• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

South Carolina, tear down that flag!

Very noble campaign. Although it's not even the original flag of the confederacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULBCuHIpNgU

What about the Stars and Stripes? It's associated with the genocide of Native Americans and racist ideas of manifest destiny; the whole country is stolen land.
 
Last edited:
Very noble campaign.

While we're at it, we should tear down the Stars and Stripes. It's associated with the genocide of Native Americans and racist ideas of manifest destiny; the whole country is stolen land.

Could we please stop bringing up this weak analogy?

Yes, the U.S. Flag stands for the U.S, with all of our ideals, and all of our failures. Yes we have treated various groups horribly in our past. And yes, we mostly strive to do better in the future.

But a part of that effort is to take down that other flag.
 
I live in a very liberal town (Gainesville) in the 'North Central' region of Florida. While hardly anyone here has an accent, we do have one confederate memorial (with a flag) that people are now trying to have removed:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150629/ARTICLES/150629676?tc=cr

I've lived here on and off for most of my life and had no idea that statue honored dead confederate soldiers. I've driven by it countless of times as it is at a major intersection and very prominently displayed, but I've never bothered to park somewhere and get out to read the inscription. I also don't remember an actual flag, so I'm thinking it is an inscription of the flag rather than the confederate flag itself.

If we have a big statue like that in the liberal bastion of Gainesville (believe me, all areas around this town are deeply conservative), I can only imagine what some of the nearby smaller towns might have.

I haven't been to the state capitol in many years, so I couldn't speak for there either.


Most of the Confederate memorials in the South were erected in the post Reconstruction period and early in the 20th century. Get off the interstate highways and you'll find them in almost every town, usually on the main drag or in the town square.
 
Last edited:
Could we please stop bringing up this weak analogy?

Yes, the U.S. Flag stands for the U.S, with all of our ideals, and all of our failures. Yes we have treated various groups horribly in our past. And yes, we mostly strive to do better in the future.

But a part of that effort is to take down that other flag.

My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?

I mean really, the kid was a psycotic nut who killed in the name of a flag that wasnt even the original confederate flag. Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?

I feel it's a sanctimonious campaign without addressing the underlying issues of racism
 
Last edited:
Very noble campaign. Although it's not even the original flag of the confederacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULBCuHIpNgU

What about the Stars and Stripes? It's associated with the genocide of Native Americans and racist ideas of manifest destiny; the whole country is stolen land.

It depends who wins. Winners, who have been deemed so by God Almighty, have the moral high ground. Losers are left to whine about it and sell us cheap cigarettes.
 
Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?
Um... there were. Lots and lots of them. I've participated in debates on the flag many times including calling into the Dennis Prager radio program (I was in support of the flag at the time).
 
My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?

I mean really, the kid was a psycotic nut who killed in the name of a flag that wasnt even the original confederate flag. Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?

I feel it's a sanctimonious campaign without addressing the underlying issues of racism

It has been an issue. It is why it was moved from the top of the capital dome to where it is now.
 
My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?

Yes.

I mean really, the kid was a psycotic nut who killed in the name of a flag that wasnt even the original confederate flag. Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?

We've been calling for it to be taken down for decades. It's just that you're hearing us now.

ETA: What makes you think he was a psychotic nut, anyway?

I feel it's a sanctimonious campaign without addressing the underlying issues of racism

Truth be told...I really can't do much to address white supremacists, since white supremacists don't respect me as a human. That's up to you.
 
Last edited:
Brawl Breaks Out Over Confederate Flag At South Carolina Statehouse

The fight started about 7:15 p.m. Monday when about a dozen vehicles with Confederate flag supporters pulled up in front of the Statehouse and stopped in the middle of the street, Public Safety Department spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli said in a statement.

About 10 of the flag supporters clashed with about 30 people who were on the Statehouse grounds protesting the flag, the statement said.

About 50 officers responded and contained the clash, including officers from the Bureau of Protective Services assigned to the Statehouse, as well as Columbia police, University of South Carolina officers and the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Two blocks of the street in front of the Statehouse was closed for a brief time during the disturbance.


As mentioned in the video, the flag has been removed from Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.


 
My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?

I mean really, the kid was a psycotic nut who killed in the name of a flag that wasnt even the original confederate flag. Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?

I feel it's a sanctimonious campaign without addressing the underlying issues of racism

There were plenty of calls to take it down. This was simply the loudest (that I can recall).

That flag IS one of the underlying issues of racism.
 
My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?

