I’m not sure what your point is. If it is that Hindu swastikas are obviously different in appearance from Nazi swastikas … no, they’re not necessarily. Hindus do use the swastika in a variety of different ways, but it is quite common in India to see a swastika that looks pretty much like a Nazi swastika, except for the 45-degree rotation, and that’s not really enough of a difference for a casual, non-expert observer.
You misspelled Challenger. :smack:
ETA: There’s a red Charger in the background of the third picture, the one I didn’t snip out. 
What about black Southerners? An average of 74% of them (warning: link is to an article in .pdf) supported removal of the CBF from the South Carolina State House. To them, apparently, it has a negative meaning.
What’s also interesting in this study was that white Southerners were MORE likely to support removal of the flag than white non-Southerners, suggesting that Southerners are well aware of the symbology of the flag and the implications for displaying it. Older Southerners were also more likely to support removal than younger Southerners. I think it’s clear from this study that Southern people who know best what it means don’t want it displayed because they know it hurts some people.
As for the General Lee… well, it wasn’t a very good TV show, and the Duke boys are not poster boys for enlightened Southerners. It doesn’t offend me, but it is sort of tacky. But hey, if you like it, and don’t care if you might offend people, or get up on your cross about it and claim that it helps you understand how black people feel… yeah. I don’t even know what to say about that.
Maybe, in the true spirit of the “heritage” at stake here, only three-fifths of that 74% should be considered.
I probably shouldn’t be laughing, but…
Just that there’s a lot of variation in Hindu and other representations, but the Nazi version is consistent. And some background reading for general edification.
Firstly, I don’t agree that that distinguishes anything other than making what looked to me like a snide comment about The Dukes of Hazard. Secondly, GQ is not the forum to distinguish between “racist assholes and ignorant ones”. I can’t see why that is hard to understand, especially since a moderator explicitly asked everyone not to do that.
My assertion is that you are either racist or ignorant to fly that flag. As I said above, I think there is plenty of support for that assertion. At this point, there is no excuse that isn’t one or the other, and being an asshole is very likely part of the package.
Can we have a cite for that, since it’s a fact?
Honestly, I wouldn’t challenge that in GD or in the Pit. But in GQ-- it’s simply not a fact.
John, it is the symbol for racial segregation. I think that has been cited elsewhere in this thread. So, if you display it, you are either ignorant of its racist connotations, or you are in fact, a racist. On the third hand, you could be honoring the racist people who died fighting for the South. (I suppose there were non-racist people in the CSA military, but the people in charge were, in fact, racist.)
These are not quite the only possibilities.
To me, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that revealed preferences for racist policy and revealed preferences for the flag go hand in hand. It is very unlikely that this is a coincidence. So my question is then, if you want to hang the flag but claim that you yourself are not a racist, then you have chosen a funny company to keep.
I thought about this yesterday while visiting Six Flags theme park in Atlanta. While going through the Confederate themed part of the park I noticed a black, female park worker wearing a costume clearly modeled after a confederate uniform and also a confederate flag on the hat she was wearing.
No, it hasn’t been cited adequately enough to make it appropriate to state as a fact in the GQ forum.
As opposed to northerners, who were in fact all believers in brotherly love and racial equality. Every last one of them. And not a single one of them owned slaves or ever did and all of whom saw black men and women as their brothers and sisters…
Uh, dude, I agree that the flag’s a racist symbol, but I think you’re showing some ignorance and simplification as well and so is everyone who tries to equate it with the swastika (let’s not rub manure on an already ugly hog- the South was NOT on par with the Third Reich in evil or in motive).
While this is true, how many northerners do you know celebrate the peculiar institututions of the antebellum north? I’ve been a damn yankee all my life, and I’ve yet to meet a one.
So while slaves were certainly owned and candy stolen from babies in the north, we do not struggle to find anything particularly redeeming about this period.
Who, then, “owns” the meaning of a symbol? The first people ever to use it?
Gestalt
I know it’s a Challenger, but hey, it’s the two door sport version of the modern thing they call the Charger.
Fair enough. Sorry to continue the hijack, but you and Charger might be interested in the '06 they made up to look just like The General Lee:
You want the real story? The Confederate flag is a symbol of independence, history, honor and pride. It’s a way of saying “Leave me the fuck alone, I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me.”
Now these may be the same people that don’t like the way some black people are loud and rowdy in public situations, but that doesn’t make them racist.
Like ‘unconditional surrender’?