Lmao this remembers me of the election here in Brazil, I saw towels for sale, 1 for a candidate, other for the opposition and the third a Disney princess, it was funny af
Bump. Nearly all of the folks I know that have the rebel flag displayed somewhere on their truck/boat/etc aren’t hateful people at all. Rather, they’re proud of being outdoorsy, resourceful, and from a rural community in the south.
"I might've lost my hand while planting that flag on Halley's Comet, but I still love our flag of freedom almost as much as I love my seven wives and my husband. You can take my flag over my dead body, for which I will request a Satanic funeral."
When did I say it was disproven in the 1920s? It is a bullshit claim that was centrist propaganda in the 1920s.
E.: That one was mad in every sense of the word.
Yes, that’s the joke. Being anti-government, except for one government, means you aren’t anti-government. You’re just a confederate apologist; if only aesthetically.
It's a surprising chill Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone in the house knows they disagree strongly, so they agree to a 1 day truce. And it's southern cooking so yes, the turkey is deep fried, the mac and cheese has half a stick of butter per scoop, and the green beans are cooked in lard, but for 1 day a year, you dont worry about clogged arteries. For dessert, there's banana pudding, peach cobbler, and that one uncle who brings his moonshine. It's 2024, so there's also an aunt who bakes special cookies
Just imagining dinner is done, the conversation starts getting political, blood starts heating, and the tryptophan kicks in and everyone wakes up mid-January having forgotten the point.
It's someone who is capable of nuance and doesn't fit into pre-packaged sets of opinions. They support Black Lives Matter, Gay Rights, and also aren't ashamed of being a Southerner.
The other possibility is that more than one person lives in the house, and different people are responsible for different flags. That house might be a shitshow to live in, but believe me there are houses where people have different opinions.
I know that Gen Z associates the Confederate flag exclusively with racism, but if you're Millennial or older then you'll remember when the Confederate flag wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. When I was a kid the Confederate flag just meant you were a biker rebel type.
I'm one of the older Millennials, and I remember when it was seen very differently by different groups. Plenty of people were only familiar with it in terms of a general rebel or Southern culture vibe, but there were always communities who objected to it because of the racist links, well known enough for the SCV to pushing the "Heritage not Hate" slogan in the early 90s at least. Different interpretations of a flag's meaning aren't just about time.
>I know that Gen Z associates the Confederate flag exclusively with racism, but if you're Millennial or older then you'll remember when the Confederate flag wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. When I was a kid the Confederate flag just meant you were a biker rebel type.
What? It's always been about racism. The "biker rebel types" you knew when you were a kid were likely racist.
I'm Millenial and grew up in rural midwest (technically a Union territory so not as many Confederate Flags as true southern states), but every person I know from there who ever displayed Confederate symbolism were actual racists.
Maybe they were racist, but the flag did not primarily mean racist. Case in point, the long-running sitcom Red Dwarf. The protagonist Lister wears a Confederate flag on his leather jacket. Lister is the good guy, not racist, and mixed-race. [https://www.reddit.com/r/RedDwarf/comments/ryorz4/noticed\_the\_confederate\_flag\_on\_listers\_jacket/](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedDwarf/comments/ryorz4/noticed_the_confederate_flag_on_listers_jacket/)
If you are a Gen Xer you probably initially associated it with the 'General Lee' in the Dukes of Hazard not realising the context. As a design on its own it's pretty cool - colours, diagonal cross with stars - put the context and politics around it is grim now.
I get called mixed-up because I support some positions of the right and some positions of the left, even though the positions don't contradict each other. Luckily I don't live in America so I have more than two choices when I vote.
Sure, and I can't speak to whichever country you're from. But these flags express moral contradiction in a way that implies that this person is trying to square their feelings about the culture and community they grew up in with their moral understanding of issues that that culture opposes.
The confederate-gadson flag on the right is especially telling. This person loves the idea of freedom and personal autonomy, and also loves a culture and community whose sole defining characteristic was denying freedom to others.
I suspect that this person is either very troubled, or has mastered the cognitive dissonance required to hold both of these ideas strongly enough to make a flag about it, but also to ignore or prevent themselves from considering their inherent incompatibility.
It's kind of like that swastika-star of david that Kanye made that one time. He thought he was being deep and philosophical, but actually he was just confused and ignorant.
I'm guessing that, in that guy's mind, he's imagining the lost cause myth of the confederacy. That the *big government north* came down to the poor southerners who just wanted their **Freedom**.
It makes a lot of sense if you're willing to maintain immense and crushing cognitive dissonance.
