Politics, Racism & Business

"Secret meaning"?

The flag itself is not inherently racist, (...)</quote>

TRUE - the flag itself is just a piece of cloth, like a tablecloth. It was the banner of a rebel government which lost a war.

<quote>...) nor is everyone who displays it today racist.</quote>

WRONG -- Anyone who hangs the Confederate flag in the US today is blatantly stating their support for the slave-holding South who lost the Civil War. I'm a 14th-generation American, and I have ancestors who fought on both sides of that conflict. One aunt is a member of the DAR, and my dad was eligible for membership in the CINCINNATUS group. I could, due to my mother's family antecedents in Kentucky and Virginia, join the Confederate Daughters group, but I'm not really interested in "celebrating" the culture of slaveowners. I can't say I'm really proud of my kin who fought for the CSA; I recognize the historical FACT that the war was fought, and the FACT that the South LOST THE FREAKIN' WAR. Those people who TODAY display the Confederate flag openly are deliberately stating their pride in the "ideals" of the slaveowners who refused to treat their African slaves as human beings (insisting, in fact, on their RIGHT to treat them as animals, like plow oxen and brood mares), and who seceded from the American government, rather than treat other human beings _AS_ human beings. People who fly/display the Confederate flag today are tacitly declaring NOT ONLY that they refuse to admit that the CSA lost the war, but that the Southern refusal to accord human rights to African slaves was wrong.

Such people are generally white male, of lower income and low-income background, and are militantly against other races being treated as equal to white men -- generally because they're too damn lazy and uneducated to compete with Asians or African-Americans who HAVE made the effort to get an education. They also deeply resent women being treated as their equals, and are usually rabidly homophobic, regarding gay men and women as vermin and fair game for harassment and discrimination. Jews are another one of their favored targets, since Jewish culture is based on literate education, and these guys are usually semi-illiterate and prefer to base their claims of superiority on their white skin and their genitalia rather than the use of their brains. The women who support them are of the type who prefer to have men take care of them while they have babies and watch soap operas, and who, while insisting on their identity as "Christian", would never treat anyone else in a "Christian" manner unless they were white and Protestant. Phyllis Schlafly, of the EAGLE FOUNDATION, is the Republican doyenne of those who insist on the female right to be confined to housework, babies, and Sunday school. If they had their way, no American woman would ever get a high school diploma, much less go to college and have a real career.

There's no secret about this -- the present-day KKK and the Neo-Nazis are as viciously racist and fascistic now as they were during Reconstruction and World War II. They simply use the pseudo-claim that they're not preaching "race hate", they're teaching "racial pride" -- which is absolute BS, a completely false distinction. It's a variant of Hitler's BIG LIE tactic -- say something loud enough and often enough, and no-one will bother to argue with you. Sorry, I'm not one of the ball-less wonders who will sit quietly and let them get away with it.

Anyone who displays a Confederate flag today is declaring their admiration for vicious, hateful thugs, and no semantic nonsense will change that.

Anyone who displays a Confederate flag today is declaring their admiration for vicious, hateful thugs, and no semantic nonsense will change that.

Such people are generally white male, of lower income and low-income background, and are militantly against other races being treated as equal to white men -- generally because they're too damn lazy and uneducated to compete with Asians or African-Americans who HAVE made the effort to get an education. They also deeply resent women being treated as their equals, and are usually rabidly homophobic, regarding gay men and women as vermin and fair game for harassment and discrimination. Jews are another one of their favored targets, since Jewish culture is based on literate education, and these guys are usually semi-illiterate and prefer to base their claims of superiority on their white skin and their genitalia rather than the use of their brains. The women who support them are of the type who prefer to have men take care of them while they have babies and watch soap operas, and who, while insisting on their identity as "Christian", would never treat anyone else in a "Christian" manner unless they were white and Protestant. Phyllis Schlafly, of the EAGLE FOUNDATION, is the Republican doyenne of those who insist on the female right to be confined to housework, babies, and Sunday school. If they had their way, no American woman would ever get a high school diploma, much less go to college and have a real career.

Do the political views of content providers/business owners affect your decisions to buy from them?

Recently I was shopping and accidentally was tp'd to the designer's studio, only to be confronted by a large Confederate flag hung on the wall. Knowing the secret meaning of this flag in the U.S. southern states, I immediately tp'd out of there and am reluctant to return or to buy anything from this designer.

