I think I agree with you.I fully understand this is a sensitive topic and I will argue honestly and calmly
It is not just a object. It is a simbol of your country.
As a very patriotic person, I know vhat my reaction wuld be if I ever seen any piece of shit burning my country's flag. That person wuld end up in a hospital vith a concussion and a few stitches. Nobody disses my country while I'm around. Or if they do, they beter hope I dont catch them.
If you live in any country, you are to respect it. R E S P E C T . If you dont, get the fuck out, or be thrown out on your ass. So on the topic of American flag burning, I have no real opinion since it dont concern me. But if I wer American and seen that, my reaction wuld be the same as above. As is, if I seen that, wel I wuldnt like it much, thats for sure, but its none of my business and I wuldnt get involved over something that dont matter to me. Personaly, just a opinion, you guys go WAY too easy on traitorus shitheads who do that. Freedom of expresion goes ONLY so far until it starts to destabilize a society. If and vhen it does, it needs to be cut down a notch.
If burning an inanimate object is all it takes to destabilize a country, then the country was never strong nor courageous enough to warrant existence in the first place. Culture, honour, courage, compassion, mercy, forgiveness--all characteristics which are immaterial. A person expressing rage against an object does not warrant an emotional response when you can purchase that object for $9.99 at a corner store and it's mass produced in casual fashion. If a person wants to purchase an item and then destroy it, the only person they are damaging is themselves--via the wanton destruction of their own property and wasted currency that the businessman will simply pocket and move on with. If a person steals someone else's flag and burns it, that is already a crime--theft under $5,000 and destruction of property, and should be prosecuted accordingly as per that set of laws, via an impartial judge and jury.
If we are to build a society of free men, built upon the foundation of generations of slain patriots, then we should honour their memory by embodying that which they valued and found most beloved... Which, overwhelmingly, were the ideas of their nation, not the symbols which represented it. The American flag elicits as much love as it does because of what it represents--not what it is--which is just a piece of fabric with a pattern woven into it.
I love my country's flag. This beautiful piece of nature to me represents multiculturalism and the bravery to accept that which is different from oneself. To build a society of a hundred cultures woven together on the same ground, working together toward the same common good of man. To another, it may represent centuries of imperialism and mass murder, and to them may be a symbol of disgust--the symbol of a conqueror. Whose feelings are more right? Mine? Why? Theirs? Why? What makes the feelings of one person any more or less valid than any other? Citizenship? Blood rights? Whoever happened to be born there first?
Freedom of Expression is one of the most valuable rights we have as a free nation. Without it, we are no better than the barbarians who blow up towers or mail sarin gas to people's houses. The first step toward forging a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare wherein perfectly innocent people are imprisoned, silenced, and murdered, is to state, with one voice, in many variations and languages...
"Your feelings are worth less than my feelings."
And, back to the flag issue - its not just a "inanimate object", it is a simbol of your country. Its not a object of cloth and fiber, it is metaphysical, a stand-in for the soul of your country. And the fact that you think of it as a object, tells me that no, you dont really love your flag. I know how I think of my country's flag. It is SACRED to me. It is a icon worth killing and dying for, since it reprezents my country - as I vas teached to, during my army term, and firmly belive in, to this day. That, is patriotism.
And the fact that you think of it as a object, tells me that no, you dont really love your flag.
"Your feelings are worth less than my feelings."
hat person wuld end up in a hospital vith a concussion and a few stitches. Nobody disses my country while I'm around. Or if they do, they beter hope I dont catch them.
Though looking at this brings up a new question... but lookie here.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault_and_battery and possibly https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1113 by looking the the severity of such a statement. along with other charges...
Here is where I point out that I personally don't care about your life experience because it's pointless since everyone has different experiences in life. Some people have it better off, other's don't. Either way my point stands since your country still does hold laws that're meant to prohibit you from assaulting others without due cause. You're not meant to be allowed to assault, severely injure or kill other people within your society and doing so is supposed to have the effect of you going to jail or sentenced to death should your country practice such.Wel, good thing I dont live there, and am not subjekt to those laws. Over here, sentences for assault are laughable (from personal expirience, one time I had to get non-verbal on a guy harrassing me, he ended up in a ambulance for concusion, I ended up 2 hours in a precinct explaining vhat hapened, then they cut me loose, since the guy wuldnt press charges; nothing to press, I had a witness who backed me up, seen vhat hapened; even if its harder for me since I alredy served some time before, so I got a police file). And frankly I like it that way. More lee-way for ppl like me who like to take care of there own problems, and makes ppl think very carefuly when and how wil they act like assholes to each-other, and be respectful and polite to each other, and evrything else around them, since fists begin to fly VERY easy here, if you start acting up. And flag burning.... oh yeaaa, try that here. Our HČSP far-rights wil work your over in some dark alley by tomorow, if I dont beat them to it first. And the police, they wil look the other way, since most of them are nationalists to begin vith, and let street-justice take its course.
"Freedom of Expresion" is a privilege here, not a right. Especialy vhen it comes to fucking vith national simbols.
without due cause
Here in the Americas (Including the territories and Canada), while it is frowned upon here in these countries, it is still protected under the clause of freedom of expression. Most people here are allowed to burn the flag, as is their given right.
Just a reminder of the Discussion and Debates rules. As stated, there is to be no personal attacks against people for their views. If you could wind it back, please.
Civility, ladies.