politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
"The Confederate flag was simply the primary symbol of the Confederacy, a movement primarily driven by the desire to maintain the brutal institutional slavery in the USA. That doesn't mean the flag itself was racist. The flag itself is no more racist than KKK hoods, Jim Crow laws, or Redlining in regard to financing for black prospective homeowners." - Haley probably
Yeah, but until relatively recently, white folk didn't think that way. At all. For young people back in the day, it was, "Yee haw! I'm a rebel!" For most, it was merely a symbol of the South, not of the Confederacy or slavery or any other such bullshit. We thought nothing of it, if we thought about it at all.
Somewhere along the line it evolved into a racist dog whistle. And that's fucking sad. I flew one back in college, now I won't do business with a place selling Confederate paraphernalia.
The whole controversy kinda caught us off guard. I never once heard anyone complain about the Confederate flag, call it racist. In the 80's or 90's, I can imagine asking my few black friends and coworkers what they thought of it, and I imagine they would simply say, "Man, no one gives a shit about that hillbilly crap!"
Later, people pitched a fit, on both sides. And these were sides that seemingly hadn't existed the month before!
Some, like me, took a moment to reflect on how it might make black folks feel, thought about how the symbol had changed over the decades. Well, times and symbols change. Judging the past through a younger, more modern lens, might mislead a bit. See how that goes both ways?
Same goes for the American flag. Dad was a Torpedoman, 3rd Class, in the Pacific Theater. Jesus, the shit that ship was involved in... Anyway, we only brought the flag out on appropriate holidays, and while he didn't sit me down and teach me the US Flag Code, he got the points across. Now it's basically a symbol of right-wing nuts. Think on that. I won't fly an American flag on the 4th of July. Imagine explaining that to my father.
tl;dr: Sharing my experiences in the hope of sharing understanding. LOL, like that'll happen.
Lol I see someone downvoted you for giving your honest pov
After the civil war ended it's important that the North chose to rehabilitate the South as opposed to, well, killing them all. Part of this was forgiving them for seceding and fighting. And their flag was put in the bracket of folklore rather than that of the nazi symbols etc. Which explains people from the South continuing to use it as you describe : "proud to be a hillbilly!"
Over the last couple decades, however, the stench of its origin has gotten harder, with a positive feedback loop because those clinging to it only do so not because of some rebelious folklore but because they honestly believe the Confederacy was right in their white supremacy bs
And as you very poignantly add, the same is starting to happen with the stars and stripes as people are starting to realise 'patriotism' is mostly a cover for nationalism
But they gave their honest pov as a representation of white people in general.
Edit: Also, to be clear, what we currently call the "confederate flag" wasn't associated with the entire rebellion. It was the battle flag of a specific army, the Army of Northern Virginia. It was mostly moved to irrelevance by everyone other than confederate apologists until the civil rights era when old-school racists started to put a bunch of confederate statues up everywhere and promoting the flag as a symbol in an attempt to frighten Black people fighting for their rights.
link