What do you think when you see a black, white, and blue American flag?
Asked by
JLeslie (
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June 7th, 2021
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35 Answers
I don’t know what it is suppose to represent.
I never saw this before, but I sure think it’s wrong to mess with the American flag like that. Left, right, or upside down and backwards, it’s shamefully disrespectful.
All ‘thin blue line’ flags = fascism.
If you were house hunting and the house next door was flying that flag would it stop you from buying the house that is for sale?
@JLeslie: “If you were house hunting and the house next door was flying that flag would it stop you from buying the house that is for sale?”
Of course. I wouldn’t buy a house with any thin blue line, confederate, Nazi, or Gadsden flags in the neighborhood. A prominent US flag would cause me to pause as well.
Cops over here abuse the union jack in the same way.
Any wonder the police are seen in a gang mentality light.
I would not buy a house in the same neighborhood as that flag or the confederate flag.
I have no problem with it at all, like Pride flags or anything else. Usually cops and cop family’s use the Blue Line flag.
A few flags may give me pause as far as neighbors but not that one.
In the South It was not unusual for someone in a neighborhood to have a confederate flag, maybe that is changing now to this black white and blue flag. Many people who flew the confederate flag thought of it as a Southern pride flag, and didn’t want to accept what it meant to so many others.
The aunt of a friend of mine who lives in Minnesota (the aunt lives there) said she used to have the confederate flag on various things, because she thought it was cute. I was shocked to hear that. Cute? To me the flag means those people want to kill me, that’s my gut reaction, but I realize a lot of people sporting the flag just don’t understand what message they are sending, and possibly the same with the black white and blue.
I can only imagine if self identified Democratic Socialists had designed the black white and blue flag what Republicans would have turned that into. I would bet a million dollars they would have called it a desecration of the flag and a dishonor to our soldiers who fought for us.
I have to say seeing our flag in black and white like that is jarring. It feels unAmerican.
@KNOWITALL I’m glad you answered here since you would be more in touch with the people who fly that flag. You probably see it in your area more than a lot of the other jellies in the collective.
It is basically the equivalent of the white power symbol.
Just like the confederate flag, the Nazi flag, or the Reichskriegsflagge, they are symbolising that they see themselves as part of an authority that is separate, insubordinate, and in opposition to actual government authority.
Whether they see themselves as part of the confederacy, Nazi Germany, the pre-Weimar German Empire (the symbols of all three being used by far right groups in the colonies, often at the same time), or in the “thin blue line” case, a police force that sees itself above the law, nay, see themselves as the law, like Judge Fucking Dredd, not dissimilar from the military Junta in Myanmar, who recently deposed the democratically elected government in an armed coup, they are all authoritarians that seek power over their “inferiors”.
It’s a flag to support the police force. My son in law (a sergeant) has one at his house.
There’s this one – the so-called watermelon flag – that was designed in support of African Americans.
Building off the American flag has been going on for centuries – think about this one from the 1970s.
I think that @ragingloli and others are reading far too much into this.
I know it’s the “thin blue line” flag, ostensibly flown to show support for the police. That said, I have never seen it flown in my area alone. Only accompanied by a Trump flag or sign or banner.
I have also never seen it flown at a house that also has a Pride, Black Lives Matter, or Hate Has No Home Here flag/banner/sign.
I frankly dislike all of them. Vote how you want. Give time, money, and support to whatever politician, group, or cause you want — but just be civil and kind to each other and keep your beliefs off of your lawn. It’s stupid tribalism.
I wish people would go back to decorative flags with sunflowers, pets, or beach scenes on them.
^I have 2 decorative flags. One with Flip Flops and one with a boxer dog.
@elbanditoroso
“I think that @ragingloli and others are reading far too much into this.”
I do not think so.
You know, the Swastika was originally a Hinduist religious symbol. But when someone with combat boots, a shaved head, a pin on his leather jacket that shows two “lightning bolts”, and who at home has a shrine to Joseph Goebbels, and a sizeable collection of 3rd Reich paraphernalia, gives you the excuse that he is “just honouring the hinduist religion”, you would rightly assume that he is full of shit.
In the same way, the “thin blue line” flag is almost always flown alongside other white supremacist symbolism.
