Coercive patriotism? What exactly is it? Its walking through the streets people staring at you and if you make one wrong move you could be tortured or taken to jail. Coercive patriotism was taken very seriously throughout the war. Coercive patriotism is the way Americans were made to support the war. During the war showing loyalty to the country was very important. Americans displayed the flag everywhere from advertisements to store products. If anyone at any time was caught suspicions of showing disloyalty to his or her country, they were made to kiss the American flag in front of the public. Not only this but anyone who made bad or unpleasant comments about the flag were immediately sent to prison. This also included investigating residents who failed to get liberty loans, practicing or teaching patriotism in schools, including making teachers sign loyalty oaths. Coercive patriotism went as far as federal agents going into offices and arresting hundreds of people taking hold of many files and publications as well.
Although coercive patriotism was a way/ form for Americans and immigrants to support the war I
do not think that the correct way to do this was by forcing people to stay loyal to their country. Yes, loyalty to ones country is something one would want especially during war but the kind of patriotism that was shown during the war was inconsiderate and unreasonable. Furthermore, during war time if they really wanted to see patriotism and who was loyal to their country, they could have avoided forcing it into people. When people actually love their country, and want to show it theyll simply show patriotism on their free will. Not because their country is going into war and they do not express the same opinions as another person they should go to jail or be treated violently. Other ways of showing patriotism could have simply been voluntary by the citizens. During this time period the United States no longer showed any type of freedom, thus being because simply thinking a different way was wrong and was showing disloyalty to the country. But in all reality if we look at it from a different perspective did it really make a difference to force people to show patriotism if people were still being taken to jail?