What does the Confederate Flag mean to you?

[MaC]

Obviously it is a sign of treason, agression, terror, mass slaughter, and racism.  Anyone who disgarees should check a history book.  You can't change the meaning of the flag.  It shall always be the Confederate flag and stand for everything the Confederate states stood for.

You do know that your 8th grade history books are written to an audience, don't you?

[Hatman 🍁]

It's a flag that represents white southerners. Some use it to portray racism, others to promote pride with dixie. If I saw someone waving the flag here, I'd assume it is some sort of joke, or it was for a racist reason.

[Virginian87]

Obviously it is a sign of treason, agression, terror, mass slaughter, and racism. 

You obviously know nothing about Civil War history and the era leading up to it.  Then you would realize that the secession of the South was not directly caused by slavery, but was more based on a different interpretation of the rights of the States in the Constitution.

Weren't they also afraid that the sectional balance (in terms of senate seats) would strongly favor the north? The Missouri Compromise (nullified by the Dred Scott case), pretty much guaranteed that as westward expansion continued, the north would pick up more states than the south.

This sectional balance upset was further exemplified by the Lincoln victory in election 1860, despite receiving only 39% of the vote (in a four way race). And 39% was all he needed. Even if a single candidate had gotten 61% of the vote, Lincoln would've still won due to his PV majorities in the electorally significant states.

Sorry about that, there was a sectional component of the history, but the problem itself between the states originally stemmed from a question of the size and role of the federal government versus the size and role of the state governments.  A good case from the states' rights perspective was the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, penned by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the late 1790s.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

[Virginian87]

Obviously it is a sign of treason, agression, terror, mass slaughter, and racism. 

You obviously know nothing about Civil War history and the era leading up to it.  Then you would realize that the secession of the South was not directly caused by slavery, but was more based on a different interpretation of the rights of the States in the Constitution.

What was the state right they wanted?  The right to slavery.  Please don't pretend that slavery didn't cause it and that the confederates were racist pigs.

Slavery was not the only cause of the Civil War.  It was much more complicated than that.  Not all Confederates were "racist pigs" either; in the eyes of many the Union was attacking their way of life.  Had the Confederacy won the war (and I'm not saying it should), slavery probably would have eventually died out anyway.  

Either you must have had a really watered-down history lesson on the Civil War, or these claims must be based on your intolerance for Southerners in general.  I don't see how you can claim to be a liberal who preaches tolerance and then insult a good portion of the U.S. in many of your posts.

[Virginian87]

Once again you're erroneously equating the Confederate Flag to the Ku Klux Klan and for what that despicable organization stands for.  BRTD, if you came to the South you would realize that most people who wave the flag aren't people burning crosses.  You think States here is like that?  Of course not.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That image is from a 1995 compilation LP I have in the part of the insert from the band In/Humanity who were from South Carolina, as part of the lyrics and explanation to their song "Southern Swastika". So it was made by people in the South.

[??????????]

Once again you're erroneously equating the Confederate Flag to the Ku Klux Klan and for what that despicable organization stands for.  BRTD, if you came to the South you would realize that most people who wave the flag aren't people burning crosses.  You think States here is like that?  Of course not.

I burn three crosses a week in effigy of BRTD in my front yard.

[Brandon H]

Here is a good article on the Confedate Flag, one of the most detailed I have read.
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/rebel_flag.html
It's a bit long and will actually require the reader to spend a little bit of time reading it. For those of you with short attention spans, it may be difficult to read.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Just a flag symbolizing something from our past.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

It's more #1 than anything else, although it does remind me somewhat of groups like the KKK; whether or not that's justified isn't the point.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I will be completely honest.  And don't judge me for being honest.

The confederate flag offends me.  That is mostly because the Civil War in my eyes is mostly about slavery these days.  Yes, there were plenty of northern racists and plenty of northern slave owners at one time... but I come from a state that made it a point to join the Union in order to oppose slavery, and we had a large number of people relative to our tiny population at the time who fought for the Union in the fight, despite having our own battles going on with Native Americans (Dakota, not Ojibwe).

