this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
285 points (96.7% liked)

World News

37319 readers
2192 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hong Kong officials have singled out at least two schools for singing the Chinese national anthem "too softly".

Teachers at a third school have been asked to help students "cultivate habit and confidence" in singing it. 

Hong Kong has redoubled the emphasis on "patriotic" education since 2020 when China cracked down on the city's pro-democracy movement. 

Officials said students' voices at the Hong Kong and Macau Lutheran Church Primary School were "soft and weak" and "should be strengthened". At Yan Chai Hospital Lim Por Yen Secondary School, teachers were told to "help students develop the habit of singing the national anthem loudly in unison".

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] AngryCommieKender 26 points 4 days ago (4 children)

The Pledge of Allegiance has entered the chat.

I'm aware it isn't mandatory, but no one made that clear to me when I was a kid.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] AngryCommieKender 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's totally fucked up, and seems to be a violation of the first amendment, but IANAL

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I believe so too. I've instructed my children to not recite the pledge (because atheism), and will absolutely make this my hill to die on. It's bad enough we've got money with that bullshit on it.

It's a stupid brainwashed idiot country and this shit drives me nuts.

[–] AngryCommieKender 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Pledge didn't originally contain the words Under God, that was inserted in the 60s

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

1954 for the pledge, 1956 for the money.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

I live in New York, one of the most northern and blue states around, and have my entire life. In 7th grade I decided I didn't like saying the Pledge of Allegiance, the name alone sounded odd to me, like why are children pledging themselves to a country, when we can't even really understand what that means? So I stopped.

The school staff lost their minds.

Luckily my parents taught me to be firm in my beliefs, if I had truely thought about them and believed them. So I stuck to my choice, and my parents backed me up on it when they arrived at the school 45 minutes after the Pledge normally ended.

On a side note, I had read ahead in my Social Studies textbook that week, and learned about Nationalism in Nazi Germany, and it had sounded strangly familiar to me. Not long after the Pledge of Allegiance incident happened.

[–] Duamerthrax 3 points 3 days ago

They just "encourage" you to do it and if you get bullied for remaining seated, the school will ignore the bullies even more than usual.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

You could have asked.. I mean, you were in a building staffed with people paid to answer questions and inform you about the world.

[–] AngryCommieKender 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Most of the staff likely would have told me that it is mandatory. There are news stories all the time about kids being bullied, given detention, and other negative repercussions, for exercising their right to not say the pledge.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

The small school I taught at said the pledge every day, but the principal did regularly announce to everyone present that they don't have to say it (but they did have to be there for it)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

High, high chance they wouldn't have been encouraging. Reasons include their personal political beliefs and the fact they tend to care more about parent reactions than students, because guess which group they're on equal footing with?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I swear to Charles Darwin himself, they will get so much more reaction out of me if they try to force my kids recite that bullshit. (They currently stand there silently)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Sure, but I assume in some places parents (plural) will raise a stink about a kid that's not theirs being allowed to not say it in the same room as their own spawn. Dangerous ideas, right? I encourage you to start shit if they make you, though.

I should clarify I'm Canadian, so this specific issue hasn't come up, but I've seen similar things. For example, my local division has a policy, on paper, that pride flags should be flown in schools, but they often aren't because the staff don't like angry mobs.