The confederate flags are a nice touch...

[Soph0571]

And killed a lot of innocents along the way...

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Symbol Of Defeat

And surrender.
A source of pride? Why?

[PufPuf23]

48. Seriously, nothing says "I'm a loser" like

bearing a confederate flag.

[PJMcK]

2. Have you ever traveled to the American South?

Last edited Thu Apr 16, 2020, 01:22 PM - Edit history (2)

Those who fly the CSA battle flag are clueless about their flag. They also lack any self awareness about their bigotry, ignorance and treasonous desires.

I've often wondered what our nation would look like if the North had prosecuted and executed the traitorous leaders of the Confederacy. My thought is that by trying to quickly heal the nation following the Civil War, our country's leaders failed completely in that goal. By allowing the criminals to go free, their supporters were able to build the myth that the South would rise again. I also think that the racism that has plagued us would have taken a less destructive trajectory had those treasonous and divisive leaders been held to account.

That flag is the most un-American banner I can imagine! The Confederation wanted to dissolve the United States. That's a fact and, frankly, I don't care to debate what their reasons were, (although I know exactly what motivated them). Don't we pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag and the U.S. Republic, in part, saying, "One nation, under God, indivisible..."?

Do those idiots carrying those ugly flags know what that word means?

Perhaps there's an historical lesson for us should VP Biden become our next president. Don't let these bastards run free or the results will be long-lasting.

[sop]

7. But, it's all about celebrating their "Southern Heritage"

Living in the South, I've asked these folks more than once exactly what "heritage" they're celebrating. Is it the right to own other human beings? The act of taking up arms against your own government? To commemorate the killing of hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers? All for a treasonous confederacy that lasted only four years? I've never gotten a reasonable answer.

[Aristus]

20. I was born and raised in the South to an all-Southern family.

All of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War fought for the Confederacy.

And I still don't recognize that flag as a sign of heritage; mine or that of anyone else who considers himself a patriotic American. The people who fly that flag are trash. They are trash citizens, they are trash Americans, they are trash human beings. That flag and everything it represents is a stain on Southern honor, and will be until the last Confederate flag is buried with the last apologist for slavery and the Civil War.

[LastDemocratInSC]

27. I, too, was raised in the South and share your feelings

I escaped to northern Virginia for many years but I'm back in the South now to take care of older family members. I'm probably stuck here now but I will meet my obligations to others. But I miss the northern Virginia area SO MUCH.

[Jspur]

68. The Deep South is

awful. I moved to Raleigh NC from Boston when I was 11. It was pretty backwards down here during that time period during the 90's but now it's pretty progressive. I have lived in VA and NC throughout my adult life. I would say VA is no longer a Southern State and is strong blue. I feel NC is no longer a true southern state due to the northern influx but we have transitioned yet to being a blue state but at least culturally I don't feel I'm in the south down here anymore. Once you get past NC you definitely feel the Southern Culture.

[Marie Marie]

76. Question: I know many people from Northern or Mid-Atlantic states have

been moving to NC for quite a while now and I thought that this influx would turn NC Blue. Is NC heavily gerrymandered in favor of the Republicans?

[Jspur]

80. It's heavily gerrymandered

for Republicans right now. Trump won NC but he didn't get the popular vote. Hillary got 46 while Stein/Johnson got 5 percent leaving Trump with 49 percent. NC is firmly purple in my eyes right now. I think in another 5-10 years it will become blue like Virginia did.

[Marie Marie]

82. Thanks for the answer. So, once again, the districts don't reflect

the true make-up of the voters. Here's hoping it will turn blue soon.

[Jspur]

83. Yup the

districts don't really reflect at how divided this state truly is. You have majority red districts but if you had a non partisan draw up the district lines it would be evenly split with blue and red districts.

[LastDemocratInSC]

26. A reasonable answer is not possible.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. States' rights to be free under the Total Authority of King Trump. . . . nt

[mitch96]

9. To them it's all about "states rights" "our way of life" they conveniently forget about slavery.. nt

[DBoon]

10. Oh no, they haven't forgotten slavery

They'd still love to have it back. They just realize that "yankees" might not understand.

