How do you feel about the burning of the American flag?

[Cthulhu 2020]

Uh, No it isn't, its a symbol of our way of life and the people that died to protect it.

People that died to allow those who live here to express themselves in whatever way they want. It's an affront to their memory to want to imprison people for their expression. You're welcome to dislike them for doing it, but anything beyond that is disrespecting those who died for freedom.

[Kellhound]

Yes, and it makes you wrong on many occasions. Being blinded by fanaticism is not something you should be proud off.

Im not blinded at all, because as I said, I know what the US has done wrong in the past and present. I just do not give a crap unless it has harmed the US.

[Deleted]

This is an opinion you can only have in a time of peace and from a place of privilege. The fact that you can say this proves to people who've sacrificed that you either haven't or learned nothing from it. Let's hope you continue to live in a world where you can operate from this perspective while other people take care of you.

Lol, right, the fact that humanity doesn't want wars is because we are privileged. We can't understand how other people are dying for "our freedom" in some war concerning oil and a nations financial interests. These wars have nothing to do with "our freedom" but rather with financial interests and political power. That America can not function without it being involved in some kind of war isn't a good thing, they aren't "fighting for freedom".

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Im not blinded at all, because as I said, I know what the US has done wrong in the past and present. I just do not give a crap unless it has harmed the US.

That pretty much proves that you are blinded by it.

[Kellhound]

Lol, right, the fact that humanity doesn't want wars is because we are privileged. We can't understand how other people are dying for "our freedom" in some war concerning oil and a nations financial interests. These wars have nothing to do with "our freedom" but rather with financial interests and political power. That America can not function without it being involved in some kind of war isn't a good thing, they aren't "fighting for freedom".

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That pretty much proves that you are blinded by it.

No, it means I have made a conscious calculated choice on what I find to be of greatest importance and support it fully.

[Rotted]

Ignore it, feeding it attention will only encourage it more

[Deleted]

Dam, when i read usa flag burning i thought it was islamist in the midle east or something. But i just clicked halfway in the vid and heard patriachy -.-

Burning your own flag goes really far and over that dam......crazy people

[Deleted]

I feel like it is not fuel efficent. I recommend useing Coal, Oil or wood.

[Mormolyce]

Its very hard to be a nationalist in the US, statist yes, nationalist no.

Well that's just a parochial nationalist.

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Again, I'll refer you to any dictionary. We're not asking you to succeed Merriam Webster. We're just asking you to argue within the actual meanings of things and not what you want them to mean.

What I don't understand is why you went to the trouble of posting the same shit twice when you easily could've spent that time going to Merriam Webster yourself to prove your point. I think that goes beyond laziness.

love that people feel for their country

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriotism

: a feeling that people have of being loyal to and proud of their country often with the belief that it is better and more important than other countries
: a desire by a large group of people (such as people who share the same culture, history, language, etc.) to form a separate and independent nation of their own

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nationalism

They are different. Now go disenfranchise the Plebs and proscribe some political enemies.

[Kellhound]

Well that's just a parochial nationalist.

You really dont understand what a nationalist actually is do you?

[Deleted]

Yeah, like I said, you live in a relative time of world peace with "wars" that are actually unauthorized conflicts. That still doesn't discredit people who currently serve or the people that have served in the past. The US Flag meant the same thing in WWII as it does today. The same concepts of loyalty to one's country and a call to serve currently apply.

Notwithstanding your examples, you do realize that the US Navy (of which I served) on a daily basis patrols and secures sea lanes of communication that allow you to receive transoceanic shipped goods unhindered? The entire world economy is propped up by a coalition of international vessels that enforce international maritime law.

There will be a time of conflict again. You can sit back and blame politics, money and what have you all you want. Nodding your head to your favorite System of A Down song isn't going to protect you or your progeny. The people who subscribe to this "fanaticism" will.

The point is -kid-, there are bigger concepts and greater causes in the world that you unknowingly take advantage of on a daily basis despite your flawed pseudo-intellectual world outlook.

Don't worry though, other people will take care of it.

Yes, people fighting pretty much against freedom at this point does discredit other people who fought under that same symbol for actual freedom. Why do you think that the swastika is such a hated symbol now? It has been around for eons, but only now its hated instead of loved.

That the military enforces laws doesn't mean that everything the military does is suddenly great, it means that they are useful but nothing more then that.

Then you start with some fear mongering about how there will be wars yadda yadda, but really, that isn't going to happen any time soon. People are still very much afraid of M.A.D. so all out wars won't happen soon, and when they do no amount of soldiers is going to save you from being bombed. And why this won't be a thing any time soon is because all financial interests are done on a global scale. You can have a small war without having to much bother from it, but large wars destabilize the world economy. And once you do that you will have the rest of the world to deal with.

