Never mind that modern American "patriotism" isn't anything of the sort, but is much closer to nationalism.
Consider the recent report [1] that only 25% of people don't think the media is deliberately misleading them - 50% think they are, 25% are undecided. The implications of that cannot be overstated, especially as the media has increasingly become little more than a proxy for the official position of the day.
[1] - https://fortune.com/2023/02/15/trust-in-media-low-misinform-...
https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/30/politics/what-happens-if-the-...
Please let me know if you know of any because I'm getting absolutely tired of working four months for free each year, knowing that my tax dollars are paying for goods and services from which I'll never be able to benefit.
American freedom seems to largely be centered around the ability to make money, the way things are going nowadays. We were more free in the 70s and 80s. Nowadays people in some areas get child services called because they dared to allow their child to venture somewhere by themselves. America is often the worst offender in some of these areas. True patriotism is understanding that we're not the "best" country in the world, and that we could stand a lot of weeding out chaff. Taxes go to a lot more waste than would ever come out of individual benefits, when you take the end result benefit to society. "Freedom" to allow poverty to exist is "freedom for some, but not for all".
There's also the freedom of speech, which thankfully is damn near absolute in the US. In fact it has only increased since the 70s.
If you're morally opposed to that, I'd recommend Singapore for its financial freedoms. After working there for a year, I was initially opposed to such an authoritarian government, but they're one of the rare ones who use their power to run their country very efficiently and keep out of the way of private enterprise.
Also South America, and even the Caribbean islands
I don't know how I'd fair in SE Asia, South Africa, or South America, but my hunch is that it wouldn't be great unless they had similar free speech absolutism.
Now that most communication takes place online, it seems the obvious solution is to say anything controversial via pseudonyms. As long as you don't get careless about protecting your true identity, that seems like something you can do just about anywhere.
As an exercise, imagine someone who self-identifies as a patriot. Ask them what makes them a patriot. (If you're not American, you might not get what I am getting at, but probably Canadians get it)
Do I win a prize?
There's a huge subset (dare I say majority) of those "patriots" you deride who don't like this stuff, don't think their goings on are any of the government's business. But of course you ignore that because they don't want what you want on meaningless social issues.
1. Don't talk long and loud about being patriots (i.e. don't self-identify) 2. Tend to work for the government. Career govvies or military. They show their patriotism through action.
> There's a huge subset (dare I say majority) of those "patriots" you deride who don't like this stuff, don't think their goings on are any of the government's business.
I know the type well, as that describes one side of my family. Despite your protestations, we're saying the same thing.
I just want to chime in here and say that working for the government isn't the only way to be a patriot (i.e. serve the country). Upholding American values is something anyone can do in any part of society.
The actual history of the FBI (whether the near universal perjury in fiber “analysis” cases, the repeated use of provocateurs to discredit protest, especially civil rights, movements — up through the last few years — etc.) tells of a very different culture.