Confederate Flag Sales Skyrocket As Debate Rolls On
In the wake of the Charleston church shooting that left nine dead, a national debate is arising about the role of the Confederate flag in our society.
Over the last few days, multiple states have renounced the flag. South Carolina governor’s called for its removal from state properties. The governor of Virginia vowed to remove it from state license plates. Mississippi’s house speaker said the infamous battle design needed to be removed from the state flag. All the while, online sales of the flag have skyrocketed.
From Business Insider:
Amazon’s sales of Confederate flags have skyrocketed by more than 3,000% in the past 24 hours.
People are snatching up the flags online after several major retailers — including eBay, Wal-Mart, and Sears — pulled them from shelves.
The retailers banned the flags after last week’s shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in which a gunman killed nine people in the historic black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
This afternoon, Amazon joined the ranks of eBay, Wal-Mart and Sears by removing Confederate merchandise from its site.
It’s no surprise that people are stocking up on Confederate paraphernalia. The issue is proving to be incredibly divisive, with one side claiming the flag is a symbol for hatred and racism, while the other claims it’s about heritage and state’s rights. This shift in blame is commonplace after a tragedy, when people naturally search out reasons behind the “why” of an issue. Why did the shooter feel so much hatred towards black people? What compels a human being to commit a monstrous act?
Perhaps I am oversimplifying it, but it is possible to be on neither side of an issue. While I believe it is 100 percent ludicrous to take pride in a flag that represented a faction of anti-American, racist fervor 150 years ago, I also disagree with the notion that a reactionary mob mentality of banning or criminalizing anything deemed offensive will solve any problems, at all.
I mean, look at this:
CNN: Does this offend you?
Everyone right now: Yes to both. Don Lemon and the Confederate flag. pic.twitter.com/x1c7GX7mKY
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 23, 2015
ARE YOU OFFENDED? WELL, ARE YOU?
When the Confederate flag is inevitably banned from government properties, it will be considered a milestone victory for racism in America.
No racism issues will be solved, but they will be temporarily deflected because of victory over an inanimate object. Symbols don’t have inherent power — people place power in them. Racists don’t need a flag to be racist.
This tragedy shouldn’t be the reason the flag is removed. The flag shouldn’t have been flying on government properties in the first place.
This is usually the point in a controversy where I’d just stick to sports and ignore all the other noise, but it’s the offseason and there is nothing else to talk about. This debate will only get more insane, with (at minimum) 50-plus hot takes on the way — from a slightly drunk grandma at family dinner to an editorializing, overly dramatic SportsCenter anchor and everyone in-between.
Maybe I should just go camping..
[via Business Insider]
Image via YouTube
Sounds about right. #AMERICA #FUCKYEAH #FREEDOM #FUCKLIBERALS
10 years ago at 3:04 pmno
10 years ago at 3:06 pmKindly, fuck off already
10 years ago at 3:11 pmLess hashtags more thinking
10 years ago at 3:21 pmThis was said awhile ago, but the Iron Giant is a liberal movie. Hogarth was probably the most liberal character in that movie, which makes your comments somewhat funny. Not funny as in you are actually funny, but the fact that you are this stupid is funny to us. Even if you had a different account name, your ignorance would still piss us off. With all that said, just leave.
10 years ago at 7:48 pmKeep the Rebel flag forever!! Yaahhhhoooo
10 years ago at 12:50 amFuck yoy steve its called freedom of speech people should be allowed to fly the flag. #AMERICA #FUCKYEAH #FREEDOM #FUCKLIBERALS
10 years ago at 3:06 pmMy bad. State house not people. Apologies Steve.
10 years ago at 3:07 pm#BlackballHogarthHuges
10 years ago at 3:12 pmHow many times did your mother-aunt drop you on your head as an infant?
10 years ago at 3:18 pm“Chants” –> USA!! USA!!
