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As part of free speech, can a company from somewhere in south send out parts in boxes with confederate flag on the box? We make decisions to curtail free speec
by kshacker 4y ago
As part of free speech, can a company from somewhere in south send out parts in boxes with confederate flag on the box?
We make decisions to curtail free speech everyday so how's this different?
- spookthesunset 4y agoI’m sure they could and I bet some do. How that maps into sales is a different story.
- vladvasiliu 4y agoI'm not American, so I may be missing some details, but is that actually not allowed? Or is it rather the case that some people may not like that, so companies try to avoid upsetting some customers?
- garettmd 4y agoYes, that is totally allowed. It is trivial to find products with the confederate flag printed on them.
- kshacker 4y agoAs others said, it may be allowed, and I did not know either ways but it was a rhetorical point. Now even if it is allowed, suppose this was a Federal government procurement. Will Feds buy something with such flags? Nope. Once that happens, it can be easily demagogued.
- reaperducer 4y agosuppose this was a Federal government procurement. Will Feds buy something with such flags? Nope. Actually, probably. If the item meets the specs and the price, that's what matters. Just as there is no shortage of federal buildings, and even military installations named after Confederate things. This HN discussion illustrates how bringing up Confederate themes, you can really tell when someone isn't an American.
- mwint 4y agoI’m an American, but not involved in any kind of federal purchasing. I would have assumed that a federal purchaser would make up a reason not to buy my otherwise-perfect product if it had some unpopular statement on it, like a Confederate flag. Do you know of any counter examples where a company was able to make a successful bid with a product that had good fit, but an inconvenient non-functional addon like that?
- bee_rider 4y agoYes, we can put whatever odious symbols on our products. The Confederate flag is a bit weird because there's enough of the population that apparently doesn't see it that way, so some stores will even display products that have it. (Personally I find it to be an awful symbol and wouldn't stick around if I saw it displayed). An example that is more like what you've described is something like a Nazi swastika -- technically you can sell something with a swastika on it (I'm 99.9% sure) but almost no stores would be willing to put it on the shelves, certainly no major chains or whatever.
- ChoGGi 4y agoAt least on eBay there's a lot of Nazi memorabilia for sale.
- Ancapistani 4y agoIt is allowed, and some companies have based their business around it. For that matter, I've received written correspondence from people while doing genealogical research with the return address listed as "Mobile, Alabama, Occupied CSA". There are definitely cultural norms that come into play here, but in that particular case - it was from an officer of a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and contained photocopies of Confederate military records - I was amused by it. I kept the envelope and included it in my own archives.
- horsawlarway 4y ago> As part of free speech, can a company from somewhere in south send out parts in boxes with confederate flag on the box? Yes. Yes they can.