Thoughts On The Rebel Flag

[mattsk8]

Just curious what others thoughts on the rebel flag are. I've heard good points from both sides, and I personally never really considered it treasonous or aimed towards hatred, but I'm also a white guy from MI and I'm not always the most sensitive person in the world (I think PC is retarded and gay). To me it was always the flag on the roof of the General Lee in the Dukes Of Hazzard, but that's what I grew up with and never really considered it's roots.

Any African Americans here that live in the south? I'd love your feedback. And be completely honest... did the confederate flag bother you prior to the media's recent stirring of the shit-pot?

[caanglin]

I don't really care either way on the flag. None of the black people (they are not from Africa, they are from America) in my family care either way about the flag either. 
My question would be... who takes the "media" seriously? 

P.S. Being PC is for libtard tumblr pussies. 

Edited June 25, 2015 by fivex84

[mattsk8]

I don't really care either way on the flag. None of the black people (they are not from Africa, they are from America) in my family care either way about the flag either. 
My question would be... who takes the "media" seriously? 

P.S. Being PC is for libard tumblr pussies. 

Well said on all of that. Hadn't considered the African American thing either; I'm a white American mutt, not a Polish/English/Indian/American.

Edited June 25, 2015 by mattsk8

[Zappo]

Not being from the South, I don't quite get the allure of flying that flag.  The same thing with the statues of Confederate leaders.

They say it is "Southern Pride", but you shouldn't be proud of anything from that era.

[Black Betty]

People seem to think the civil war was just about slavery. Yes it was a big issue but the size/strength of the Federal government was the bigger issue. 

I think it's time to retire the confederate flag, only because of it's more recent association with racism, and slavery. It's become a symbol of racists instead of a symbol of government. 

[mattsk8]

It's only become a symbol of racism in the past week. What about the good ol' stars and stripes flag? What we did to the Indians wasn't exactly glamorous; basically came in, lied to them and jerked the rug out from under them while we gave them blankets laced with infectious diseases, not to mention the rape and murder because they were "savages". I think PC and liberal retards are going to take this nation straight into a train wreck of epic proportions. While we're all being bleeding hearts and making things right, shouldn't all the whites and blacks here do the right thing and leave? Give the land back to original owners? (Sarcasm)

[Fudge_Brownie]

It's only become a symbol of racism in the past week.

I don't think that's true. It's always had a racial history associated with it. The 2000s Dukes of Hazard revival movie even had a scene where the boys go to Atlanta and discover accidentally that black people aren't excited to see the flag on their roof. Personally, I think it's been slowly redefined to be more about the south than about the civil war. Co-opted?

i think it's kinda silly, especially for any government to fly it. But I don't think I care that much. I guess I'd have to know more about how southerns saw it. Regardless, I think it'd be cool if the result of this fuss is that black people (along with all other races) started displaying it proudly.

[Pops Racer]

Maybe we can take down the Stars and Stripes too. Slaves were owned in the original 13. Or burn all the paintings of Washington and Jefferson. Or better yet let's blow up the Jefferson memorial or topple the Washington monument. Let's just wipe out our white history before 1868.  Let's burn all the history books, the facts are not being taught anyway. You Marxists are rewriting the history books and teaching gender coolness instead. What's the point?

Bunch if fucking idiots behaving like ISIS destroying Christian historical artifacts. Do you idiots even hear what you're saying? Obama and his  sycophants are getting their fundamental change. 

Bernie Sanders makes sense to you? Lol WTF.

51% are in govt handout, and the middle class is footing the bill, but unemployment is under 7%? Lol public education math at it's finest.

You're all a bunch of useful idiots, just like the prols in during the Bolshevik Revolution. And they all ended up dead or in a gulag after they set up the new order.

i work my balls off so you idealistic utopian commies can fuck up this country. I fear for my life in retirement when I get denied medical care. I won't see my social security Ponzi scheme check. No borders no currency no language no history = no country.

fuck all of you.

see you in six months to view who else has been empaled on Obamas cock.    

[theForgottenone]

If the flag doesn't portrait the favorable historical context of the country then why people are using the flag as the representative.  In addition, it's not even a legal flag anymore as the star and stripe is the official flag.

