Patriotism and nationalism
Back in September 2002, a little girl was born into a Canadian family with a Western dad and an East Asian mom. In November 2002, another little girl was born into a Canadian family with a Western dad and an East Asian mom. Today, those two women face off in the US Open tennis finals.
Boris Johnson says he’s rooting for the player who was born in Toronto in November 2002, not the player born in Montreal in September 2002. That’s because the one born in Toronto later moved to the UK.
People sometimes ask me the difference between patriotism and nationalism. I’d say that in this case, Johnson is behaving more like a British patriot than an English nationalist. To Johnson, Emma Raducanu seems like one of “us”, not one of “them”.
PS. Yes, with political figures one never knows what they really think. I’m taking Johnson’s comments at face value to illustrate a point.
PPS. In contrast, here’s Laura Ingraham:
(0 COMMENTS)On Wednesday, Ms Ingraham began her programme by saying: “In some parts of the country, it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore.
“Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people and they’re changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don’t like.