Patriotism

Patriotism forces us down a path of moral distortion. Patriots have to build up the good things that their nation has done, and play down the bad things it has done. They have to ignore the bad things their nation has done and magnify the bad things done by others.

For example, American Christians will agree that slaughter of Jews in Nazi death camps for the simple reason that they Jews was evil.

However, the firebombing of Dresden which had almost no military significance with 4,500 tons of explosive and incendiary bombs that killed 30,000 civilians and seriously injured many more simply because they were German was good.

Dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the military authorities had offered to surrender and killing 200,000 civilians just because they were Japanese was good.

Providing logistical support to the Saudi Arabian military forces bombing and blockading Yemen must be good.

This moral dissonance is dangerous.