Few if any Americans are associated with more apocryphal quotes than Thomas Jefferson, but the false notion that he said, “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” is among the easiest to dispel. Because Jefferson never would have said something so idiotic. Of course dissent can be patriotic, but it isn’t inherently so. What one is dissenting from matters. Were members of the German American Bund, who protested the U.S.’s anti-Nazi policies in the 1930s and ‘40s, enacting the “highest form of patriotism?” I’d like to think the question answers itself.
This most basic form of moral reasoning is newly relevant today, as supporters of NFL players’ taking a knee during the national anthem have spurred a new, hip slogan: “Protest is patriotic.” None other than George Takei, who somehow parlayed a small role from a low-rated, quickly canceled 1960s television show into widespread Internet fame, tweeted as much this week, garnering legions of likes and retweets:
Protest is patriotic. Via @actdottv pic.twitter.com/khD7kJRlkW
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 25, 2017
Again, we are confronted with the fallacy of the fake Jefferson quote. (By the way, the phrase appears to have actually originated during protests against the Vietnam war.) “Protest” alone is no more patriotic than, say, the general act of fighting in a war is. It matters which side you’re fighting on. And I’m sure if Takei and his ilk thought this through for a moment they might realize this. After all, if all “protest is patriotic” than those white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month were the greatest patriots of all.
Of course, we’re not exactly living in a golden age of nuanced thinking. Recall that for many, any and all opposition to the policies of Barack Obama was rooted in racism. Which is why, when President Kamala Harris is in office in a few years, we can expect that protest will go from being “patriotic” to something more akin to “literal Nazism.”
