I say ban it because I hate the fuckin Duke Boys and their lack of respect for law enforcement.

xD

what's to the left of Cletus's foot?

I believe Matt Groening's signature.

Looked like a tin foil top hat

I agree with knyte here. It should be banned on public property, simply because of the message(s) it represents. Maybe fly it on historical sites like Gettysburg and Antietam and Appomatox Court House, but at the South Carolina State Capitol Building, I say throw it into the sea.

Does this mean I get to fly my Nazi flag? I mean, I know they killed the jews, but that was ages ago, that's history man.

Why would you ban it? Under the American flag, Americans have done FAR worse things than the Confederates.

We NUKED two cities particulary targeting innocent civilians. The American flag ment a lot of racism and hatred to the Japanese people post WWll. Should the American flag be banned in America?

Or how about the Swedish invasion of Finland? A large portion of the population of Finland was wiped out by the Swedes when they invaded Finland in the middle ages. The Swedish flag is still hated in Finland and is seen as a sign of oppression. Should the Swedish flag be outlawed in Finland?

Or how about the German Invasions of France? French people were oppressed, put in slave camps, forced to work as slaves building defenses against a liberation, and some were simply put in the death camps all under the German flag. Should the German Flag be banned in France?

Or how about the Polish enslavement of the Lithuanian peasants? Should the Polish flag be banned in Lithuania?

The "pro-banning" argument utterly falls apart. If we banned all theses flags then we would have no place to have the Olympics because every state would have some grievance against another.

Everybody should have a god damned right to use any flag they want. All it is, after all is just a bunch of colors. Americans are way too damn sensitive. Americans just can't handle themselves if one minority group is offended or another is offended. Its bull shit. In Europe they all hate each other but at least have half a brain not to ban each others flags.

And here in here lies the problem. AMERICANS ARE SOME OF THE STUPIDEST PEOPLE TO EVER WALK THE EARTH!

So stop arguing about whether or not you might see a confederate flag on a court house and be offended because honestly if 200 years isn't enough time to forget about the atrocities that the south did then you need to learn how to forgive and forget. Simple as that.

It's hard to forgive and forget when you're still being discriminated.

We NUKED two cities particulary targeting innocent civilians.

That saved many more lives than it wasted.

Americans have done FAR worse things...
Or how about the Swedish invasion of Finland?
Or how about the German Invasions of France?
Or how about the Polish enslavement of the Lithuanian peasants?

The thing is, all these countries still exist. There is no real reason to fly the Confederate flag, especially on public property.

Historical heritage? Regional pride? Maybe some people think it looks cool?

It's a flag for crying out loud. Banning it won't change what happened and it won't do a thing to stop racism.

Also, thank you Rogue Nikolai. Finally someone gets my point!

What's there to be proud about, though? A country consisting of butthurt states that lasted a whole four years.

And the Confederate States still don't exist anymore, therefore, no reason to fly the flag on public property.

The Confederacy was created because these states felt bullied and abused. 2 primary reasons : States Rights and Slavery.

They felt that war was the inevitable you settle these problems, after ft sumpter.

I grew up living in the south in the USA. I feel sorry for people who are raciest and often want to punch them out. It is hard to defend the confederate flag. but easy to defend the freedom to fly it. As a kid we associated the flag with rebels, and rooting for the underdog. Like in star wars the rebels were the good guys, like now people who stand for freedom and against the Federalization and Socialism creeping into all aspects of our country, are not called patriots but loonies. I love history and often read about wars. My conclusion after much study: most wars are avoidable, the US civil war did not have to be fought. But I digress, Racism anywhere is bad and racist people have claimed the rebel flag as a symbol. Which is a shame. Like my friend who always used the rainbow as her sign when she was younger, but now everyone thinks she is gay when she displays it, not bad, but a misconception. Many people who display the rebel flag are raciest, some are just wannabe rebels.

To be honest, part of the Confederate cause did have merit. The entire rebellion brings up interesting points of discussion. Sadly the CSA is too shrouded in slavery and racism for any meaningful conversations about anything else to happen. They'll never be seen as anything but villains, and even the non-racism related things they endorsed will go disregarded.

It's worth pointing out that the 'Confederate Flag' everyone knows is just the Virginia battle flag, not the actual state flag.

The Confederate flags shouldn't be banned because of the first amendment. There's really nothing else to it. If you think it isn't protected by the first amendment because it's somehow a call to violence or a threatening message, you'd be wrong.

It's a piece of fabric.

We NUKED two cities particulary targeting innocent civilians. The American flag ment a lot of racism and hatred to the Japanese people post WWll. Should the American flag be banned in America?

We didn't target civilians. The reason Hiroshima was initially targeted was due to it being an important military city, and the only reason Nagasaki got bombed was because the assholes refused to surrender after one nuked city.

If we had wanted to kill civilians we could have like, you know, targeted any of the 15 other cities in japan that are orders of magnitude larger that Hiroshima or nagasaki.

Also, I feel that its worth noting that the US like really, really helped japan out post WW2, and Japan isn't exactly a ruinous third world country today.

ON TOPIC:

Saying that the confederate flag is a symbol of rebellion as an argument against the confederate flag is just silly since so many modern countries have grown out of revolution, such as:

The United States
China
Russia

actually that's all I can think of off of the top of my head :P

If I ran a country, it would be a total dictatorship.

If the flag should be removed or not, should not be imposed by a few people. Most people are against a removal of the flag, so removing it is utterly wrong as it is an act against the will of the people.