Poll: Do you care about "flag burning"?

[Galletea]

I find it only annoys me when it's people who live in the country. They live in a country and enjoy all the benefits of living in it's society and yet they burn flags and declare the ways of that nation to be wrong? It's the hypocrisy of it all I can't stand.

 

[SextusMaximus]

To paraphrase some awesome guy I can't remember the name of:

"One guy: 'Ha, we're burning your flag!'
Awesome guy: 'Did you buy that flag?'
One guy: 'Yeah, why?'
Awesome guy: 'Then you're burning your own flag'"

EDIT:

D'you know I couldn't give a flying fuck if some douchebag burnt a Union Jack flag. I attribute this to not being raised around the same "yeah, my country is the best in the world!" attitude that a lot of Americans seem to have.

I'll just let David Mitchell explain:

Of course, it was David Mitchell!

 

[nickfurze]

Of course it bothers me, it produces terrible air pollution.

 

[nickfurze]

Of course it bothers me, it produces terrible air pollution.

 

[bjj hero]

Coming from the UK I'm not at all bothered by flag burning. Its a form of protest and no one gets hurt. Not a problem. We tend to be far less patiotic in the UK in general but we dont spend most of our childhood mornings pledging allegance to our flag so I guess the conditioning isn't there.

Simple solution. Start a support group pledging to burn 2 korans/relevant religious text for every flag publicly burned. Then see who's most sensitive. It could make a cold war-esque stale mate with bunkers full of books and flags instead of nuclear weapons.

 

[ramboondiea]

so long as they bought and burned their own flag i really couldn't care, honestly its a flag all they have done is burn a piece of their property.

 

[SEXTON HALE]

I think its kind of an asshole thing to do but ive never had any serious problems with it.
It just seems like a really disrespectful thing to do which is why I suppose people do it in the first place.

 

[Gibboniser]

Huh, it bothers me a lot, and I usually don't care. It bothers me, mainly when I hear of it in my country(UK) by people living in the country. They immigrate, they're given freedom, houses, benefits, and then they burn our flags, which isn't just a piece of cloth, it represents the entire country, before returning to their nice tax paid home.

 

[Leadfinger]

I approve of flag burning. You can measure the state of a country's democracy by its tolerance to having its flag burned.

 

[Woodsey]

No. They're expressing an opinion which they have every right to express.

Overblown expressions of nationalism and patriotism provoke a much more negative reaction from me.

I approve of flag burning. You can measure the state of a country's democracy by its tolerance to having its flag burned.

Ha, good quote - I'll use that in the future.

 

[hawkeye52]

I find the idea of patriotism/nationalism itself a bit silly so flag burning does not bother me

 

[Gearhead mk2]

I just dont get patriotism, imperialism or any of the things that come with them, so stuff like this is just kinda meh to me.

 

[Korolev]

It bothers me a little, in that I don't like seeing things being burnt uselessly. I generally don't like seeing anything on fire, except when it serves a useful, practical purpose - like generating warmth, catalyzing a reaction or scaring away wild animals.

Flag burning just looks like grandstanding to me. Oooooh - you burned a little flag that you bought with your own money! What a statement you're making! You're really making the Americans and the English cry when you burn that flag! It really strikes a blow against them! What an incredibly useful thing to do - burn bits of cloth in public! That's really gonna solve all the problems in the Middle East, you know. Why, I believe Adam Smith himself uncovered the economic law of "Burn US flags = Instant expansion in manufacturing and the services sectors!".

I'm not a jingositic, nationalistic sort of person. You can burn an Australian flag in front of my eyes, and I'll just shrug my shoulders BECAUSE IT ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING. BY BURNING THAT FLAG YOU'VE DONE NOTHING. NOTHING. N.O.T.H.I.N.G at all. All you've done is burn a bit of cloth, and if you think that makes even a tiny smidgen of difference to anyone, you're crazy.

Flag burning only annoys me very slightly, because it's an idiotic, stupid, show-boating, grand-standing act that accomplishes precisely zilch. And it's just inherently destructive. Why burn that cloth? Can't these people find something more useful to do with it?

 

[KingGolem]

I don't care about somebody burning a flag so much as I care about the motivations behind it. If somebody is that angry with a country, what else would they do against it? In the case of those Muslims, no doubt they're terrorist sympathizers, at least. Under the right circumstances, I could imagine those flag burners becoming terrorists themselves.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Personally I think many people imbue too much power in symbols. To me burning a flag is a rather useless gesture - I fully understand the intention but it just seems like a needless act. On the other side, I also think it's rather silly to take great personal offense at the act of flag-burning.

Then again when it comes to symbols I tend to have particular problem with flags. Now I love flags, and heraldry, and other regional and personal symbols. However I don't accept them as proxies. Will I pledge allegiance to my country? Yes. Will I pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth standing in for my country? No.

In my opinion if you're going to protest or critique a government do it directly. Don't like government X? Well then tell me why, even if its just a short slogan. But burning the flag seems pointless.

I suppose part of my problem is that I don't like it when people over-generalize or stereotype. When you attack a national symbol you're effectively attacking everyone, but your grievance is almost certainly more specific. Enunciate what you really mean, it will have far more impact.

 

[Woodsey]

I don't care about somebody burning a flag so much as I care about the motivations behind it. If somebody is that angry with a country, what else would they do against it? In the case of those Muslims, no doubt they're terrorist sympathizers, at least. Under the right circumstances, I could imagine those flag burners becoming terrorists themselves.

That's a rather drastic oversimplification: plenty will have friends and family living in war zones that the US and UK have a tendency of invading.

 

[DarkRyter]

I love America more than anyone I know.

Burning a piece of cloth doesn't mean shit.

what was that? Symbolism? *****, do I look like an English major?