[sop]

46. I've always suspected if they held a state referendum in Mississippi, Alabama and a couple of

other southern states today, asking voters "Should the Institution of Slavery be re-established?", the majority would mark "yes" on their ballots. Most wouldn't say it openly, but in the privacy of the voting booth they'd let their honest feelings come out.

[misanthrope]

84. Maybe, maybe not

After watching the peonage system that took hold following Reconstruction and combining it with the lessons learned in the Gilded Age, they likely realize it is a lot more economically efficient to exploit the desperation of impoverished immigrants than it is to buy slaves. With the immigrants, they can treat them just as bad, don't have to feed or clothe them and when they work them into the grave in short order, they just take the next one desperate enough to clamor for the job.

Now would they re-institute Jim Crow? That would be the real question because they very well might.

[Historic NY]

44. You mean "states rights" that Trump is trying to crush...

in this time of a pandemic.

[lagomorph777]

28. Letting the traitors go set the precedent for Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr and Jr, and Trump.

Will we ever learn the lesson?

[SheltieLover]

42. This!👆

I sure hope so because if this gang of traitors is not 100% fully prosecuted to the fullest extent, imprisoned, and stripped of their cast wealth to pay the taxpayers back, then that lack of action will prove the argument in many voters' minds that "both parties are the same," and no one will bother to vote due to disgust and apathy.

I expect Joe knows this and will take appropriate action swiftly.

[malchickiwick]

31. That's not the "Stars & Bars," for the record. That's the CSA battle flag. Stars & Bars refers to

the national flag of the CSA, also a loser emblem, but less well known.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#First_flag

[Harker]

35. Well done. n/t

[PJMcK]

61. Thanks for the correction

I'll correct my post.

Still, my points apply. You're correct, of course, that they're both emblems of losers.

Why would someone want to be associated with losers, I wonder?

[Hekate]

81. They cherish their sense of grievance and victimhood? Trump certainly uses it to great effect.nt

[SheltieLover]

37. This!👆

Absolutely! I was going to post about this.

Unfortunately, this is quite common in the south. I have even seen T-shirts clearly stating that the sough won the Civil War. Sadly, not joking.

Yes, they absolutely should have been tried & hung for treason.

And, like you, I hope & trust Joe is paying attention. 👍

[npk]

56. I also live in the South, Georgia to be specific

I don't see the confederate flag much because I live in Atlanta and it takes a certain kind of balls to wave that rag around in my little enclave of town. To me I see the flags more these days at political rallies. Usually the people waving the flag hate the government and would love to see it overthrown. Are they racist? Sure. But I think it's more of a threat toward the Government than anything else.

I was traveling through Gainesville last summer, which is like 40 miles north of Atlanta and I saw a pick up truck with the confederate flag on the back. Of course, not to my surprise, a white redneck got out of the truck and started walking into a Quick Trip gas station. I asked him why he rides around with the confederate flag attached to his truck, and he stated that his house and land had been foreclosed on by the "government" and that the land and his home had been paid in full for decades. My guess is that he stopped paying his property taxes, but who knows. He rambled on that he wanted everyone to know that the government was using tyranny to take peoples land and give it to "minorities" who didn't own it. He also said he was an army vet and that if needed he would be prepared to overthrow the government if things didn't change. When I told him that flag had a legacy of being a symbol of racism and oppression, he just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking.

My guess is that this person believes that government is the real enemy and is another one of the sovereign citizens morons that you see a lot of in the mountain areas of Georgia.

[a la izquierda]

63. That's okay, we have enough of that shit flag...

here in WV. 🙄

[npk]

64. Yeah it makes me want to rage every time I see it

But then I remember that these people are ignorant, low lives that are mostly miserable and poor trash and then it makes me feel just a little bit better.

