Do you get angry/annoyed when people disrespect your country's flag?

[GraveeKing]

It's a metaphoric and in my eyes simply means nothing more than an intended insult. I'm British, love my country but would wipe my ass with my country's flag. It really means nothing to me, why would it be such a problem? Unless you're some gun-wielding loony-bin Patriot, why would you be upset - it's just a flag! What - you'd rather they tell you by attacking random civilians?

 

[mental_looney]

British/ scottish so i can have 2 flags or 3 if you want the lion rampant which is cool but it's just a flag the country is so much more than that.

From my perspective americans place alot of importance in the flag that we just don't have or understand well over here.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

No flag is worth any amount of blood, sweat or stress.

That's more or less my view too. I just don't care about flags in general, not just my nation's flag but all flags. I'm American and have an uncle in the military but he's the only one in my family who I know of who serves or who has served.

I dislike CTF as well but that's a bit different.

 

[Yopaz]

No, I don't care much about my flag. It's a symbol used to tell what country I am from. It doesn't say anything about the country. Disrespecting the national anthem annoys me since that actually says something about our pride and why we should be proud. Burning a bible falls into this category too, though with all the book burning done by religious nuts throughout the time it's about time they get what they deserve.

 

[Drexlor]

No, I'm American, I've kind of gotten used to it. It still kind of bugs me if it's for a stupid reason though.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'm really not that bothered if someone else does it. It's just a piece of colored cloth when you get down to the most basic level. However, I respect the wishes of those that hold the flag in higher regard than I do. Destroying a flag seems like a pointless gesture to me anyway, since anyone can do it if they're so inclined.

I tend to reserve my annoyance for those that make idiotic statements about the people of the country itself (a.k.a. 40% of the internet's denizens).

 

[DementedSheep]

No, I couldn't care less. I was never particularly patriotic and I don?t care for symbols. It's just a piece of cloth to me.

 

[Reptiloid]

Not at all, I couldn't be less patriotic even if I tried. People can bash the Norwegian flag all they want, it is a shitty country after all.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Not really. I'm from BC, so I just see the maple leaf as a cannabis leaf anyways.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

No, I couldn't care less. I was never particularly patriotic and I don?t care for symbols. It's just a piece of cloth to me.

Thank you for writing my post for me, good sir.

 

[Turigamot]

It makes me cringe, yes. But free speech and all that, which is one of the ideals of our nation, which that flag represents, informs me that they have the right to do such a thing.

 

[Jazzeki]

first of it seems we would need to find agreement on what's disrespecting a flag to begin with. hold your flag flying despite it being torn and tattered is not disrespect. if anything it's respect for the flag. disrespect for the flag needs to be a very concious decision. you need to be doing it for the purpose of offending the flag. also you need to see the difrence in disrespecting the flag and disrespecting the people who go nuts about respecting the flag.
but even then no i do not get up in arms about my own flag. heck the best joke i have ever heard is that when muslims extremist all over the world started to burn the danish flag our resonse should have been to run to the streets and burn them ourself in a display of irony or sarcasm or whatever that is. then again doing so would have been a show of respect once again since it's proveing that burning a flag have no meaning unless you can piss the people who live under it off

 

[Kair]

Why do you care about a piece of cloth? The cloth does not have feelings and does not cry or scream if you set it on fire.

 

[Forbearance]

Nope.avi

I disrespect my country, the whole planet actually.

On the subject of a worn and torn flag, I actually find great artistic beauty in it, to be honest. Something about the inevitable fall. See: Rome, Babylon, America etc.

 

[yman15]

Canada? Fuck no, our flag falls from trees every goddamn autumn. I step on maple leafs all the fucking time.

Flags aren't representative of a country's ideals. It doesn't show their people, their attitudes or their leaders. A flag has very little meaning, except what people assign to it. And I think people put waayyyyy too much meaning into them.

[Edit] Example: My friend is from 'Merica. I was joking around with some people about how boring the States flag is. She just flipped the fuck out, yelling at me to show some respect for the Stars and Stripes. Then she yelled at me for disrespecting the Canadian flag, saying, "A flag is your country, If your flag breaks your country breaks."

I find this view unacceptable. A country should not be seen by it's symbol, but by it's actions.

Took the words right of of my mouth. Plus you can always just go and buy another one lol

 

[Danoloto]

After reading the comments, I think this can be summed up thus:
- Americans usually do care about their flag.
- Rest of the world, not so much. Some do, some don't.

For me, seeing the Dutch flag wave makes me kind of proud. It probably stands for more than I care to remember, and as my nations symbol.
Most of the time, our flags are used for mourning or celebration. So when I see one, I do tend to stop and think for a bit.
However, I don't feel connected to said piece of cloth. I would question the actions of one who 'disrespects' it. But then again, I don't think that someone else burning a Dutch flag out of spite is disrespectful, just misguided.

For me as a non-American, I find the amount of care Americans take when handling flags baffling. I could never invest that much attention in such an object.
So when you see some people burning the USA flag on TV, the next shot is usually of people angry about their flag being burnt. When there was a protest in the middle east about the Danish Mohammed cartoons, they burnt a Danish flag. And the Danes just shrugged. In my opinion the more healthy attitude.

Then again, most American flags are burnt by the scouts. That just makes me giggle.

 

[jokr2thief]

I'm American, and I have to say that I don't get annoyed at all. It's because of what this country has done both here and overseas that makes us one of the most hated nations in the world, No one tries to hold the people that are responsible for the way the world views us, they just want do to distract us from the issues.

"We know we've spent all your money waging wars on countries that don't pose any threat to us, and lining our own pockets and covering up the misdeeds of the people we contrived to put in power... But here's a new season of American Idol and brand new sandwich from McDonald's to keep your minds off it."

A flag is just a symbol, and I, in fact, find it mostly appropriate when I see a worn and tattered American flag flying anywhere. It makes me smile. It reminds me of the digression from the proud bastion of freedom we used to be to the corporate-run quasi-police state we are now.

 

[DracoSuave]

I believe in free speech, especially political speech.

Disrespecting a flag is an important part of free speech, and therefore, should be as protected as anything else.

It's not that I like it, it's that I respect my flag too much to sully it by removing peoples' rights to express political dissatisfaction.

 

[Mafoobula]

What exactly does a flag mean? Most of the time, it's just a very pretty piece of cloth that tells people which country is which. Sometimes it could mean patriotism, other times it's used as a vehicle for false or pretentious patriotism. It's the difference between that statue of soldiers raising the American flag and (usually privileged 40+ year-old white) people who raise a ruckus if some politician doesn't wear a flag pin on their lapel.
Sometimes the sight of the flag fills me with a sense of awe, respect and pride that makes my chest swell. Sometimes the sight of the flag fills me with a sense of disgust and disappointment that makes my stomach swell.

I am an American soldier. Line one of the Soldier's Creed. I salute my flag, but is it out of patriotism and genuine respect, or because the Army tells me to? My heart sometimes goes all-a-pitter-patter, but maybe that's just pride my occupation. I will freely admit that I did not join the Army out of patriotism or a sense of duty, and yet, I'm willingly putting my life on the line for the sake of my country and her people.

I think that's it. That's my answer: No, showing disrespect to my country's flag doesn't get my hackles up. But when someone attacks my country's people and ideals, THEN I have a problem.

 

[squeekenator]

I wouldn't care in the slightest, patriotism is a silly concept. What's so important about a country? It's just an arbitrary lump of land. I don't understand why people get so worked up about where they happen to live.