What does the Confederate flag represent to you?
- Thread starter Baron Von Evil Satan
- Start date
When I think of the confederate flag I think of Patrick Swayze in North and South.
Damn good show!
Damn good show!
I hope to God that wasn't a GCSE grade thing, because if it was then I was taught nowhere near that much. I suppose we didn't study it in detail, we were just told the brief summary. Anyway, thanks for the quick history lesson, it was very much appreciated.emeraldrafael said:
Oka. Sorry, the college course focused on first findings (Conquistador times) to reconstruction era (1865-1877). This semester it was 1878-present, with predominant focus on the change of American foreign policy from Isolationism to what we're doing now. Then next semester you can take up a country's history if you like out of something like 30 different countries (Britain included). I dont know, I just remember that they had abolished it by the time of the Civil War, and that it was a fairly recent move (really less then 20 years isnt that long. Thats like, 5 US presidents, or really just 3).Boundless Apathy said:
EDIT:
Well, no, that was an American college class on US history from discovery (earlier-ish 1500s) to reconstruction (1865-1877). And even then, we really focused on The French and Indian War (Seven Years war to you most likely), American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War (though we took a break and went into how Christianity pretty much made America what it is, and I convinced our professor to talk about the Utah Wars). It was a very packed college history class.The Unworthy Gentleman said:
But to be fair, I learned alot of that same stuff in... 11th grade when we studied the same time period in High School and I was about 16-17 when we did that. I just remember that was a huge part of the Union's early strategy when they thought the war would last six weeks/months at first.
To me, the confederate battle flag (and naval jack) represents states rights. It also represents the idea that the government is responsible to the people, something the government should never forget.
Though, you do see a lot of ignorant rednecks fly the battle flag for racist and bigoted reasons. But, it's well within their rights. So long as the US government defends the Westboro Baptist Church in the supreme court, some drunk redneck can keep his stars and bars.
This always seems to be a topic that the "non-rednecks" tend to make a big deal about. I generally don't get the whole, "The South Will Rise Again!" speech from anybody around here. But I do hear a lot more of people talking about how the entire confederacy idea is bigoted, racist and wrong in every demeanor. Then they go on to point out every little thing. It's really sad, because the last time this happened, the "stars and bars" was a moral patch on the backpack of some veteran that was going to university now. The person just went off on the guy about how wrong he was for having that patch, and that he was a bigot and never did anything good in his life.
Now here I am, a Texas born man, and something just didn't really sit right with me about how that girl tried to tell a service man just how much of a determent to the United States he was for just one patch. I talked to the guy couple of days after this incident and got to know him. Turns out he was kicked out of the Army on a medical discharge because he'd been blown up by an IED, so he took his GI Bill money and decided to goto school.
Also, the war of northern aggression wasn't about slavery when it started, that was something Lincoln did later on in the war. If you don't agree with me, go read some primary sources from the time period. I'll be here when you get finished.
Though, you do see a lot of ignorant rednecks fly the battle flag for racist and bigoted reasons. But, it's well within their rights. So long as the US government defends the Westboro Baptist Church in the supreme court, some drunk redneck can keep his stars and bars.
This always seems to be a topic that the "non-rednecks" tend to make a big deal about. I generally don't get the whole, "The South Will Rise Again!" speech from anybody around here. But I do hear a lot more of people talking about how the entire confederacy idea is bigoted, racist and wrong in every demeanor. Then they go on to point out every little thing. It's really sad, because the last time this happened, the "stars and bars" was a moral patch on the backpack of some veteran that was going to university now. The person just went off on the guy about how wrong he was for having that patch, and that he was a bigot and never did anything good in his life.
Now here I am, a Texas born man, and something just didn't really sit right with me about how that girl tried to tell a service man just how much of a determent to the United States he was for just one patch. I talked to the guy couple of days after this incident and got to know him. Turns out he was kicked out of the Army on a medical discharge because he'd been blown up by an IED, so he took his GI Bill money and decided to goto school.
Also, the war of northern aggression wasn't about slavery when it started, that was something Lincoln did later on in the war. If you don't agree with me, go read some primary sources from the time period. I'll be here when you get finished.