[Progressive Jones]

77. Deadbeats are always a "victim". nt

[progressoid]

66. It's not just the south.

I saw a guy with a that flag on his shirt in a grocery store in IA last week.

[NickB79]

69. My neighbor here in Minnesota has one in his front window

As well as the younger brother of a friend of my wife's who has it on his truck. She's Puerto Rican, and really let him have it when she saw that bullshit. He had the balls to try to argue that it didn't have any connection anymore to racism or slavery.

It's basically all young guys who want the world to know they're redneck country boys and proud of it. Of course, they'd never last a day doing the farm work I grew up doing, but they don't let facts get in the way of how they see themselves.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. A salute to the Michiganders who fought under R.E.Lee.

Both of them.

[Mad cow]

4. Lol...those nuts are running over the contribution

Michigan made to the Union in the Civil War. General Custer was commanding the Michigan Calvary at Gettysburg.

[FakeNoose]

5. A sure sign of stupidity

... however there's no way to know if these guys are actually from Michigan. They could be trouble-makers from somewhere else, it's not like that hasn't happened before.

[GreenEyedLefty]

15. I would bet any money they're from Michigan

The racism, ignorance and ass backwardness of rural and northern Michigan surprises a lot of people.

The farther north you go, the whiter the state gets, and the more prevalent the confederate flags, lawn jockeys, etc. It's embarrassing.

[Squidly]

74. Two words...

Ted....Nugent

[SheltieLover]

39. Probably paid to be there.

Has anyone seen Craigslist ads in that area for "actors?"

[scarletlib]

6. Two comments:

1) Flying the Confederate flag = Proud to be an idiot. I say this as a Southerer whose roots in the South go back to the Revolutionary War.

2) in regards to ancestry, I highly suspect that the ancestors of many of those Michigan protestors either fought for the Union in the Civil War or they weren’t even here during that time as they immigrated after the war.

So that makes them especially idiotic.

[pamdb]

8. Stupid State

I live in a stupid state. Either these idiots don't realize which side of the Civl War Michigan fought on -with the 6th largest
amount of casualties, or they are just so stupid it has never occurred to them what this flag represents. These are the same yahoos you see flying this flag in the small towns and villages in northern michigan. All they really care about is their guns and
"owning the libs." You can see the slimy hands of the DeVos clan in this demonstration in Lansing yesterday. The right wing
bitches and moans about what Gretchen Whitmer hasn't done since she was elected, ignoring the fact that the House and Senate are firmly in control of the republicans. She could be the fucking second coming and the republicans would still fight her.

[llmart]

14. +1

I'm not from here but I live here now and I still cannot believe the numbers of uneducated ignoramuses that inhabit Michigan. Northern Michigan is a hotbed of these anti-government types and gun humpers. We have teapartiers galore and the glorious McNichols brothers who were instrumental in killing innocent people and children in the Oklahoma City bombing. We also have lunatics like Ted Nugent and Kid Rock.

Michigan is loaded with these types. We have more than a basket full of deplorables.

[GreenEyedLefty]

17. I am from here and it's a fucking embarrassment.

In fact I'm from one of those asshole rural, mostly white towns and was pretty thoroughly brainwashed as a kid.

So glad to have escaped that, but still. Ugh.

[llmart]

21. Well, at least you weren't gullible enough to fall for their nonsense.

I actually lived in the South before moving here and I was under the impression that there would be less racism and ignorance in Michigan than in the Carolinas, but boy was I ever mistaken. In fact, my next door neighbors, when I told them I couldn't understand how in this day and age they still hadn't gotten over the civil war in the South said to me, "Oh, don't ever think we don't have our share of bigotry and ignorance in Michigan. Just wait until you go north of the tri-county area." Well, I've been here long enough now to know exactly what they were referring to.

