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Stupid Pet Peeves

One Brow said:
I'm sure you can find individuals who are offended by any particular symbol you can name. As the offensiveness of the symbol rises, so does the number of those who find it offensive.

Much like obscenity, you have to know it when you see it. :)
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That's all true But you didn't
answer the question .
 
LogGrad98 said:
That's all true But you didn't
answer the question .
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My answer was, "you have to know it when you see it". Hard-and-fast rules, like a specific count or percentage, don't help meaningfully. For example, if my neighbor objects to me flying one particular flag or another, and they can speak to why it creates pain for them, I might take that down for one person. A US military base should not have the same standard for the US flag.

With regard to the Confederate battle flag, the heritage of the South pre-Civil War was, for the most part, the same as the heritage of the North, with the exception of slavery and all the societal institutions supporting it. Revering that heritage is revering what slavery made the South into. I'm not a Native American and don't speak for them, but I don't see where the US flag plays a similar role for Native Americans.
 
First hot day of summer, took a medieval beating off work. Must have covered a minimum of 20kms today, feeling beat.
 
LogGrad98 said:
That's all true But you didn't
answer the question .
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The United States flag represents the United States. We exist. We are a nation. We have our history and much of it is not good. There are valid reasons why a person would not like the American flag, but all nations have flags and use them mostly in the same ways. Because we are actually an existing nation we can work to become better and to make our flag represent better things. But ultimately we are who we are and we have to accept that and live with it. If someone is offended by our flag then they can figure out how they want to deal with that.

That is different than flying the flag of a nation that no longer exists, one whose existence was mostly about preserving the "state's rights" to allow slavery. That history is sealed and cannot be changed. The Confederate States existed to enable slavery as an industrial institution to continue. So if you're flying that flag you are showing your support for a nation that was soundly defeated by the United States and eliminated from existence, and to support a nation whose sole purpose of being was to preserve slavery is to show some fondness and nestalgia for slavery.

Much the same is true for the Nazi flag. You can't fly that flag and say it's because you thought they were really snappy dressers.
 
The question was at what point is a group large enough for their offense at a given symbol or act to matter. OB answered in his second post for the most part. I think that is a very tough question because we start to almost arbitrarily marginalize people because their voice isn't loud enough. I am not pretending to have an answer. That is a tough one.
 
Bulletproof said:
The United States flag represents the United States. We exist. We are a nation. We have our history and much of it is not good. There are valid reasons why a person would not like the American flag, but all nations have flags and use them mostly in the same ways. Because we are actually an existing nation we can work to become better and to make our flag represent better things. But ultimately we are who we are and we have to accept that and live with it. If someone is offended by our flag then they can figure out how they want to deal with that.

That is different than flying the flag of a nation that no longer exists, one whose existence was mostly about preserving the "state's rights" to allow slavery. That history is sealed and cannot be changed. The Confederate States existed to enable slavery as an industrial institution to continue. So if you're flying that flag you are showing your support for a nation that was soundly defeated by the United States and eliminated from existence, and to support a nation whose sole purpose of being was to preserve slavery is to show some fondness and nestalgia for slavery.

Much the same is true for the Nazi flag. You can't fly that flag and say it's because you thought they were really snappy dressers.
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The reason the question around the US flag was raised was due to the fact that it could be viewed as a symbol for the atrocities committed against native Americans. Much like the confederate flag is a symbol for the atrocities of slavery. Not sure where fashion came into it.
 
I apologize for continuing the hijack of the pet peeves thread. I'm done now.
 
Bulletproof said:
The United States flag represents the United States. We exist. We are a nation. We have our history and much of it is not good. There are valid reasons why a person would not like the American flag, but all nations have flags and use them mostly in the same ways. Because we are actually an existing nation we can work to become better and to make our flag represent better things. But ultimately we are who we are and we have to accept that and live with it. If someone is offended by our flag then they can figure out how they want to deal with that.

That is different than flying the flag of a nation that no longer exists, one whose existence was mostly about preserving the "state's rights" to allow slavery. That history is sealed and cannot be changed. The Confederate States existed to enable slavery as an industrial institution to continue. So if you're flying that flag you are showing your support for a nation that was soundly defeated by the United States and eliminated from existence, and to support a nation whose sole purpose of being was to preserve slavery is to show some fondness and nestalgia for slavery.

Much the same is true for the Nazi flag. You can't fly that flag and say it's because you thought they were really snappy dressers.
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Is this where i say 'those who burn flags will one day burn people'?

I must say flying the confederate flag in my opinion isn't much better than the swastika. Im not crazy about the Union Jack on my flag by the way.
 
LogGrad98 said:
The reason the question around the US flag was raised was due to the fact that it could be viewed as a symbol for the atrocities committed against native Americans. Much like the confederate flag is a symbol for the atrocities of slavery. Not sure where fashion came into it.
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I think I completely addressed that point. My post wasn't about fashion.
 
Last night reminded me of three Halloween pet peeves of mine:
1. People who take their kids out trick or treating, but don’t provide for trick or treaters.
2. Parents who drive along next to their kids as they trick or treat. Get your lazy *** out of the car and walk with them! ****ers!
3. Old teenagers/early 20’s/parents who put zero effort into any costume (literally walking around in the everyday clothes like they just got home from work) but still trick or treat and take candy for themselves. At least put a sports jersey on or something.
 
bigb said:
Last night reminded me of three Halloween pet peeves of mine:
1. People who take their kids out trick or treating, but don’t provide for trick or treaters.
2. Parents who drive along next to their kids as they trick or treat. Get your lazy *** out of the car and walk with them! ****ers!
3. Old teenagers/early 20’s/parents who put zero effort into any costume (literally walking around in the everyday clothes like they just got home from work) but still trick or treat and take candy for themselves. At least put a sports jersey on or something.
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I'm with you on 1 and 3. Considering my own knee pain, perhaps not 2.
 
One Brow said:
I'm with you on 1 and 3. Considering my own knee pain, perhaps not 2.
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bigb said:
I have a broken bone in my back and a bad Achilles’ tendon that’s been in constant pain for three years and I walked the neighborhood.
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Man my knee has been killing me for days, my left knee is missing a piece of cartilage and now i have a bit of arthritis in in, been slammed all week at work and the bastard thing won't stop hurting. But you know use it or lose it.
 
bigb said:
Last night reminded me of three Halloween pet peeves of mine:
1. People who take their kids out trick or treating, but don’t provide for trick or treaters.
2. Parents who drive along next to their kids as they trick or treat. Get your lazy *** out of the car and walk with them! ****ers!
3. Old teenagers/early 20’s/parents who put zero effort into any costume (literally walking around in the everyday clothes like they just got home from work) but still trick or treat and take candy for themselves. At least put a sports jersey on or something.
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Turn away #3. I do. At the risk of some ****er keying my car as he leaves.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
Turn away #3. I do. At the risk of some ****er keying my car as he leaves.
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My wife usually has treats for really little kids, like toys, pretzels, baby snacks, etc. I just give them some of those. The look on their faces is priceless.

That said, this year we had literally 1 trick-or-treater come to our house. Now we have all this extra candy. Hate that.
 
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