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Originally Posted by listopencil
The swastika has typically meant Nazis in our culture imediately after Nazis came along. There are only very rare incidences of swastikas in our culture before we encountered them. That flag however, has nothing to do with racism. It is the battle flag of the Confederacy and was used (as well as others) by Southern soldiers conducting warfare against what they viewed as a repressive government. If anything, it represents the native American belief that rebellion for a good cause is legitimate. I know that people who are ignorant of its origins do not like it because it represents something completely different to them as it has been used by hateful bigots for 150 years or so. That's not a good enough reason to destroy a symbol or decree it obscene. Destroy the racist terrorists in our country and decree them obscene instead.
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I understand the origin of the flag.
But that doesn't change the fact that the symbolism of that flag has shifted. Call it ignorance or whatever you want, but a symbol means what the person interpreting it thinks it means. To a lot of people in this world, that flag symbolizes a time and culture rife with racism. The meaning of a symbol is in the eye of the interpreter. In a large part of this country, that flag is interpreted as one of the banner's of a racist culture. Whatever it's initial meaning was, it means something else to a lot of people now.
Also, you can't deny the racist attitude of the large majority of people that hoisted that flag in it's infancy. If you want to excuse that attitude because they thought it was a good cause, then by the same token you can excuse the swastika because all the Germans were doing was fighting for a cause they believed in.
This isn't a deliberate use of Godwin's Law, itjust happens to be the most fitting analogy.