[yellowcanine]

11. Maybe they are from Southern Michigan?

[Celerity]

12. 2 year old photo, not part of anything to due with COVID-19 protests

Confederate flag standoff parks outside Mich. school

The Associated Press
Published 5:41 PM EDT Apr 18, 2018

https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/04/18/confederate-flag-standoff-parks-outside-mich-school/33962407/

Auburn, Mich. – Students and others with Confederate flags flying from or painted on their pickup trucks parked for a second day outside of a central Michigan high school, prompting other students to hold a counter-demonstration against racism and bigotry.



Six trucks bearing the Confederate battle flag parked outside of Bay City Western High School on Tuesday and were joined by others on Wednesday, when they were met by students waving rainbow flags and placards with messages including “Black Lives Matter” and “Hate Not Heritage,” The Bay City Times reported . Cameron Myers, a student who was waving a Confederate flag, said a flag was torn from his vehicle on school property last week. He denied that his faction was trying to intimidate anyone by waving the flag.

“It’s not about racism; it’s a country boy thing,” Myers said. “If we were going over there and saying racist slurs and cussing them out, that would be another thing,” he told The Bay City Times.

But some students saw it otherwise.

“We have such a small minority population of students and we’re in a conservative area,” said Kendrix Szilagyi, who organized the counter-protest and called the Confederate flag display “racism.”




“We’re a white-majority school,” Szilagyi said. “It’s making some of the students and people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.”

Only some of the Confederate flag faction are students at the school in Auburn, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. “The majority of the people who were out there weren’t actually students of ours,’” superintendent Stephen Bigelow told The Associated Press on Wednesday, referring to the owners of the vehicles. “For the most part, the majority of our students were inside doing the right thing.”

[llmart]

18. Maybe so, but the below link is from yesterday.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/shawn-windsor/2020/04/15/gretchen-whitmer-protest-michigan-capitol-coronavirus/5142203002/



Also, sheriffs from several counties on the Western coast of Michigan are defying Governor Whitmer's orders.

[Celerity]

23. well, that would be a good OP

[ms liberty]

34. The link you supplied only has 1 pic of 38 that includes a confederate flag.

And it is not prominently displayed or featured.

[The Magistrate]

49. Even One, Ma'am, Is One Too Many

To display that rag is to declare oneself a traitor to the United States....


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[ms liberty]

58. Yea, duh. But you're missing the actual point

Which is that the protesters weren't specifically confederate numbskulls but were a broad group of trump supporters, anti vaxxers, conspiracy nutters and other associated dumbasses. If it had been a primarily confederate flag nut convention, there would have been as many rebel flags as there were us flags...and there weren't, if the pictures on the linked article are representative of the people who were there.
It is a dodgy meme, manipulative and therefore suspicious in its intent, because it misrepresents an event. My objection has nothing to do with the merits of the rebel flag or the complete lack of merit, to be more accurate. It's about the manipulation.

[The Magistrate]

60. The Point, Ma'am

Is that the people involved in these trumped up 'protests' are the sort of cretins who let Fox News shit in their skulls in lieu of using their brains, and whatever means of abuse seems handiest at the moment is appropriate to mock and insult and denigrate them. That anyone supporting the cheap thug in any way is a traitor to the United States I consider established fact. Manipulation of perception is an essential part of political campaigning in the present day, and what is not helpful is to try and hold only one side to the rules while the other violates them with impunity. The system is an adversarial one, and requires both sides to fight their corner with equivalent vigor --- in fact, it is the degree of vigor displayed, not the arguments presented, which has the most sway on 'undecided' voters. There is a reason why, after Mr. Burger has presented his case to the court, Perry Mason does not rise to muse 'Now, you know, the prosecuting attorney has made some excellent arguments for my client's guilt, and advanced some sound points in support of his position.'



"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[ms liberty]

62. Yeah, again you missed the point.

You're okay with a meme that falsely encourages people to think that the people protesting the stay at home orders are a bunch of confederate flag nutters (who are pretty easy to spot and avoid) when the reality is they are the nutters next door...the trumpers, the anti vaxxers, the local members of the gop. That woman who's your fb friend from high school, or the lady that makes the awesome red velvet cake at all the church functions. Et cetera...
There was one rebel flag in 38 pictures, of hundreds of people...but a completely unrelated picture became the 'face' of the protest for that meme, and the manipulation was aimed at us - democrats, liberals, progressives. Those of us who are not cool with the confederate flag, or trump or any of this RWNJ crap being slung. You can be cool with the manipulation if you want but me, I don't like being propagandized or manipulated by anyone. PERIOD.
Have A Good Day, "Sir."

