Pentagon keeping current ban on pride flag

[LtNOWIS]

Sad and disappointing. What's their rationale, that people will start demanding trans and BLM flags?

The rationale is simple. They wanted to ban the Confederate flag recently, but instead of banning it specifically under Trump, they just banned all flags except the ones Green Line just outlined.

But it makes sense to keep it this way, because otherwise they'd have to become the Flag Police and determine which ones are ok and which ones aren't. Actual white supremacists could have any number of ones that are like the Confederate flag but aren't. You'd probably also see the Black Lives Matter flag and the "thin blue line" police flag, which would cause disputes. You'd probably have to allow both or allow neither in those cases, and allowing neither is much easier. And all these flags can be infinitely combined or modified.

[LtNOWIS]

Maybe I should oppose this in theory, but remembering my violent reaction to Raytheon adopting a pride-themed Twitter profile picture earlier this month gives me pause. It subverts the nature of pride to associate it with state violence and the forces that have oppressed it for so long.

I hate to invoke the "horseshoe theory" this, it's applicable here. You have people from the center left to center right broadly saying "the military should be for everyone and it's good that we have people joining from HBCUs, openly gay people serving, trans people joining up again, etc." But you have the far right and far left both agreeing with the premise that "No the military is an oppressive and reactionary force that does exist on one side of the political spectrum. Only right wing goons should be in the military, or at the very least other people should be as invisible as possible."

I've met a staggeringly high number of LGBT people in the military. They're the same as anyone else, regular folks who joined for their own reasons. Some patriotism, some nebulous desire to prove themselves, a lot of wanting a job and a college education. It's unfortunate that people treat their mere existence in the military as "political," a full 10 years after they could start serving openly. And it's unfortunate that they can't display an important aspect of their identity on their barracks window or outside their family home on base, even if this policy is logical overall.

[LtNOWIS]

Sad and disappointing. What's their rationale, that people will start demanding trans and BLM flags?

The rationale is simple. They wanted to ban the Confederate flag recently, but instead of banning it specifically under Trump, they just banned all flags except the ones Green Line just outlined.

But it makes sense to keep it this way, because otherwise they'd have to become the Flag Police and determine which ones are ok and which ones aren't. Actual white supremacists could have any number of ones that are like the Confederate flag but aren't. You'd probably also see the Black Lives Matter flag and the "thin blue line" police flag, which would cause disputes. You'd probably have to allow both or allow neither in those cases, and allowing neither is much easier. And all these flags can be infinitely combined or modified.

Why are white supremacists on camo welfare in the first place? I thought the military was supposed to have a rigorous screening process?

You can't screen the inside of someone's brain. A white supremacist who keeps his mouth shut and doesn't associate with bad groups or has no record cannot reliably be kept out of anywhere. Also people can get radicalized while in the service, either to white supremacy or other extremist ideologies.

But I'm much less concerned about someone putting up an overtly extremist flag, than a flag that means different things to different people. The Gadsden flag and the thin blue line flag could indicate extremism or intolerance, or they could indicate some acceptable sentiments or affiliations. Same with some others on the left. Parsing it out would be impossible.

[LtNOWIS]

A gay flag would be bad because the people flying it could be gay extremists?

The gay flag is entirely anodyne at this point but there are other flags that are "borderline" that you could either ban or not ban that people would complain about. "If this is okay then why not that," endlessly.