sapphicfrostfaerie:

wodneswynn:

The Pledge of Allegiance was literally made up in 1890 as a marketing slogan for a campaign to sell flags

We make children swear loyalty to America by reciting the nationalistic equivalent of “O-o-o, O’Reilly, O’Reilly, auto parts” and that’s honestly the most American thing I can possibly imagine

Except that’s not quite the backstory.

The writer of the original pledge – Francis Bellamy – was a socialist. His original pledge read:

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation with equality and fraternity for all.”

His intention was to motivate youth to aspire to higher values, and wrote it for the celebration of Columbus Day in 1892. Y’know, back before we really appreciated that Columbus was garbage.

He realized that he was going to have a hard time getting the pledge approved due to the whole, y’know, equality thing (”You don’t mean those…black people, right?”, which he did), so he changed “equality and fraternity” to “liberty and justice”.

Then someone else heard the pledge and was like, “That’s a great way to sell flags to schools.”

And so, it was repurposed into an advertising campaign.

So, yep, it was a form of quiet rebellion, that got cleaned up to be acceptable, and then turned into advertising.

And that, my friends, is American.