[The Magistrate]

65. You Could Not Have Stated It Better, Ma'am --- I Am Quite Content With The Distortion

I consider it useful in moving the middle of the road and the undecided. I have no objection to lying, particularly to lies that do reflect an actual truth --- that these wretches are treasonous scum who mean harm to our people and our country. One presumes from your presence here that you have already made up your mind which side you are on, and so no propaganda is aimed at you, and you are not being propagandized in any way. I am well aware the 'nutters next door...the trumpers, the anti vaxxers, the local members of the gop' comprise those little penny-packet protests, and have no more respect for them than they have for me, less perhaps, put the matter to the test. The overlap of these creatures with outright neo-confederates, even flagrant nazis, is more than sufficient for agit-prop work, and certainly no injustice is done to them. They deserve whatever shaming and detestation comes their way. The point of the exercise is not to change their minds, it is to rouse disgust, even hatred, towards them in the minds of others. Politics, as they say, ain't bean-bag. It is the practice of war short of actual violence. People who ignore, or neglect, or forget this lose elections.

"The difference between an election and Waterloo is the difference between a pitched battle and the bloodless surrender of a force outnumbered in the field."


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[The Magistrate]

78. While People Here Quibble About How Many Confederate Flags Were There, And Are We Fair To Shit-Heels

This is the sort of slime being pumped out on social media to people identified by metric analysis as current or potential supporters of the cheap thug --- or in other words, the scum at the 'protests' against the public health....

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVwtzkNXgAcGOXo?format=jpg

Click the link to see Salvadoran gang members captioned 'I'm on Team Joe', and saying 'thanks for saying you won't deport us'.

People need to stop policing our own side and start attacking the enemy. The last thing to consider in fighting a dangerous enemy is whether you are being fair, or even telling the whole truth....


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[Harker]

22. Good work.

Accuracy is paramount to understanding.

Thanks.

[Celerity]

24. they are still racist idiot bawbags, but not tied to the current news situ, or at least not from

that event in the pic. I would not be at all shocked if some of the same berks are active in the 'Rona protests as well.

[Harker]

32. Yes.

Mismatched images are not at all helpful to understanding, though.

[Celerity]

33. there're some real shit FB groups that purport to be Democrats,but so often put up dodgy, fake memes

[Harker]

36. I'm glad to be very limited

in use of "social media."

DU and Pinterest are it, and the latter isn't particularly social, either.

[Celerity]

50. I do not use FB, I cancelled my account years ago

[exboyfil]

13. 13,000 Wolverines died fighting to preserve the Union

Dumb asses.

[roamer65]

16. Probably from the rural CV hotspot of Hillsdale.

One of the pockets of deplorability in this state.

I have a friend that lives out that way that makes fun of them every time we talk.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

19. It used to blow my mind when some Ohioans...

... would display a Confederate flag around here. (I assumed they moved here from the South, which is plausible.)

It’s even more ridiculous in Michigan!

[The Magistrate]

47. Ohio, Sir, Was A Hotbed Of Copperheads

Mr. Lincoln had to expel its elected governor for rank sedition....


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[lonely bird]

52. I am in Ohio too

To borrow from a description of Pennsylvania: Ohio is Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and the rest is Alabama.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

54. Lol! Yeah, pretty much.

I received a liberal education near Dayton, though.

It’s definitely a mix here, with even adjacent communities being quite different politically. Yellow Springs is an island among more right-wing towns, for example.

[IronLionZion]

25. Oh yes, I forgot about Michigan's confederate heritage

just like PA, Ohio, and other northern states that have jack shit to do with the confederate states who fought against the United States of America and lost.