I mean really, the kid was a psycotic nut who killed in the name of a flag that wasnt even the original confederate flag. Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?

I feel it's a sanctimonious campaign without addressing the underlying issues of racism

Who is being sanctimonious? The people who have been calling for it for some time, or the people who only recently agreed to it?

But far more importantly, What steps might we take to address the underlying issues of racism?
 
Perhaps, but Libertarianism is all about individual's themselves having the freedom to do whatever they want. By this, I mean they don't care about everyone else's freedoms.

Libertarians, in my opinion, are not concerned with the freedom of others. They just want the ability to be spoiled, petulant children running amok doing whatever the hell their unrestrained ID baits them into doing while spewing malformed brain dung from their mouths about force, violence and liberty.

At best they are amoral sociopaths and at worst malevolent psychopaths hellbent on destroying everything around them just for the lulz.

See that people? That was a strident and potentially horribly wrong idea. I have the right to make such proclamations. Disagree? Well don't harsh on my logic man! Free Speech! Free Speech! Keep your notions to yourself and let me be the belligerent bellicose blowhard!

This becomes important as I go through these responses.

IMO, you have touched upon the real endgame with our social engineers hereabouts desirous of creating a nanny/police state out of this country by (among other things) demonizing a region because of the actions of a few.

Please do inform me about "real endgames" and where you keep your TARDIS that allows you to see these eventualities play out. Or is this just speculation? This sounds suspiciously like speculation.

How's this for speculation? "The real endgame for people that want to outlaw murder is to outlaw playing hopscotch because once you can create one law you can create any law!"

See, that isn't just invoking a slippery slope it is trying to basejump off it with no parachute and holding a live grenade. Sure you might think it looks cool, edgy and rebellious as hell but to outsiders it will simply seem stupidly suicidal. You might as well go full on nihilism and declare that we can't do anything because any action might result in any other action. Just stay inside all day long in fear that somewhere in the world a butterfly is beating its wings.

Hell, the Brits tried the same by outlawing bagpipes, tartan plaid, wearing o' the green and catholics from living east of the river Shannon. And they, are supposed to be so "enlightened"?

Are they? I mean they do have some accomplishments to their name. But this is the same empire that violently subdued much of central Africa and India.

Perhaps, they should consider what Josef Stalin & Adolph Hitler did to the "critical thinkers" once they took power?

I don't think they had a thing against "critical thinkers" so much as a thing against anyone that could usurp their power. Absolute dictators tend to do such things.

"First, they came for the Nazi's"....

Who is coming for anyone? No one is outlawing being stupid as a generality. That'd be ridiculous. But ideas and beliefs do not all deserve equal support from the government. I might think that the entire world was created last Tuesday from the breast milk of a giant hedgehog but that doesn't mean the government is automatically required to build a hedgehog statue to appease me and then I get to play a victim if others think this is dumb.

Now if lots of people get behind the statue, well it might be stupid but then that darn thing could be built. That is how this works. Government represents the people. If the people want a statehouse that is done up in pink because Bronies took over the legislature or like Castle Greyskull because we all joined the cult of Skeletor well we get the government we deserve. That's how the system works.

Wow, I've never seen so many willing to throw up their hands and give up their freedoms so willingly. Disgusting. It looks as if many here have decided to let the press do their thinking for them. Is being politically correct really worth your freedoms? Don't you realize if you limit unpopular speech in this Country then freedom of speech is no longer a right?

That's not how it works. Freedom of speech means one has the right to condemn ideas. You see a random guy has the right to tell me he thinks I'm a giant poopy head that farts out my mouth. I am not obligated to just stand there silent and take this. I can retaliate by pointing out that he has the brainpan of a manure shoveler because I think phrenology is still a thing for some reason.

We have the right to disagree.

I'll bet many of you think guns are bad as well. Perhaps we should get rid of those too?

That's only a half measure. Getting rid of the gun owners would really solve the problem. It'd be immoral as all hell but if we are going for mass utility and effectiveness while banking on the idea that history will be written by only those that survive the purge then it makes sense.

That's the media pushing, will you push back or throw up your hands yet again?

Are they? I have yet to see Fox News advocate anything that even sort of resembles gun control. And what does Kim Kardashian think of all this? I filter all my ideas about governance through the WWKKD? construct. As a result my countless letters to my congressman asking for a National Shoe Closet Strategic Reserve go unanswered.

