Racism, Patriotism and Terrorism: How Country Music Fuels Political Rage

I love America. I do. Some of my favourite things have come out of the US, including two of my best friends, Taylor Swift, and junk food.

However, I watched this YouTube video, questionable for its extreme patriotism and distant relationship to fact, and the comments beneath are some of the most disturbing things I've ever read.

If I wanted to make my point more forcibly, I'd print here some of the horrifying (and horribly spelt) insults that are hurled through e-space at people pointing out that not all people in the Middle East are terrorists. However, most are too grotesque to inflict on you, dear reader.

I would (and do) say that I'm patriotic to dear old Blighty, however, I am also patriotic to the human race. Politically sensational headlines in papers such as The Sun feed the idea that anyone living in the area of land slightly to the right of the bottom of Turkey (where we still happily take our summer holidays) is more likely to kill an American at first sighting than he/she is to hug their child, or cook a family meal, or simply go to work in the morning.

These are just people. There are some out there whose affiliation to religion or extremist groups takes priority over the well-being of their fellow man, however, to say that anyone with dark skin is a terrorist, or that all terrorists were tea-towels on their heads ("F*** the rag heads U.S.M.C for the win. HOORAH!!!!") is simply and completely absurd.

Love your country, but also love your fellow man! I'm not a hippy (far, far from it!) but in my mind there's nothing more important than peace, otherwise we all kill each other, and there's nothing left! There are things worth fighting for, but this mindless, scarily ill-educated, patriotic rage seems like the drivel of those with no soul ("I just returned from Afgan, and I'm proud to say that I personally greased 19 of these towel wearing dirty dogs. My only regreat is that I didn't waste more of them!").

I am a terrible speller, but one gets to a point of wondering whether poor spelling and horrifyingly violent threats aren't linked somehow. I'm not saying education is the cure, but we must all admit that, though our troops do an enormous amount, it is the men in suit, talking in a room who actually stop wars. Whether the horrific loss of life is entirely necessary is not for me to say, but it is the Presidents and Prime Ministers and NATO and other highly intelligent men and women who actually sign the peace treatise.

This is a little uninformed rant, and I'm sure much of what I've said is complete rubbish. However, I felt so compelled to champion humanity in the face of the e-screams of 'AMERICA FUCK YEAH' and 'GOD BLESS AMERICA'.

The clip can be viewed here... Comments are beneath.