invoking that idea of racism welcome back to slightly offensive we're We're here on the campus of Cal State University, Los Angeles, to talk to students in the very progressive state of California about their opinions on nationalism.
What are your opinions on nationalism?
Nationalism?
Do you think that the nationalism in America is good for a country right now that Trump is pushing, or do you think it's negative?
unidentified
Negative.
Supporting your country?
Sure, yeah.
It's really conflicting.
I mean, I've seen, I guess, like in history, a lot of like that hasn't turned out so well.
So you would feel that sort of nationalism breeds racism or the opposite?
unidentified
Yeah, it breeds it definitely.
Yeah.
So I believe nationalism is not the best term to use.
I could understand why people get it confused and think it's like, oh, like America, yeah, but that's more patriotism, I would believe.
Patriotism is like, yeah, we love America, but nationalism, that's when you start to get into the whole like, you know, for an example, like Hitler, you know, stuff like that.
Yeah, and creating, he was also creating an ethnostate, which is a little bit different.
That's not really, like, he wasn't even a German, because he thought Norwegians were, like, the ultimate standard of white ethnicity, which would be not Germans, but, like, but no, but I get what you're saying.
I just like, I feel like he's not the best example.
unidentified
I would say it's more of a mixed batch because I do see the benefits, but also the drawbacks of it.
So it's really dependent on the kind of person you are, really.
Like, I can see nationalism as a way of unifying a group of people in a country, but I can also say it as use as a way to prevent other people from entering said country.
I think nationalism is like a big part of culture anyways right now.
I mean, you think about the Olympics and like the FIFA Wolf Cut, people immediately just want to start cheering for their indigenous place.
And so I feel like it's important to have pride in where you've come from as well, but also where you are.
I think it should be blended into the curriculum and how you should be proud of where you come from.
Saying that you're a nationalist is very different than saying you're patriotic.
I think like nationalistic is kind of coming from like a stance where you're like superior to everyone else and whether like patriotic is more like you care about your country.
You could be a nationalist and still be like, intertwine everything together, but there's a fine line where they just take it too extreme, like only uh, this kind of people is supposed to be in America, or so you're more like, so you're.
What you're referring to is like white nationalism, which is like a white ethno-state kind of.
And would you feel, if you had to name one name that comes to your mind when you think of white nationalism, would it be Trump?
unidentified
Of course, he's literally the prime example of white nationalism and he's like promoting that and you see it everywhere, with the kid that was just confronting that, the indigenous elder.
But do you remember the video though to be fair, it got released later that the Indian man actually or Native American, depending what you, what train of thought you come from approached the boy?
The boy was standing there and he got approached and that was considered a hoax and he, Nathan Phillips, was considered end up being considered a hoax.
And that's not.
That's from both sides of outlets that they're describing.
unidentified
Every single time there's a person that it's not of color, they do something that it's not supposed, it's not deemed correctly.
They always find an excuse.
You always see it with the shoots and everything.
Oh, they were mentally ill, they were this, but if it was a person of color, you don't see that narrative coming.
Police can't decide the fate of the of the investigation now.
It's a criminal investigation against Jesse Smollett because there's complete evidence and corroboration and witness confessionals from the people that were caught on camera who, and there's all the evidence and the magazines, the letters that were cut out, that are the letters that are missing from the letter that was sent to the Empire Studio that was a death threat, etc.
unidentified
Honestly, I don't trust too many people so I just have to do my own research on that.
But back to the other question, yeah, so do you think that Trump?
What do you think about people in America flying other countries flags and being more proud of a second identitarian idea, like seeing themselves as Muslims before Americans or Mexicans before Americans, which is an increasing concentration of students in public colleges and in minorities in the country?
unidentified
Well, I think that they don't feel probably accepted by America, so they feel like they have to take on that other, other identity, but also it's their right, so whatever, like as long as they're not hurting anyone, I think they could do whatever they want.
So then, so then the good, a good counter, like, to point to build on that would be, do you think that it's negatively impactful on a country for its citizens to be resentful of their own country and not be patriotic?
unidentified
It's, I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad thing because we like to think of ourselves as a melting pot and that could, you know, eventually bring us all together.
But I think if everyone was just more accepting of one another, then they would feel more at ease of being, you know, proud to be an American.
It's just this Trump hating atmosphere instead of like giving someone like a chance, a chance to be right or just look out for the facts yourself.
That's the problem that we have in a society.
In this school, it's a little bit more liberal, but I personally could say I had, you know, my philosophy departments, I had the chance to speak up and no one has shut me down.
So that's what I really like about it.
I'm pretty sure he went to other campuses and the teachers like get bad grades for that.
It's actually funny because what you do is when you come out with these topics is you find out that sometimes people are more balanced than you assume because even you in your echo chamber go out with the assumption that people probably think a certain way on a college campus, especially a very liberal campus like this one, which was known for throwing eggs at people trying to get into Ben Shapiro's speech.
But yet people for the most part, though it is just a random sampling, seem to be pretty on the fence about nationalism.
I think they've heard a lot of negative things about it, so they're trying to figure out if what they're hearing is true.
That's the key thing.
That's the rule, by the way.
Remember that.
When you're fighting on enemy ground, you have to play differently.
So when the rebels, when the insurrectionists, who are now the founding fathers of our country, essentially, when they went against England, they didn't raise up a large organized army per se in the same way to try to fight an army that they couldn't beat.
They used guerrilla warfare, guerrilla tactics to end up winning, right?
And they found allies in the right places.
So we're on enemy territory.
It's certain people with a specific ideology who own these networks, who own these channels, these websites.
They own even the social media outlets.
And so we're on their land.
So it's not that we stop fighting, but we fight a different way.
And by going fully offensive, you get blocked and locked.
But by being double entendre, or by twisting things almost to where they can't pinpoint an issue where they can get mad at you, you stay under their radar.
