Music Banter - confederate flag debate

ok people so let's try to deal with this one civilly shall we?

you all know the story

here's a quick recap so we're all on the same page

Quote:

Originally Posted by flaggate timeline

white racist kid with bowl cuts shoots up black church ->
pics of him dawning a rebel flag and other indications of his racism surface ->
confederate flag still happens to fly over state house in the state it happened ->
black people/liberals lose their ****, demand flag taken down ->
rednecks/republicans whine, say it's not the flag's fault/flag isn't racist ->
said flag lovers rally behind flag, most of whom aren't genuinely hateful but perhaps just a bit in denial about their 'heritage' ->
protests and facebook campaigns on both sides, further divisiveness ->
inevitably, displaced 'yankee' JWB seeking refuge in the south reports from the scene, making a thread on musicbanter forums to inform the unwashed masses of what needs to be done about this flag ****

so let's get a few things out of the way here

first, i'd like to say there are a lot of emotions and tensions on both sides, and i think people should try to imagine a little bit where both sides are coming from, instead of letting ourselves devolve into mindless tribalism like the media campaigns would have us do.

black people/liberals are not offended for no reason, the flag has a clear connection to slavery, racism and all of that so in their eyes it is a symbol of hate so they are understandably upset when they see people seemingly defending it

at the same time, while some might be genuine racists, and surely there is still plenty of racism in the south, i think by and large a lot of the people who like/defend the flag really do just see it as a cultural symbol of the south. i don't think they're defending it just to be antagonistic to black people... they perceive their own culture as being under attack, a narrative which is reinforced to them by right wing media

i frankly think the flag defenders are misguided in regard to the flag's history... and in regard to the south's history in general. i have had people tell me with a straight face the civil war wasn't really about slavery. it's the common wisdom here. i guess they don't like thinking of their ancestors as the bad guys, so they latch on to an alternative narrative that to them is more appealing.

whether or not that's justifiable, i think the current campaign to demonize the flag and the heritage of the south, while maybe historically sound, is also bound to be divisive and will add the the narrative of southern victimhood in the minds of the flag's defenders, while their defense of the flag will add to the narrative of black victimhood in the minds of everyone else, and the wounds created by this kid's random act of violence and the following media campaigns will just continue to fester, as people on both sides are increasingly alienated from one another

with all of that said, there is perhaps another perspective to take on this issue. a third perspective if you will. a middle ground that seeks compromise and reconciliation as opposed to increased antagonism.

first, let's approach the flag question from a purely aesthetic pov. flags are ultimately just symbols.. designed to invoke feelings of nationalism and camaraderie, and sort of arbitarily assigned through the circumstances of history to one particular cause or another. thus it is a simple matter of historical circumstance that the american flag is this

http://leftwingnation.rocks/wp-conte...can-flag-1.jpg

while the conferate flag is this

https://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.co...&h=349&crop=1g

and so when we look at these two flags, and approach the issue from an aesthetic pov, clearly the confederate flag is the better flag

i mean to me, anyway. you can try to defend the american flag if you like, but i don't see how you could possibly think it looks better

the confederate flag is more symmetrical, better designed, more emotionally evocative.. it has a big X right down the middle like d-generation X, but with stars and ****, bright nationalist colors, sort of like a more american and in-your-face version of the union jack

so we could just try to get rid of it and use tough love to try to convince southerners not to like it either, but i doubt if that will work

i mean these people grew up watching this:

so they're gonna keep liking this flag guys. it just is what it is. all the john stewarts in the world aint gonna change that.

so maybe we should use this whole issue to bring the two sides together under one flag. yes the civil war happened and only one flag can stay. the south/confederacy lost the war. so the country is still called the united states, and not the confederacy. but maybe we just steal their flag, as a sort of spoils of war? and so this can just be called the american flag:

https://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.co...0&h=349&crop=1

not the confederate flag, not the rebel falg, not the flag of the south, but the american flag. and the other flag can go away

i know all the betsy ross fans will be disappointed, but it's like hey betsy, you tried your best. it's ok. that flag worked for a while, but we found a better one. really we don't need to keep it if you think about it. flags can change. and ours is really awkward looking. i doubt whoever came up with the whole 1 star = 1 state idea didn't think we'd be getting 50 states. now we don't even want to let peurto rico or any of the other territories possibly become a state cause we're just tired of updating the flag

i say **** that ****. take the better flag. why should we settle? why should we let a bunch of dead slave owners dictate which flag belongs to who?

so that's my stance on the whole flag issue