4 ms·

It's a perennial source of amazement that so many Americans don't realise that literal political symbols are actually, you know, political. Flags, anthems, pled

It's a perennial source of amazement that so many Americans don't realise that literal political symbols are actually, you know, political. Flags, anthems, pledges, coats of arms, etc - these are (benign) nationalist symbols and displaying/rendering them is inherently a political choice.

naasking 6y ago
Amazed or not, symbol or not, political or not, a person displaying a flag is quite literally not propaganda. Honestly, look it up: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda And I'm not American in case you were referring to me.
- filleduchaos 6y ago
  I know people in the West are socialised to think that propaganda is something Other People do (preferably ones that can be thought of as Bad) but I'm afraid I have to inform you that displaying political symbols (such as flags) _is_ part of spreading propaganda. Why exactly do you think that there is an entire etiquette surrounding the proper display of a flag, or that flying particular flags has been variously criminalised around the world (such as flags associated with socialism/ At best you can say that one is simply being an unwitting vehicle of propaganda, but to claim that the public display of such a strong political symbol as a flag is not intended to spread and reinforce what it represents is just absurd.
  - naasking 6y ago
    > I'm afraid I have to inform you that displaying political symbols (such as flags) _is_ part of spreading propaganda. While propaganda requires displaying symbols, displaying symbols does not necessarily entail propaganda. The entailment is simply not bidirectional, ie. surgery requires a scalpel, but cutting my steak with a scalpel does not make it surgery. > At best you can say that one is simply being an unwitting vehicle of propaganda, but to claim that the public display of such a strong political symbol as a flag is not intended to spread and reinforce what it represents is just absurd. No it's not. Someone who grew up on the Dukes of Hazzard maybe just really loved that car and associates it with great memories of a happy childhood. To call this "being an unwitting vehicle of propaganda" is losing the plot completely.
    - c22 6y ago
      Is it? Someone displaying a political symbol because it was fed to them without context in a popular media seems like the exact definition of an unwitting vehicle of propaganda.

naasking 6y ago

Amazed or not, symbol or not, political or not, a person displaying a flag is quite literally not propaganda. Honestly, look it up: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda And I'm not American in case you were referring to me.

filleduchaos 6y ago
I know people in the West are socialised to think that propaganda is something Other People do (preferably ones that can be thought of as Bad) but I'm afraid I have to inform you that displaying political symbols (such as flags) _is_ part of spreading propaganda. Why exactly do you think that there is an entire etiquette surrounding the proper display of a flag, or that flying particular flags has been variously criminalised around the world (such as flags associated with socialism/ At best you can say that one is simply being an unwitting vehicle of propaganda, but to claim that the public display of such a strong political symbol as a flag is not intended to spread and reinforce what it represents is just absurd.
- naasking 6y ago
  > I'm afraid I have to inform you that displaying political symbols (such as flags) _is_ part of spreading propaganda. While propaganda requires displaying symbols, displaying symbols does not necessarily entail propaganda. The entailment is simply not bidirectional, ie. surgery requires a scalpel, but cutting my steak with a scalpel does not make it surgery. > At best you can say that one is simply being an unwitting vehicle of propaganda, but to claim that the public display of such a strong political symbol as a flag is not intended to spread and reinforce what it represents is just absurd. No it's not. Someone who grew up on the Dukes of Hazzard maybe just really loved that car and associates it with great memories of a happy childhood. To call this "being an unwitting vehicle of propaganda" is losing the plot completely.
  - c22 6y ago
    Is it? Someone displaying a political symbol because it was fed to them without context in a popular media seems like the exact definition of an unwitting vehicle of propaganda.