I’ve had the news on all evening while I compute, MSNBC or somesuch, and like 20 times/hour someone is hawking the ‘American Freedom Collection’ of flags, only $19.95, order now, operators are standing by.
I’m not sure what exactly annoys me so much…but this REALLY annoys me.
I’m watching Afghanistan get bombed, aftermath of WTC, anthrax in FL.
And now someone has packaged my patriotism like a DixieCup HappyMeal and K-TEL has the el-cheapo version, call now, OperatorsAreStandingBy. AAAAARGGGH.
Am I the only one bothered by this?
[sub]I’m turning off the TV now. Maybe it’s just been a long day.[/sub]
Hell no. I’ve seen the commercial you’re talking about, and it’s obnoxious. Not just for the vaguely scummy overtones, but for the fact that the flags themselves are the cheap crap you can buy for under a dollar at damned near any corner market.
Sure…on one hand, there’s those who’d argue that they’re just doing their patriotic duty as good li’l capitalists by making a buck wherever they can. And I can’t really refute that, but it DOES smack of…I dunno, profiteering isn’t really the right word…
Anyway: umm…they suck. Their tacky little plastic flags suck. They’re a bunch of goddamned smegma-swilling goat-raping krill-fuckers. They’re not even worthy of coming up with really devastating insults, which is why these are so lame…it’s done intentionally.
Yes this annoys me a great deal! How about we find out who owns this company. Dig up their dead family members. Sell little parts of the clothes they were buried in. Operators are waiting.
Well for me, at least, it’s pretty simple WHY it bugs me: there’s no way in hell you’d have seen that commercial on September the 10th.
I’ll admit it…I’m a shameless patriotic sap, and I always have been. I still get annoyed when Perkins leaves their flag flying in the rain. Through the pain and horror and rage of the disaster, iv’e found it somewhat comforting to see others treating patriotism as a worthy ideal, instead of a punchline.
And then this gnat’s asshole of a huddle-house chimpfuck no-name company comes along, and notes the re-emerging sense of pride in our country; but instead of seeing solidarity and respect, they see dollar signs and marketing trend. They varnish it with the same casual gloss they’d put on Ron Popeil’s latest boondoggle, shovel it out the door, and wait for money to start rolling in from the suckers jumping on the ‘patriotic bandwagon.’
Fuck them. Fuck their condescending little ploys. Fuck their cynical attempts to prey on emotions and profit from pain. Fuck their dismissive attitude towards feelings which abruptly united so many people across sociopolitical barriers.
And fuck them bloody with a flaming chainsaw if they think they’re getting a penny out of me.
Yeah. And the flag hawkers on eBay are equally disgusting. Price gougers. But this is “the American way?” I guess I’m really not complaining or even disapproving. Just observing.
Not to rain on your little bashing parade, but those flag hawkers are nuthin. They’re filling a legitimate need (there’s a flag shortage in this country) with all the tact and grace typical of current American society.
I have a story that will really make your blood boil:
I was walking on Canal Street about one week after the Incident, which was about as close as you could get that day to Ground Zero. I work there, and I was on my way to the subway, but the street was packed with gawkers taking pictures, Japanese tourists with their families, etc. As I was muttering “vultures,” to myself under my breath I saw a guy standing on the corner selling pictures of the WTC. I thought at first that they were old postcards but they weren’t.
They were pictures that someone (presumably he) had taken of the WTC as it was burning. It looked like he had just taken them to the Fotomat and printed out a hundred copies.
Being a little slow of mind, my feet had already carried me ten paces before I realized that Jesus Fucking Christ I should have grabbed that father-raping son of a fucking bitch thrown him to the fucking ground and beat his head against the pavement while screaming the names of the 6000 people whose memory he was profaning until his ears bled or his heart broke or both.
But by the time I though of it I was long gone. And anyway, National Guardsmen would likely have pulled me off of him before I finished. I haven’t seen him since, so I can only assume that someone already gave him what-for.
All of the blatant disrespect for the flag that has been going on lately has me annoyed, especially when people hang them from their cars. Yesterday I was driving behind a car with a four-footer flying from each back window. I don’t know what I would have done if one had detatched, covered my windshield, and caused an accident. “Sorry, you can’t sue him because he was displaying his patriotism, you commie bastard!”
So many flags are being torn apart by the breeze of driving that some are looking like regimental flags from the Civil War, except those EARNED their raggedness. They weren’t ragged because some dime-store patriot masking-taped them to his radio antenna. And taping it half-way up the aerial may preserve your antenna but it means you are flying your flag at half-staff, something which hasn’t been appropriate for a couple weeks. If your flag will bend your antenna when you hit 55MPH, MAYBE IT’S TOO BIG! And it’s NOT patriotic to fly a flag so big it wipes the dirt from your windshield.
Then there are the people with flags stapled to the front of their houses, regardless of the weather or time of day. Haven’t they heard of BUNTING? That’s what it’s for. You still get the stars and stripes, but it’s not a flag.
Flags should be shown respect and these people wipe out any right they have to complain when some protestor burns one.
good timing on this thread! for kicks, i have been keeping track of all the ripped up flags lying on the pavement and stuck in the puckerbush i can count on my way into work. so far, i’ve counted 5. one of them was stuck on a bush for 3 days running, but it was gone today-- the road construction crew worked its way down to it! ( i hope they didn’t just plow it under! the bush is gone, too!)
i keep seeing knuckleheads with huge flags on the rear windows RIGHT IN THE LINE OF SIGHT OF THE MIRROR!! sorry, im as american as the next guy, but handicapping your visibility in an automobile is patri-idiotic!
For me, this type of thing goes in the same category with the car ads:
<Deep, solemn, sober voice>“In these troubled times, we need to follow our leaders’ advice by…”</Dssv>
<Manic car salesman voice>"…purchasing a BRAND NEW Chevrolet at ZERO PERCENT FINANCING! Yes, that’s right! ZERO! There will never again be such a wonderful opportunity!!!.."
If it’s any consolation, the same thing is happening here in Australia. When I went shopping yesterday there was starts and stripes merchandise everywhere, along with NY T-shirts. Someone’s obviously expecting a ruch on S&S bandannas, because every second store seems to be selling them.
What pissed me off more than anything, though, was logging onto yahoo to check the news and getting a pop-up trying to sell me a US flag (and blatantly exploiting the supposed “flag shortage”).
Hey, watch it there bud! I have a flag that covers the rear window on the cap of my truck. I have two side view mirrors that give me all the information I need. The center mirror pretty much just lets me know how close the A-hole behind me is tailgating, but that’s trivial. My back bumper is tougher than their car is and that’s been proven.
On the OP, ya, at first I was taken aback by those spots, but they’re not all that far different from the American Eagle coin and Painted state coin spots that were running before September 11. Really, no harm, no fowl.
The one that irritates me is GM’s. Not the independent dealers, but GM itself. An Icon of the great country supposedly, right?
The flags are flying, their playing football again, now go buy a Chevy*
If you seen the spot, you know what I mean. Morons.