Patriotism that is not backed up with logical, critical
thinking is like a disease that has the ability to separate humanity more than anything else ever could. It can make a usually rational person support a cause without any understanding of the principles or ideas that are behind it.
Britain First is a prime example of this. They share pictures of our troops and flag which people share to show their respect of what our armed forces have done for us.The thing is, Britain First is a far-right group that posts anti-islam propaganda and has leaders with past links to the BNP. Sharing their images and propaganda is not paying your respect to our troops at all, it is instead paying tribute to fascism, which unless I am mistaken is exactly what we fought a world war against.
The murder of Fusileer Lee Rigby has been used by
many far-right groups to try and fuel hate towards Muslims. To any
individual who has the gift of an inclination towards rational thinking
it is obvious that the murderers who carried out the attack were two
fanatics who do not at all represent the Muslim community.
Lee
Rigby's Mother has publicly slated far-right groups, stating that they
do not represent what Lee stood for and that her family does not support
them. The fact that these groups are using his murder to promote their
hateful views is hugely disrespectful to his memory and I can not say enough how much I respect his mother for publicly speaking out against such groups.
Of course there is nothing wrong with being proud of your country and your heritage, but to use this in a way of backing up your own misguided belief of your own superiority is completely illogical and unnecessary. Patriotism is not believing that people of your own nationality are better than others, the idea of a superior race is what Hitler fought for. The pictures and stories shared on far-right pages aim to dehumanize Muslims and people who are not from an old-fashioned British family. If people continue to be ignorant enough to fall for them then this could be very troubling indeed.
The people sharing the images they use just because it has a union jack on should understand this, A flag is merely a symbol, a way of representing an idea and a true patriot
would not want their flag to represent or be associated with the ideas that Britain First
represent.
We are historically a country that is a combination of many different cultures and ideas. From the Roman's, the Vikings, the Normans and the many different influences acquired whilst we had an empire owning most of the world, we have always relied on other cultures to aid us to be a better country. So anyone who thinks that Britain needs defended from outside influences must have no understanding of what our country has been built upon.
