This is the flag of an enemy nation. Why isn’t it a form of treason to fly the flag of an enemy nation? Is it because we’re no longer at war with them, or the nation doesn’t exist anymore? Personally, I think there’s a difference between flying the flag of a nation we were once at war with, as an act of open rebellion, and my Swedish roommate having a little Swedish flag in the pencil holder on her desk, or me having a shirt with the Slovak flag on it that my mother bought because she was in Slovakia when Czechoslovakia divided into two republics. (My grandparents are from Slovakia, and we still go occasionally to visit relatives there.)
Well, see I don’t know that I agree with part I bolded up above. The battle flag was appropriated and popularized by the KKK and so it does have some meaning beyond being just a flag of the losing side in the Civil War.
I’m guessing a privately-owned, temporary cross raised as part of a legal demonstration on public property would be objectionable once it was doused with gasoline and lit it on fire. Same thing with this in my mind.
Objectionable, sure, but objectionable doesn’t mean illegal, necessarily. Ccross burning has gone in front of the supreme court before, and the SC ruled that cross burning can be outlawed if intent to intimidate is demonstrated, but not if such intent to intimidate is not proven.
You do realize that in America it is legal to wear and display actual KKK emblems in otherwise legal demonstrations? Also, you don’t want to assign too much weight to the appropriation of a symbol by the Klan (notice how the police are here protecting the Klan’s expression).
There might well be an issue with the fire part, depending on local ordinances and the terms of the demonstration’s permit. The meaning of the symbol should not be relevant.
I’ll ask this question here rather than start a thread on it. I live in southern, rural, Appalachian Ohio. I see trucks featuring the image of the Confederate flag almost daily, and I drive by some houses out in the sticks that fly that flag. For some reason these sightings surprise me much more in Ohio than they would further south.
What do you think these hillbillies are trying to convey by these displays?
The USA has been at war with Great Britain, Mexico, Germany, Italy, and Spain in its history, the last 3 more recently than the Civil War. Should flying any of those flags be illegal?
I’ve seen rebel flags within 50 miles of the Canadian border.
Without additional information I don’t think it can be pinned down. There are three possible (independent) messages that come immediately to my mind as most likely, but only one of those is necessarily racist. The others are, approximately, “I like the South,” and “I’m a rebel/badass/rugged individualist.” The latter is equivalent to the (likely) modern message of a Gadsden flag or sticker.
Was the CSA ever considered an enemy nation, though? Didn’t the government of the US consider the rebellious states to still be part of the Union and not a separate country?
Yeah? Well I’m half-Czech! And we were HUMILIATED to be associated with you people for all those years! You know why? Because your dumplings SUCK. And your beer SUCKS.
Thank you for this moment of gratuitous Slovak hate, thumbing my nose from Prague where the beer and dumplings are DELICIOUS. Wave that flag; wave it wide and high – summertime’s done, come and gone my oh my
It says the group raising the flag was re-enactors. Looking at them, they are clearly dressed in period uniforms. But the sponsoring group is labeled “confederate flag supporting”. Is the re-enactment just a cover? I have been to civil war battle reenactments and was never offended by the confederate flags flying in the camps and on the battlefields there.
I can legally fly a swastika if I wish too, as long as I’m on my own property. Like it or not, the same should be said for a rebel flag. Speech is not just for popular ideas. Yes, the CSA were a bunch of traitors. Guess what – expressing support for them isn’t treason (especially since they’re long gone).
These people aren’t even advocating to rebel against the government. They’re just being a bunch of assholes. They’re not using government property to do so – they brought their own flag pole and their own flag. It’s not illegal to be a douchebag.
I like it when I’m on a road trip, and I come up on a Good Ol’ Boy in a rusty pickup with the Not-Quite-The-Actual Confederate Flag. It’s like a label saying “I’m not a genius, and might be drunk, and I’m fer sure angry as hell, so you might want to keep your distance!”
And so I do. Hit the far lane and get about a mile ahead just to be safe.
ETA: Then I put on NPR and swig some Vernor’s with my pretzels… and celebrate my Union heritage.