Perhaps you should find out what else your son in law believes. I bet no one here will be shocked by the outcome.
@elbanditoroso: “I think that @ragingloli and others are reading far too much into this.”
I’m going to assume you’re being sincere. If that’s the case, it’s worth spending some time researching this. The thin blue line flag is a political statement used to oppose racial justice. It is generally considered to be a racist and fascist symbol.
Symbols are communication. Since you have a different understanding of what this symbol means than society, you might want to be careful not to communicate something you don’t intend. It would be like wearing a Pepe the Frog shirt because you think frogs are cute.
Honestly, I think, “oh, it’s probably a nutjob racist… or at least someone in denial about how broken many US police forces’ abuse of violence is.”
@JLeslie It’s so interesting, and a bit depressing, how people in our country see thing’s so incredibly differently.
I’ve been around confederate flags my entire life and it was never about hate. The swastika and thing’s like that, were, most assuredly.
Supporting police, to me, is not putting anyone else’s agenda down anymore than a Pride flag is putting down hetero’s.
@KNOWITALL
The “thin blue line” flag was created in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the deserved condemnation of police brutality and racism.
Invented alongside their other slogans of “blue lives matter” and “all lives matter”, which were deliberately designed to diminish, belittle and distort BLM’s central premise.
Equally, “straight pride” was a direct response to “gay pride”, not celebrate their “straightness”, but to combat and ridicule “dem degenerate faggits”
@chyna: Just one of many reasons why I like you.
The thin blue line flag was created in 2014 in response to violence in Ferguson, MO, my state.
‘The Thin Blue Line Flag stands for the sacrifice law enforcement officers of this nation make each day. We reject in the strongest possible terms any association of the flag with racism, hatred, bigotry, and violence. To use it in such a way tarnishes everything it and our nation stands for.’
Straight Pride was created in the late 1980’s. A flag against sexual orientation diversity.
I’ve never flown either one, but let’s keep the facts straight.
When I see that flag flying at a home, I assume that a police officer lives there or the resident has a police officer in their family. I only know of one house around here that flies that flag regularly and it is the home of a police officer. I do not think of it as a racist symbol, though I understand why some would. It was created as a defensive move by police at a time when police actions were receiving greater scrutiny. Its origins could be seen as tone deaf, but I don’t see it as racist when someone chooses to show support for police by flying it.
I see the Confederate flag differently mainly because I am from California, not the South, and when you see that flag around here it is generally a white supremacist symbol.
@KNOWITALL Do you think the 2014 Ferguson events are accurately characterized as just “violence”?
What do you think of this:
“In response to the shooting and subsequent unrest, the DOJ conducted an investigation into the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department (FPD).[18][19] In March 2015, the DOJ announced that they had determined that the FPD had engaged in misconduct against the citizenry of Ferguson by, among other things, discriminating against African Americans and applying racial stereotypes in a “pattern or practice of unlawful conduct.”[20][21][22] The DOJ also found that Ferguson depended on fines and other charges generated by police.[23]”
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_unrest
?
@ragingloli, why do you keep calling us “the colonies”? It sounds like a put-down.
@kneesox
It is short for “The North American Colonies in a Perpetual State of High Treason against the British Crown, their Rightful Sovereign”.
@kneesox You’ll get used to it.
They are one of my favorite people here even though they cheat at chess.
@Zaku I assumed most here know about Michael Brown’s death, the riots after, the racist police emails along with the subsequent changes like Senate Bill 5, sensitivity training, personnel changes, etc…
This was about the flag, so I didn’t feel the need to reiterate the entire situation.
@kneesox Yes we’ve all told loli and no effs are given. Feel free to bash Germany at will. Ha!
@ragingloli Sounds a little like Trump. haha!
“He gained a reputation as a swaggering militarist through his speeches and ill-advised newspaper interviews. ... In late 1918, he was forced to abdicate.”
@KNOWITALL It seems to me that the blue flag in both cases has been used to signal support for the police and specifically not support for BLM… as such, it doesn’t seem to me to achieve the goal you mentioned to “reject in the strongest possible terms any association of the flag with racism, hatred, bigotry, and violence.”
@Zaku And you are entitled to your feeling’s.
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