A symbol of hate - Political Forum

Troianii · 01-11-2007, 05:23 PM

Is the Confederate flag really a symbol of hate? I've heard it before, but when I'm being taught it at school I begin to get really upset that a Law-Related Education class teaches that the Confederate Flag is a symbol of hate.

So please, give me your opinions on whether it is a symbol of hate or not, why it would be considered a symbol of hate and whether it should be considered a symbol of hate or not.

Ygorl · 01-11-2007, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troianii

Is the Confederate flag really a symbol of hate? I've heard it before, but when I'm being taught it at school I begin to get really upset that a Law-Related Education class teaches that the Confederate Flag is a symbol of hate.

So please, give me your opinions on whether it is a symbol of hate or not, why it would be considered a symbol of hate and whether it should be considered a symbol of hate or not.

It is NOT.

It's an older version of an American flag.

The symbolic values that someone assigns to an inanimate object are properties of what goes on in someones own HEAD.

Some idiots today find that a quarter with the words "In God we trust" are "hateful" or "unconstitutional" or some other asinine "property" assigned by a tiny mind.

Tiny minds at work

FRYandBENDER · 01-11-2007, 06:06 PM

Keep in mind I'm from the south, (and American, for our international posters) so I'm a double whammy of a toothless retard, but IMO it is not. Let me ask you this. Do you think that this is a racist symbol?

Slartibartfas · 01-11-2007, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FRYandBENDER

Keep in mind I'm from the south, (and American, for our international posters) so I'm a double whammy of a toothless retard, but IMO it is not. Let me ask you this. Do you think that this is a racist symbol?

Thats probably not a Nazi swastika, is it?

Ygorl · 01-11-2007, 06:40 PM

It's the symbol (I think. left or right swastika ? Forget which way it's supposed to go) used by Hitlers old Nazi party. The connotation that comes to mind when people SEE it (like the confed flag) makes it a racist symbol in their heads. It's only a shape. An alien from another planet that saw it might explain to you or I that that is the chemical symbol for the metal platinum.

Because of the historic events that go along with these symbols they become unwanted or shunned by a society.

Slartibartfas · 01-11-2007, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thane

It's the symbol (I think. left or right swastika ? Forget which way it's supposed to go) used by Hitlers old Nazi party. The connotation that comes to mind when people SEE it (like the confed flag) makes it a racist symbol in their heads. It's only a shape. An alien from another planet that saw it might explain to you or I that that is the chemical symbol for the metal platinum.

Because of the historic events that go along with these symbols they become unwanted or shunned by a society.

You are right Thane. But history is in fact a good reason why to make them symbols non grata.

After all some symbols like the Swastika have been in the western world connected so deeply to Nationalsozialismus that if you use the symbol everyone knows why

Symbols are statements. Using them are too. No one uses a Swastika in Europe just for fun or because he likes its form so terribly much...

FRYandBENDER · 01-11-2007, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slartibartfas

Thats probably not a Nazi swastika, is it?

No, iti s a piece of Indian (India) jewelery which I was told, by and Indian, is similar in meaning to the yin yang.

ladyt28 · 01-11-2007, 07:59 PM

I don't associate the confederate flag with hate as I see it used more as a symbol of southern pride. But when I give it thought and what it means to me, my mind thinks of it more as a symbol of treason.

FRYandBENDER · 01-12-2007, 08:25 AM

Quote:

my mind thinks of it more as a symbol of treason.

Quote:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Now a days it would be treasonous, but the south had every right to secede.

[quote]DECLARATION OF THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES WHICH INDUCE AND JUSTIFY THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA FROM THE FEDERAL UNION.

[p2]
The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue[quote]

Brother Oz · 01-12-2007, 09:19 AM

As Thane said, the meaning of symbols is what we give them. A westerner sees the Swastika as a symbol of Nazism. Someone from India would see it as the symbol for peace, but backwards. The same with the Confederare flag. Some would see it as a sign of southern pride, some as a symbol of treaason, some as a symbol of slavery.