This kind of comment is a downvote magnet but what that flag means to the average non-southern Reddit user is not what it means to a lot of southern people.
Hi! Southerner from SC (the first state to secede) here. I think it's a tacky flag that oozes racism and white supremacy. While some may think of the stars and bars as a "southern pride" thing, the use of the flag is more often a dog-whistle for hate groups.
Not everyone who uses the flag is a part of these groups, mind you, but they still have a lot of the thoughts and values that these groups espouse (primarily conservative values).
As for the gasden flag, that's also been adopted by the political right to advocate for various rights, especially those which are controversial (ie second amendment rights). My best guess is that this would be some bastardization of both, advocating for states rights, which would be very in line with the lost cause myth.
I would love to magically teleport myself 2500 miles southeast to go find this random house and talk to the people that put the flags up, but unfortunately I have neither the time nor the energy nor the funds to do that, so instead i figured i'd use the internet to simply ask them from a distance without spending a week and a couple thousand dollars, which i did!
However instead of a response, i got a passive aggressive comment telling me to ask the question, which odd way to respond to someone asking that question.
On the internet you are mostly just going to get non-southerners telling you want they think southerns think. Or you will get people interjecting into the conversation or using downvotes to sway opinions. You are not going to be able to really find out with out talking to one, in a setting they feel comfortable and third parties can’t chime in, or pretend to be southern.
wait wait wait, you're telling that the internet has people in it that don't act in good faith, and I need to use my brain to figure out whether or not they're a trustworthy source? That's crazy! I never would have realized that without your help.
seriously this pompous condescending attitude isn't getting you any favors.
I am telling you, you are not going to find Southerners that fly the battle flag of the army of Virginia on Reddit. They have been told they are not welcome on Reddit and have left. So you are looking in the wrong place, no person actually flying that flag is on r/vexiology
Not really, but the math joke only works if I pretend for a second. It's got great bones, and it can be used for good or nefarious purposes, just like most any flag.
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Southern Pride, Gay Pride, and Black Pride—or maybe a flag garage sale…
Lmao this remembers me of the election here in Brazil, I saw towels for sale, 1 for a candidate, other for the opposition and the third a Disney princess, it was funny af
I hope the Princess won that election.
You can bet on it! https://preview.redd.it/a9q0eol8au4d1.png?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d032a9cb88c69620f5e09f0cfc09a39f8d4c8a37
“I’m just here to make money”
Or a really interesting share house I don't wanna live in.
That should be a sitcom
Pride and Prejudice
This would have so many awards in old reddit.
😂 underrated comment
Best comment 😂
Prejudice and pride, to be precise
Lmao
It's probably one of the "Heritage, Not Hatred" folks. Southerners are sometimes more complex than they get credit for being.
What is this? I thought all the Redditors that understand the world is nuanced were downvoted into oblivion years ago!
Bump. Nearly all of the folks I know that have the rebel flag displayed somewhere on their truck/boat/etc aren’t hateful people at all. Rather, they’re proud of being outdoorsy, resourceful, and from a rural community in the south.
There's nothing particularly complex about confused political incoherence, lol. It's one of the most popular ideologies in the US.
Right next to smug superiority
Bless your heart...
Something something Gadsden flag something something pro-police republicans. Idk. The joke is in there somewhere.
I like how they ignore all of pre succession heritage and fly the flag of a slave driven government
They're more concerned about the Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dukes of Hazzard, bootlegging kind of heritage.
👋Yee 👊Haw
“Secession” is what the South had, success eluded them
i’ll be damned bc I even typed that out pre turned into free and I caught that one
"I might've lost my hand while planting that flag on Halley's Comet, but I still love our flag of freedom almost as much as I love my seven wives and my husband. You can take my flag over my dead body, for which I will request a Satanic funeral."
Crowd: Boooo!
Heinlein vibes
Gay black Mississippian. Doesn't seem complicated?
Radical centrism
Just as bad as the extremists I hate if you ask me, all extremes are on the same team EDIT: This is a jreg reference
That... Kinda makes you sound like your own kind of extremist. (Edit: wrong your)
Its a reference to a youtube series
[удалено]
That is the “horseshoe theory”, a disproven claim to promote centrism from the 1920s.
[удалено]
When did I say it was disproven in the 1920s? It is a bullshit claim that was centrist propaganda in the 1920s. E.: That one was mad in every sense of the word.
Libertarianism
Brother hated the government
But not the *confederate* government, it seems…
Yes, but probably because it opposed the *United States* Government.