10 years ago at 12:33 amHogarth shut the fuck up dude
10 years ago at 3:10 pmThis is the confederate flag.
Are you offended?
This is the battle flag of the Army of Tennesee
10 years ago at 3:12 pmand has nothing to do with racism so fuck you Helmet Stickers
*Battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, but yes, everyone is mis-identifying it.
10 years ago at 3:14 pmArmy of NoVA flag is square, Army of the Tennessee flag is rectangular.
10 years ago at 3:16 pmTo me it looks like both pics are “squished” so I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be square or rectangle. If it’s not squished, my mistake, then he’s correct.
10 years ago at 3:19 pmI did my research, you can add yourself to the list of people mis-identifying it.
10 years ago at 3:18 pmNo one has talked about Bonnie Blue…
10 years ago at 4:11 pmThe funny thing is that Georgia’s state flag more closely resembles the Confederate Flag than it did before the state changed it. And now nobody is arguing for it to change now. As Gruber said: Americans are stupid.
10 years ago at 3:46 pmHe had an American flag as well. Does it make that flag racist too? Tell me what flag was on the slave ships coming across the ocean? Yup. The American flag. But that’s not racist to us at all. I’m sure somebody already ranted about how Lincoln was a tyrannical piece of shit and the war had nothing to do with slavery on the southern side. Might I add that 13,000 Mexicans fought willingly for the south. As well as South Americans. Look up Brazil on their confederate ancestor day. That’ll shut up a liberal real quick. Also HK edger ton look him up.
10 years ago at 3:53 pmThere’s pictures of him burning and stomping on his American flag.. everything else is spot on though.
10 years ago at 4:07 pmFuckin blackball Hogarth, please.
10 years ago at 3:12 pmI know nobody will read this cause it’s long, but educate yourselves, folks…
In the Southern states of the U.S.A. Georgia and several other states that were a part of the Confederate States of America 1861-1865 celebrate April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. The South and the Confederate States of America have been harshly discriminated against and positive historical facts and figures have intentionally been suppressed. Dishonest Northern historians have unfairly caused Southern and Confederate history and its heroes, monuments, memorials, and flags to be regulated to a role of less importance than deserved in American history and to be viewed in a negative perspective by much of the American public.
U.S president Woodrow Wilson is quoted as saying “the role of slavery became the proclaimed cause of the Civil War because it was necessary to put the South at a moral disadvantage by transforming the contest from a war for Independence into a war waged for the maintenance and extension of slavery”. If slavery was all the Southern states wanted they could have kept it without a war or firing a shot. The North offered the South the Corwin Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in March 1861 that would have made slavery permanently legal in America if they would rejoin the union. The South refused and the Constitution of the Confederate States of America banned the international slave trade. Most educated Southerners were in favor of gradual orderly emancipation which would have prevented segregation and Jim Crow laws which were based on Northern black codes.
The words of Confederate General Patrick R. Cleburne who was killed at the battle of Franklin Tennessee on November 30, 1864 are becoming true. “Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late. It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision”. Political correctness and Socialist Marxist Revisionism are attacking everything Southern and Confederate on national, state, and local levels all across America.
Political correctness and Socialist Marxist Revisionism are attacking everything Southern and Confederate on national, state, and local levels all across America
The Confederate flag represents honor, faith, courage, dignity, integrity, chivalry, Christian values, respect for womanhood, strong family ties, patriotism, self- reliance, limited constitutional federal government, states rights, and belief in the free enterprise system. It symbolizes the noble spirit of the Southern people, the rich heritage, the traditions of the South and the dynamic and vigorous Southern culture. No other symbol so proudly says “Dixie” as the Cross of St. Andrew (Confederate Battle Flag) waving in the breeze. Liberals have falsely indoctrinated many black Americans to believe it represents racism, bigotry, and a painful reminder of slavery. But white Christian Southerners who fly the Confederate Battle Flag are not the enemy of responsible Black Americans who are working to better themselves.
