Ask Lemmy

No, I have never seen that anywhere. That being said I have not visited the US nor most of the other countries. I am a french citizen and although I have witnessed the odd little french flag hung up in gardens (very uncommon, but I've seen it) the prevailing sentiment in France seems to be a certain pride in gastronomy, sports and sometimes sciences, and a general tendency to criticize most governments. Rightly so, I think.

Britain (not the UK as a whole) has their moments, but its nowhere near the same intensity as the US

I’m American but I’ve travelled a lot and the only place I can remember seeing anything close to as many flags was Greece. And it wasn’t that close. Americans are absurd about flags. Plus, the Greek flag is aesthetically lovely and the American flag might be bottom 5 on pure design principles.

No one get offended. I’m not insulting my own country’s flag. I’m just saying, 50 fucking stars and 13 stripes is a design nightmare. The Greek flag is simple and nice looking in lots of contexts. This isn’t a comment about honoring the flag. It’s a comment about vexillology and design.

Nope. OK, maybe NK, if you insist. And of they can afford a flag.

Americans are weird with their odd interpretation of "patriotism". They pledge allegience to flag and constitution as kids, and trample both with their feet once they are adults.

Start watching other countries sports. Especially Formula One. Then you will see the flags and hear the anthems. At this point my husband has the British and Dutch anthems memorized

Only when there are modern overpaid gladiators from different countries try to kick a plastic ball into the oponents net.

A.k.a. "Football World cup" and "Football Europa cup".

OK, also when there are olympics.

And there are those eternal yesterdays that again would like to fly a red flag, with a white dot and a black swastica... those are still a growing minority. Lets hope ot stays that way.

In my experience living in a couple of countries in Europe, generally the bigger the country the more the nationalism (though Germany is maybe exceptional on this) - small countries have very little tendency for people and business to display the flag and have flag-themed products and objects whilst larger countries have more of that.

That said, the far-right everywhere are flag-shaggers and during periods with large international sports events (for example, the World Cup) many normal people will display a national flag, though even then it's more so I large countries than small ones plus in some countries other flags are used (for example, in Britain they use the flags of the nations rather than the UK flag and in The Netherlands they use the "Oranje" flag rather than the Dutch flag).

I think the only country in Europe with nationalism close to America is the UK and I don't believe it's anywhere the same level (for example, they have nothing like the Pledge Of Alliegance).

There's a big difference between nationalism and patriotism though both can be displayed in similar manner. For example if you take a look at small european countries like the baltic states they are very patriotic and have flags on their cars etc. but they are not nationalistic at all.

So I think it's unfair to equate them in this context even if reviewing vanity like flags and mascots.

France is particularly patriotic out of Western countries I've visited. Not an expert but it's a bit of a hangover from the French revolution, they have a strong focus on integration and preserving their shared culture.

Here in the Netherlands it's definitely not as crazy as in the US. People will fly the flag on national celebration days or on remembrance day. And during international soccer tournaments the country will turn orange. But the only flags I see on cars are upside-down ones from angry farmers protesting against environmental regulations and from nutjobs who still think that COVID vaccines contain microchips.

People do tend to fly provincial flags and municipality flags sometimes tho. Especially in the best province, Fryslân (I'm not biased at all).

No, we have broken off the Soviet union.