What does patriotism even look like in 2022?
Plus: These team logos painted from memory are so bad
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
What does patriotism even look like in 2022?
These team logos painted from memory are so bad
The Jan. 6 committee is using Trump’s White House font against him
What does patriotism even look like in 2022?
U.S. patriotism dipped this year, continuing its decade-long slide and setting a new record low: just 38% of U.S. adults now report being extremely proud to be an American, according to Gallup.
The new poll comes following a temporary reprieve last year, when national pride actually crept up during President Joe Biden’s first year in office, but this year’s results proves patriotism isn’t just about who’s in the White House.
A 65% majority are still at least “very proud” to be an American, but our patriotic intensity has waned because of a drop in national pride among independents and a steady erosion among Republicans since 2020. And the numbers could already be outdated, Gallup noted, because its poll was conducted June 1-20, before the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and before Biden signed the bipartisan gun safety bill into law.
There are a lot of issues Americans are concerned about, from abortion bans to Biden’s job approval. For artists Cleon Peterson and Shepard Fairey, Jan. 6 is the most concerning, and the duo teamed up for a series of prints titled American Principles over Independence Day weekend to benefit the ACLU.
Peterson — whose work often includes themes of fascism and brutality in red, white, and black — contributed three prints, including two of work he made on Jan. 6 as a response to the attack.
“I see these posters as markers of a historical time and feel a duty within to share my views,” Peterson said in a statement about the series. “We’re all exhausted by politics, but we must embrace the moment and take action because the threat is fundamental; our democracy could be gone in the blink of an eye.”
Fairey contributed “Alternative Facts,” and he said the work “addresses the mass confusion about truth that allows the parties who spread the big lie about the 2020 election … to flourish unchecked.”
The defining image of July 4, 2022 for me was the scene of people fleeing the shooting in Philadelphia as fireworks went off in the distance. Two officers were shot in Philadelphia, while in Highland Park, Ill., at least seven people are now dead and 46 wounded following a shooting at an Independence Day parade there. Madness.
Biden couldn’t ignore the national mood during his remarks Monday to military families, saying “there’s been reason to think that this country is moving backward,” but that he remains optimistic.
“Each day, we’re reminded there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy, nothing guaranteed about our way of life. We have to fight for it, defend it, and earn it,” Biden said. “I know many Americans look around today and see a divided country and are deeply worried about that fact. I understand. But I believe we’re more united than we are divided. Even more, I believe it’s a choice we make.”
Biden called for “principled” patriotism during his remarks.
These team logos painted from memory are so bad
The NFL asked rookies to paint their team logos from memory, and as you might imagine, they’re mostly terrible.
Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said his lion “looks actually like Monsters Inc.,” which was accurate, and upon seeing the Chicago Bears’ C logo, Bears wide receiver Velus Jones Jr., noted, “this would have been so much easier” than the bear he attempted.
A handful of players did a half decent job, but most were bad and drawing animals can be hard. As Houston Texans wide receiver John Metchie said “I’m glad we’re all good football players.”
But it’s not that jocks can’t make art. It turns out humans are actually really bad when it comes to remembering logo details.
Just one out of 85 participants correctly drew the Apple logo from memory when asked for a study published in 2015, and fewer than half of the participants were able to correctly identify the Apple logo.
“The ubiquitous Apple logo is a simple design and is often referred to as one of the most recognizable logos in the world,” researchers wrote, but participants showed overconfidence and “surprisingly poor memory for the details of the logo.”
If you want to test out your memory of famous logos, you can try TIME’s logo quiz here. If you took it, how’d you do?
The Jan. 6 committee is using Trump’s White House font against him
Before Merriweather was the typeface of the Jan. 6 committee, it was former President Donald Trump's White House website font.
Read my full story about Merriweather and the Jan. 6 committee here. >>