The Confederate flag is the last flag to represent the concept of local control of ones’ life in America. In a larger sense it represents the same values and principles as the original U.S. Betsy Ross Flag: Limited Constitutional Federal Government, States Rights, Resistance to Tyranny, and Christian Principles and Values. Thus it represents “government of the people, by the people, and for the people with the consent of the governed”.
The Confederate flag is an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to tyranny. That is why it was flying over the Berlin Wall when it was being torn down in 1989 and has been flown by numerous countries or provinces seeking independence.
It reminds knowledgeable Americans that government is to be held accountable for its actions, and if those actions are viewed as not being in the best interest of the people, there is a price to be paid for it. This fact has not been lost upon the Socialist, Communist, liberal left and that is why they have spent inordinate amounts of money and energy trying to suppress this powerful symbol of freedom. The Confederate battle flag is a Christian symbol and that is why proponents of Secular Humanism (the belief that there is no God and man, science, and government can solve all problems) oppose it.
The flag also represents the valor and sacrifice of our Southern ancestors in their quest to gain independence and recognition as a sovereign nation. Confederate soldiers displayed tremendous bravery in the face of overwhelming odds and blatant tyranny and aggression on behalf of the Yankee government that invaded the Southern homeland. It was, is, and will continue to be the flag of the region Southerners call home, the Southland. We are Americans, true, but we are also proud Southerners.
written by: James W. King,
10 years ago at 3:12 pmCommander SCV Camp 141, Lt. Col. Thomas M. Nelson-Nelson’s Rangers, Albany Georgia
Yeah I’m not reading this whole thing.
10 years ago at 3:13 pmShort summary–all you need to read right here: https://twitter.com/jnthnwwlsn/status/611684742421999620
10 years ago at 7:37 pmThe flag in question (Confederate Battle Flag) isn’t the second national flag of the confederacy though…
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/black-college-student-sparks-debate-hanging-confederate-flag-dorm-room-kind-weird-black-article-1.985611
10 years ago at 4:14 amIf only everyone of all colors and backgrounds were so intelligent and informed. Thanks for the link, WarHawk!
10 years ago at 8:19 amI hate liberals
10 years ago at 2:22 amHonoring traitors to the United States of America. NF.
10 years ago at 1:56 pmIf you value truth and not liberal propaganda, you’ll do yourself a favor and read this comment. Well done.
10 years ago at 3:16 pmThe problem is people aren’t educated on the matter, they believe everyone flying a confederate flag is a racist because society told them so. Maybe instead of banning confederate flags, we should instead educate people properly on the actual origins and meaning of the symbol so that when someone is deranged enough to murder another because of their ethnicity we don’t blame a fucking symbol of freedom that’s a part of this country’s history.
10 years ago at 3:22 pmI’m from the north so naturally I don’t like the confederate flag, but it’s unconstitutional and an abuse of power to ban it.
10 years ago at 3:25 pmNobody is banning it, they’re just taking it off state property…nothing unconstitutional about it. If you want to use your freedom of speech to wave the losing team’s flag over your house be my guest.
10 years ago at 4:50 pmComing from a northern who is for the most part in the corner against the flag. While I do believe the flag itself to a large degree represents racism, I do not automatically assume anyone who flies the flag in their yard, has it on a t-shirt, or uses it as a decal on their car is racist.
10 years ago at 3:33 pmThose would be Nascar fans… common mistake.