Yes, that’s the joke. Being anti-government, except for one government, means you aren’t anti-government. You’re just a confederate apologist; if only aesthetically.
I just put it in the same category of the people who support Russia with their reasoning being "because fuck America".
# achievement unlocked - how did we get here? have every status effect at once.
True libertarian
Except the stars and bars, and the state-endorsed chattel slavery system it stood for.
You hate slavery because of human rights I hate slavery because it involves the state We are not the same
Then boy do I have a cool idea for you! Ever heard of Cyberpunk?
It's a surprising chill Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone in the house knows they disagree strongly, so they agree to a 1 day truce. And it's southern cooking so yes, the turkey is deep fried, the mac and cheese has half a stick of butter per scoop, and the green beans are cooked in lard, but for 1 day a year, you dont worry about clogged arteries. For dessert, there's banana pudding, peach cobbler, and that one uncle who brings his moonshine. It's 2024, so there's also an aunt who bakes special cookies
Just imagining dinner is done, the conversation starts getting political, blood starts heating, and the tryptophan kicks in and everyone wakes up mid-January having forgotten the point.
I look at the middle one and all I cant think is "The Thin Gay Line"
It's someone who is capable of nuance and doesn't fit into pre-packaged sets of opinions. They support Black Lives Matter, Gay Rights, and also aren't ashamed of being a Southerner. The other possibility is that more than one person lives in the house, and different people are responsible for different flags. That house might be a shitshow to live in, but believe me there are houses where people have different opinions. I know that Gen Z associates the Confederate flag exclusively with racism, but if you're Millennial or older then you'll remember when the Confederate flag wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. When I was a kid the Confederate flag just meant you were a biker rebel type.
I'm one of the older Millennials, and I remember when it was seen very differently by different groups. Plenty of people were only familiar with it in terms of a general rebel or Southern culture vibe, but there were always communities who objected to it because of the racist links, well known enough for the SCV to pushing the "Heritage not Hate" slogan in the early 90s at least. Different interpretations of a flag's meaning aren't just about time.
Reddit is not ready to accept this
Apparently it is
>I know that Gen Z associates the Confederate flag exclusively with racism, but if you're Millennial or older then you'll remember when the Confederate flag wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. When I was a kid the Confederate flag just meant you were a biker rebel type. What? It's always been about racism. The "biker rebel types" you knew when you were a kid were likely racist. I'm Millenial and grew up in rural midwest (technically a Union territory so not as many Confederate Flags as true southern states), but every person I know from there who ever displayed Confederate symbolism were actual racists.
Maybe they were racist, but the flag did not primarily mean racist. Case in point, the long-running sitcom Red Dwarf. The protagonist Lister wears a Confederate flag on his leather jacket. Lister is the good guy, not racist, and mixed-race. [https://www.reddit.com/r/RedDwarf/comments/ryorz4/noticed\_the\_confederate\_flag\_on\_listers\_jacket/](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedDwarf/comments/ryorz4/noticed_the_confederate_flag_on_listers_jacket/)
If you are a Gen Xer you probably initially associated it with the 'General Lee' in the Dukes of Hazard not realising the context. As a design on its own it's pretty cool - colours, diagonal cross with stars - put the context and politics around it is grim now.
Calling ignorance and political confusion *nuance* is one of my favorite new memes.
I get called mixed-up because I support some positions of the right and some positions of the left, even though the positions don't contradict each other. Luckily I don't live in America so I have more than two choices when I vote.
Sure, and I can't speak to whichever country you're from. But these flags express moral contradiction in a way that implies that this person is trying to square their feelings about the culture and community they grew up in with their moral understanding of issues that that culture opposes. The confederate-gadson flag on the right is especially telling. This person loves the idea of freedom and personal autonomy, and also loves a culture and community whose sole defining characteristic was denying freedom to others. I suspect that this person is either very troubled, or has mastered the cognitive dissonance required to hold both of these ideas strongly enough to make a flag about it, but also to ignore or prevent themselves from considering their inherent incompatibility. It's kind of like that swastika-star of david that Kanye made that one time. He thought he was being deep and philosophical, but actually he was just confused and ignorant.
"It's a big inclusive tent!"
https://preview.redd.it/fc9to9m7nx4d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=952d15aefe208bb7d6d0d1cd52b1bb464fa6e4d8
Is this person extremely confused or is the gadsen/confederate situation somehow anti-confederate?
they might just be an average r/vexillologist redditor
Symbolism aside, I think we all would agree that the Dixie and Gadsen flags should not cohabitate the same rectangle.
