# Dukes of Hazard meet their match **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [September 2, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017 "2021-09-02T22:12:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/1 "2021-09-02T22:12:37Z")
Well, them Duke boys sure made a mess of trouble for old Boss Hogg, but they shouldn’t of oughta gone up against climate change. [Bye bye, General Lee](https://movieweb.com/dukes-of-hazzard-general-lee-car-crushed-hurricane-ida) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/2 "2021-09-02T22:16:31Z")
Seems right that a tree crushed that symbol of hate. The confederate flag, not the car itself. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/3 "2021-09-02T22:19:29Z")
I saw that earlier on the morning news. It’s nice how the tree landed right on the traitor flag. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/4 "2021-09-02T22:28:37Z")
Back when the show was on production, my brother was making a delivery somewhere in the Inland Empire. He went by a fenced lot with dozens of General Lees parked inside. Maybe there’s only one left now, but I’d prefer it had been spared if the tree had landed on John Schneider’s bit fat mouth instead. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2021, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/5 "2021-09-02T22:39:40Z")
Nitpick: It’s the Dukes of Hazzard. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/6 "2021-09-03T00:19:11Z")
It looks like there’s another General Lee in a tree, there. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/7 "2021-09-03T00:47:12Z")
I don’t get why people are jumping for joy because an original General Lee car was crushed by a tree. Do you guys dance when war museums catch fire or a vintage WW2 aircraft crashes at an air show too? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/8 "2021-09-03T00:51:50Z")
Because it crushed the racist symbol of hate and treason on top of the car. God has spoken. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/9 "2021-09-03T00:53:56Z")
Not remotely the same. We’re happy that damn “traitor flag” as **bobot** put it was trashed. It is a stupid, traitorous, racist and willfully ignorant TV show prop, not a piece of history. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/10 "2021-09-03T03:53:56Z")
It’s on a car that was entirely meant to be a “Hey look at those dumb rednecks!” showcase. It’s not like the car was driving around on its own free will running minorities over. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/11 "2021-09-03T04:43:16Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > It’s on a car that was entirely meant to be a “Hey look at those dumb rednecks!” showcase. Except, not really. The Duke boys are incontrovertibly the heroes of the show, goodnatured chivalrous underdogs. Their driving a car with a Confederate flag on it (and named after a Confederate general) is part of their “Southern culture” setting [and has been getting public pushback for a long time](https://ew.com/tv/dukes-of-hazzard-confederate-car/), which always seems to have been met with resentful whining from the actors. To my mind, the most tone-deaf response from the show’s representatives to public anti-CF indignation came from [Schneider’s whining in July 2015 about TV Land dropping Dukes reruns](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/dukes-hazzard-star-rips-tv-806339/) shortly after the horrific Charleston church shootings by Dylann Roof, [the white supremacist terrorist who posted pictures of himself holding a Confederate flag and a gun](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/dylann-storm-roof-photos-website-charleston-church-shooting.html). But sure, the Dukes-loving audiences unfairly deprived of their reruns are the real victims here, Mr. Schneider. (Bonus points for minimizing Roof’s terrorism as merely being “one angry and misguided individual”, btw.) It’s not “just” a flag, or “just” a prop, or “just” a TV show. Confederate flag iconography has always been supported by, and has been used to support, racism and white supremacy, using a generic deracialized “Southern culture” concept as a fig leaf. I’m not claiming that everyone who likes the Dukes of Hazzard or even who likes the Confederate flag necessarily has racist views. But the flag is inextricably tied up with racism, and the car and the show are inextricably associated with a bunch of butthurt pouters who got more publicly upset about rejection of the flag and the show than about actual terrorist murders of Black people. So no, Schneider’s cherished personal memorabilia from a “Confederacy culture” TV show getting smacked in a natural disaster is not remotely akin to losing valuable historical artifacts in a war museum or a vintage aircrafts. I’m sorry for him and for anyone who suffers property or other damage in a natural disaster, but the loss of his TV show prop is neither tragic nor permanent. He can and will get the thing restored. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/12 "2021-09-03T05:14:44Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > It’s on a car that was entirely meant to be a “Hey look at those dumb rednecks!” showcase. > > It’s not like the car was driving around on its own free will running minorities over. Do we really have to go through this every single time? There’s always someone who gets offended by hatred of the Confederate flag. @Kimstu said most of what I was going to say about the specifics of this situation. But I want to add something more general: it’s perfectly all right for people to think that the amount of racism that flag (or any other symbol) represents and the way it was used to glorify that racism is far worse than whatever reason you have for finding their remark offensive. Going back to this specific situation: I admit it, I liked the _Dukes of Hazzard_ as a kid. I really never noticed the Confederate flag on the top of the car, as I was coming to the show from the _Knight Rider_ perspective. I’m not sure it ever even clicked to me that the “General Lee” was named after Robert E Lee, but, if it did, that didn’t seem unusual at the time. I get why it wouldn’t have bothered people back in the day. But I still enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude seeing the roof of that car damaged. It’s just symbolically perfect. It will likely be repaired and refurbished, like has likely been done countless times before. No history, even TV history, was lost by this. We just enjoy the symbolism of a Confederate flag (and specifically one the owner and fans have defended) getting trashed by mother nature in 2021. And that is perfectly fine. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/13 "2021-09-03T05:42:37Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I’m sorry for him and for anyone who suffers property or other damage in a natural disaster, but the loss of his TV show prop is neither tragic nor permanent. He can and will get the thing restored. Yes, and his publicist is already asking for donations to pay for the restoration of his car. Yet says he was out helping with organizing flood relief efforts when it happened, but didn’t ask for any donations for _that_ effort. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/14 "2021-09-03T12:43:06Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > It’s not like the car was driving around on its own free will running minorities over. Well, yeah, because there weren’t any on the show. Hazzard was a sundown community. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/15 "2021-09-03T12:48:20Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I don’t get why people are jumping for joy because an original General Lee car was crushed by a tree. You don’t? It’s because when a tree lands on the roof of the car, it crushes a traitor flag. It’s that simple. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/16 "2021-09-03T15:14:24Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > It’s because when a tree lands on the roof of the car, it crushes a traitor flag. It’s that simple. Those bible thunpers that think hurricanes are god’s wrath against gays should really take this to heed. God hates “southern pride”. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/17 "2021-09-03T15:38:49Z")
There are at least 15 to 20 “original” General Lee 69 Dodge Chargers out there. Recently watched a video about the first General Lee, wrecked during a stunt, painted green for a later episode then left to rot somewhere. It was found and restored. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/V_BDOjfDuyA/maxresdefault.jpg "We found the 1st General Lee in a scrap yard & restored it") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_BDOjfDuyA) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/18 "2021-09-03T15:46:23Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I don’t get why people are jumping for joy because an original General Lee car was crushed by a tree. If a tree lands on a car painted with a Confederate flag and nobody sees it or notices, is it still cause for jumping for joy? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/19 "2021-09-03T15:47:28Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > > [@Kimstu](#): > > > > I’m sorry for him and for anyone who suffers property or other damage in a natural disaster, but the loss of his TV show prop is neither tragic nor permanent. He can and will get the thing restored. > > Yes, and his publicist is already asking for donations to pay for the restoration of his car. Yet says he was out helping with organizing flood relief efforts when it happened, but didn’t ask for any donations for _that_ effort. Donations? This is a guy with a fairly long list of TV and movie credits, as well as a long list of music. He’s rich; certainly compared to the average resident of Louisiana, most of whom don’t have publicists. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017/20 "2021-09-03T15:50:13Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > It’s not like the car was driving around on its own free will running minorities over. We now have the main plot point for Blumhouse’s Dukes of Hazzard movie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dukes-of-hazard-meet-their-match/950017.md?page=2)