The point is -child- that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, you take in the fresh smell of nationalism and propaganda and gobble it up like no other. The world isn't as bad as you think it is, and we do not need people going /flex to prove their worth anymore. Just because you live in a country that needs a war in order to stay afloat doesn't mean that wars are a good thing or that the world is a better place because of these wars.

[Deleted]

I would say it depends who's doing it?

If it happens in the Middle East, I would shrug.
If some liberal art student with face-piercings does it, I would facepalm.

[Deleted]

Never said that they weren't different words. Just very intrinsically related to the point that they are by all accounts of accredited thesauruses synonyms. But please argue to the plebs how burning your country's flag is a sign of patriotism. You make a lot of sense.

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How nice it must be to be allowed the freedom to have a backwards opinion full of fallacies. You reek of someone barely out of primary education that has not seen or experienced the world but feels qualified to comment on it. You are the problem.

That is something a nationalist would say indeed, but a patriot would differ with you. Irrational is not good, ever.

How horrible it must be to believe all propaganda, you reek of someone who doesn't understand the world he lives in and believes that everything will hurt him and that therefore everything must die. You are like the little kid on the playground that doesn't like ants and therefore has to kill all of them, you are the problem.

[Hyve]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09...ican-flag.html

[Deleted]

Since you seem to be such a good study on military tactics, I suggest you take a look at our current development on Aegis-based BMD. Completely shielding the North American Continent from ballistic missile attack in the next decade is actually completely feasible. Not to mention, even Iran knows that a well-placed neutron-bomb could knock out all of our land-based missiles before we could spin them up. Good thing we are working all of the angles. The status quo is changing.

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No, I've just had first-hand involvement in things you know nothing about. You are allowed to be ignorant. It's fine.

More weapons!! We need more weapons!!! That always seems to be the answer with you lot. While being completely ignorant to the rest of the world, as i said, the kid on the playground stamping ants.

Just because you served in some military doesn't make you "see the world for what it is" but it gives you a rather distorted view of things. This is something that violence does to human beings, sometimes its good to seek help for these things, you will be happier.

[Elim Garak]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09...ican-flag.html

So it was in fact a Chinese flag

[Cthulhu 2020]

I can't say I buy the notion that there will be an all out war within the next decade. That's been being said since even before the cold war.

[Wildtree]

Desecration of the nations flag.. /shrugs.

I'll never understand it when it's done by a citizen of the country.
That flag represents you (the one desecrating it) just as much as the people you "protest" against.
You're part of said country. And if it bothers you THAT much, then how about you renounce your citizenship instead?

It's not the America (or whatever country) I identify with. I want nothing to do with it, therefore I burn the flag.
Dumbass..
Even IF you can change the things you don't like, the flag will still remain the same.

But that's just my opinion.

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I can't say I buy the notion that there will be an all out war within the next decade. That's been being said since even before the cold war.

Maybe not the decade timeline. But the trend is true.
Plus the memories of the last big war, those memories faded away with the people who actively experienced the horrors passing away.
It's been 71 years since WWII ended.
The following generations after have very little, if any concept about it at all.
Reading history books, watching film footage, all of that isn't a replacement for what it's really been all about.
So, of course, the shielded, protected and spoiled generations are easier to be taken up to the task to slit each others throats once again.
But if WWII was already brutal, it'll dwarf on that aspect to what's to come next.

[Chirri]

The power and meaning behind the American flag changes, depending entirely on who is wielding it, what it's representing to them and how they feel about that.

People burning it? I'm pretty neutral about.
People marking themselves as US citizens / representing the US in a sea of people who are also represented by their own flags? Hey, I we speak the same language!
People who surround it with guns, Bibles, etc? Oh, geez.
Astronauts with the US flag patch? WOO! We're in space!
The folded up flag from my Grandfather's burial? Mine. I miss you. Thank you.

The flag is a symbol, but symbols don't represent the same things universally. If the flag meant the same things to flag burners as it does to the people who wish ill on those burning the flags ... they wouldn't be burning them. The flag clearly represents negative things to the burners, but they also recognize that the flag as a symbol gets the attention of others so they're going to exploit that attachment while trying to get some sort of message across. (I think)

[Barbariangreataxe]

Don't really care. I like my country but not everyone else has to. If the way you want to express that is to fund the making of more American flags, go for it.

[Ryme]

I don't get the big deal about it, America has a seemingly weird relationship to their flag relative to other countries though. I think it's the nationalism levels out in the states. I envy their freedom to love and flaunt their national pride, but I do think there are some areas where it breaches beyond pride and becomes ideology.