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The first day I saw more US flags than Confederate flags in my small southern town was the day after 9/11. As you said, the fervently believed myth was that th
by danielvf 8y ago
The first day I saw more US flags than Confederate flags in my small southern town was the day after 9/11.
As you said, the fervently believed myth was that the confederacy was about states rights - growing up I only met one person in twenty years who even went so far as making a rasict joke, and I knew plenty who flew a Confederate flag and absolutely believed that all men were created equal.
I think maybe the myth ended up being a useful way of letting people keep their old flag and old team allegiance, while completely changing the what they actually believed.
That said, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving were always celebrated.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoYa, I think the first gulf war was a turning point in Southern patriotism, and 9/11 even more so (though I wasn't in the south then). Its funny how the stereotype today of the south is of ultra-patriotism when it wasn't too long ago that the exact opposite was true.
- sudosteph 8y agoYeah, that's consistent with what I've experienced too. Though I almost wonder if its association with Dukes of Hazzard that really cemented it's place as an "identity" symbol for a certain group of southerners (lower/working class white male). The run on US flags after 9/11 was something else. I remember when my mom begrudgingly bought a flag magnet 2 weeks after it all. Apparently the neighbors were giving her side-eye for having the only flagless pickup truck on the street.