What do you think of the flags?

[Latesummersunset]

Apologies if this has been done already.

I live in one of the areas where the flags were started. We couldn’t understand what they were for until it popped up in the news. Apparently the councils are going to be taking them down.

I don’t really have much of an opinion either way but my concern is that they’ll soon become tatty, fall down and leave a mess everywhere. But it seems lots of people are loving them. They do look quite cheery at the moment.

What do people think?

Yabu - they are a mess/racist/health and safety hazard

Yanbu - they are cheerful and patriotic. Keep them

So you wouldn't regard asylum seekers who have been found guilty of sexual charges as dangerous?

Either we have a free for all with flags.

Or none.

Right now, either suits me.

Anyone found guilty of sexual crimes is bad news. The problem is when you lump all asylum seekers as one homogenous mass. We have to remember that asylum seekers are deeply vulnerable, having fled persecution in their country of origin. 70% of those processed are found to have a right to refuge in this country.

There are hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in this country and they're not all sexual predators. Women and girls are most in danger from people they know, not strangers.

It's recently been reported that our justice system is so screwed that many survivors of rape are dropping cases due to the length of time they have to wait. So few cases are taken up by the CPS that this is disastrous. Why aren't there protests about that?

Imagine being intimidated by the flags of victims of oppression and genocide! On the other hand the St George Cross is being hoisted by actual fascists which genuinely is something to fear

Why cant we just have an average amount of flags? Like it was before why should anyone be stopped from putting up a flag? (I dont mean the crazy red paint on traffic symbols btw)

I've never been so glad to live in Scotland...

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18tSNpvyr3/

I think they’re symptomatic of growing discontent and societal malaise.

If you dismiss them as “racist” or “stupid” then you’re perpetuating the problem, which is the persistent dismissal of increasingly large swathes of the population, some of whom have valid concerns.

I don’t like the flags, or what they stand for, but I can see how we’ve arrived at this point.

Trump came to power because the unheard were sick of being dismissed. If you call people stupid and racist for long enough while ignoring the things that they are obviously bothered by, eventually the numbers increase and the population is ripe for playing into the hands of MAGA style politics.
We are getting there.

This is a very wise post.

Trump came to power because people are being screwed over by neoliberalism and he told them what they wanted to hear. He didn't do it alone; there's a lot of disinformation out there and major social media owners have stopped moderating posts. The far right is gaining traction all over Europe and the military are on the streets in the States.

You seem to be suggesting that racism isn't challenged in case it turns people further right. Do you see how that's a self perpetuating problem?

https://www.youtube.com/live/NKZdhtUTg8A?si=vE4UHP2YiGt3mn3B

A nice jolly video to cheer everyone up 💛

Perhaps concentrate on what I’ve said, rather than what you think I may be suggesting, given that your translation is sub par at best.

For so many ill-educated people the UK is the only country to ever have had colonies etc., their ignorance is staggering but it suits their petty, racist, anti-British agenda.

If you don't have a counter argument, it's better not to respond.

.

Exactly, this is what really pisses me off - it was a shitty thing that they did back then - but we are not them.

Britain was not alone in committing these atrocities - it doesn’t make the atrocities any better, obviously, but it’s as if none of the other countries in the world did exactly the same thing, in some cases worse. We were also instrumental in ending the slave trade, the repercussions of doing so we only paid back in debt relatively recently(!)

We don’t accuse Germans of being a load of anti-Semitic, murdering cunts, and Nazis involved all demographics (not just land-owning aristocrats and politicians), the Holocaust was also lot more recent - yet here we are, the shittiest nation of racists - until we decide to do something like pull foreign aid in order to strengthen national defences against a growing threat of Russia, China etc, and then people accuse us of forgetting our exemplary and upstanding morals which the world respects and tries to to emulate yada yada yada - this is only ever mentioned at select times and conveniently always forgotten when we (all of us) are being accused of racism and bigotry.

It really isn’t though.
if you can’t call racism racism then you give racism a free run.
What is needed is a politics that deals with the inequality

If you “suppose” something wrongly, the problem
lies with you.
It isn’t up to me to defend something I haven’t implied.

If you can’t grasp what’s been said, it’s better not to respond.

If you think that it was giving racism a “free run” then you haven’t understood what’s been said.

But, by all means the metropolitan left can continue to cry racism! gammons! thick idiots! from the rooftops while tearing down flags (only white and red ones mind) without addressing any concerns or offering any support to disenfranchised communities and we can all sit back and wait to see how that turns out.
My money is on “badly”.

Again, you haven't responded to my points. Just immature attacks.

We have to call out racist behaviour, no matter the roots. It's not as simple as indulging people over putting up flags; they're the tip of the iceberg.

People do feel disenfranchised, we've had 14 years of austerity and Brexit and the consequences are being blamed on 'illegals'. The government are actually making it worse by leaning into hard right rhetoric and contributing to the current mood.

Agreeing with people like Farage isn't the answer. He's now just telling lies, talking about mass deportation. What he's saying isn't possible and won't resolve our current problems. He and his ilk will simply move onto the next scapegoat and count the cash.

All the words you are using have been learnt from the media- I’ve never called anyone a ‘thick gammon’ in my life and nor am I from the ‘metropolitan left’.
the problem is inequality

Your point was that “you supposed” that I didn’t think racism should be challenged “in case” it turned people to the right.

You were wrong.

If you think it’s immature of me to not waste time defending your incorrect suppositions then that, again, is your problem.

Im not sure what other point you had originally beyond blaming MAGA on twitter.

You’re also wrongly assuming I agree with Farage - I think he’s grotesque.

What I do actually think though is that those clinging to the flag are desperately unhappy and angry.

You’re not going to address any of that by screaming racissssstttttt at them like that marks the end of the discussion. That has already failed.

Sigh. I wasn’t referencing you specifically.