What does the Confederate Flag mean to you?

[Gabu]

A beautiful flag of the true Americans, not the tretcherous north.

You know, I think this is the first time I've seen someone who isn't even an American, much less someone not from the South, who gets bent out of shape over the Civil War and curses the North.

It's an odd sight, to say the least.

[Gabu]

Regarding the question at hand, option 4 - I don't give a damn about the Confederate flag, because I am normal, and I don't regularly pay attention to what the great-great-grandfathers of people I don't know may have done.

I think too much is made of the supposedly oppressive symbolism behind the confederate flag.  The reality is that slavery took place under the stars and stripes as well as the stars and bars.  Should we get rid of the stars and stripes?

I also think that people that obsess over the confederate flag are wrong for two reasons.  First, practically speaking, they are avoiding the reality of today's problems by focusing on symbols of the past.  If they spend half the energy trying to fix today's problems as they did worrying about what happened 150 years ago, or even 50 years ago, they'd be in much better shape than they are.  The "civil rights" movement is so bankrupt at this point; they are devoid of any ideas for dealing with today's problems, other than blaming other people for all their problems and obsessing on things like the confederate flag.

Second, the attack on the confederate flag is ultimately an attack on the whole legitimacy of our society.  Does anybody really believe that if we appease these people by getting rid of the confederate flag, they'll actually be satisfied?  The truth is that they will never be satisfied; they consider our entire society corrupt and don't really see redeeming qualities in it.  Their issue is not really with the confederate flag or white southerners; it is with all of us.

I mostly agree with you, but I think it should be noted that the opponents of the Confederate flag are not the only ones who use what happened 150 years ago against other people - those who go around asserting that Lincoln was a tyrant and that the North is evil, etc., are just as guilty of this.

[Gabu]

I think at this point we should just forget the civil war.  I can't understand why so many people still seem to be so obsessed with it.

As a Canadian, I can't claim to understand American feelings regarding the civil war, so I have to say that I'm glad to hear an American say that.  These endless debates over who was right in the civil war never really seem to do much of anything, other than to pit Northerners against Southerners in a contest to see who can accuse the other of the most crimes against humanity.

[Gabu]

I have noticed though that Canadians kind of feel the same way about the War of 1812 as Southernors do about the Civil War.

Every history textbook in school said that the US won the War of 1812. But once I got the internet, all the Canadians I met claimed that the US lost and the British and by extension Canada was the victors.

I think most historians consider the war a stalemate though, which it largely was.

I have the same opinion of the War of 1812 as I do of the Civil War, although I'll often jokingly bring up the War of 1812 to tell Americans that they shouldn't mess with Canada.

I don't really think the War of 1812 had the impact that the Civil War did, though.  I don't know of anyone that hates someone else because of it.

[Gabu]

The people to fear are the people that run away from alchohol or refuse to go into a sex shop. you can talk to them but they live in world that resembels the 19th century.

You're so right.  Alcohol and sex didn't exist in the 19th century.  They are both recent inventions.

Yes, and people who shy away from alcohol and sex shops are so dangerous, like me.