Opinion on "patriots" and actual respect for the flag

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

(split off from the COVID-19 thread to avoid further derailment)

Self-described "patriots"  - who are mostly white supremacists/ultra-nationalists, although they're often so lacking in self-awareness that they don't understand what they are - love to flaunt the flag of the United States, often in ways that are explicitly in violation of US law.

Some examples I've previously remarked on:





Link to the law: 4 U.S. Code § 8. Respect for flag

Here's a thread Jacobin started on this topic back in 2017.

I think the abuse of the flag by the right is both offensive, and that is serves as a near-perfect example of how broken, hypocritical, ignorant, and fake modern "conservatism" is.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Speaking of ignorance...

Do you complain during the olympics about US teams violating flag code, since most have the flag/parts of the flag on their athletic uniform?

2020 Olympic Uniforms for Team USA

Do you complain about the presence of the American flag on our military combat uniforms?

And from the link you unsurprisingly didn't bother to read:

(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

Thank you for the excellent example of why my rule of thumb treating self-identified Republicans as deplorable idiots is a good one. Now you're going off to ignore, where you belong.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

It should be obvious that including the flag on U.S. military uniforms is not a violation of the flag code.

I'm well aware of what the full flag code is and that military uniforms are not in violation, however this was mostly addressing the garbage, cherry picked argument Ghost of Ruin is making.

If he doesn't complain about every instance in which this is violated, he has no business complaining in this one.

I'd happily blow my nose and cough on the American Flag. While they aren't legally binding, the Flag Code regs are dumb and its amusing to see the feigned "patriotism" of flag fetishization by a lefty.

A basic level of respect for an important symbol costs nothing and is common courtesy. Desecration - of the flag or anything like it - should be done with deliberate intent, otherwise all that's being accomplished is making yourself appear as a thoughtless jerk.  (Before anyone here brings it up, the election of the coward Donald Trump has subjected  the Office of President of the United States to the respectability equivalent of the Siege of Baghdad. There's nothing there left to respect. Perhaps there will be again one day.)

I comment on the right's regular abuse of the flag because it's very revealing of who they really are. Things like the Flag Code date from a different, earlier time in the American zeitgeist. A time that "conservatives" suggest they wish to return to. But the combination of ignorance and lack of respect the right so frequently, publicly demonstrates (without comment from their fellows) the gap between what the American Right claims to be and what they really are.