Look just put 'flag burning' or 'incident of flag desecration' into google. You will notice that an unusual number of the returned hits pertain to America and America only. (and thats searching google.co.uk) Its pages and pages and pages before a single link refers to any country outside the US
Generally not easy to define, but I was thinking along the lines of harassing someone to the point you cause them to commit suicide or something like that even though you don't attack them physically.
Infact, I had to get to page fuckin 4 before a single link refers to Canada. Lets see how far down this goes... I think you get my point.
Okay, had to make sure you weren't talking about some sort of mental anguish caused by seeing a flag burned in protest. Because that sounded like perhaps a back door effort to ban the practice.
What's your point? You said Americans ascribe too much importance to a scrap of cloth to be so worried over the burning of it. I pointed the the Brits seem to love theirs just as much. You blathered your previous point again. I asked you to put that to the test and burn a British Flag to see what the reaction to that would be. And then you replied, that only Americans burn their flag in protest? Are you on K2?
Pretty much anything you google, if not too specific, will turn up several pages worth of US relevant links. That's just how it goes with the dominant culture. Google in 200 AD averaged 5 pages worth of hits about Rome before Gaul or Palestine would show up.
If it is important to people then it is important to people regardless of whether you define it as a "piece of cloth" or not. Almost nothing has intrinsic value all on its own independent from how people regard it.
To protest a policy enacted on behalf of the country. Disagreeing with a government policy <> hating the country. I'm sure you would agree with that.
No, I said 'Americans do seem to care too much about flags. At least when it comes to burning them.' Then posted 5 pages of relevant google searches to back up my point. I wanted to find out which countries carry flag burning most as a news story, and guess what, America came out on top so far it needs an oxygen mask just to breathe Here's another point. Can you ever remember an incident of the burning of an American flag ever being on American news where the bunring of the flag was the crux of the story? Because I can't recall that ever over here. It may very occasionally be mentioned as part of a story, but never the stories central theme.
There's a lot of things I don't agree with the government about, but I don't burn the flag. The flag represents an idea, the idea of America, the founding principles, everything this country is meant to stand for. If you burn the flag, you're basically giving the finger to those ideas and you're basically saying fuck America.
Oh and just a side point. You do realise that the kind of people that live in shitholes like that generally care much much more for the flag of george than the union flag?
That flag is so holy... The only time you should be upset about a flag getting burned is if it was a historical/vintage one since it would be destroying a piece of history, but not when it's a cheap one made in China and sold at Target or Wallmart...
It only means that to you because you choose to attach that symbolism with that icon. It doesnt mean that it actually means that, it is ONLY an opinion. You could attach the same meaning to any object, and it would be just as meaningful to you.
Bullshit, given the original principles on which the US was founded. You just can't find a damned thing good to say about America can you? Not anti-American my arse. The OP made no such argument.
Your flag represents your country and everything that comes with it, good and bad. All you're doing is cherry picking the bits you think it should represent to somehow logically justify the idea of burning it as a desecration.
I think the implication was that because you see no value in the UK flag or being British (as has been well stated by you many times) it meant that other Brits were the same as you. We aren't and that's what @markb is getting at. Just because we don't get easily wound up about it like Americans do, it doesn't mean that many of us would choose to burn our flag.
As someone that served this country and saluted it every time I left the brow of my two ships: No. I don't subscribe that if you hate the country, that you should leave. There are things that frustrate me such as our school system, our fucked up medical programs where people with treatable serious conditions have to debate choosing death over crippling their family with debt to save their own life, and obviously the way we treat minorities. But this nation was build on my ancestors' backs and I'll be damned if I'm gonna be run off like I'm getting rep bombed by Sokar.
Maybe the point of burning it is to illustrate what the protestor thinks the government has done. It's a metaphorical statement -- the government action is burning down a prime value of the country. I will burn the flag to symbolically protest this action.
Most people don't like flag burning and aren't going to take a protestor serious if they burn flags. Also, if you set yourself on fire, nobody is going to take you seriously. Whether you hate America or not, if you burn a flag, then you are perceived as anti-American.
