Flag Burning

Can you actually answer the questions I'm putting to you, or is it too hard? I don't give a fuck what is on your arm.

This explains quite a bit.

FTFY.

I don't speak for all military and they sure don't speak for me.

Ginger beard?

Curtains matching the carpet?

I think so!!

That flag may not represent a country, but I don't see why that matters. The flag does represent a group of people who do hate the US and our values. That flag represents the antithesis of the US.

The best serviceman will always be one who can question and evaluate the morality of his orders and actions, even if he if she has no choice but to do it after the fact.

Saying "I fight for the flag" blindly, is just sheep jingoism.

Because people should never be blindly proud of their countries. They should be proud of their countries for reasons they are capable of articulating.

If you're willing to ascribe those ideals to the flag, given the fact politicians have been metaphorically been using the flag to wipe their asses, and given that wearing the flag is against the Flag Code (see the pic of those two tourists wearing clothes based on the flag), I'd argue that burning the flag in protest is a means of symbolically purifying it of the shit from those who actually do disrespect the flag -- ie, politicians, law enforcement with no respect for the Bill of Rights during arrests, people who wear the flag, etc etc.

Which is more patriotic, domestically defending a tainted flag or burning it in protest in a[n] (maybe misguided) attempt to make things better and a return to a perceived ideal we've moved away from?
Soldiers have died to protect this flag, sure, but really, not since World War II, and even then it could be argued that both World Wars wasn't in defense of America (though the Pacific Theatre does qualify, in my opinion); the last such wars were the Civil War, the War of 1812, the Revolutionary War and arguably the war with Mexico.

Ok, so I'll ask you again, what does that have to do with @gul's opening post?

I assume just their love of overindulging in alcohol.

I still wouldn't burn the flag because it's disrespectful to those men who died to protect our freedom. I still believe in our founding principles and the ideals that the flag represents. I think there are better ways to protest the government. Burning the flag is stupid and accomplishes nothing and is disrespectful.

No, it represents wanting to avoid friendly fire.

We've come a long way from gul's OP.

Really, how far is that then?

Disrespectful to whom? Soldiers who died in wars past? To people who put too much meaning in patterned cloth? Or to the groups who don't give a fuck and wipe their asses with the flag and the constitution?

Soldiers who have died in past wars.

You're such a cotton wool simpleton. You genuinely don't grasp the questions posed in this thread do you?

And you wonder why folks call you a child.

I believe it safe to say that they don't give a fuck at this point.

Just pass legislation requiring all US flags to be made of fire-retardant Nomex. Problem solved.

My wife and her college roommate tried to burn a flag once, as a protest against flag burning amendments. It was indeed made of some sort of fire resistant material, but ultimately they succeeding in melting a corner of it. Definitely foiled by manufacturing process!

Well, I give a fuck. I also give a fuck about current and retired servicemen. I just simply disagree with burning the flag, I don't know why I have to be singled out for it?

You haven't been singled out for that. You've been singled out for saying that flag burning equates with hating America.

I answered gul's question in post 23. What else do you want from me?

Not only is it mindless jigonism, in 99,999 cases out of 100,000 it's just not true. In five years I met two people who joined to serve their country; the majority of kids that signed up around the time I did were there because they couldn't find work or because school was outta their reach.

Despite the few drooling morons that slip through, the old stereotype of unthinking solier that can barely read at FF's grade level is just that. It's a double edge sword because it helps to have thinking people on the ground, buy a lot of them leave after the first term because our military system is fucked and it takes an agonizingly long amount of time and red tape to fix anything.

Y'all ever notice how the people who go on the most about respecting veterans never served?

I run into it a lot both online and IRL.

So you have to serve to respect veterans?

If you subscribe to the trope that servicemen fought to defend our freedoms and rights, then you'll have to accept that they fought to defend the right to protest, which includes burning the flag. You don't have to agree with that form of protest.

Also, that clip from Newsroom seems relevant:

Not at all. I just find it interesting that the people who are the biggest flag-wavers didn't serve when they had the chance.

I wasn't always like that.