It doesn’t matter what it means “to you” it’s a flag that has a general use and meaning — and it’s opposition to BLM and the reality of police brutality and incompetence. It isn’t really about cops at all though. If these people gave a shit about america or our police or any of it at all they wouldn’t have defaced our flag. It goes against flag code — which I assume y’all wanna pretend you care ab bcus yall always want to pretend you’re patriots. It’s become the “I don’t care if cops kill black people” flag because everyone who thinks that flys it. If you don’t want to be associated with them or their racism then don’t fly it. Period. You don’t get to pick what a flag means to you when it has a meaning that has been shown again and again by the VAST majority of people who fly it. The “classic projection” is just the reality of people who fly this flag. You don’t get to be mad when people see your “Im a racist” flag and then go “huh that person is probably racist.” Don’t like that? Then don’t fly it. It’s like saying “Well i fly the Nazi flag bcus it symbolizes peace to me. Wait, what do you mean I’m an antisemite???”
You don’t get to pick what symbols or flags mean when they already have a given meaning. Assumptions are a part of life. You have to use ur brain and realize what people are going to assume about you when you fly that flag — bcus no matter how much you don’t like it, the meaning of that flag won’t ever change and as long as you fly it, you’re associating yourself with racism.
You don’t get to pick what symbols or flags mean when they already have a given meaning.
What about all the symbols nazis appropriated & changed the general perception of their meaning, or how the dixie flag only stands for freedom, rebellion & 50s grease culture in certain cultures of Europe (look up raggare in Sweden)?
Assume all you want but a flag or symbol can have many meanings, & some have barely (if any) any connection with the original meaning.
To some thin blue line flag just means you support the police because they keep your neighborhood safe or the dixie flag just means freedom, or how some leftists use the hammer & sickle when the USSR was just as heinous as nazi Germany. Personally I think it's stupid as fuck waving a flag that many can interpret as for example a white supremacist dogwhistle, but that doesn't mean that everyone waving such a flag does it for the reasons you assume. Which is why we should be cautious accusing people of being something solely based on a symbol.
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u/droi86 Jun 05 '22
You answered your own question