To me it represents a nation that had corrupt morals (and before anyone can make a joke about that I mean more corrupt morals than the present day U.S.)
Lol sorry just realised how much of a dick that made me sound, putting that up. But yea in the grand scheme of things it was not that long and it did not affect Britain in the same way as it would America, as most African slaves where house slaves not so much in the economic areas.emeraldrafael said:
No, no, I understand. I needed the correction, cause as much as I said in that post, I didnt mean to disrespect anyone in Britain/England (I gotta get out of the habit of calling it Britain cause I do know the difference). I mean, yeah, you're right, someone would have, and the Union didnt have a spotless record. And yeah, it was just a different thing. I mean, thats what most Northern Slaves were (house slaves) where in the South it was their economy. You could see that all the way WAY back in founding the colonies when the North was manufacturing and the south cash crop land.Boundless Apathy said:
That's really anachronistic. Back then that wasn't a corrupt moral, because it was a scientific fact that the black men coudldn't take care of themselves. Of course facts change and from our today's view we consider slavery wrong. But we should not jump to the conclusion that there is a huge golden tablet, somwhere in space, that has all morally correct things written on itself.WorldCritic said:
Maybe hundred years from now mankin will have banned all meat from the table, because exploiting animals that way is considered barbaric.
On the flag: My personal ranking looks somewhat like this
1) the confederacy = southern states in the USA
2) if used today, like as a flag in the back of a car: As a symbol of silly local patriotism that can be associated with a lot of bad stuff. But then again, so can the stars and stripes. An pretty much any other flag on the world. It's not like the Confederacy was some kind of evil empire. They just lost a war. If they'd won there probably still would be slavery on the world. There is probably more blood on the flag of Mosambique than on the confederacy's
For the record: I'm not an american.
As an Englishman, it means roughly the same as whatever banner the Romans marched under or the markings that Aztec tribes used to mark their territory: nothing. As far as I was aware, the flag didn't have any official meaning any more, just a symbol of a group that no longer exists.
Racism, thats all the flag represents to me. Not trying to offend anyone here but the South seceded because of racism. I'm not saying you should be ashamed to be from those states or live in them, but to sport the flag? To me thats racism. You're flying the flag of the soldiers who fought and died so they could keep "ownership" of another human being. I know many Southerners try to say the Civil war was not really about racism and I don't know what your education has taught you, but slavery was the driving force behind the South Confederacy.
An exceptional trolling tool.
It's an object with so many additional ideas and opinions attached to it that it never actually represented, you can easily troll both sides of the fence with the same post.
It's not quite a 50 Hitler post, but it's not far from it.
It's an object with so many additional ideas and opinions attached to it that it never actually represented, you can easily troll both sides of the fence with the same post.
It's not quite a 50 Hitler post, but it's not far from it.
1) The Confederate States of America
2) In the modern sense I take it as a symbol for anti-federalism or the 10th Amendment.
I personally have a CSA battle flag in my dorm room (I live in NY) and it is interesting to see people's reaction to it. Some are completely turned off by it (none of them have ever confronted me face-to-face), some think it's really cool (if just for the rebel status), but most are simply curious as to why I have it (see #2).
2) In the modern sense I take it as a symbol for anti-federalism or the 10th Amendment.
I personally have a CSA battle flag in my dorm room (I live in NY) and it is interesting to see people's reaction to it. Some are completely turned off by it (none of them have ever confronted me face-to-face), some think it's really cool (if just for the rebel status), but most are simply curious as to why I have it (see #2).
On a sidenote: You people reaslise that the civil war wasn't started and/or fought over the slavery thing, right? That one was just for the press.
No no don't stop calling it Britain I am British first, Scottish second and live in England third, I hear it was an interesting period in your history the whole civil war era, we do not learn much about America at that point and with what we see in the news few people want to learn about America more than we already do... don't worry I know that the stereotype is not true.emeraldrafael said:
I know it's a flag associated with hatred and racism...but I'll be damned if it isn't a cool lookin' design.