Not just my sense of political correctness kicking in, but the fact that that flag stands for something very ugly for African Americans even today, thirty years after the civil rights movement, I just don't want to support Confederate ideals with my money or by recommending the designer to other residents (despite that I have purchased from this designer in the past and would have again if I hadn't seen what I saw).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? (this would have been a poll if I had known what I was asking here.)

Being non-American, I don't feel that the old South or the Confederate States stood for anything uniquely ugly in particular.

Do the political views of content providers/business owners affect your decisions to buy from them?

Recently I was shopping and accidentally was tp'd to the designer's studio, only to be confronted by a large Confederate flag hung on the wall. Knowing the secret meaning of this flag in the U.S. southern states, I immediately tp'd out of there and am reluctant to return or to buy anything from this designer.

Not just my sense of political correctness kicking in, but the fact that that flag stands for something very ugly for African Americans even today, thirty years after the civil rights movement, I just don't want to support Confederate ideals with my money or by recommending the designer to other residents (despite that I have purchased from this designer in the past and would have again if I hadn't seen what I saw).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? (this would have been a poll if I had known what I was asking here.)

I am white, male, straight and proud of it. I feel all races and all sexes (male, female, intergendered) should be treated equally-and trully equally. This means no white history month, no black history month, no mens history month, no womens history month. No affirmative action - college admission and jobs base don qualifications, and qualificatiosn again.

I am well educated, of middle class, from middle class parents and PROUD of my southern heritage.

I am white, male, straight and proud of it. I feel all races and all sexes (male, female, intergendered) should be treated equally-and trully equally. This means no white history month, no black history month, no mens history month, no womens history month. No affirmative action - college admission and jobs base don qualifications, and qualificatiosn again.

I am well educated, of middle class, from middle class parents and PROUD of my southern heritage.

As you say, you're not American, you're certainly not African-American. I imagine if a bunch of people tried to disintegrate your nation because they weren't in charge you'd feel differently.

There was certainly more to the Confederacy than slavery and racism, but most of the nation's other values were equally despicable, IMO. I find it just as offensive to idolize people who launched a violent reovlution against a democratically-elected government as to idolize people who condoned slavery.

Do the political views of content providers/business owners affect your decisions to buy from them?

Recently I was shopping and accidentally was tp'd to the designer's studio, only to be confronted by a large Confederate flag hung on the wall. Knowing the secret meaning of this flag in the U.S. southern states, I immediately tp'd out of there and am reluctant to return or to buy anything from this designer.

Not just my sense of political correctness kicking in, but the fact that that flag stands for something very ugly for African Americans even today, thirty years after the civil rights movement, I just don't want to support Confederate ideals with my money or by recommending the designer to other residents (despite that I have purchased from this designer in the past and would have again if I hadn't seen what I saw).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? (this would have been a poll if I had known what I was asking here.)

Exactly.. but as it stands you don't really know the reason someone has a display til you ask. If I hang a confederate flag, its not because of racism, its pride in my heritage.

But then, if you can't face up and ask why they display it..then perhaps they don't want the business of those who jump to conclusions or jump to insulting their pride in heritage.

But... every month is white male month. Our entire history has (and I'm talking in the western hemisphere - its not just the US), for the most part, glorified the acts of white males everywhere while forgetting contributions made by people of minority races, women of any race, etc.

Only one quote here, but other replies.

As you say, you're not American, you're certainly not African-American. I imagine if a bunch of people tried to disintegrate your nation because they weren't in charge you'd feel differently.

There was certainly more to the Confederacy than slavery and racism, but most of the nation's other values were equally despicable, IMO. I find it just as offensive to idolize people who launched a violent reovlution against a democratically-elected government as to idolize people who condoned slavery.

But... every month is white male month. Our entire history has (and I'm talking in the western hemisphere - its not just the US), for the most part, glorified the acts of white males everywhere while forgetting contributions made by people of minority races, women of any race, etc.

In case you haven't seen somebody who suffers from fibromyalgia, my fiance does. She has good and bad days, and on the bad ones she can barely manage from the bed to a chair.

There was certainly more to the Confederacy than slavery and racism, but most of the nation's other values were equally despicable, IMO. I find it just as offensive to idolize people who launched a violent reovlution against a democratically-elected government as to idolize people who condoned slavery.