Talk Elections

In light of the rally in Charlottesville being inspired by the removal of Confederate symbols, I'm curious which of these countries with less-than-stellar reputations you would not judge someone negatively for displaying.

I'm also curious, since I have some Eastern bloc memorabilia. Despite the awful systems in countries like Ceausescu's Romania or Stalin's USSR, it doesn't seem like buying a button with a red star or a pocket watch with a hammer and sickle on it has the same sort of emotional effect on people that a swastika or a Confederate flag would. Plus, I think a lot of propaganda can have some amazing art value and tell you a lot about the country that used it. So, I feel like I'm at least a bit more torn about the whole Confederate statues issue than other liberals, even though I think on balance the symbols should go, or at least be relegated to a garden outside some visitor center at a battlefield or something.

Ottoman Empire since they treated their citizens better then many of the nations that replaced them did .
The WW1 German empire because  because they weren't much different from the other European powers .


Everything else I would view that person negatively  .

Say it with me: Armenian Genocide.

Yugoslavia is the least worst option.

I would never own anything w/ symbols from any of these places, though.

I would proudly fly the Confederate, British Indian or South African flags.

It really depends on what you mean by displaying. Proudly flying them in the garden? Probably wouldn't be too disturbed with Ottoman, Yugoslavian, German Empire, British India and maybe Zaire. But just owning things with their symbols? I mean, I have a Russian hat with the hammer and sickle and I sure don't support the Soviet Union. Anything other than Nazi Germany, which is an absolute taboo, and maybe the Confederacy, Khmer Rogue and Nazi allies would be fine in that regard.

Fascist Italy's flag was the flag of the Kingdom of Italy, unless I am mistaking it for another and so it was used from 1861 until 1946 when the Monarchy was abolished. It is basically the same flag as today, with the coat of arms of the royal family in the center.


And it comes down to the kind of display. There are many circumstances where displaying historical flags is of a historical benefit like on a map or a TV documentary. Like someone else said if you fly any of these in a manner that indicates support for it like on your house or whatever, then you have to own both the good and the bad that goes with it.

People should display any flag they want

alright never mind then

How could you not recognize the Ottoman flag??

Voted Confederate States of America, Yugoslavia, other Eastern bloc countries, fascist Italy, British India, German Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Japanese Empire.

Flying the confederate flag in public isn't really a good idea, but plenty of people who fly it aren't racists and are just doing it for regional pride, so I wouldn't necessarily assume they were racists even if I don't think they should be doing it.

The Yugoslavian flag was just the normal Serbian flag with a red Communist star added right? Don't really see what the problem would be with that. Not sure on the connotation of other Eastern bloc flags, but I don't even think people really fly those anymore. Someone who would want to wold just fly the hammer and sickle instead.

The Mussolini era Italian flag was already the Italian flag before he took over and was just the "Kingdom of Italy" flag, so I also don't see the problem.

Not familiar with the history of the use of British India's flag, but I've never seen white supremacists use it or anything. I would assume that if it's used today it's by Anglo-Indians or people who had some kind of personal/family connection to the Raj.

The WWI era German flag has no connection to Nazis and was just the pre Weimar Republic German flag.

The Ottoman flag is the same as the current Turkish flag, right? (red flag with white star and crescent)

I'm assuming by "Japanese Empire Flag" you just mean the Japanese naval jack, which is still in use today and has just become associated with WWII due to war movies and such.

As for the ones I said were not acceptable-

Nazis, Khmer Rouge, and Apartheid South Africa seem pretty obvious.

Unless its in some kind of comedic Soviet kitsch context I would consider the Soviet hammer and sickle pretty unacceptable. It's taboo in a lot of Eastern Europe.

The Francoist Spanish flag is just the Spanish flag with a fascist eagle crest over the top of it. Can't imagine why anyone would fly that except out of allegiance to fascism.

Not super familiar with the context of the Zaire flag but I don't know why anyone would fly it unless they were a Mobutu supporter. 

y tho

Seriously, what is you attachment to RSA or the British Raj?

Mostly to troll. Although I doubt waving the flag of British India would evoke many emotions outside the subcontinent.

How about Rhodesia?

Personally if someone flew any of these flags I will wonder about their loyalties & motivations for admiring failed collectivist states

Swastika in general or do you mean the Nazi Flag , because the Hindu Swastika and the Nazi Swastika mean totally different things as in Hinduism it means peace and well being .

if I saw someone wearing the Nazi flag or a Nazi armband that would be someone I would not want to be around.  I generally believe in legalizing a maximum amount of free speech, including offensive speech, but I don't think I would personally want to associate with someone who supported Nazi ideology. 

There was an incident years ago of a young boy wearing a Nazi uniform for Halloween, but that did not go over well when the boy went to Jewish homes looking for candy.

I wonder why far-right groups don't use the symbols of Francoist Spain and the Falange more often, given that they were actually successful, unlike the Confederates and the Nazis. Far-leftists use Spanish Republican slogans and imagery quite often.

You forgot the flag of the Fatherland Front during Austrofascism (1930s):

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Both were heart-breakingly successful. :(

Interesting to note how Atlas dems prefer Stalin to Robert E Lee. I oppose the flying of any communist flags, nazi flags, confederate flags, and mostly oppose Americans flying other nations flags at all. In defense of confederate flag flyers, most have been told their whole lives that it stands for "southern pride" or "being a rebel" rather than armed rebellion to destroy the United States to preserve racial slavery. I'm not saying it's okay, but it's mostly flown out of Ignorance rather than hate.

As a general rule, waving the colors of any oppressive regime is bad.

Soviet Union, British India, German Empire, Ottoman Empire and Japanese Empire.

Only Yugoslavia.

Have you heard of the Armenian genocide.

Yugoslavia and I guess some of the other eastern block communist states.

Ah, yes, because Tito's dictatorship was better than the constitutional monarchy of Germany in the 1900s and 1910s.

i totally misread the poll

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You're okay with people flying the flag of the Khmer Rouge and Imperial Japan, two of the most evil regimes of the 20th century?

People fly those?

Well, the question was whether you'd judge someone negatively for doing it.

I just checked the flags that are used as hate/fascist symbols today.  I didn't even recognize the Khmer Rouge flag when I googled it.

Yugoslavia, German empire, Ottoman empire.