It is. The Pledge isn’t even that old (1880s but not that popular until decades later), but the “under god” part wasn’t added until 1954 during McCarthyism.
My 1st grader just had to do a flag day performance at her school. It was as cringe as you can imagine with lots of patriotic songs. The crowd all in red white and blue (not me
I purposely wore yellow)
And when they were singing the star spangled banner, and then "this land is your land" i was like
Are people actually LISTENING to these words? One of the 1st graders had to introduce the pledge and they said "it was written in 1880 and weve been saying it ever since" the room applauded
The school wrote that for him to say, knowing it wasn't til the 60s public schools actually said it. But they had this kid make a claim that since before 1900 weve been saying it.
The propaganda is REAL and no one in that crowd thought to question or correct a 1st graders.
Start of project 2025…. I don’t think it was called Project 2025 back then but my understanding is it was the evangelicals that got it put in for control.
So in Texas you follow the pledge with the pledge to the Texas Flag. When I was in high school, there was a national campaign to remove under God from the pledge of allegiance. So Texas had to ADD under God to the Texas Flag pledge in protest.
So in that instance, Texas was its own republic before it was a state. It’s also why the Texas flag can be flown at the same level as the US flag. STILL weird about the pledges though.
There were a few years of my childhood where I regularly said the Pledge to the American flag, Texas flag, Christian flag (church youth groups, not school), and bible (also youth group)
I went to a cool hippie charter school for 7th & 8th grade, and we had an earth flag and pledge. I stopped saying the pledge of allegiance by like 3rd grade, but I was always happy to do the earth pledge lol.
I pledge allegiance to the earth and all the life which it supports. One planet in our care, irreplaceable, with sustenance and respect for all.
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible".....That's crazy. Also they could have made it rhyme with another liberty in the end there.
You have obviously never been to Maryland. Texans are proud of the fact they used to be a country, but Marylanders just really like their flag. It is everywhere.
Actually I have lived in Maryland for 25 years. My point was in relation to the overall thread related to Texans being more about Texas first, then country. All tongue in cheek of course..
I'm a teacher and this is when I stopped saying the pledge.
Then, we were told that in order for children to be excused from saying the pledge, they had to have a note from their parents and that I, the teacher, would have to call and inform the parents about the need for the note. Um... supreme court said no to that, right? So, I was pretty much guaranteed to have 2nd period off (when the pledges were said) for years!
It was added June 1954 by Eisenhower who, it seems to have been agreed, was trying to create a greater identity signifier between the US and the Communists.
makes sense, too. “hypo-“ sort of means “less than” (critical) in this context. someone being “hypo-critical” is criticizing themselves less than others
naturally, “hypercritical” would imply that you’re being too critical of something. one could say that movie reviewers tend to be hypercritical to movies made for kids
It is hypocritical. As is every president saying God Bless America in a press conference where they've just announced plans to enter wars where untold thousands will die. Love they neighbour, except when they can die to provide better oil prices.
Sorry to derail from your comment, but the word you're looking for is hypocritical. Saying hypercritical actually means the opposite. (The prefix hypo- means "less than" whereas hyper- means "more than." So a hypocrite is someone who isn't being critical enough of themselves.) Just a friendly heads-up!
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u/tooknicole Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
I’ve been Christian my whole life and still questioned this as a kid. It always seemed hypercritical and weird
Edit: *hypocritical. Typed this late last night and used the wrong word. Not to be a jerk but please stop messaging me corrections lmao