[Wednesdays]

53. A lot of southerners moved to Michigan in the 30's and 40's

During the Depression and World War II. So many, that places like Ypsilanti and Taylor became known as "Ypsitucky" and "Taylortucky."

[calimary]

29. And many of them brandish that stupid YELLOW snake flag too.

It amuses me to see how that pack of cowards embraces that YELLOW flag. Matches the YELLOW streak (of cowardice) down their backs.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

40. One of my ancestors had this flag for his battalion...

... during the Revolutionary War:

During my genealogy research years ago, I bought a pillow with that flag on it and kept it on my couch.

I hid it away in a closet after Trump cultists started using the other rattlesnake flag as one of their symbols!

[NoMoreRepugs]

38. Also a sign of a tiny penis and a gigantic jacked-up pickemup truck.

[catbyte]

41. They're especially nauseating because we fought for the Union.

[sarge43]

71. Yup. My great great grandfather. Cpl Frederic n/t

[catbyte]

72. I wonder how their ancestors would feel watching them worship a flag that they fought & died to stop

They're absolutely disgusting. But maybe they're like me--one of my great great grandfathers lived in Kentucky (whoops) and my other one lived on an Ojibwe reserve in Canada. Still no excuse.

[sarge43]

75. Probably would like to go all General Sherman on their collective ass.

Me, I'm heartbroken that my home state has fallen so far.

[demigoddess]

43. I lived in Mississippi for 9 months when I was in high school

they just all seemed to think they were superior. Always telling me how dumb people were up in the north and telling me they knew all about everything the northerners did wrong.

[DemoTex]

45. My favorite "rebel" flag photo ..

I took this photo in upstate South Carolina in 2013. To me, it represents the epitome of ignorance and an ultimate lack of self awareness. I can't look at this photo without hearing Don Cheadle - "Doc" - in the movie Hamburger Hill talking about "You rebel motherfuckers ..".

[npk]

57. LOL at the satellites on the roof

Oddly so out of place. Otherwise a great photo. So much of this country is so depressing.

[ms liberty]

51. The photos are 2 years old as noted in an earlier reply, and completely unrelated to the current pro

A few replies into the thread is a link to an article about the protest. I read the story and looked at all the pictures. Only 1 photo shows a confederate flag at all, of the 38 at the link from the protest. So for me the question is not how much the Venn Diagram of these two groups overlap, because we all know it's probably quite a bit, but why were these two year old confederate flag protester photos used to illustrate the meme instead of any one of the actual photos? There were several excellent photos that would have worked just as well, but the better ones were of protesters wearing maga gear and carrying us flags flown upside down, holding misspelled signs, etc. Only one of the 38 contained a confederate flag, and it was not prominently featured or particularly large, and it was waaayy outnumbered by all the us flags in all the photos. Why the attempt to tie it to confederate specific protesters when these current protesters are obviously a much wider coalition of trumpers, anti vaxxers, and the like?
This meme reeks of manipulation. Not by you Soph, unless you created it. Is it from fb, or Instagram?

[Wednesdays]

55. How many Confederate flags would it take

for you to consider it inappropriate?

[ms liberty]

59. How about you read what I wrote?

You seem to have the wrong opinion that I am defending the confederate flag. I am not, and you are welcome to read what I actually wrote. Try to do more than just skim the title line, if you do.

[rockfordfile]

67. The police

The police should have double tap them.
/s

[TygrBright]

70. The flag of racist traitor losers all across America. n/t

[RicROC]

73. redundancy

Last night I heard on the radio, Dean Obeidallah's show Sirius ch127 (?), a comment something like this:

'We know that both the Trump flag and the flag of the Confederacy are both expressions of White Supremacy, so why the redundancy? Pick one and carry that.'

Made me laugh out loud when I heard such an astute comment.

[applegrove]

79. Were they from the South? Going to Michigan where a higher number of

African Americans are dying of COVID? Was this a coronavirus party?