10 years ago at 3:42 pmJust because you’re from the north you don’t like it? Why is that? I’m just curious because the civil war didn’t personally affect you so I’m just wondering why
10 years ago at 3:44 pmMaybe I’m wrong but I feel I would feel the same had I been born in the south. But to elaborate copy and pasted from my comment yesterday); “I do think this is a culture that is becoming to easily offended. But the stars and bars represent something different. People should take some time to read South Carolina’s original secession document from December 24, 1860. The men who wrote it thought it was so important, they went to work on Christmas Eve to ensure its speedy passage. They used the word “slavery” 18 times. They not only defended enslaving people in South Carolina, but they forcefully condemned the federal government for allowing other states to outlaw the practice. South Carolina’s document is important because the states that followed used it as a model for their own secession documents. Some people will tell you the Civil War was about states’ rights. Okay, this is true so long as they concede it was about a state’s right to violently enslave human beings. Never, not once, did the men who drafted this document in 1860 argue, “Hey, this has nothing to do with race.” For them, white supremacy was the entire point! They didn’t try to hide it. This flag represents secession and the pure racism it was for.” it is because of these reasons that I feel a state should not fly the flag, or have it as part of their flag.
Individuals should absolutely be allowed to fly the flag from their lawn, or wear it on a t-shirt. That’s part of the freedom we all love. Its the same as it would be fine for someone to fly a Nazi flag from their house if it suited them. I might make a point for my dog so shit in their yard everyday, but dammit that is their right.
10 years ago at 3:58 pmThe “stars and bars” does not refer to the flag in question. That would be the “Southern Cross”. Read a fucking book.
10 years ago at 4:04 pmCalm down. Honest mistake. I don’t call things by their nickname very often.
10 years ago at 4:09 pmBeecher1843: You are true about the SC document. But also, remember that SC was so attached to slavery for one reason: cheap labor that allowed them to produce cotton cheaply to compete with other countries. The South was in favor of the free trade while the Government created tariffs on imported manufactured goods (the same as produced in the North) but not on raw materials such as cotton. So the Northern States gained a competitive advantage in their production, they did not have any international competition and they could sell their manufactured products at a higher price than without tariffs. Meanwhile the South had to produce cotton cheap enough to compete with the India (colonized by English at that time), so for them, abolishing slavery was what was going to kill their industry, and ruin them. We are in 1860, everybody was racists, northerners were extremely racists against the Catholic Irish that they had no regrets sending to death in the Civil War, so the racist argument is kind of not really valid because everybody was racist.
Also, about the “confederate flag”, the one you’re talking about is the last flag adopted by the CSA. The first one is almost the exact same one as the Georgia’s flag. Yeah the flag of Georgia is a confederate flag, didn’t know that, don’t ya? Want to ban it as well?
And our beautiful Stars and Stripes is also the same that soldiers of the Union were holding while slaughtering Natives, isn’t that a bit offensive for them?
A last point, if you have ever been in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, there is that speech on the wall on the left of Lincoln that says that Southerners got “their bread from the sweats of other men”. Only 4,8% of the white southerners owned slaves, which means that 95,2% of the white Southerners got their bread from their own sweat. Isn’t that also making a generalization on the Southerners (remember making generalization on a group of people and judging them for that is the definition of racism)? And displaying it as a general truth on a monument a really shitty move towards Southerners?
The Civil War was a civil war and by definition, it cut our country in two parts, with two sides of the same story. We, Southerners, are forced to learn your side as a general truth, wouldn’t y’all want to also understand our culture and our society rather than judging us on tragic events such as the one in Charleston?
10 years ago at 6:49 pmHave you read the SC secession documents as I suggest? Lets have an honest discussion here.
10 years ago at 4:11 pmYou idiots can downvote him all you want. He is right. The true “Stars and Bars” was the first national flag of the CSA. Study your history…
10 years ago at 12:52 pmOk I feel as though you sort of dodged my question but I am from North Carolina however I know for a fact that the confederate flag flies proudly all over New Jersey and Pennsylvania, not the state Capitol buildings, but people all over those states from what I’ve seen fly those flags in their yards and trucks so to say you’re from the north and are opposed to it is not really saying anything. Yes New England you don’t see that anywhere you’re right and you may be from there however just being from the north doesn’t really mean anything
10 years ago at 4:39 pmThat is fair. It flies all around here in Illinois as well. Being from “the north” I feel makes you more likely to be opposed to it, it is certainly less common but is still very much around. But I’ll give you that stating I’m from the north was largely irrelevant.