So, let's do away with freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, right? How about privacy? We've already given that one away. The NSA can listen to every word you say over the phone and can also read your emails. Nice huh. Oh, of course it's better to give up some freedoms for security......What will you give away next?
Chris B.

Well no one is advocating for getting rid of free speech anyways. But if the mere idea of dissent in opinions signals to you the idea that all restrictions on personal liberty are too risky I advise you to go join up with Lord Humongous then roam the badlands of a post apocalyptic dystopia stealing from the weak.

That's exactly why they did that, and a very good catch on your part. Very sharp tactic. They knew it would inflame the uninformed over to their particular agenda to destroy free speech.

The problem here is not the confederate battle flag, this type of argument can be given in support of suppressing anything a select group finds offensive or against their own particular view. By doing this, speech is no longer free, it is limited to popular speech only, that's not what freedom of speech is about.

Actually freedom of speech is about being able to speak. The distallation of these ideas into consensus or dissent is irrelevant to that. How many people think thunder is the result of sentient unicorn farts? I'm guessing no one. Does this mean free speech was suppressed because we all looked at the notion of magical intelligent flatulence and thought it was stupid? Are we required to have a statue of a unicorn passing gas on the front steps of government buildings just because someone thought it up?

And if they do build that then why can't we come up with the money for my National Shoe Closet Strategic Reserve?

Some just don't seem to get it. We can't just limit it in this "one case" because if we allow this to happen then any unpopular speech can also be limited.

Actually we absolutely can do this. Can you call up your neighbor at 3AM to tell him how you are going to rape his daughter? Oh, you can't? Well how did we make that against the rules but still allow all the other speech? It's almost like this isn't an all or nothing forced dichotomy.

It's not about whether we agree or disagree with the display of the confederate flag it's about whether we agree with free speech being limited to include only popular speech.
Chris B.

Actually it is about that. People have the right to say, "that flag should fly" and the rest of us have the right to examine that proposition and then either assent or decline.

Again, where is my National Shoe Closet Strategic Reserve!?!

I believe it belongs in museums, as a part of historical artifact not on car plates, etc..

The "pulling down" impetus reminds me of the mindset of those that burned witches/warlocks in Salem. There's a right way and wrong way to do anything and kneejerk PC'ness is not a display of progressive thinking. IMO, it only serves to make martyrs of those with unbridled hatred.

Not wanting to display a symbol of racism and torturing then murdering people because they are feared to be fictional beings is so not the same thing. That's like saying we can't build public schools because the ability to build stuff could lead to someone building a cobalt bomb doomsday machine. So better be safe and just build nothing.

Very noble campaign. Although it's not even the original flag of the confederacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULBCuHIpNgU

What about the Stars and Stripes? It's associated with the genocide of Native Americans and racist ideas of manifest destiny; the whole country is stolen land.

I don't fly that flag either. I find flags to be dumb anachronisms.
 
Last edited:
Libertarians, in my opinion, are not concerned with the freedom of others. They just want the ability to be spoiled, petulant children running amok doing whatever the hell their unrestrained ID baits them into doing while spewing malformed brain dung from their mouths about force, violence and liberty.
All the while ignoring that we evolved to be a social species and we actually live in societies. And of course, ignore the science of what makes social species so effective.
 
And it is of course a coincidence, but Mt. Zion AME church burns in Greeleyville....
 
My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?

Yes when something happen it is the best moment to bring the issue lying in shadow. Waiting that the issue is cold will not wake the interest of anybody in the vast majority.

I mean really, the kid was a psycotic nut who killed in the name of a flag that wasnt even the original confederate flag. Why were there no calls to have the flag taken down before this incident?

I feel it's a sanctimonious campaign without addressing the underlying issues of racism

I am from Europe and I have heard and discussed call to remove that flag for a long time, and , probably, for more than 10 years.

As for addressing the issue of racism, the resistance to removing the flag and the weak denial about its symbolism, are quite an indication on the issue.
 
What about the Stars and Stripes? It's associated with the genocide of Native Americans and racist ideas of manifest destiny; the whole country is stolen land.


Sure, but, you see... the United States of America still exists. Despite all of its flaws and past atrocities, it's still around to decide which flag should be flown to represent itself.

My question is - is this really the most pressing campaign du jour?


Maybe not the most pressing, but one that's been building for quite some time and is finally being dealt with.

Also, it's incredibly ridiculous to imply that we, as a nation, or even the government, are utterly incapable of multitasking; that, since there must surely be more important things to do, no one at all should even be talking about this until those things have been dealt with.
 
Last edited:

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom