My family physician recently moved to a new office. In his old office, the American flag was prominently displayed in the lobby. But not in his new office. The new lobby is a little smaller than the old one, so I assumed that was the reason. But I recently finally asked him about it.
He said he had to take down the US flag, because people complained it was an “offensive” symbol! (He didn’t specify who complained–i assume other doctors or whatever.) The US flag! An offensive symbol! In the USA itself!
I told him, I have a US flag in my front window. And I certainly don’t consider it an offensive symbol. He knows that I am a gay American. But I believe in the US flag for all the other things it stands for. Freedom. Equality. The pursuit of happiness.
I’m sure someone can and does take offense, since someone is always offended by something. There have been times when people felt the need to burn the flag in political protest, and I actually know a few people who are annoyed with all of the constant displays of the flag everywhere and would probably say that this aspect is ‘Offensive’ to them.
I think maybe one of his knucklehead patients made an ill-conceived comment about the flag, and the physician, being of a certain political bent, became internally outraged about his patriotism being under attack (they are out to destroy America!!!), and overreacted by removing it. It gives him comfort in acting on his confirmation bias.
I’m not sure I would say offensive - I don’t see how it could be, but perhaps he is dealing with people from other countries - or whatever.
If someone feels like you are putting the flag up cause you think you are “better” for being an American - then maybe it would be. But just having a flag - I really don’t care.
I was at Medieval Times and at the end they used to have a knight ride out with the Amrican Flag. I kinda liked it. The next time I went (this was years ago) - they didn’t have it anymore. I asked someone why - as I thought it was cool and people seemed to like it - and the response was something like “We get lots of people from other Countries and wanted them to feel welcome too.”
So I think maybe you could argue it is insensitive, but not offensive. But when I’m in another country - I kind of expect to see their flag. Then again - it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest if - say an Indian doctor had an Indian flag in his office.
Whatever people want to put up (or not put up) is fine with me.
I personally wouldn’t find the American flag offensive, but as XT says, I don’t doubt someone could. Sure, the thing the flag represents–America, both in its ideals and actions–can do some offensive things, but on balance it’s hard for me to see what would be offensive. The physician apparently took the complaint seriously, whereas I would probably just laugh it off.
You said the flag was displayed “prominently” in his old office, and that at first you assumed he hadn’t put it up in the new office because it was smaller, indicating perhaps the flag was unusually large. I know if I walked into a doctor’s office where the US flag seemed visually overwhelming, I’d probably assume a certain jingoism on the part of the physician that I would likely find uncomfortable. In short, the flag itself was a little overbearing aesthetically, and this was translated by the complainer into “offensive”.
Generally not offensive. Put two big ones on the back of your pick up truck and that is a bit much. Have flag underwear and that is offensive. Flag outer-clothing, including patches is questionable in my opinion. Display it with a Stars and Bars or Nazi flag, offensive. Context. Courtroom or classroom is expected. Doctor’s office? Weird, but I’d let it go.
If the doc had a giant flag covering an entire wall of his office and sat there squinting at his patients and mumbling about precious bodily fluids, then someone might have felt uncomfortable. But I kind of doubt that scenario.
Some people bristle at the sight of the flag for ideological reasons. We had a German poster here who complained in the days after 9/11 about Americans displaying their flag.
I would be uncomfortable displaying it, because a lot of people seem to use it as a symbol of nationalism, American Exceptionalism, or even xenophobia. Those are not sentiments I want to be associated with. And I’m dubious of people who display the flag very prominently, for those reasons. (Of course it depends on the context.)
Dunno. But it does remind me of that time two kids got in trouble at school for wearing American flag shirts on Cinque De Mayo.
And THEN people like Roger Ebert said what the kids did was offensive and likened it to wearing a Soviet T-Shirt on the Fourth of July. God that statement is wrong on so many levels.
To me its more weird than offensive, but I also would find a really massive flag (a flag that can’t fit in a reasonably sized foyer space, for instance) to indicate the Doc was jingoistic/a crank in his free time. A normal sized flag or image of the flag wouldn’t give me this feeling. Its something about dominating the visual space with the flag, I think.
Not that I really care as long as the he doesn’t try and regale me with his political opinions.
The Confederate flag is often considered offensive because it supposedly represents slavery and racism. The only place this isn’t obvious is in the former Confederate states themselves, where you’re liable to get push back on how it really represents Southern culture in general.
I think if we brain stormed for five minutes we could think of a couple bad things the American flag represents. And not just things that happened over 150 years ago, but up to and including the present day. Of course, Americans aren’t liable to see it that way. It represents freedom, y’all.
Given the nature of nation states, there’s a reducto absurdum here where you can do that for everyone. Eventually the only countries that could show their flags would be small island nations. Except they probably pulled some serious shit to get independent in the first place, so maybe not even then.
Slavery, racism and treason. The treason part is important too. Prior to the war to perpetuate the slavery of black people, the confederate naval battle flag did not exist, although Southern culture did. After the war, the flag was obscure, except as part of KKK rituals when during the 1910s and 1920s, particularly after the film “Birth of a Nation” it became very popular with the KKK as racism and oppression gained ground. The parts of “Southern culture” that existed before and after still continued to exist, but as a symbol of the shorthand for the most offensive parts (slave labor of black people) the flag became popular for the first time. The flag is a symbol of racism, slavery and treason. The propaganda that it is something else is as much bullshit as that the war was fought for “states rights” rather than slavery. Read the various seceding states declarations of secession, they all make it clear that slavery was the only substantive matter being fought over.
If southerners want a symbol of “southern culture” that isn’t offensive, racist, slavish and treasonous, perhaps they can find an actual bit of southern culture that isn’t racist, slavish or treasonous to promote as that symbol. Like Jazz, Blues, BBQ or something else genuinely southern. The reason the flag and state’s rights morons don’t adopt genuine southern cultural achievements like Jazz, Blues, BBQ or something else is that the morons are pretty much all racist and those things were invented by black people. The slave-holding class contributed nothing but fuckin’ oppression, treason, racism and slavery. They accomplished and contributed nothing to human progress or culture that is worthwhile and not completely overshadowed by their evil institutions and massive bloodshed over retaining it.
The public display of the United States flag seems to be one of those things that most often attacked because Someone might be offended. I’ve never actually met Someone, but apparently many people are very concerned on Someone’s behalf. Someone is quite a lucky person to have so many people anxiously looking out for their welfare. But it would be awfully nice if Someone was allowed to speak for themselves.
(In other words, people love to borrow trouble. News at 11.)
Displaying the flag in places where it isn’t customarily displayed often looks like it’s simply pretentious patriotism, or worse. As mentioned above, this is most noticeable where people drive around with flags in the beds of their pickup trucks.
Some people seem to make a show of having bigger flags than everybody else, or more flags. I drove past one ranch once, where every fence post had a little flag on it. Whether it’s a big flag or lots of little flags, some people seem to think that their patriotism is displayed and measured by the number of square inches of flag they display. It becomes a dick-waving contest, to see whose is the biggest.
I am looking forward to seeing a Jazz-BBQ-Blues flag on the back of a pick’m’up truck sometime soon.
Seriously, someone needs to design that shit. I know there are some creative critters down there, despite the efforts of folks what like the Confederate flag so much; get on it!
