I’m curious about the US flag, I read left to right and it seems to me that the US flag should be held with the stars in the left hand. Same on army uniforms, on one arm the flag looks right and on the other are the stars are on the right.
Does it matter at all or is it just me?
The stars always lead. That’s why the flag is “reversed” on the right sleeve of a uniform.
Furthermore, any time that an actual flag is on any type of pole, there is ALWAYS going to be some angle from which it will appear to be mounted the “wrong” way.
AIUI, when a flag is displayed (i.e., mounted; not ‘displayed on a uniform’), the field of stars should be ‘over the observer’s heart’. So if the flag is displayed horizontally, the field is in the upper-left and it looks correct. When displayed vertically, the field is in the upper-left and it looks incorrect.
Flags aren’t meant to be “read”. When they are described, you specify the design with relation to the the parts nearer and further from the flagpole (“hoist” and “fly”), not “left” and “right”, recognizing that the viewer may see it blowing in either direction. It doesn’t actually have a “wrong” direction, as long as the correct end is attached to the flagpole. When depicted rather than flown, you still imagine it affixed, and streaming in the wind, which determines the orientation. Any flag which is not symmetric about its vertical axis will have this anomaly regarding right and left, in particular, any flag with a display in a canton, as with the US flag.
You are talking about flag etiquette. The simple response is the stars are always to the flag’s own right, regardless of how the flag is displayed (shoulder patches notwithstanding).
Or a bus.