The way this country was founded is not exactly the higher moral method but there is nothing anyone can do about it now, unfortunately. 

[caanglin]

Apple takes down games with the confederate flag in it. 
Way to not over react. 

"...because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways."
http://toucharcade.com/2015/06/25/apple-removes-confederate-flag/

[Burn-E]

I grew up in Tennessee below the Mason Dixon line and spent a fair amount of time in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, North and South Carolina as a kid.  I'm old enough to have experienced the desegregation of schools while I was in school and the experiences that came with that. 

Why is the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia flown by people who fly it? Many of them are simply ignorant and see it as a symbol of the South and want to do something that gets a reaction out of others.  A big part of that reaction stems from the long political memory that the rebel flag was used by several political and pseudo political entities to encourage segregation:

1. The Ku Klux Klan

2. The State of Georgia which specifically changed its flag in 1956 to incorporate the rebel flag into its design in direct response to efforts by the Federal government to move toward desegregation

3. The State of Mississippi and specifically Ole Miss where the university administration and students began flying the flag to protest desegregation.  

4. The Dixiecrat party which leveraged the flag as part of their political efforts in 1948 and largely sparked the reinvestment into the rebel flag as a response to Federal government overtures to encourage equal rights for all.  Guess which States voted for Strom Thurmond for President as the Dixiecrat's candidate? South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and a rural portion of Tennessee.

If you don't know the history, reading up on the Dixiecrat party will demonstrate in large measure what many southerners who fly that flag remain invested in to small or large degree.

One portion of Thurmond's platform: 

We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.

To say that the battle flag is not a racist symbol is to ignore decades of history that say otherwise.  It may have been the symbol of Robert E. Lee's army but it has long since been coopted by those with political ideals that are consistent with believing that there are superior and inferior races.

Edited June 25, 2015 by Burn-E

[Commander Riker]

Having moved to the south, it's definitely apart of the culture here still.  The N word is still thrown around more then you would think, and it has been tough to get used to.

What I don't like is that there is this idea that we have "beat racism" and this flag is just a lingering thing from that time.

Live in the present.  It's a present problem, just like it was long ago.  You can remove every flag that has any history to do with it... and someone will just symbolize it another way.  Further demonizing it also gives it more power.  So when I see swastikas etched into the old gym walls at my school... I wonder if we just made that symbol have more of an impact by making it more rarely used.

Likewise, we should fucking use the word fuck more often.  It takes the sting and severity out of it... plus it is fucking fun to say.  FUCK!

[S8ET6]

The US Census Bureau  projects that the "White Majority" will cease to exist in 2043.

Out of curiosity, to anyone who wants to answer, how do you foresee this event impacting your quality of life?

[Fudge_Brownie]

The US Census Bureau  projects that the "White Majority" will cease to exist in 2043.

Out of curiosity, to anyone who wants to answer, how do you foresee this event impacting your quality of life?

It probably won't. It'll shift some of these debates, but I think and hope we'll quickly move towards talking about a blend of people. I have a slight worry that there could be some white racism from those who feel white meant extra privilege growing up, or came to distrust whites. The whole 99%/1% debate could become interesting if the 99% becomes associated with "all races" while the 1% is generally thought of as white. I wonder what it's like to grow up as a minority in this era, seeing white cops being asshats on youtube or in person, and possibly not seeing or meeting many good ones. But ultimately, it probably will not have any significant much impact on my life.

[Burn-E]

The US Census Bureau  projects that the "White Majority" will cease to exist in 2043.

Out of curiosity, to anyone who wants to answer, how do you foresee this event impacting your quality of life?

The white majority is already surpassed depending on what age cohort you look at.  As of 2011 white babies were in the minority. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb12-90.html

It won't change my quality of life at all directly.  However, given that there are significant issues in immigration this growing trend has the potential to increase the burden on taxpayers since more workers will be operating in the illegal economy and not contributing to the tax base.  The question to ask is to what extent they are being exploited and to what extent they are exploiting the system.  It's not clear to me whether it is a net positive or net negative to the economy and the tax base.