In every country, including the US, I stand at attention when the national anthem is played, as a courtesy, and to acknowledge the legitimacy of their own patriotism. I suppose, in any of the OP scenarios, I would be guided by that principle, adjusted as necessary.
I don’t. Not my own and not anyone else’s.
In many, many countries in the world, you can and will be arrest for filing out of a movie theatre while the national anthem is playing at the end of the picture. Better to not be inflexible.
I fought a literal police state for political freedom, why on Earth would I listen to what a manager or a professor tells me to do?
Me too. In fact, I’d be furious if my employer - or anyone else I worked with - made any assumptions whatsoever about my opinions, even if these assumptions are 100% correct. I don’t like being pigeonholed.
I am flexible. Where I know my actions would cause offence and I have a choice, I’ll avoid those situations.
I don’t stand to attention but nor would I seek to cause disruption for those who wish to do so.
If I’m being told to be courteous on pain of legal sanction and I couldn’t avoid the situation I’d probably do it but whatever gesture I end up doing has now not worthy of the name “courtesy”.
I treat people with courtesy and respect as much as they do to me. To demand or expect that I stand to attention when an anthem is played? that isn’t respect. If someone started saying grace around a dinner table and expected me to do anything other than wait patiently? that’s not respect.
It seems like a very unlikely hypothetical. But in the unlikely event it came to be, I’d likely be sick that day. < cough-cough >
Note that I’ve never heard of the scenario in the OP happening anywhere.
What I have heard of is the company makes an announcement to the staff saying (for example), “To celebrate Pride Month, rainbow pins are available for employees to wear.” Or they have a training session to train people in how to be sensitive to people’s gender identity and offer free t-shirts to those who participate (which is what my employer did). They might encourage people to add their pronouns to their email signature, if they wish to do so (again something my employer did). Voluntary participation, in other words.
I won’t wear clothing that has on it the name or logo of the company which made it (with the exception of sneakers, where it’s very difficult to avoid). I’m not going to go along with any outward display of a political position, whether I agree with it or not. Besides, I live in the US and if we reach the point where an organization can compel my speech and the courts don’t stop it I’ve got much bigger problems than whatever punishment that organization can dole out (assuming that the organization is not a governmental entity with the authority to imprison me).
The only place I’ve ever heard of playing their national anthem in theaters is India, and that’s only because it got a bit of news a few years ago because they stopped mandating the practice. Are there still many countries where this is true?
I’ve dated a few women who work at USAA, a Fortune 500 insurer who focuses on military members, and they acknowledge that when USAA does one of their ‘tribute to the troops’ events, it is VERY inadvisable to miss them.
Heh, yeah, United Way was the example I thought of as well. Had to push back on them the first few years I worked in my current job, but the people who canvass every year finally got the message to leave me out of it.
As a general rule forced participation in such things is utterly meaningless at best, and actively bad at worst. Even if it’s a cause I agree with, how do you know that everyone wearing the “I Love X!” shirts actually do love X? It would kind of suck to run into the (for example) one MAGAHat who was only wearing a BLM T-shirt because he didn’t want to get fired.
Being the one person who stands up for the right to sit down at least makes it clear that those who are participating might actually believe what they’re saying.
I also objected to the fact that they were giving other people at work information on whether or not I donated in previous years. That shit doesn’t fly. They way I was raised, giving to charity wasn’t something you bragged about publicly. Wanting recognition was far too self-aggrandizing.
Teams kneel during or before the anthem all the time. One player on the USWNT got in trouble for not wanting to have a rainbow LGBT patch on her uniform. A Doper here mentioned before that his employer was heavily pro-Trump and that there would be trouble for employees who didn’t toe the line.
Canada, for one, but I haven’t been to a movie in a long time. It used to be nearly universal in Asia and Africa.
Does the Pledge of Allegiance count?
I think it’s a pretty terrible idea to pledge allegiance to a flag. I think “liberty and justice for all” is at best aspirational, and I don’t think it’s actually an aspiration for a lot of my countryfolk. The “under God” part chaps my hide. And it’s a really, really bad idea to ask children to repeat these words before they know what they mean or understand their option not to say them.
But as part of my job, for years, I’ve been required to lead the kids in the pledge when it comes on over the intercom. It’s a state law, and while the law makes allowances for kids that don’t want to say it, it’s a lot less clear on whether state employees can opt out.
So I’ve reluctantly complied with this bit of state indoctrination, assuming I can do more good if I bend than if I break. I teach kids what the words mean, and I teach them about their rights not to say the words. And if I happen to need to step into the hallway to check on something during the pledge, well, sometimes that’s unavoidable.
Yeah, that’s a great example, I’d forgotten about that. Totally unnecessary, counterproductive, even, to make kids pledge like that. Something you would think would or should have been banned half a century ago.
Cites, please, that people are getting arrested in specific countries, Canada included, for walking out of a movie while the anthem’s playing?
Cites of the laws themselves, or of the news reports of the arrests, would do. Dates within the last twenty years, please.
I’ve seen a lot of movies in Canada and the only time the national anthem has been played is a reel shown at the start of the program at the drive-in movies, and people are parking, getting concessions, and otherwise not paying a lot of attention. Never experienced it in a theater.
Back in the 1990s in the US my manager at the print shop wanted me to print up some copies of the Ken Starr Report he’d managed to get ahold of. I said “I don’t want any part of this” and found something else to do. It wasn’t a job for a paying client so there really wasn’t anything he could do about it. On the other hand, I did get fired from that job. Hmmmmm.