Ive got a Confederate flag hanging in my bedroom, my brother has one in his, and we have one in our shop. In high school I had one hanging in the back window of my truck as well as most of my friends, my cousin had one painted on his tailgate. I shit you not, my best friend has a 30' flag pole on his front lawn with a Confederare flag hanging off that, when something tragic happens, it goes to half mast. It's not a racial thing, it's a don't tread on me thing. You citidiots wouldn't get it.
And as if on cue, there you are. I'm not saying you're racist for hanging a confederate flag; it doesn't mean the same thing in Canada as it does in the South. I am saying, however, that you're ignorant. And I just realized; go read a god damned book (without pictures) and find out where the phrase "don't tread on me" came from. It wasn't the American Civil War.
I thought Southerners who flew the Confederate Flag were the most redneck, inbred retards in existence, but there are Canadians who do it? Southerners, I apologize.
Actually buddy, history is my thing. I'm willing to bet my left nut I know more about the civil war, and just about every other war then you (I got atleast 98's in every uni level highschool history class I took, I was transfered from grade 10 canadian history to grade 12 canadian history because I carried a 102% average in the first semester). So how exactly am I ignorant? I love how you try to shit talk me every time I have a different opinion then you. You're chirping about a bar having 6 different flags on the wall for fuck sakes. We get it, you're educated. Shut the fuck up.
It's not a racial thing...except for the fact that you are explicitly showing support for a government which was created with the specific intent of continuing the enslavement of people of a different race. "Don't tread on me....because I want to own me some slaves." And you don't have to be in an urban area to understand that. I'm as rural as rural gets and yet somehow I have come to comprehend these basic facts.
Well sir, if history is your thing and you are a guru of the American Civil War, then you would know that "don't tread on me" came from the American Revolution and was placed on the Gadsden flag along with a rattlesnake. This flag was flown by Naval ships at the time and also used by the Continental Marines. It is considered to be one of the first American flags. You claim flying the confederate flag is a "don't tread on me thing" implying freedom and liberty. However, flying that flag only has that meaning for people with a certain skin tone. For darker folks it's the ultimate sign of oppression. The anti-freedom and liberty if you will being that they were relied upon for labor and were substantial players in the southern economy without being paid. But of course, I don't need to tell you about the economic and sociopolitical situation of the southern states during the mid nineteenth century since you did so well on your high school history tests now do I? I believe Ghetto will now be having your left nut.
I have this draped over my couch, and people never seem to get it when I try to explain that I just fucking hate waiting for trains. Jordan_Paul, don't let other people tell you what things symbolize.
Yes, thanks for the history lesson. I was explaining how the Confederate flag to our generation, or circle of friends or whatever represents freedom in a don't fuck with us kind of way, the same way the Gadsden flag represents the same things to other people. That flag is just a universal symbol, and using it is easier then making a new fucking symbol and putting it on a flag. And truely, no ship carrying slaves ever sailed from a Confederate port or under a Confederate flag. Actually, just about every American slave ship was from either New York or one of the New England states and they all sailed under the United States Flag. Also during the civil war, there were slaves in every state in America including a shit load northern states, under the American flag at that time. Ulysses S. Grant himself had slaves. Don't forget eaither, thousands of black people fought for the Confederates during the civil was. It was cock suckers like the Ku Klux Klan that adopted the flag as thier own, giving the Confederate flag a false sense of being a racist image.
I am not watching it until 10 pm tonight. I cannot wait, but I won't go in the thread until then. I had better see some Wild Bunch shit happening on my medicore flatscreen. I am also away from the kid and blissfully lit. Gonna be a good nigh', sonnnnnnn. Anything to take away the pain of this fish mouth cut on the palm of my hand. Mother FUCK this thing is painful and irritating.
tl;dr American history Spoiler Yes, this bit about boats is true....because the importation of slaves was made illegal in 1808. So yes, none of the boats 52 years before the formation of the Confederate States of America flew a Confederate flag. Astute observation. No. Wrong. Slavery was illegal in every state north of the Mason Dixon line as of 1804, preceding the CSA by 56 years. Maryland, the District of Columbia, and several of the border states had slaves. This is true. It is also true that he freed all of his slaves prior to the way, but that doesn't erase the fact that he had them. That's the funny thing about slaves. They have to do what you tell them. There's been this pernicious lie in modern historical interpretation that the US Civil War was "not really about slavery" but was instead about state rights and economic differences. Frankly, history teachers have too often not put a stop to this nonsense, or have actively preached it. Yes, it was about state rights. But WHAT state rights were they so interested in protecting? The right to slavery. Yes, there was disparate economic wellbeing between the two and this led to Southern resentment. But the reason the South was willing to take up arms for their economy here was that their economy was dependent upon slavery, and this was being taken away from them. There's a reason that the South immediately reacted to the election of Abraham Lincoln. Luckily, we don't have to guess. They explicitly said why they were bailing [/quote] I'm somewhat sympathetic to what you're trying to do here. This is part of how culture works: the constant redefinition of existing symbols and deploying of them in new contexts. This is, for example, how an Indian symbol of well-being comes to mean "let's round up all the Jews." And yes, sometimes it can work in the opposite direction too. The issues is that some symbols are beyond reclaiming in any reasonable time horizon. Their original meaning is so deeply ingrained in any member of modern society that to try to assign them new, independent meanings is going to be impossible. Yes, the Confederate flag IS a universal symbol. The problem is that it is a universal symbol of slavery-endorsement, and no amount of redefinition can wash away this legacy. From day one of the CSA, that flag has stood for the institution of slavery and the willingness to defend it (and if that isn't racist, I don't know what it). So to any audience beyond you and your friends, it does and always will mean something racist and that's unavoidable. To pretend otherwise is naive and ignorant.
If the Conferderate Flag symbolizes southern pride then the swastika symbolizes German patriotism, right? Let's do a deduction: Southern pride is based on the Confederacy... which wanted to be a separate nation... because of the economic impact of outlawing slavery. What exactly is there to be prideful about? The fact that the US almost split in two?
It's not about slavery! It's about a way of life! How wish I was in land of cotton, where human pets were picking it for me. I hope that when most adults look at that flag, the first thing that comes to mind is not "defiance". To the southeners, it means all kinds of different things and I cannot relate. However, to most of the world it represents that army that killed people to keep slaves. That is its torch. Okay, enough. Puppies and otters, everybody.