singing the anthem, saluting the flag, pledging allegiance, flag lapel pins...
“resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to show it in public, was ‘defeatism.’
There is nothing wrong about publicly asserting your patriotism, but being EXPECTED to do so, or worse, being explicitly punished (or implicitly threatened with punishment) for not doing so, is something else again.
