What Does the Confederate Flag Mean to You?

Or...a symbol of treason from those who decided to reject the U.S. Constitution, seize federal property without compensation, open fire on U.S. military personnel and who later cheered at the news that an American President had been assassinated. It's all about perspective.

I can completely see your point of view, don't get me wrong. What I never understand is people who revere and respect the Confederacy and wish they'd won, and yet claim to love America or support its military. Those positions seem incompatible since the goal of the former was to reject the latter.

 

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Or, likewise, people who revere the Confederacy/Southern Culture/whatever and also claim to abhor slavery/segregation/etc. Usually there's some bizarre revisionism about how the South was going to do away with slavery anyway, but in the end it all comes down to the usual lame attempts to avoid responsibility for the implications of one's positions. Worse still are the people who try to dodge the issue by saying that the Civil War was "about economics," as if nobody realizes that the pre-war Southern economy depended on slave labor.

Interestingly, you're as likely to hear the latter line of argument from vindictive black power types that want to undercut the inconvenient fact that the number of white people who died in the struggle to end slavery far outstrips the number of white people who ever owned slaves, as from Southern chauvinists.

 

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One thing is for sure, to drag common man into war there is need for simple reasons, like slavery and so forth freedom, civil war over taxes and tariffs, maybe, but are those reasons enough for a common man to join the army in civil war ?

The Flag to me presents Rock´n Roll, but that is because 20 - 30 years ago hard core Rock´n Roll fans here in Finland did use it on sleeve of their denim jackets, actually you can see those still time to time. To me is just another hijacked "symbol".

 

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On those rare occasions that I may think of the Confederate flag it evokes memories of a rather awesome scene in the movie "Gone With the Wind" and an orange car named General Lee.

 

ah yeah, the General Lee. I never thought twice about it growing up, but my son kinda gave me a look when we watched the movie.

 

OP

I'd say if a person is southern then it may be a symbol of their heritage. Kind of like saying "I'm proud of being from the South and no we're not all inbred idiots."

But, myself, being from MI, I'd say I see a southern confederate flag in someones house (and they're from the North) they are usually a prejudiced idiot. Northerns don't really have any other reason to fly a Confederate flag.

 

It the least, it says "I'm proud of being a retard & a redneck", and at worst "I hate black people."

Though I saw a big, red, American made pick-up flying a shit ton of Confederate flag decals, and two very prominent Obama stickers. I did a triple take and a point and a wtf???

 

I had a professor compare Gone With the Wind with the Grail Mythos as stories told by the losers- the former of the lost Confederacy, the latter with the destruction of the Templars.

 

Or "I love black people so much I want to keep them as pets".

 

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M*W: Thanks for your point. I'm from the South, and I see the Confederate flag as part of my heritage. Other than that, it really has no meaning.

 

Soooo wrong, secession was 50% about tariffs and 49% about who would control southern resources and labor, national (northern) capital or southern planters. To industrialize US government imposed protective tariffs on imported goods. This did hurt agricultural South really bad. South was forced to buy inferior Northern goods at inflated prices. Industrial North discovered advantages of wage slavery by then. Anti-slavery rhetoric (read potential loss of property value) combined with tariffs alarmed Southern elites to the point of secession.

Lincoln was a rasist. He would do everything to preserve USA, including preservation of peculiar institution. I'm too lazy to look up Lincoln' quotes. The point is - Civil war was all about preservation of Union at all costs, including costs of slavery preservation. Southerns did not trade though. He "freed" Southern slaves (he had no control over) in 1863 while northern slaves remained in bondage (quite a liberation, huh?)

Union of non slave states? LOL. There were slaves in a union of non-slave States. Slavery was preserved for a while not to antagonize MD, KY, MO.

 

Southern flags means to me futile struggle of confederate type of State (where secession is a right not a crime) against absolute State, total State to obey and worship (where not just secession, mere being "not patriotic enough" is a crime).

 

He would certainly be called racist by the standards of our time. In his time, he would be called a ni**er lover.

I do have some appreciation for the southern spirit. If you don't like the union, just leave, that's awesome. It just sucks that the freedom they were defending happened to owning another person.

 

See the difference between the Confederate battle flag and the Nazi one is simple the Confederacy doesn't exist anymore so thiers is just a battle flag the Nazis on the other hand do exist and they willingly killed innocent people. Hmmmmm.......don't remember the confederacy doing that.

 

No, they didn't consider African-Americans to be people.

 

Actually they do. If (and I'm not saying they all are) they came from the south and moved up there or thier parents or grandparents moved thier family up there then they'd have a very good reason to put it up

 

But did they kill them in death camps or rob thier houses? NO! They just had them as slaves and remember they grew up being told "oh they are meant to serve us thats why they look so different." and other things like that then of course they'll have slaves.

 

Why would they want destroy their own property? They owned the slaves as much as their houses.

 

:wtf: where did that come from?

 

I'm just explaining that the economic benefits of slave labor prevented their wholesale slaughter as the Nazis did. The southern slaveholders wouldn't steal the houses of the slaves, since they already owned them! The Nazis also used slave labor, so the analogy is appropriate.