cards that are already maxed out. We give the illusion we are doing great but that is basically only because the creditors haven't tried to collect. The interest payments are eating up pretty much all of our funds but for some reason they are fine with giving us more credit cards. We also convinced a few of our neighbors that monopoly and play money were negotiable and worth something so they traded us a few goods. We have gotten really good at giving the illusion of power, and wealth.
- NOTE: This is fictitious. This is me treating the U.S. as if it were my household.
Yes, it is a bunch of bad word play.
A "white nationalist"/"black nationalist"/"la raza" isn't for the nation they are in, they are for a nation made up of only those who match a certain criteria. This is not love of nation, but love of identity. The same can be said for the NAZI's, they weren't nationalists, they wanted to dominate more than just their own nation and remove those in their nation that didn't fit their criteria.
But, for the uninformed and easily swayed, calling someone a nationalist because they want the country to thrive, is a bad thing and they don't know why it is a bad thing.
Yep that is it exactly. I am a nationalist because it is my home. It is the only home I have. I must strive to make my home function as best as possible. I must protect my home. When something breaks in my home I must try to fix it.
I don't have homes I can simply fly to at different places around the Earth.
Hmm... I like what you wrote, and I can see your point of view.
My issue is I don't think countries (or nations) are the way to go... I believe smaller communities are more practical and feasible to fix.
If you think of the US as your nation, that's 330m people. 52 states, each with their own, well, universe really... And I feel that lumping them all "under one nation" actually can make it harder to fix.
If I may borrow your simile, it would be like having a house that needs fixing, except, instead of fixing your house, you first have to fix the entire city's sewage system. Meaning, instead of focusing on small local communities, your state, your city, your neighbourhood, you are dealing with a massive country, with thousands of problems that are irrelevant to most of the population..
This is true (in my mind) in small countries too. I grew up in Israel, and even there the diversity in the population's problems (different for rich and poor, subarbs and cities, Jews, Muslims, Christians, druz etc) each of these communities lived in their own area (usually) and yet are dealt with as one unit, one nation.
My point is, although nationalism as you describe it is a wonderful idea, where you should fix your own before looking to solve others' problems (or as in the go proverb, don't go fishing when your house is on fire, or the old testament, עניי עירך קודמים, The poor of your town should come first (my very loose translation)) I think a better way to view ourselves would be in smaller groups. The big idea being nations change, over time, their identity, culture, boarders etc, can all be decided by national level decision makers, but the people who lived in their communities, were far detached from those grand scale designs. If there are homeless people, it doesn't really matter they're also called American.. To solve the homeless problem requires a local solution based on the local problem, and dealing with it on a national level I think would complicate, rather than expedite the Sollution.
What do you think?
The way the United States handles this we have it covered. I live in the United States. I currently live in Colorado. I live in a County. I live in a City/Town.
Each level of those I work on fixing. I do not worry about the city/town next door unless they want help and my town is in order. Same with County.
Also the United States if it's Constitution is followed is a great design. Each state (50 states) is like it's own experiment. It can fail. Other states hopefully learn from the failure. It can succeed. Other states hopefully learn from the successes.
Each state is also different and controlled by the people. Or at least it is supposed to be. If you don't like your state, you can take steps and move to another one. I am in the process of moving out of Colorado. It is failing to learn from the mistakes of California and is copying a lot of them. As such many of the problems plaguing California are on the rapid rise in Colorado.
Where I am moving this is not an issue YET.
A lot of the nationless I refer to are that way due to being very wealthy. They tend to be in much larger numbers in certain parts of the country. California is one of those places.
While I do see what you are stating... The United States as it was designed is actually a great model.
It is just heavily corrupted now and much of that design is blatantly ignored and violated without those doing the violating being held accountable.
I would argue that the vast majority (and possibly ALL) of those pushing these blatant violations could fit the definition of Nationless as I have presented it. If the U.S. fails... so what, they have their islands, their homes in other nations, etc.