Probably, but my PhD is in philosophy.

My take is that patriotism is a corruption of the feeling of belonging we get from community.

In 2018 I was offered a job managing a retreat center on the shores of Lake Superior. The job would have been to keep the place looking nice and, very occasionally, cultivate a restful space for people who needed it.

I went and got a PhD instead. Not a huge mistake, but I’d probably have been happier with the retreat center.

I’ll never forget my first trip out to North Lawndale for work. So many people acted like I was headed into Fallujah or something.

In reality though, it was just another neighborhood with regular people trying to get by.

That college professors are turning young people into communists.

Dawg, I can’t even get them to read.

People in general are easily manipulated, and those who manipulate use the beliefs of the people they’re manipulating to do so.

Religion certainly is a something used for that, but it’s hardly the only one.

Personally, I like Simone Weil’s idea that total freedom of thought and expression are only truly possible in the absence of propaganda, political parties, and deception.

That is to say, it’s not really free thought if we’re just parroting what the party, news, etc. say.

The Reddit algorithm kept pushing me propaganda with messages of “be angry” and “be scared.” I could feel my mental health deteriorating in real time whenever I had the app open.

And, well, the world we live in is just angering and frightening enough without some corporation making it worse for me so they can make a buck off the clicks.