When someone displays the Confederate flag in Minnesota, I think it's a slap in the face to those that fought to preserve the union and to free the slaves.

Of course I think it's a little different in the south.  I realize that most southerners that fly it do so for different reasons than racism.  I understand the belief of states rights even if I don't always agree with its intentions.

But it still makes me a little uneasy when I see it displayed, even if it is a common part of southern heritage.  And perhaps I'm wrong for that... but it's how I was raised in a very different part of the country (we're kind of the anti-south culturally and politically)... still, I find the civil war a very sad, if fascinating part of OUR history.  And I'm damn glad we can say OUR history.

[Person Man]

The Patron Flag of Right-Wing Ideologues. Well, ever since I saw a Civic with a confederate flag and a sign that said "Abortion is Homicide".

[fezzyfestoon]

Option 1.  But it's a difficult thing to remove from its past and I have no doubt some people mean for it to have everything to do with that past.  I would not feel comfortable displaying it or having it around me, but I don't judge people based entirely off of it.  Though I do find it ironic when it is displayed beside an American flag.

[JSojourner]

I've opined about this before.

The KKK argument is made of fail.  If the KKK using the Stars and Bars makes it a flag of hate, then what do we do with the Stars and Stripes?  Those cowards hide behind it as much or more than the CS flag.

The slavery argument is equally flawed.  Yes, this is the flag of a "country" that not only permitted, but celebrated, human slavery.  I totally get the hatred of that peculiar and diabolical institution.  But how fair is it to assign the Confederate flag a status of "slavery symbol" when the aforementioned Stars and Stripes flew quite contentedly over a slave nation for some 75 years or so.  We finally "got it" and a tad sooner than our Southern cousins.  But the Brits figured it out before we did.  Quibbling over a few decades is hardly useful.

The Confederate flag is a symbol of rebellion, disunion and military aggression against the United States of America.  The same can be said of many other flags.  Therefore, it should not be a part of any state flag...nor should it be flown anywhere but on private property.  With these exceptions...

*Museums devoted to Civil War or Southern history
*Military cemeteries and other places of interrment where Confederate soldiers are buried
*Civil War battlefields

This not only simplifies the issue by removing the emotions associated with slavery and racism, it makes the most sense.  If you are, like me, virulently disgusted over the idea of human trafficking -- past or present -- there are dozens of ways to express that disgust without having to posture and preen in such a way as to say to our Southern cousins, "You lost.  We won. Get over it." 

[Mint]

To me? Nothing. It's not relevant to my life. I wish people on both sides would shut up about the civil war to be honest. It was over 150 years ago and both sides were horrible. It's over, just let it go.

[WillK]

Option 4 -- something else, namely treason, anti-americanism, general douchebaggery

[WillK]

...
Yes, and it was often far worse in the north as it extended beyond one race. Jews & Irish were quite discriminated against as well in northern states and cities. The largest concentration of Jews in the US in 1860 was the South.

Since when was New York (which had the largest concentration of Jews in the US in 1860) in the south?

[Mechaman]

Nothing, it's just a friggin flag, just like Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, and Nativist America.

[??????????]

...
Yes, and it was often far worse in the north as it extended beyond one race. Jews & Irish were quite discriminated against as well in northern states and cities. The largest concentration of Jews in the US in 1860 was the South.

Since when was New York (which had the largest concentration of Jews in the US in 1860) in the south?

Proof? Do you want me to prove your troll ass wrong again?

[??????????]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.jewishmag.com/110mag/civilwar/civilwar.htm

[??????????]

http://www.stpetetimes.com/News/022501/Perspective/Southern_Jews_in_the_.shtml

[DownWithTheLeft]

It is a symbol of freedom, state's rights, and against government intrusion

[??????????]

http://www.civilwarhome.com/jewish.htm

[??????????]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin