Reihan: The Knicks, the Bulls, and the All-Brooklyn People's Revolutionary Army

In a trenchant post on nationalism, patriotism, and team loyalty, Matt refers to the "two kinds of Knicks fans." At the risk of oversimplifying Matt's point, loyal-yet-sober Knicks fans had some critical distance: they acknowledged the weaknesses of their team while firmly hoping that it would improve in the fullness of time. For Matt, this is not unlike a left-of-center patriot, who has high aspirations for her country and a keen sense of the many ways in which it falls short. The other type of Knicks fan imagined that her team was manifestly superior to other teams, regardless of the outcome of games. Any setbacks were attributed to some kind of dark conspiracy. And Matt believes that this resembles the stance of right-of-center nationalists, diagnosed in Anatol Lieven's (thought-provoking) America Right or Wrong.

But what about those of us who grew up in Brooklyn and refused to root for any New York sports teams on grounds that Brooklyn ought to be a sovereign republic?

In thinking back to my brief tenure as "Subcommandante" of the All-Brooklyn People's Revolutionary Army, I most vividly remember my ardent love of the Ugandan flag, which features a Grey-crowned Cane. At the time, I foolishly believed that the bird was in fact a rooster. And so I devised the Halloween costume that I'm proudest of to this day: I was dressed normally, but with a (fake) rooster sitting on my shoulder, the premise being that I was, "rocking out with my rooster out."