How Graham Platner's Campaign Is Trying to Do Damage Control After Nazi Tattoo...
Even CNN Is Calling Out Dems Over This Lie About Trump's White House...
Is This the Most Insane Reaction to President Trump's East Wing Project
LOL: The White House Did Not Include *This* on Their Website. It's Classic...
Bernie Sanders Just Broke With His Party Over This Trump Policy
Oh, Look Who Donated to Trump's White House Renovation Project
When There Are No Words: Hundreds Honor Teen Who Gave Life After Losing...
What Could Go Wrong? Scientists May Have Found a Real-Life Jurassic Park Starter...
Democrats Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel for Candidates
Trump Administration Fires Back at Hillary Clinton Over White House Ballroom Renovations
The Empire Strikes Back: Trump vs Venezuela, Columbia, Antifa, and Illegals
Feds Charge 33 in Philadelphia’s Most Prolific Drug Market: Weymouth Street DTO
What Charlie Kirk Understood About America’s Lost Youth
Abigail Spanberger, As Governor, You’re Supposed to Make Decisions
While Washington Imports Price Controls, China Imports Our Future
Tipsheet

AP Ripped for Independence Day Report on 'Patriots'

AP Photo/David Goldman

As most Americans celebrated Independence Day by firing up their grills, gathering with family and friends, attending parades, and watching fireworks, the Associated Press was busy trying to convince them that “patriot” is a problematic word.

Advertisement

“In a polarized US, how to define a patriot increasingly depends on who’s being asked,” the headline read.

“Today, the word and its variants have morphed beyond the original meaning. It has become infused in political rhetoric and school curriculums, with varying definitions, while being appropriated by white nationalist groups,” readers are told. 

The report goes on to highlight how “far-right and extremist groups” have used the term, citing data from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Far-right and extremist groups have branded themselves with American motifs and the term “patriot” since at least the early 20th century, when the second Ku Klux Klan became known for the slogan “100% Americanism,” said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

By the 1990s, so many antigovernment and militia groups were using the term to describe themselves that watchdog groups referred to it as the “ Patriot movement.”

That extremist wave, which included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, faded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But many such groups resurfaced when Barack Obama became president, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which closely tracked the movement.

Since then, many right-wing groups have called themselves “patriots” as they’ve fought election processes, LGBTQ+ rights, vaccines, immigration, diversity programs in schools and more. Former President Donald Trump frequently refers to his supporters as “patriots.”

The term works as a branding tool because many Americans have a positive association with “patriot,” which hearkens back to the Revolutionary War soldiers who beat the odds to found the country, said Kurt Braddock, an American University professor and researcher at the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab. (AP)

Advertisement

The wire service got an earful about the piece from critics on social media: 

Advertisement

The AP's "patriot" report comes as pride in America is near record lows, according to Gallup.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement