# If an immigrant disrepects your flag. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673 "2010-07-31T11:15:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![figure9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@figure9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/figure9)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/1 "2010-07-31T11:15:48Z")
Let’s pretend your neighbor is an immigrant from Elbonia. One day he hangs a large Elbonian flag and flies a smaller flag, your country’s, underneath it. Does it bother you? Do you do anything about it? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/2 "2010-07-31T11:26:34Z")
What? WHAT?!? This is a goddamned outrage! If he’s in my country, he should jolly-well speak English and not treat old glory like a used condom! I’d drag him out of his house and shove that flag pole right up his ass! That would teach him a thing or two about the Constitution! Oops. Sorry. Too much Fox ‘News’ this morning. Of course it wouldn’t bother me. I’m not wrapped that tightly. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/3 "2010-07-31T11:26:36Z")
In what way is that disrespectful? How is it even possible to disrespect an inanimate object? I don’t think scraps of cloth have feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/4 "2010-07-31T11:42:33Z")
I have no concern over what people do to the flags of any country besides safety issues (in other words, burning them where the fire might spread). Immigration status is irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/5 "2010-07-31T11:44:37Z")
As long as his flags stay on his property, I’ve got no problem with what he’s doing. Now, if he were try to put either flag on my property, I’d be pissed. I can’t stand the things, no matter what they’re representing. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/6 "2010-07-31T11:52:36Z")
I might just mention in passing to Mr Immigrant From Elbonia that it’s nice he still remembers the homeland fondly, despite moving all this distance away from it into an entirely alien environment, but, as a sign of respect for the place he is now living, if he is going to fly flags, he could at least make them both the same size. You know, just for appearance’s sake? ps. Then again, I might just sigh, shake my head and carry on about my day. I suppose it’d depend how I felt at the time I spotted it and him. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/7 "2010-07-31T11:52:42Z")
How is that disrespect? Then again, the way most Spanish houses are arranged, the flags would have to be side-by-side on the balcony… but even if the guy had a separate house and had bothered put up a pole and flew both flags from it, whatever. It would bother me in very specific cases, but then, those specific people wouldn’t be flying my flags in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/8 "2010-07-31T11:58:56Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > How is that disrespect? Haven’t you heard? Size matters. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/9 "2010-07-31T12:10:59Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > > [@Nava](#): > > > > How is that disrespect? > > Haven’t you heard? Size matters. … still makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/10 "2010-07-31T12:11:57Z")
Its not the size thats important but flying one flag below the other which as far as I know signifies that one country has captured another countrys ship. So it would be a trifle bizarre to say the least. Elbonians are all bastards anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/11 "2010-07-31T12:12:03Z")
I wouldn’t be bothered if the flag of my country was smaller or completely left out. There are better things to worry about, and better measures of how my neighbor truly feels about the country that we live in. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/12 "2010-07-31T12:43:41Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Its not the size thats important but flying one flag below the other which as far as I know signifies that one country has captured another countrys ship. Shrug, so he hasn’t had time to put up a second flag pole. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/13 "2010-07-31T12:46:30Z")
What’s with the whole American “respect the flag” thing anyway? I’ve never been able to understand that. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/14 "2010-07-31T12:47:19Z")
Those fucking Elbonians, always causing trouble:mad: ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/15 "2010-07-31T12:55:11Z")
> [@figure9](#): > > Let’s pretend your neighbor is an immigrant from Elbonia. One day he hangs a large Elbonian flag and flies a smaller flag, your country’s, underneath it. Does it bother you? Do you do anything about it? I’d kill him by beating him over the head with a shovel, then burn his house down with his family inside. Oh, I know you’re going to say that’s a bit extreme. Sometimes, however, we need to make the hard choices. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/16 "2010-07-31T13:23:23Z")
I would categorically fail to give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/17 "2010-07-31T13:30:25Z")
It wouldn’t even occur to me that he was being disrespectful. I might find it a bit odd to fly any flag at all, unless the World Cup is on. If anything, I’d probably be quite pleased that he bothered to fly the Union Jack at all along side his own, which probably says something about British multiculturalism and attitude to the home flag. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/18 "2010-07-31T13:35:45Z")
Perhaps it would be best to also say where we’re from? I have a feeling the whole flag obsession thing is mostly an American trait. Finland here. ---
**Author:** ![Juntas\_Doorman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@Juntas\_Doorman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juntas_Doorman)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/19 "2010-07-31T14:16:23Z")
I read something during the week by Arundhati Roy which seems apposite: “Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” Later in the same paragraph she makes reference to a “blizzard of made-in-China American flags” during the War Against Terror. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673/20 "2010-07-31T14:22:39Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > It wouldn’t even occur to me that he was being disrespectful. I might find it a bit odd to fly any flag at all, unless the World Cup is on. If anything, I’d probably be quite pleased that he bothered to fly the Union Jack at all along side his own, which probably says something about British multiculturalism and attitude to the home flag. Would disrespecting the Queen (or Royal Family/monarchy) in England be roughly equivalent to disrespecting the flag in the U.S.? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-immigrant-disrepects-your-flag/548673.md?page=2)