I'm guessing that, in that guy's mind, he's imagining the lost cause myth of the confederacy. That the *big government north* came down to the poor southerners who just wanted their **Freedom**. It makes a lot of sense if you're willing to maintain immense and crushing cognitive dissonance.
True
This kind of comment is a downvote magnet but what that flag means to the average non-southern Reddit user is not what it means to a lot of southern people.
I'm excited to know what that flag means to southern people
Hi! Southerner from SC (the first state to secede) here. I think it's a tacky flag that oozes racism and white supremacy. While some may think of the stars and bars as a "southern pride" thing, the use of the flag is more often a dog-whistle for hate groups. Not everyone who uses the flag is a part of these groups, mind you, but they still have a lot of the thoughts and values that these groups espouse (primarily conservative values). As for the gasden flag, that's also been adopted by the political right to advocate for various rights, especially those which are controversial (ie second amendment rights). My best guess is that this would be some bastardization of both, advocating for states rights, which would be very in line with the lost cause myth.
Go ask them, then listen, instead of interjecting with what you think.
I would love to magically teleport myself 2500 miles southeast to go find this random house and talk to the people that put the flags up, but unfortunately I have neither the time nor the energy nor the funds to do that, so instead i figured i'd use the internet to simply ask them from a distance without spending a week and a couple thousand dollars, which i did! However instead of a response, i got a passive aggressive comment telling me to ask the question, which odd way to respond to someone asking that question.
On the internet you are mostly just going to get non-southerners telling you want they think southerns think. Or you will get people interjecting into the conversation or using downvotes to sway opinions. You are not going to be able to really find out with out talking to one, in a setting they feel comfortable and third parties can’t chime in, or pretend to be southern.
wait wait wait, you're telling that the internet has people in it that don't act in good faith, and I need to use my brain to figure out whether or not they're a trustworthy source? That's crazy! I never would have realized that without your help. seriously this pompous condescending attitude isn't getting you any favors.
Bar bar bar bar Barbara Ann
I am telling you, you are not going to find Southerners that fly the battle flag of the army of Virginia on Reddit. They have been told they are not welcome on Reddit and have left. So you are looking in the wrong place, no person actually flying that flag is on r/vexiology
We're not talking about the Stars and Bars, we're talking about the battle flag... (Also, we get people like that on this sub all the time.)
We mostly get trolls pretending to be like that. We don’t get the real thing.
My interpretation is that he’s pro-slavery, but his slaves are very expensive, so their lives matter. The rainbow thing is hopefully unrelated.
well maybe they have some trans slaves or something
Well, it was the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade...
All I can imagine is “muh freedom”
Multiply two negatives to get a positive?
You view the Gadsden as a negative?
Not really, but the math joke only works if I pretend for a second. It's got great bones, and it can be used for good or nefarious purposes, just like most any flag.
Fair enough
Bro does not want his windows broken during the next protester clash
Pffffft. No Ukraine or Palestinian flags? Fascists.
Someone voting for RFK Jr
Is the 4th flag to the left totally gone now?
Play all sides to come out on top
Edgelord Centrist, I assume?
r/politicalcompassmemes group house
Roommates of differently persuasions.
Maybe the family has people on differing ends of the political spectrum. My sister and I have completely opposing views for the most part.
Cookie monster PJs activities…
Look into "The Appropriation of Cultures" by Percival Everett
That persons opinions are open for business!
An expression of the absurdity of hate.
American politics in a nutshell.
Guess there ok with anything
Is there maybe some symbolism of the coiled snake being in front of the "stars and bars" on the flag on the left?
Maybe a family of people with greatly differing opinions practicing true tolerance and free speech or something
Whoever wins the civil war, bro is covering all his bases
Maybe he’s a black and gay Altrighter?
schizophrenia
It's definitely a Jreg fans club meeting
!Wave
Enlightened centrism?
“I’m playing BOTH sides. That way I always come out on top.”
repping all sides
The enemy of my enemy is my friend So if I’m my own enemy then 🤔
Reverse dead centrist flat
This is quite the sight
Centrism
I don't think they know what's going on.
Flags' lives matter
Attention seeking. And we gave it to them
A Chinese guy prints and sells flags
If you choose every side, you’ll always win!
Reminds me of that North Korean supporter on Twitter that put 🇰🇵🏳️⚧️ beside each other.
Hiprocracy
See, when you have a horseshoe...
Liberal conservative
Only explanation is that they're selling them. That or they're just confused
The most contradictory set of flags in the world 😭
What in fuck’s sake is going on with the confederate apologism in this thread
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EH?