Why would anyone want to fly a confederate flag?

I think it should be legal but why would anyone want to fly it? Anyone who isn't a racist that is. Flags are symbols so what does this flag symbolise? Well, it was first raised in the civil war. What was that war about? Slavery, obviously, and it of course had racist motivations. To prove that point, here is a quote from confederate vice president Alexander Stephens from his cornerstone speech:

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas (all men are created equal); its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth... ...Those at the north, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics... ...They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man... ...They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal.

With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place."

In the 20th century the flag was used by those who supported racial segregation...

Point is, was there ever any time it was flown for non-racist reasons? Is it a symbol of souther identity perhaps? But what exactly is this southern identity anyways? What is it that makes southerners different from northerners? Historically speaking, the main divide was over.. black people. The line between south and north is the same line as between historical slave and free states. I understand that southerners have their own identity, and there's more to their identity that their history with racism.. But why then would anyone choose to fly a flag which is undeniably tied to the racist part of southern identity? If southerners want to be proud of their identity, they should pick a symbol which doesn't represent the darkest part of their history. it would be like a german flying a nazi flag. There are more things to being german than their history of nazism, and more to being a southerner than their history with racism.. But the confederate flag, just like the nazi flag, represent the darkest parts of their history.

I don't see any reason why anyone, who isn't a racist, why fly it. If I was a southerner I wouldn't want to fly a flag which symbolise the worst part of my heritage. Look at the quote again.. We are speaking of the flag of a country which was explicitly racist. Yes, the flag IS racist.

 

I guess these blacks are racist huh?

 

I don't fly a confederate flag, but lost ancestors, who did not own slaves or benefit from the slave trade, who fought bravely and gave their lives for the notion of local as opposed to central government against what they viewed as an illegitimate sovereign in Washington. If people still feel strongly enough about that, and want to express their right of free speech, one of the few strong rights left, by flying it, that's fine with me.

It also POs lots of Yankees and SJW pantywaists, and that's reason enough to fly it also in a culture that inundates the airwaves and print with anti-Southern lie narratives and propaganda.

 

lol. yeah, that's just hilarious

doesn't change the point though. It just shows these black people don't know what they're doing. like nazi jews.

 

Yes they have a right to fly it.. But should they, considering it is a racist flag? I'm sure some germans today have ancestors who fought in ww2, and that ancestor wasn't a nazi but just a patriotic citizen who thought his country fought for good things. Should that german fly a nazi flag? I don't think so, because the flag represents the country, and the countries -both nazi germany and CSA- were based on principles which are reprehensible.

 

No, it shows the flag represents different things to different people and calling them ignorant is insulting.

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The confederate flag was a battle flag, it were the liberals who sybolized it with racism.

 

well gee, they are flying the flag of a country which was based on the idea that they are the inferior race and should be slaves. yeah, they are ignorant as (*)(*)(*)(*).

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the battle flag of a country founded on racism who fought a civil war to defend slavery. It doesn't make any difference.

 

Millions of people were murdered purposefully under the Nazi flag, there is no equivalence. You are buying into a lopsided narrative of the causes of the CW, you think people who did not own slaves and did not benefit from the slave trade would fight and die over "racism" and slavery alone? Why on earth would people do that? Also, see the edited part of my post.

 

The flag represents the independence of the south and the war was not about slavery.

 

I'm not saying the CSA was as bad as nazi germany. I compared them in kind, not in degree.

about the narrative on the CW.. It was about slavery primarily. See the quote by the vp.

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yes it was and the south only sought independence to protect slavery. Go argue with alexander stephens about it.

 

There are all kind and manner of cherrypicked quotes. I can google up a whole bunch of them that deemphasize slavery as a cause of the CW, but am not going to do that. The CW is a complex event in US history, attributing it to slavery alone is simplistic and naïve.

You asked why people fly it. I told you, and you have just repeated the equivalent of "it's racist" without acknowledging the actual reasons I posted.

 

I have one hanging on my wall in the living room. It is a very old one. My grandfather took it to France with him during WWI, my dad had it in the Pacific in WWII. I took it to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam during the Vietnam War and to Germany when I was stationed in Fulda guarding the East German Border. My great grandfather gave that rebel flag to my grandfather. Exactly where it came from I don't know. Lots of history there.

