There is no virtue in waving a flag drenched in blood. There is no dignity in singing an anthem muffled by the cries of the brutalized. And there is certainly no honour in pledging allegiance to a state that beats its people into silence and starves them into submission. Yet across the world, governments and their loyalists invoke the word “patriotism” like scripture, using it not as a unifier, but as a whip to silence dissent. This is not patriotism. This is propaganda. And propaganda in the hands of the powerful is a dangerous tool—a mask worn by tyranny, cloaked in national colours.