Its possible people using it here might be even more likely to be racist since its less likely (but not impossible) they’re using it for pride in the south. I may not love the flag but I’m sure 99% of the people flying it are not doing so do blantly make a racist statement.
10 years ago at 4:54 pmI respect your comment Beecher but yes when I fly it, it is more a southern pride and heritage meaning more than a racist thing. There are many black folk out there who have kind spirits and any “racist” would never dare to say that
10 years ago at 11:00 pmSaying that when you fly the flag it is “more of a southern pride” thing than a racist thing is part of the problem because of you are going to fly it it shouldn’t be more of a pride thing it should be entirely a pride thing not more pride than racism. It’s one of the main issues with flying the flag.
10 years ago at 10:07 amAlso, I fully acknowledge that it can represent different things to different people, and nobody would be completely wrong. I understand tjat many people take it to simply mean southern pride. (I would like to live in the south, hoping I can move to the Florida or Texas branch of the company I work for someday). But to say the flag can’t represent slavery/racism would be incorrect.
10 years ago at 4:04 pmWe don’t want your kind in the South.
10 years ago at 4:08 pmI have started I am 100% fine with you flying the flag from your yard. Also that it might not represent racism to everyone and that they wouldn’t be wrong. I also believe that me living wherever I damm well please would be considered part of the freedom you’re clamoring for.
10 years ago at 4:16 pmIn the north and the section of the country I’m from, those who fly the rebel flag tend to be on the less educated close minded racist side of the spectrum. In school I was never taught the true meaning of the confederacy just that it represents racism so in turn I have grown to dislike the confederate flag.
10 years ago at 5:20 pmIt didn’t personally affect you either
10 years ago at 6:22 pmIn fairness, they did lose.
But then again, despite the fact that slavery was THE political football that everyone was spiking, the South was by no means a monolithic stronghold of slavery, and even then, only because they had better geological and weather conditions for slavery to continue, in contrast with, say, New Jersey (the last Northern state to formally abolish slavery, coincidentally, the only state to vote for Peace Democrat George McClellan, who advocated ending the war with a Union defeat).
I will not disagree that the Confederacy was formed due to slavery; however, it is by far not the only reason.
10 years ago at 3:25 pmIt was the Northern states that were mostly responsible for the slave trade to the Southern states. It was in the Northern factory where the south’s produce was further refined and consumed. The merchants in the North enjoyed the benefits of slavery as much as those planters in the South. Even in Great Britain they were close to supporting the Confederacy so they could continue to receive cheap raw materials. It was all interconnected – if anyone is to blame it is immoral capitalism.
10 years ago at 3:45 pmI read every word of it and I almost shed a tear….
10 years ago at 3:41 pmIt’s not an ultimatum, you don’t have to love or hate the flag. But, people at least need to actually understand what it stands for. Excellently written.
10 years ago at 3:44 pmJust wondering is the original comment here totally accurate? I’d like to use pieces of it in debate
10 years ago at 4:56 pmHear, hear! Very well said, sir.
10 years ago at 11:23 pmHonestly, even coming from SC, I believed we should take down the flag, not because of what I believe it represents (I agree with you), but because it represents a lost. However, we need to keep it up. Even though we lost, we need to remember the conservative values that originally this country was founded on. History repeats itself; the South was attacked by the liberal Northerners because of “racism”. Now, the liberals attack us conservatives saying our God-fearing values are “racist”, “sexist”, or “homophobic”. I’ve had the rebel flag in my drawer for a while, but I think I will hang it up. Thank you Commander King
10 years ago at 8:52 amThat was beautiful
10 years ago at 9:43 amParagraphs, man. Paragraphs.
