I don't get this whole Confederate flag thing. Banning it isn't going to make racist people any less racist or prevent another mass shooting like Charleston. There's bigger fish to fry in terms of curb gun violence, and it has nothing to do with a flag.
It's not about banning it. It's about state governments flying a symbol that represents an ugly history.
It has no place being flown by any government institution.
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It may be to the news that a bunch of Canadian retailers, as well as EBay, have announced they are pulling confederate merchandise off the shelves.
It is a bit of a reactionary response and I'm not sure if it will do anything, but perhaps something is better than nothing.
It's still not banning. It's retailers joining the chorus that won't sell anything with a "racist" symbol. No one is infringing on anyone else's right to display it, just government organizations. As for individual businesses, they're just exercising their own free speech. I'm not sure it's any more reactionary than normal business practices with any non essential merchandise that might be deemed controversial.
It's a separate issue from violence prevention and more about acknowledgement of the negative connotation of an historical symbol.
The question may be due to the news that a bunch of Canadian retailers, as well as EBay, have announced they are pulling confederate merchandise off the shelves.
It is a bit of a reactionary response and I'm not sure if it will do anything, but perhaps something is better than nothing.
Selling confederate flags is a ####ty way to make money. It's like selling swastikas. Both are state-sponsored symbols of oppression towards an ethnic group.
#Godwin
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Selling confederate flags is a ####ty way to make money. It's like selling swastikas. Both are state-sponsored symbols of oppression towards an ethnic group.
#Godwin
Technically the Confederate flag has nothing to do with the United states of America. The flag is not only racist but the "True Americans" that support it forget that it's a symbol of fighting againts the United States of America. Which is also another reason for the USA to not fly it.
Last edited by combustiblefuel; 06-23-2015 at 12:31 PM.
I agree with all of that and I support stores refusing to sell them. And no political assembly that is supposed to represent the people should be publically displaying a symbol that represents the oppression of those people.
It isn't like they were getting their funding from selling the stars and bars. I'm just not sure how much affect that is going to have on racist culture.
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I remember wearing the confederate flag muscle shirt 30 years ago before I knew what the flag was really a symbol for. Still mind boggling that any state's government would allow this to fly anywhere on any of their buildings.
I remember wearing the confederate flag muscle shirt 30 years ago before I knew what the flag was really a symbol for. Still mind boggling that any state's government would allow this to fly anywhere on any of their buildings.
Yeah. When I was a kid, I had a friend travel to the south and he brought me back a confederate flag. I hung it in my room before I figured it out. I still feel embarrassed about it. I just thought it was a Dukes of Hazzard thing.
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Not only are gun sales going to spike after this...confederate flag sales have also spiked...
Quote:
Leading retailers including Walmart (WMT), Amazon (AMZN), Sears (SHLD) and eBay (EBAY) have now said they'll stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. But that follows a spike in sales that caught retailers off gaurd. On Monday, before Haley announced her change in position on the flag (which still must be approved by the state assembly), Amazon showed just two Confederate flags among the 60 bestselling items under “Outdoor Flags and Banners”: one at the No. 5 spot, and one at No. 43. The following morning, five of the top 20 bestsellers in the category were Confederate flags, including the No. 1 bestseller, a 3-by-5 foot polyester model made by Rhode Island Novelty and sold by a company called Anley. Among the top 60, 12 were versions of the Confederate flag.
Alotta’s flag, a 3-by-5 nylon embroidered model that sells for $13.95 plus $6.25 shipping (and is not eligible for Amazon’s free-shipping service, Prime) was the No. 7 bestseller as of midday Tuesday. So the sales spike for higher-ranking flags has probably been even greater than for Alotta’s product.
Sellers on eBay (EBAY) experienced a similar surge in interest. At about 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, a confederate flag listed by a seller named superqualityflags showed 149 sold in the last 24 hours. By 11 a.m., 201 had been sold in the last 24 hours.
When Newtown happened, lots of folks I deal with said they went to the stores to stock up on ammo, but lo, many places were sold out. People were preparing to fight the government because they thought the massacre of 20 kindergarteners would be the straw that broke the NRA's back and thus their God given right to bear arms would be in jeopardy.
Of course nothing of that sort happened, and now folks are more armed than ever.
I remember wearing the confederate flag muscle shirt 30 years ago before I knew what the flag was really a symbol for. Still mind boggling that any state's government would allow this to fly anywhere on any of their buildings.
Somewhere I have a photo of Barbara McDougall when she was the Minister of External Affairs (IIRC) sitting in front of the flag with former soldiers from 2 Commando.
He had a pretty nice meltdown on his Twitter. Good read, the responses are gold. People realize the confederacy were a bunch of treasonous traitors right?
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Yeah. When I was a kid, I had a friend travel to the south and he brought me back a confederate flag. I hung it in my room before I figured it out. I still feel embarrassed about it. I just thought it was a Dukes of Hazzard thing.
I think I was reading DC GI Combat Haunted Tank comic books at the time as well.
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I oft think to myself how ironic it is to hear all this anti-Russian rhetoric in mainstream media, yet America certainly is one of the most backward countries around. Poverty, crime, corruption, gun culture, religious zealots, the imperial system...
It does seem peculiar that two of the greatest powers in the world are home to so many fearful, paranoid, violent people. The USA, despite its prosperity and its isolation from real conventional military threats, is a society seething in a cauldron of fear. I don't know where it comes from. Is is something to do with religion? Can a civil war 150 years ago have left such lasting wounds? Is it really all about race, and the visceral fear of the rampaging black man attacking white women? It's a baffling and terrifying culture.
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There was a kid that I went to school with from grade 2 and up. His family had a confederate flag on a big pole in their yard (this is Springbank BTW). I recall as we got older, he started to get a lot of heat for it as people started to understand what it was. It was his parents though, although they never came across as racist to me. But then again, not a lot of non-white people out there.
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You're totally misunderstanding. No one is banning it, just don't have the government fly a racist flag seems like a reasonable request.
It's not meant to prevent a shooting, so I'm not sure why you think that's relevant.
I'm talking about all the stores that are pulling it from shelves. Not the government flying it. Is it for good PR or is it supposed to accomplish something? Make black people feel better? Cause I don't. Make sure people don't identify your store as supporting racism? Rash action in response in response to one racist kid losing his marbles does nothing.
So tell me what I don't understand about pulling the flag after a racist mass murder.
I'm talking about all the stores that are pulling it from shelves. Not the government flying it.
The stores are pulling it because in the aftermath of a white supremacist slaughtering a bunch of black people in a church, previously silent portions of the American public are starting to stand up and say that proudly displaying a racist symbol is not a good thing. The retailers are simply being reactionary and trying to stay clear of being 'that company' that supports racism.