There was a time instead of referring to it as a confederate flag, it was referred to as a rebel flag. Lots of people used it as a protest symbol for some action of the government they didn't like. Way back in the "Do not trust anyone over thirty," crowd. they flew it all over or wore it. Rebel, rebellion, against those in power. Only when political correctness began has that symbol been more equated to racism more than, shall I say as an anti-government power symbol.

Oh by the way, yes I am from Georgia, if you think me having a rebel flag on my wall is racist, so be it. Nothing I can do about it. But that particular flag saw its share of battle protecting this country. Also there are more southerners serving in the U.S. military than from any other region of this country. Perhaps that says something about us rebels.

But is it right for someone to try to change the meaning of the rebel flag from one of protest to one of racism and force their interpretation on the rest of us? Especially in the era of political correctness which is used to stymie speech.

 

We could say the same for the Blacks that vote Democrat. It's like a brainwashed Stockholm, syndrome. They embrace their captors and those that beat and exploit them. ,

 

No, it was about expansion of slavery into new states forming and how that would give the north a lock on representatives in congress where they could dictate anything to the south from economic issues to taxes. These were two complete different cultures back then far deeper then the slavery issue and the south was already struggling with representation. Hell, even Lincoln didn't care about slavery.

 

saying a quote is cherrypicked doesn't make it cherrypicket. This is the vp, and he clearly says the CSA was founded on slavery. Can it get any clearer than that?

it is racist, therefore people should not fly it. It seems though, like a lot of people fly it because they believe the CW wasn't about slavery, so that the flag represents something other than racism. This is however false, but it does redeem those who fly it. wishful thinkers, but still wrong.

 

Yeah, people often assume that slavery was the only difference between the north and the south, but the reality is that the south had very different ideas about quite a few things.

That it upsets liberals is reason enough to fly it.

 

Maybe I like the dukes of hazard.

 

I don't know about "clearer," but it certainly can't get any more ignorant and simplistic.

 

The flag was not really an issue until the mid to late 80's when the liberals emphasized it to scare blacks into voting democrat. Hell, it was on the Dukes of hazard general less roof and nobody cared.

 

I think the change is in the other direction. The flag was first flown by the CSA, and they fought for slavery. The first meaning of the flag is racism. Perhaps later it has become a flag for protest. it seems the flag have great value to you as a family heirloom, so I think you have it on your wall for other reasons than a reverance for the CSA. It's good that you have another meaning for the flag.. but that doesn't change that it was the flag of a racist country.

they cared about the status of slavery in new states because they wanted to keep a balance between slave and free states, so they could maintain their "peculiar institution".

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slavery was the biggest difference.. and the cause for the CW.

 

Yet they freely joined the illegitimate sovereign in Washington.

 

So people can know to avoid them?



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Wrong as usual, they went to Philadelphia thinking they were going to renegotiate a confederation, and had a federal constitution slipped in on them instead. They did agree in the end, but with concessions, which were broken again and again. Go actually read and learn some US history.

 

Peer pressure, church pressure, the draft. Richmond did institute a draft whereby every able-bodied man had to serve unless he owned 10 or more (I believe it was) slaves. Seems to be the very type of centralized government thang Southern men went to war against in the first place. Btw, the 10 or more slave thing drove the price of slaves through the auction house roof. If I owned only 8 slaves and had to sell them off to some rich guy and go fight the damn Yankees for a couple years, I believe I would have been one angry fella by 1865.

 

Irrelevant.

People also feel that the flag represents their resistance to authoritarian control. You have to realize that many in south view Lincoln as a dictator and resent Reconstruction. Most of those who fly it have plenty of other reasons not related to slavery that motivate them to defend the flag. My uncle, for instance, has resisted some of my claims about racial differences in intelligence, yet he owns the flag and is definitely a sympathizer of the confederacy. When I talk to him, the primary thing he talks about is Lincoln--he hates him.

It's also a great way to (*)(*)(*)(*) liberals off. I don't own one and don't really care about it, but I know many who do, including one family member, and I don't mind that they do at all.