10 years ago at 1:25 pm“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” – Lincoln, First Inauguration Speech, 1861.
OP tells the truth.
10 years ago at 12:16 amPretty soon they’re gonna ban the California flag because of the rise in bear attacks
10 years ago at 3:16 pmBeing from California, I support your concern and will be leading a protest against using such an unforgiving fear monger on our flags.
10 years ago at 3:59 pmIf i don’t see legislation about this disgusting, insensitive, overly incorrect issue soon, I won’t even want to live in this country anymore. Also men are pigs and oppress women
10 years ago at 5:43 pmThe reason for the rise in attacks? Liberals and PETA are reintroducing bears into neighborhoods and cities where they were originally located before human settlement. Guns are banned so people can’t defend themselves, and even if they had guns they can’t harm wildlife because it’s cruel. I hear Hollywood is surrounded by an anti-bear fence though.
10 years ago at 4:00 pmFreedom of speech/expression begins and ends where liberals believe it so.
10 years ago at 3:19 pmStates don’t have freedom of speech (or any rights). That was taken away when the confederacy lost the civil war.
10 years ago at 6:19 pmActually, states have never had rights. People have rights.
10 years ago at 6:48 pm>implying that states don’t have rights
10 years ago at 1:56 amIt is sad how everyone thinks this is a Conservative problem. In 1962 Governor Fritz Hollins was responsible for ordering the Confederate flag flown over the Capitol. He was a Democrat and a segregationist. Bill Clinton’s mentor, Senator Fullbright, was a segregationist and a Democrat who encouraged Governor Bill Clinton to sign an order to fly the confederate flag in Arkansas. All of the Segregationist politicians in the South were Democrats. The Republicans are the ones who championed the Civil Rights Act. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Was a conservative.
10 years ago at 3:19 pmMost southern democrats identified as conservatives until the mid 70s. The labels “democrat” and “conservative” are not mutually exclusive.
10 years ago at 3:31 pmHelmet Stickers, you have the potential to be great, but you must shed the liberal indoctrination that is that is fighting for your soul.
10 years ago at 6:29 pmBack then, Democrat and Republican ideologies were different. Democrats championed states rights so Democrats were what would be Conservatives today.
10 years ago at 3:40 pmAre you really so stupid as to think that one day in 1965, every single Democrat and Republican woke up and switched parties?
10 years ago at 4:01 pmAre you really that stupid to think hes suggesting it happened that quickly and not over a lengthy period of time?
10 years ago at 5:00 pmYet another example of how politically correct our nation is getting. The confederate flag stands for the thousands of southern soldiers that died in the civil war fighting for the south. Nowadays everything’s a race issue.
10 years ago at 3:19 pmAhmen my brother, ahmen.
10 years ago at 3:23 pmYou seriously can’t spell “Amen” right?
10 years ago at 7:39 pmFighting for the south who wanted slavery…
10 years ago at 3:26 pmWell, part of the reason they were fighting was for slavery (not all of it, I know yes, but part of it) so there is an obvious connection there.
10 years ago at 3:26 pmI’ll play devil’s advocate here: Saying the flag “stands for _____” is truly a matter of interpretation. To you, it stands for thousands that died in the South. To people who are against it, it stands for the support of slavery. There really is no right or wrong answer. The problem is when a symbol for something is deemed offensive by too many people, it becomes uncouth to display it at a public (i.e. government-related) institution. My money’s on the flag coming down, but I’ve been wrong before.
10 years ago at 3:34 pmWell, I imagine that the majority of South Carolinians still support it being at the capital, or that in a years time it will return to the normal level of support. The problem is that the most irrational and opportunity exploiting people have the loudest voice. It’s like the decision to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 with a woman: A couple hundred thousand people sent a petition to the White House, so now that is somehow indicative of all Americans and they are changing Hamilton to probably Rosa Parks or Harriet Tubman.
10 years ago at 4:05 pm